The All Aboard project worked in partnership with Age Exchange to develop reminiscence resources for people living with dementia, inspired by Royal Museums Greenwich's travel journal collection. Use this page to discover the resources and find out more about the project. 

All Aboard Resources

From activities to support people living with dementia to guides for young carers, discover our range of resources below.

Reminiscence Resources

These resources use the travel journal collection to prompt memories connected to travel, migration and leisure. They are designed for people living with dementia and their carers.

The resources are made up of:

  • 1 Introduction Card
  • 16 Activity Sheets that include:
    • memory prompts
    • creative activities
  • 16 Resource Cards connected to each Activity Sheet
  • Soundscapes to help stimulate memories

You can download the resources for free to inspire reminiscence and creative responses in connection to travel, migration and leisure. 

Download the All Aboard Reminiscence Resources for free

Download here

Example of an All Aboard Activity Sheet with memory prompts relating to food when travellingExample of an All Aboard Activity Sheet with memory prompts relating to food when travelling

Get inspired

Four paintings of colourful coastal scenes

Project participants developed a phenomenal amount of creative responses to the travel journals and resources. These were exhibited at the National Maritime Museum for three months and demonstrated creativity and individuality of people living with dementia. They can be viewed in the publication here:

Young Carers resources

Created in partnership with Admiral Nurses and This is Dementia, the following resource is produced for young people with caring responsibilities for someone living with dementia. It includes ideas for things to do at the National Maritime Museum and mindfulness tips from young carers.

Toolkits for creating peer learning programmes in museums

Museum collections are a unique and exciting tool to engage with people and to use stories that you hold to encourage groups to share and explore ideas and discuss difficult ones. Exploration of collections can be used as creative inspiration, a starting point for difficult conversations and a point of fun and respite.

If you're thinking about setting up a peer support network, read this toolkit for some useful tips and ideas, created in partnership with Admiral Nurses and This is Dementia.

All Aboard evaluation toolkit

Looking to start a project using museum collections to support people living with dementia? Use the All Aboard Toolkit to read about our challenges, successes and tips for the future. 

    Preserving travel memories

    Hear from service users at Age Exchange share their travel and migration memories, inspired by the All Aboard project.

    Do these inspire any of your own memories connected to travel?

    Have a listen

    The All Aboard Project

    In October 2020, Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) was awarded funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund (run by the Museums Association) for the year-long project All Aboard as part of the Sustaining Engagement with Collections grant programme in response to Covid-19.  

    In partnership with Age Exchange, we developed 40 reminiscence arts boxes for people living with dementia and their carers. The boxes have been inspired by RMG's Travel Journal collection.  Arts reminiscence workshops have been run with over 40 participants to inspire memories associated with journeys, develop creative responses to the travel journals and increase the wellbeing, confidence and sense of purpose for participants.

    A display showcasing the creative responses from participants was launched in December 2021 at the National Maritime Museum. 

    A small display in the National Maritime Museum
    All Aboard display at the National Maritime Museum

    Journals and Diaries 

    An important part of the project has included the digitisation of some of the Travel Journal collection which consists of volumes of personal records, both naval and mercantile. The collection dates from the 17th -20th centuries and you can find out more about it here.

    Below are some beautiful excerpts from this collection. If you have any information about any of these, we would love to hear from you. 

    If any copyright-holder notices an item they still have the rights to and are not happy with its use, they can contact us and we will take it down immediately. We have exhausted every reasonable means available to identify copyright holders but have been unable to do so in this instance. 

    For all enquiries, please contact learning@rmg.co.uk

    A watercolour sketch from the travel journal collection showing a ship with three masts and white sails in the middle of the ocean with a small boat trailing behind

    Maritime Memories

    Reminiscence resources to support people living with dementia, inspired by Royal Museums Greenwich's collections