About Us
The Pen Museum was founded on April 28th 2001 as the Pen Room by Brian Jones, Larry Hanks, Colin Giles, and Ray Handley. Based in the Argent centre, a former Pen factory the five founders set about preserving the legacy of the pen trade through a collection of steel pen nibs and family stories.
Now the Pen Museum is a certified independent museum, thanks to the hard work of our volunteer team the museum continues to promote and preserve the important legacy of Birmingham’s pen trade, which, at its height employed an estimated 8,000 workers, of which 70% were women.
The Museum’s exhibition displays are complimented by trails, videos and interactive equipment that help bring to life the history of one of Birmingham’s most famous industries and to narrate the lives of entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and workers whose expertise placed Birmingham at the centre of this worldwide trade.
The Museum relies on its loyal and dedicated team of volunteers to help support our Museum Manager in running the Museum and keeping it open to visitors.
Being an independent Museum of charitable status with operating costs circa £75,000 per annum, admissions, gift aid, retail sales, memberships and donations are critical to our survival.
Throughout the Museum there are a range of interactive activities for all ages to enjoy.
Including:
Hear first-hand experiences of Pen Workers
Interactive Kiosk featuring 3D images from our collections.
Plus, exciting opportunity to make your own nib using the same machinery once operated by women workers in the 19th century. *
*Please note that while we will always endeavour to offer activities as advertised on our website and leaflet, this is subject to change at short notice due to volunteer availability. On the day of visiting, this may mean that we offer you an amended visit.
We appreciate your understanding and our commitment to delivering excellent customer service means that you will always receive the best visitor experience possible.
Museum with a Big History if only the walls could talk!
Our wonderful visitors provide regular income to help keep this part of Birmingham’s important heritage alive. As a Charity, we almost totally depend on our dedicated, experienced, and loyal team of volunteers along with the generosity of supporters.
Being the world’s only, museum dedicated to the history of Birmingham’s steel pen trade and its global impact, we narrate an important part of Birmingham’s industrial development. Birmingham dominated the world’s production of steel pens in the mid to late 19th century, which, had a significant impact on improving literacy on a global basis. It has been estimated that the city produced three quarters of the world’s pens in the mid to late 19th century.