Exhibition to enable professionals to reflect on historical conceptions of health and disability

A new exhibition at Verulamium Museum in St Albans explores Roman conceptions of health and disability and how it compares to modern perceptions.

‘Mapping an Uneven Path’ opened during UK Disability History Month (UKDHM), in December, and runs until 23 February 2025.

The exhibition is available from Monday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm and Saturday 11am to 3.30pm. Admission charges apply.

The exhibition reflects on ‘livelihood and employment’, which is this year’s theme for UKDHM, and discovers what life journeys were like for the citizens and subjects of the Roman Empire, across the shores of the Mediterranean to the hills of Verulamium on which modern day St Albans is built.

The exhibition seeks to uncover what good health and healthcare meant to ancient ancestors, how they understood their bodies and minds, and the cultural perceptions and experiences of conditions recognised as disabilities today.

Mapping an Uneven Path is guest curated by Kyle Lewis Jordan, a disabled archaeologist and curator who specialises in the study of disability and antiquity.

Kyle said: “We can be almost certain that there were lots of people with lived experience of disablement in Roman times due to higher rate of accidents, warfare, and such like- people were more likely to have been disabled.”

As part of the exhibition, Kyle worked with a group of co-producers from the St Albans community who explored the Roman journey through the lens of varied lived experiences. The group investigated objects from daily life within the museum’s collections to find connections with their own lives as disabled people today. Their historical stories of disability are shared as short films, object interpretations, and audio narratives throughout the exhibition.

Kyle continued: “We wanted to work with local people with their own lived experience in today’s world, imagining what it would have been like in Roman times by providing historical context- the result is a very good idea of what our ancestors would have experienced.”

Visitors are taken on an interactive and accessible journey through the museum encountering objects from the collection, including rare examples of medical tools, a Roman coin featuring an Empress nursing two infants, and a Collyrium stamp that would have been used for treating eye infections.

A film, ‘In Our Hands’, features co-producers handling Roman objects from the collection, describing and reflecting on their uses.

Alongside the exhibition, the Verulamium Museum has created new accessibility options including tactile maps and images of objects, braille guides, ear defenders, easy-read guides, large-print guides, and audio descriptive guides as well as fictional narratives of Roman characters brought to life by the co-producers’ lived experiences and voiced by volunteers.

Stories from the exhibition are illustrated by well-known Classicist Illustrator Flora Kirk from Flaroh Illustrations, whose previous works include Roman Baths activity book.

Kyle highlighted the importance of launching during UK Disability History Month which ran from 14 November to 20 December, as the team wanted to connect visitors to the everyday experiences of disabled Romans.

Kyle added: “The theme this year is looking at livelihood and employment which connects with our exhibition as it’s talking about daily life and looking at how disabled people, historically and presently, get on with their day.

“The co-producers did a brilliant job at imagining what their lives would have been like living in Roman Verulamium.”

Catherine Newley, Audience Development Manager at St Albans Museums, commented: “Part of our ‘Revisiting the Romans’ series which is funded by the Arts Council, this engaging and timely exhibition brings to light objects and experiences used and encountered by our Roman ancestors.

“It’s been particularly pleasing to audit and expand our accessibility offering so more people can enjoy and become immersed in this and future exhibitions. We would welcome feedback from our visitors as to what we’ve got right and how else we can make Verulamium Museum more accessible in the future.

“We are thoroughly grateful to Kyle and all of the co-producers for highlighting how disabled people in Roman Britain would have lived their lives and drawing comparisons with their own lived experiences today.”

Lead Councillor for Heritage at St Albans City & District Council, Anthony Rowlands, commented: “This exhibition is as innovative as it is important.

“Our museum service’s expertise provides the essential historical context to enable visitors to use their imagination to relate to the human experiences of being confronted with disablement in Roman times. Thereby, the exhibition illuminates the past and simultaneously makes us more aware of our present.”

Kyle concluded: “My hope is that visitors will reflect on what health and disability means not just in the ancient past, but our own lives today. The life paths we travel are long, winding and at times challenging, but their well-worn steps are an impression of what makes us all human.”