Our new Collecting and empire trail explores, through 15 objects, the complex histories of how objects came to be in the Museum’s collection.

In celebration of Afternoon Tea week, food historian Tasha Marks explores the history of the much-loved afternoon treat.

The way the Museum collects today is incredibly varied – sometimes objects enter the collection directly, in other instances they have passed through different owners, sometimes over a long period of time, before finally coming to the Museum. This blog looks at six key objects from the Collecting histories trail and charts their journey to the Museum.