Butter Stamps
The word butter comes from the Greek for cow's cheese and although we take it for granted, it still takes the staggering figure of 21 pounds of fresh cow's milk to make one pound of butter. The traditional role of women in butter making is also reflected in the word 'dairy', from Middle English...

The Hour Glass
Before the advent of clocks, among the devices used to figure out time was the hourglass which is illustrated as early as 1338. They became an important part of a ship's navigation equipment and a way to tell the time as the hours would be counted after noon when the sun was at its highest. I...

Irons
The Chinese are among the first in recorded history to have used the idea of the iron and the application of heat to remove wrinkles from clothes. The Museum's collection charts the history of the basic principle - the need to heat the metal surface.This starts with the flat iron whose disadvanta...

Bog butter
Sometimes Irish bogs reveal the most unusual finds. Two wooden 'methers', or drinking vessels, retrieved from bogs contain an unusual substance most commonly referred to as bog butter. The 'butter' is a waxy substance, a creamy white or very pale yellow in colour.This practice is found throu...