Activities

Our suite of activities provides a wide range of tried-and-tested ideas for exploring the themes, people, events and ideas of the Age of Revolution in the classroom.

Each one is linked to our Revolutionary collection of objects, artworks, literature, archive materials and songs from museums ad galleries across the UK. From talking dentures and historical ‘snap’, to Revolutionary memes, Twitter campaigns and Mystery objects, our tried and tested activities help bring the past to life and connect it to students’ lives today.

Use our activities with your students, adapt them, or delve into the collection and create your own. Our guides for teachers provide more useful hints and tips for making the most of these intriguing and fascinating representations of the past. For more in-depth ideas for using the collection, try our enquiries and Creative challenges.

All of our learning resources were authored by education specialists and historians.

  • A modern photograph of the Bolton and Watt steam engine inside a museum

    Introducing the Age of Revolution

    A simple guide to introducing the Age of Revolution to your students and linking some of the extraordinary people, ideas and events to their own lives today

  • Mary Wollenstoncraft caricature

    Age of Revolution Top Trumps

    Ideas and activities for using our FREE Age of Revolution Top Trumps in the Classroom

  • How to make a revolutionary stop-motion animation

    A simple, step-by-step guide to creating animations with your students

  • A long white handle with a small blade at one end and four sharp spikes at the other.

    Label mix up

    Student use their enquiry skills to match the label to the correct image, and identify how the object, person, event or idea impacts their lives today.

  • A long dark blue naval coat decorated with gold trim, buttons and medals.

    Fascinating facts

    Did you know the first known flight to carry people took place nearly 250 years ago, in Paris, in a balloon? Discovering and presenting fascinating facts about the Age of Revolution.

  • Courtesy of the SS Great Britain Trust - A lithograph print of a painting showing the launch of the SS Great Britain steamship. Huge crowds can be seen gathered to watch the ship being launched into Bristol's floating harbour.

    Green screening

    Students use a simple green screen app to transport themselves back in time to a revolutionary event.

  • A wooden anamatronic tiger crouches on top of a wooden body of a man dressed in European dress, the tiger is mauling his neck.

    Image of the day

    Stimulate students’ curiosity and hone their skills of deduction.

  • A painting of a well-dressed man in a top hat and tails, riding an early model of a bike in a park. A large tree can be seen in the foreground and towards the back you can see another man riding a similar bike.

    Jigsaws

    Cut up a revolutionary object or image and mix it up. Can you put it back together?

  • A black and white print showing a textile factory with a large loom. Child workers can be seen in the foreground in tattered clothing.

    Looking closely at images

    How many details can students see – and remember? What do they tell us about the past?

  • A square wooden base supports a early engine. The brass cogs and wheels are numbered.

    Mystery objects

    What were these revolutionary objects really used for? Classroom games to test students’ powers of deduction – and trickery!

  • A colour print of a large hot air balloon, the balloon is blue and decorated with gold faces, cherubs, lions and eagles.

    Objects personified!

    Using historical objects to fire imaginations…what if it could hear, smell, talk? What might it get up to in its spare time? What secrets might it tell us?

  • A photograph of a gold statue showing three men dressed in typical Victorian fashion discussing the plans for the railway

    Revolutionary memes

    Use a simple app to put a modern-day twist on a historical object or image.

  • A portrait of a young woman dressed in a plain white dress and a dark black hat. She is gazing to the left of the frame with a still look on her face.

    Talking about a revolution

    Use a simple app to make an object or artwork speak - what might they have to say about their owner or maker, where they’ve been, what they’ve seen…?

  • A photograph of the tolpuddle statue showing a seated man dressed in a long basic robe with his head back and eyes closed.

    True or false?

    Revolutionary facts and figures - can students fool their classmates?

  • A printed advertisement for a Chartists demonstration

    Twitter campaigns

    How might the Chartists or the Abolitionists have used Twitter in their campaigns for political and social revolution?

  • Image of Waterloo Teeth

    If only they could talk

    What might the Waterloo teeth have to say? What questions might they ask the students..?

  • A painting of a Kangaroo standing on a rock with a landscape scene in the background.

    Reliable evidence?

    How reliable are primary sources? Does their meaning change if we know why they were made? What if an artist never even saw the subject they painted..?

  • A model of a tall-ship with the side pannels removed so you can see the inner workings of the ship and the different levels.

    Transport pairs

    Getting to know how trains, boats, bikes and planes have changed since the Age of Revolution.

  • A small model of a steam ship used on the Clyde and Forth Canal

    Who am I?

    A historical twist on the popular game.

Tagged

A portrait of a tall-ship being tugged into a harbour by a small steam ship at sunset.

A Revolutionary Collection

Our Revolutionary collection brings together objects, artworks, literature, archive materials and songs from museums and galleries across the UK. Each one is supported by information and fascinating facts to help you explore the different themes, people, events and ideas of the Age of Revolution.

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A portrait of a young woman dressed in a plain white dress and a dark black hat. She is gazing to the left of the frame with a still look on her face.

Political revolution

From Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine and American Independence, to revolutionary France and Marx and Engels, enduring ideas about equality, rights and freedoms during the Age of Revolution, and some of their key proponents.

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A print showing the cramped conditions of a slave ship. The ship is shown divided into layers which shows the density of slaves on the ship.

Social and cultural revolution

The movements for better working conditions, rights and representation for ordinary people, the campaign against transatlantic slavery, the migration of people within and beyond Britain, and the wave of artists, musicians and authors who reflected the period’s upheavals in works that still resonate and delight today.

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A square wooden base supports a early engine. The brass cogs and wheels are numbered.

Economic and technological revolution

Life-changing discoveries and innovations in scientific thinking, technology and medicine in the Age of Revolution, their impacts on work and society, and relationships with trade and the economy.

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A long dark blue naval coat decorated with gold trim, buttons and medals.

War and the international order

The wars precipitated by the struggles for independence and attempts at empire building that characterise the Age of Revolution, and their impact on the changing world map.

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