Nursery in Residence is a Jekyll-based static website template created by the Fitzwilliam Museum to support the Nursery in Residence project, an early years research initiative. The repository, named early-years-research, provides the code needed to build and run a site that documents a nursery residency within the museum.
What is Nursery in Residence?
Nursery in Residence is a Jekyll website repository that generates a static HTML site for the Fitzwilliam Museum's nursery in residence project. It takes content written for Jekyll (Markdown, templates, and configuration files) and produces a fully static website that can be served locally or hosted on any static hosting service. The site is developed by @portableant and copyright the University of Cambridge, with the CSS framework provided by Daemonite Material, a Bootstrap 4-based design system.
Key Features
- Jekyll static site generator — The entire site runs on Jekyll, meaning content is authored in Markdown and rendered to plain HTML with no server-side dependencies.
- Daemonite Material CSS — A Material Design–inspired front-end framework built on Bootstrap 4 gives the site its visual style.
- Simple local development — After installing Jekyll and Git, you can clone the repository and run
jekyll serveto preview the site at a local address. - Open source licensing — Code is licensed under CC-BY, while text and images are CC-BY-NC-SA-ND unless otherwise stated, which allows reuse of code but restricts content adaptations.
- Contribution friendly — The repository includes guidelines for reporting issues and submitting pull requests, making it easy for developers to propose fixes.
- Museum research context — The site is built to support the Nursery in Residence project, which integrates an early years nursery into the Fitzwilliam Museum's setting.
Who is it for?
- Museum professionals – Staff at the Fitzwilliam Museum can use this Jekyll site to publish information, updates, and research findings about the nursery in residence program.
- Early years researchers – Educators and academics studying young children's interactions with museums can use the site as a platform to share methodology and outcomes.
- Web developers – Developers looking for a lightweight Jekyll starter configured with Daemonite Material can adapt this repository for similar cultural or research websites.
Use cases
- Families: Discover what the nursery in residence involves and when the program runs at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
- Research dissemination: Publish early years research findings and documentation in an easily accessible static website format.
- Project updates: Keep stakeholders informed with a low-maintenance website that can be edited through simple file changes and re-deployed.
How does it work?
To get the site running, you first install Jekyll and Git on your machine. Then you clone the repository using git clone https://github.com/FitzwilliamMuseum/early-years-research.git nursery-in-residence, change into the new directory, and run jekyll serve in your terminal. Jekyll builds the site from the source files and serves it locally for preview.
FAQ
Is Nursery in Residence free to use?
Yes, the code is open source under a CC-BY license, so you can use and modify it. However, content (text and images) is under a CC-BY-NC-SA-ND license, meaning non-commercial use with no derivatives unless you get explicit permission.
Does this template require a content management system?
No. The site is generated by Jekyll, which works with files and folders rather than a database. You edit content in Markdown or HTML files and run the build command to produce the static website.
Can I contribute improvements?
Yes. The project welcomes contributions via GitHub. You can report bugs by creating an issue or fork the repository, make changes on a new branch, and submit a pull request for review.
