Historical enquiries: age 5 – 11

What might have been on Captain Cook’s shopping list? How has transport changed? Why did so many people move during the Age of Revolution?

Our revolutionary collection brings together a rich array of historical sources from museums and galleries across the UK to help children find out about the extraordinary people, events and ideas of the Age of Revolution.

Each of our enquiries focuses on a key question, and guides children through using historical sources to formulate their own answers, with opportunities to:

  • Frame and answer historically valid questions
  • Explore different types of sources and evidence and assess their reliability
  • Explore historical concepts such as similarity and difference, continuity and change, and historical significance
  • Develop historical vocabulary

Use our historical enquiries with your children, adapt them, or create your own. Try our Guides, Activities and Creative and digital making projects for more ways to use the collection in the classroom.

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

  • 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.

    Captain Cook’s shopping list

    Find out what was on board Captain Cook’s ship to help him and his crew make their long voyage to Australia and explore a land they’d never seen before.

  • 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.

    How was transport different in the past?

    Compare and contrast trains, boats, bikes and air travel from 200 years ago with the present day. What has changed? What has stayed the same?

  • 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.

    A transport revolution?

    Explore the inventions and discoveries that changed the way people travelled in the early 1800s and assess their impact on people’s lives.

  • A watercolour painting of a green, hilly landscape with a river flowing through, in the foreground a town can be seen which has been built across the river

    Migration: why did people move?

    From the millions of African men, women and children stolen from their homelands and transported to the Americas, to those moving from rural Britain to the newly industrialised towns and cities, explore the pushes and pulls on the people of the Age of Revolution.

  • Carrying out historical enquiries

    What are the five steps to carrying out a successful enquiry? Tips and ideas for students of all ages, from asking useful and relevant historical questions - that students will really want to know the answers to, to using historical sources to evidence their own conclusions.

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 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 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 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 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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