Master Collection activity 1b: passports

Pupils investigate passports used by Victorian traveller Thomas Man Bridge (covered with passport stamps and other fascinating information).

They use them to see where he’s been on his travels and explore his route.

Ideas for follow on and creative activities include:

• designing a coat of arms for an imaginary country
• making a passport or passport stamp
• setting up and running a Tourist Information Centre in the classroom for a city or town en route.

Learning objectives
Increased knowledge and understanding of journeys, transport, travel and the Grand Tour.

Curriculum links

KS1-4 Art (creating a coat of arms)
KS1-3 Geography (passports, maps, travelling across Europe, European destinations).

KS1-2 History (Victorians)

KS1-2 English (speaking and listening, running a Tourist Information Centre in the classroom)

Investigate the passports of Thomas Man Bridge, his sister Frances Hannah Bridge and her travelling companion Julia Isolda Bisset in close up detail looking at photographs of the passport pages at Learn with Objects Master Collection 1

Think about the following questions:

• What are these strange documents?
  
• Can you read any of the writing?
  
• What are all the stamps?
  
• Do you recognise the names of any of the places?
  
• Who did the documents belong to?
  
• When do they date from?
  
• Why did people have to have documents like this?
  
• Do we have them today?
  
• What do they look like today?

Where did Thomas Man Bridge go?
Link places for which there are stamps or written endorsements on the passports to drawings or prints of those places at Learn with Objects Master Collection 1: Thomas Man Bridge’s journeys.

• Berlin
• Weimar
• Florence
• Malta
• Naples
• Rome
• Genoa
• Nice

• Ask pupils to find the places on a map.
• Ask pupils to work out routes that Thomas Man Bridge could take if he were travelling today.

Creative Activity: coat of arms

• Ask pupils in small groups, or individually, to devise a coat of arms for an imaginary country
• Ask them to design a passport with the coat of arms at the top.

Creative Activity: passport stamps:

• Ask pupils to design a simple stamp for printing, to represent a city or town.
• This stamp can be ‘collected’ on a passport.

Creative Activity: set up a Tourist Information Centre

• Ask pupils in small groups to create a Welcome or Tourist Information Centre for a city or town. It can be a real or imaginary place.
• It can be created on a table, in part of the classroom/playground, or virtually. They can make or draw posters, leaflets, tastes, freebies.
• Ask them to consider:
  • Is it old or modern?
  • What can visitors see there?
  • What sorts of activities can they take part in?
  • What is the speciality dish of the city/town/region?
  • Is there a speciality drink?
  • What is the weather like?
  • What are the hotels like?
  • Are there other places visitors can stay in?

Visiting places:

• Divide pupils into ones who will man Welcome/Tourist Information Centres and ones who are tourists visiting.
• Tourists visit the Centres and ask questions.
• They can get stamps on their passports at the different Centres.
• Ask pupils to write a postcard home, or a tweet or blog, or an article for a newspaper, or an entry in a travel journal, about where they have been and what it’s like there.

Learn with Objects links
Use Learn with Objects Master Collection 1: Thomas Man Bridge’s journeys.