Collections
Collecting and preserving a century of growing up in Britain.
The Museum of Youth Culture houses an archive of over 100,000 photographs, ephemra, objects, oral histories and public submissions chronicling teenage life and youth culture history across Britain.
Find out more about our different collections below.
Photographic Archive
At the heart of the Museum of Youth Culture sits a physical and digital photographic archive chronicling youth and subculture movements in the UK and internationally.
Emerging out of PYMCA (Photographic Youth Music and Culture Archive), the museum has worked with hundreds of photographers to champion their work and place it within the context of the wider history of youth cultures.
Have you photographed British youth culture? We would love to hear from you. Please get in touch here.
Grown up in Britain
Everyone has been young once, and at the Museum of Youth Culture we believe that everyone has an important story to tell about that time in their life.
Grown up in Britain is our crowdsourcing campaign to engage as many people as possible, across generations and regions, to build up a nationwide picture of youth culture over the last century right up to the present day. The stories submitted as part of this campaign sit at the heart of our emerging museum. We want the future Museum to be a space that is open to everyone and represents the diverse and varied stories of young life in Britain.
Find out how you can submit your story here.
Preservation Work
Recognising that youth culture has been overlooked as an area of heritage for decades, we are keen to work with partners across the sector to digitise and preserve untold stories to ensure that they are accessible for future generations. With our photographic and 3D scanners, and recording equipment in tow, the museum travels across the UK to uncover and protect youth culture history.
We work with youth, community and heritage organisations to help them preserve their history. From a motorcycle club started by a vicar to a youth club with a collection of 20 photographs, each story helps us tell the incredible history of growing up in Britain.
Want to help us tell this story, get in touch at info@museumofyouthculture.com and we can work with you to digitise your photographs and ephemera.
Register at the Subculture Archives, an educational & cultural research resource of primary sources exploring 100 years of youth culture through the scenes, styles, and sounds that forged them. From Rave, Punk, Rockabilly to Grime.
Access 75,000 Photographs, 15,000 Flyers, Objects and Ephemera, 500 Academic Journals & Articles, and 150 Oral Histories.