The cooperation between museums and universities was particularly foregrounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, when both institutions were forced to work remotely with their audiences. This is the context for the idea of the project ‘Representation of Childhood at the Museums of Latvia, Integrated in the E-Learning Environment of Higher Education,’ implemented from 2020 to 2021 by researchers of the University of Latvia. This project treats childhood from a social perspective, namely, as a stage in a person’s life up to the age of 18, during which pedagogical conditions are applied to achieve the status of an adult in the specific political, social and cultural contexts of the era (Norozi and Moen, 2016). 30 museums were mapped, digitizing 1190 childhood artifacts. Digitized objects are very diverse, covering all groups of historical sources: documents, photographs, books and materialities (clothing, toys, children’s bicycles, car safety equipment, medical equipment etc.). At the same time, the objects create a certain "rhythm" that reveals childhood as a time of successive events, childhood as a synchronized, unified process of shared experiences or ritual, following concept of Bell (1992).

The objective of our study is to showcase the typical objects or symbols of childhood at museums, the means by which collective beliefs and ideals about childhood are generated, influencing the narratives of childhood in contemporary public space. Framework of our study are theories about construction of rituals and rituals as formalized social order (Bell, 1992).  

Sue Stewart’s (2018) study offers a conceptual and practical model for cultural mapping, which we adapted in the project ‘Representation of Childhood at the Museums of Latvia, Integrated in the E-Learning Environment of Higher Education.’ Stewart defines cultural mapping as a systematic process of collecting, compiling, analyzing and synthesizing data for graphical representation of the networking and links of cultural heritage and the uses of cultural resources in a given area. Following statement that mapping is particularly important in studies focusing on the analysis of local subcultures in different cultural environments (Frenierre, 2008), 30 museums were selected for mapping based on the geographical principle - covering all regions of Latvia. The typical sets of childhood objects/artifacts are extracted according to the age groups, which we consider as most traditional perception of child in society: infant and toddler (under 3), pre-school (4-6), primary school (7-10), teenager (11-15), young adult (16-18). The sets of the childhood objects are analyzed by qualitative content analysis categorization matrix, a structure in which data are coded according to pre-established categories: toys and plays, children literature, outfit, public image of child, children and youth organizations, ego-documents, a.o. Each category contains metadata about the particular object.

Analyzing the mapped museum objects, it must be concluded that chronologically, childhood is represented in museum collections from the mid-19th century to the mid-1990s. Most of the mapped objects are related to the Soviet era, which existed in Latvia in 1940/41 and from 1944 to 1991. The first results of the mapping confirm that public understanding of childhood is constructed by adults: childhood objects included in museum collections are mostly adult-created “for” children, not artifacts created by children themselves. Childhood is synchronized with the formal social order. Our paper consists of two parts: (1) introduction to cultural mapping theory and overview of childhood mapping results from 30 Latvian museums; (2) revealing of typical symbols of childhood at museums, interpreting them from the perspective of childhood as a ritual in certain sociopolitical context.

Bell, C. (1992). Ritual Theory. Ritual Practice. Oxford University Press, 1992. Desvallées, A. and Mairesseeds, F. (Eds.). (2010). Key concepts of Museology. Paris: Armand Colin. Duxbury, N., Garrett-Petts, W. F. and MacLennan, D. (2015). Cultural Mapping as Cultural Inquiry. New York; London: Routledge. Frenierre, J. (2008). Mapping Heritage: A Participatory Technique for Identifying Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, Vol.1, No.1, 1- 5. Norozi, S.A. and Moen, T. (2016). Childhood as a Social Construction, Journal of Educational and Social Research, Vol. 6, No. 2, 75–80. Stewart, S. (2018). Cultural Mapping Toolkit: A partnership between 2010 Legacies Now and Creative City Network of Canada. Vancouver: 2010 Legacies Now.