In Greater Manchester
- How money from slavery made Greater Manchester
- The importance of cotton in north west England
- The Lancashire cotton famine
- Smoking, drinking and the British sweet tooth
- Black presence in Britain and north west England
- Resistance and campaigns for abolition
- The bicentenary of British abolition
Global
Legacies: stereotypes, racism and the civil rights movement
Crocodile letter opener
Probably 1950s-1960s
Moulded plastic
Object number Oldham RH4
Unknown donor
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We know that this plastic crocodile was made as a holiday souvenir because on the underside it reads ‘A present from Aberystwyth'.
The crocodile's tail has been flattened, so that it can be used to open envelopes. In the crocodile's open jaws there is a pencil attached to the head of a black person. This object, a lighthearted holiday souvenir, was made within a longstanding tradition of racist humour and shows how deeply embedded this sort of racism became in British culture.
This information was provided by curators from Gallery Oldham.