Welcome to Imagination Station @ Home! While we're temporarily closed, families can continue making art with us each week with this series of fun arts and crafts activities. We hope you enjoy and stay tuned for more! 

Click HERE for regularly updated #MuseumFromHome activities for all ages!

This week we are inspired by our exhibition about Nurses: 100 Years of Nursing Education in London.  From hand-washing songs to bubble blowing we explore the fun side of playing with soap.  While we are all at home keeping safe and healthy, nurses and health care workers around the world are going to work every day to help people during the pandemic. We are all so grateful!

Try out some of these fun themed activities perfect for our time at home:

Here are more soap based activities you can do at home with simple supplies and the help of an adult:

Take a look at the little figure made by nurse Vera Fisher here in London in 1954. What is she wearing that helps you know she is a nurse? Her uniform is from 1883 and includes a long white apron to protect her skirt. She was made holding a lamp (which broke off), famously the way nurse Florence Nightingale held a lamp when she walked around tending to ill soldiers at night in the Ukraine. Think about how comforting it is to turn a light on when it is dark. This is how nurses are shown, as both caring and hopeful.

2 Ar1 Figurine 2004 038 1636 A

Figurine, Collection of Museum London, Gift of the London Health Sciences Centre, 2004.

Take a look at the bar of carbolic soap below from our Nursing exhibition. This very simple bar of soap is actually a strong cleaner that was used for years in hospitals. What kinds of soap do you use at home: round or square, a bar or in a bottle, in the kitchen or bathroom, does it smell nice like flowers or lemons, is it creamy or bubbly?

2 Ar12 Carbolic Soap 2016 054 042

Soap, Collection of Museum London, Gift of Mr. Martin Bosch, 2016.