Non-specialist adult audiences with little or no traditional understanding of historical science and technology can nevertheless feel affinity with artefacts in museum collections. This paper will consider how personal frames of reference influence both the interpretations of artefacts and values placed upon them by individuals, the extent to which these may differ from the interpretations and values accorded by curators and historians of science and technology, and the implications for curatorial and interpretative practice in museums seeking to engage these audiences. Examples will be drawn principally from a case study of a participation project in which non-traditional audiences worked to select and interpret artefacts for an exhibition.