Exhibition: 30 Objects Representing Justice

Monday 28 July 2025 - March 2026

FREE

Chosen by staff and the communities they work with to celebrate our 30th anniversary, 30 Objects Representing Justice invites you to explore what justice looks like through a powerful selection of 30 artefacts from the National Justice Museum’s collection. 

Spanning over 800 years, the objects range from the everyday to the extraordinary: a 1790 lease listing enslaved Africans, leather handcuffs used on women, and a half-used bottle of brandy given to those awaiting execution. Some objects have never been on display to the public before.

Each object offers a window into a particular moment in justice history, revealing how ideas of power, law, resistance, and humanity have intersected. Some highlight who holds authority and who is excluded from justice, while others reflect compassion, reform, and the efforts of communities to challenge injustice.

This exhibition explores justice through legal, social, and cultural lenses, showing how its meaning has continually evolved and remains contested today. Stories of marginalised voices, inequality, and resilience sit beside symbols of state control and protest.