December’s object is chosen by Young Curator, Omar and is a Paris-London pocket itinerary from the Ursula Pye collection.

Omar says; “I find that the itinerary is a remarkable piece of navigation for several reasons. Firstly, its design. The face of the itinerary features a print of the de Havilland DH.34 biplane used to make the journey across the Channel, cutting journey times down from over 7 hours by conventional boat or train to just over 2 hours by air. Upon opening the small itinerary is a unique fold-out map. The 340km air route (Croydon to Le Bourget) is demarcated by a dashed black line whilst river, road and railway alternatives are denoted in solid blue, red and black respectively.

Secondly, its original owner, Ursula Pye, was one of the first passengers to travel on the post-WW1 Imperial Airways, more notably so as a female. Pye signified how the Paris-London route made air travel more viable for a greater proportion of the general population, not just reserved to wealthy men.“

In its first year of operation, Imperial Airways carried 11,395 passengers and 212,380 letters.

The Ursula Pye collection on the second floor of the museum documents the life of this remarkable local resident, including a copy of her plane ticket from London to Paris.  This and previous objects of the month can be viewed on the first floor of the museum.

Young Curators is part funded by the UK Government through the Shared Prosperity funding.