Reading Museum displays collection highlights online

Father Christmas arrives on a float designed to look like a helicopter in 1954

Reading Museum has put thousands of items from its collections on to the internet in a virtual exhibition.

Images uploaded include items from the museum's arts, world, archaeology and history collections.

The exhibition includes 2,000 photos of Reading taken between 1938 and 1964, including Father Christmas arriving on a model helicopter in 1954.

The online collection, which has taken a year to complete, has been created with funding from Arts Council England.

Topics have been created on the site for people to explore the collections, including Reading Gaol- where Oscar Wilde was once incarcerated - Reading Festival and Reading Abbey.

Unusual artefacts given to the museum also feature, including a biscuit tin from Captain Scott's expedition to the Antarctic from the town's biscuit bakery, Huntley & Palmers.

Further items are expected to be added to the site in the future.

Reading's Huntley & Palmers bakery supplied biscuits for Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition