The museum is currently undertaking a 100% Collections Audit to check the preservation and conservation requirements of all our items both on display and in the store rooms. In common with most museums, we have far more objects than we have space to display them, and so a useful part of auditing collections is seeing which items we can use for future temporary exhibitions, education sessions, and when we change the contents of display cases. We also have a photographer who is taking high-resolution images of all the items to add into our catalogue and to make available for researchers.
In this week’s boxes we found these wonderful shoes, brought back from India in 1917/1918. They are embroidered all over, and the soles are completely rigid, made out of layers of wood and cardboard. It would be extremely difficult to walk in such shoes, and as they show no sign of wear internally or on the soles, were probably purchased as a souvenir. 
