Domestic Life
Since the 1960s, the collection has built up a large and varied area concerned with domestic life. It is supported by detailed research, particularly about people who lived in the exhibition houses. This information can be accessed through various publications and is preserved in the Museum’s archives.
Domestic interests include; hearth equipment, household furniture and furnishings, laundry and house cleaning equipment, kitchen furnishings and kitchenware and some more modern and commonplace household appliances.
Subjects and traditions explored include local furniture-making, bygone kitchen skills, child rearing, and general housekeeping and house management, specifically women’s domestic work and the history of domestic service.
Domestic Interiors
You can see a range of reconstructed domestic interiors in the museum, from a plain one-roomed cottier’s house, to substantial farmhouses and several urban terrace houses. These reconstructions are based on historical records and, where available, the detailed accounts of family and f...
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Furniture and Furnishings
The Domestic Life collection is made up of examples of everyday furniture and furnishings, from tables and chairs, ancient oak armchairs, spinning wheels, cradles, pine kitchen dressers and farmhouse settle beds. Many items of furniture were homemade or were obtained from local craftsmen wor...
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Household Appliances
Two hundred years ago there were few labour saving devices to be found in the home and the heavy physical drudgery of so much of routine housework was familiar to many domestic servants and housewives.
By the 1870s, the success of the Industrial Revolution and the mass production of goods led t...
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Traditional Food
Good wholesome farmhouse food! This was the foundation of traditional food in Northern Ireland, as reflected in such dishes as oatmeal porridge, vegetable and meat broths [soups] and several beef, mutton, bacon, ham and poultry dishes. Fish was also popular and often served as a cheap sourc...
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