The Insurance Museum has started the year well with a series of events and talks. In February we spoke at the Insurance Institute for London’s Young Members’ Committee. Three of the Museum team presented different aspects of our work:
Sarah Begley, of OB Brand Consulting, led part of the design and production team for the online exhibition Fire! Risk and Revelation. Sarah talked about how OB went about the process, with a behind-the-scenes view. She spent a lot of time understanding the history of fire insurance and made the decisions about how to best tell the story that is a huge subject and runs over 250 years. Her challenges were to keep the galleries engaging and interesting through storytelling and ensuring that the history was accurate and well represented.
Paul Miller, Insurance Museum Trustee, looked at some fabulous stories from the Lloyd’s archives that included celebrities, such as Oliver Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Sophia Loren. Did you know Oliver Hardy was insured against losing weight? It was felt his round shape was a unique selling point of his act and people would lose interest if he lost weight. Paul also looked at sports and film stunts such as wing walking. He finished with an uncanny story about 22 men and a cat, which we won’t tell here.
Howard Benge, Director of the Insurance Museum, gave a quick peak into insurance history, starting with the Italian medieval insurance, which dates back to the early 1300s. He finished with a policy dating from 1564, exactly 460 years ago, that insured raisins and other merchandise, transported from Venice to England and Zealand on the ship named Fedriga. He asked the question, why have an Insurance Museum, and highlighted how museum education raises awareness of insurance amongst primary school children, parents and teachers. Did you know that around a third of adults had chosen their career by the age of seven? The Insurance Museum will be well-placed to engage with primary and secondary schools.
In March, the Insurance Museum gave a talk to the Insurance Institute of Chelmsford and South Essex, who we would also like to thank for their kind donation, which is greatly appreciated and vital to our ongoing work.
The CPD Learning Objectives were:
– To gain an understanding and knowledge of insurance history
– To understand how a museum can engage the public and young people in insurance.
Howard Benge gave a brief overview of the historical themes that the Museum will be covering in the coming years, what the museum is doing and discussed the question “Why do we need a museum of insurance?” Caroline Martin, President of the IICSE, said:
“It was such a pleasure to host a session with the Insurance Museum for our members. Our history has created where we are today, an industry that protects us all and supports innovation for the future. Even though I have been in the industry for too many years to count, I learned so much! Learning about our history connects us with why every role in this industry is important. I look forward to hosting another session soon and seeing the physical museum come to life in London. Please support the museum, join as a member and encourage others to do the same. Not only will it be a great place for employees to visit it will showcase the industry for the next generation.”
The Insurance Museum offers a range of talks for local institutes with links to CPD. Please contact Howard Benge if you are interested in booking.
