“Games” using old photographs in the time of the pandemic: Archival photographs in museum education

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to show what knowledge on the ludic culture of Cieszyn Silesian residents at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be obtained through the resources of the Photography Section of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia. The project required both preliminary research and an analysis of archival photographs. The research questions regarded the usefulness of old photographs depicting past games in the preparation of both online and offline museum classes on the local cultural heritage. In the article, the author discusses photographs documenting past toys and pastimes, divided into 10 thematic groups, and presents outlines of lesson scripts as well as other museum activities prepared on their basis. The research conducted during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic required netnographic methods and the analysis of historical sources, while the application of methods of design thinking made it possible to prepare scripts of museum classes.