Power, identity, and justice have always been evolving concepts, and often taking various shapes of extremely haunting subjects. To mark its 30th anniversary, National Justice Museum, Nottingham presents 30 Objects Representing Justice, a powerfully curated exhibition that explores justice through a selection of 30 artefacts.
Each object tells you an extraordinary story of justice spanning over 800 years. Each artefact serves as a prism through which the meaning of justice is questioned and challenged. Visitors are welcomed to observe justice not as a fixed or authoritative doctrine but as a lived, and often painful, experience of countless lives.
From the beginning, the museum team were clear about the kind of story they wanted to tell. Rather than presenting the history in a neutral tone, the museum held open discussions with their staff, partners, and community voices — all of whom participated in the selection process and contributed to pick the final 30 displays. As Sarah Gotheridge, co-production curator of exhibitions and displays, explained, “We worked closely with various communities to decide not just what’s just shown but also, how it’s shown, how it sounds, how it feels. The idea is: if a story is in relation to a community, then they should have a say in how it’s told.”
The idea of justice is quite different from the law, and how it punishes people. It depends on the nature of how crimes are defined, and in whose interest in the first place.
Like half-used bottles of brandy given to those awaiting execution to slavery register, each exhibit tells a story of resistance, mourning and remembrance. Perhaps the most moving example is a community recording of names from a slavery register. The names on the register are not the real names of those individuals who were enslaved but instead they’re the names imposed upon them. For example some of the names were ‘Francois,’ and ‘Jacqueline.’ This harsh act, in the name of administration of justice, accounts for erasing each individual’s cultural identity alongside their freedom.
Another example is if we look through the displays on the wall, the ‘Irish Famine Squelcher’ presents the story of mass starvation, disease and emigration that happened in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. The baton, inscribed with a mocking phrase, issued by the London City Parliament to the Irish Civil Police in Tipperary, became a subject of historical debate of colonial oppression, which has left a lasting scar on Ireland and its relationship with Britain.
As an exhibition dealing with justice and history, the main point of concern lies in the tone that is set. The museum’s approach to Justice in this setting, becomes not an answer, but an invitation. Visitors are encouraged to rethink what they know about justice: is justice always legal? How is it just, always? Why are some voices preserved in museums, while others are erased? But all these questions must be approached with utmost care and consideration as these are lives that were lived brutally and suffered extremely.
“We don’t do provocation for the sake of it,” says Sarah. “We don’t want to provoke anything, but we want to invoke a response from people - we want to make people think and question things when they walk out the door. But above it all, sensitivity comes before everything.”
And sometimes, sensitivity means choosing to display some hard choices. Sarah talks about Reggie Kray’s shirt which is on display at the far corner of the room. Yes, the shirt worn by one half of the infamous gangster twins, the Krays. “It is a recognisable object,” says Sarah, adding, “and we didn’t want to glamorise him or ignore the harm he caused. So we chose to display it quietly. No big label screaming his name. Just a shirt. The story is in the text beside it, and even that was carefully written.”
30 Objects Representing Justice is an exhibition that invites a quiet introspection between object and viewer, past and present. It shows how justice has been manipulated, weaponised, and reclaimed. In the end it asks us - what does justice mean now, how it has evolved?
30 Objects Representing Justice runs at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham, as part of its 30th anniversary till March 2026. For more information, visit https://www.nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/
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