In 2019 the Antique’s Road Trip stopped off at the Thackray Museum to discuss the history of hearing aids. We discussed everything from carboard examples of hearing aids to one reputed to have belonged to Queen Victoria.
The history of hearing aids is complex. Until the birth of the NHS most hearing aids were inaccessible to most people, as they were simply too expensive. But if you could afford one there were a huge range of aids available, many of them beautiful and highly crafted. The variety in people’s experiences of hearing loss has meant that a huge range of devises have been produced, whether acoustic, electronic, or digital and they represent amazing technological, social, political and fashion trends.
Laura Sellers 