National Museums Liverpool Blog

Lion dancer at the Maritime Museum

The first major event was the opening of the blockbuster exhibition China through the lens of John Thomson 1868-1872 at Merseyside Maritime Museum, which is the first time that this incredible pioneering collection of photographs has been shown in England after touring China last year. It's a stunning exhibition but don't take my word for it - here's a review from The Times last week - just one of many great write ups that the exhibition has had so far.

To celebrate the opening of the exhibition the Liverpool Hung Gar Kung Fu friendship Association performed lion dances in Merseyside Maritime Museum last weekend. You can see more photos of their performance, which more than 800 visitors came to see, in our Chinese New Year 2010 set on Flickr.

There are lots more free events planned in Merseyside Maritime Museum, the Lady Lever Art Gallery and World Museum, including creative workshops, another oportunity to see the lion dances and a new talk about the 'Blue Flu' - or Blue Funnel Line. Full details are on our Chinese New Year events page.

The model of the Titanic at Meresyside Maritime Museum. Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

I think the best film about the Titanic disaster is 'A Night to Remember' which I first saw in a Liverpool cinema shortly after its release in 1958.

It depicts the ship’s baker, Charles Joughin, who drinks a lot of whisky to help him survive in the icy sea. My aunt revealed that he had lived near her in Grasmere Street, Liverpool, but left his family and went to live in America after the disaster.

When the film was made survivors were still around and some advised the film makers including the Titanic’s fourth officer Joseph Boxhall.

The original 20 ft builder’s model of the Titanic, now on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum, was used by the film’s researchers.

This stunning unique model (pictured) originally depicted both Titanic and her sister Olympic and was used to advertise the great White Star ships. It was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast where the liners were also constructed.

After the loss of Titanic on 15 April 1912 the model was altered to represent Britannic, the third ship of the class, which became a hospital ship and was sunk during the First World War. The rearrangement of the windows on the upper decks was the most important change. In the 1920s the model was altered again to represent the refitted Olympic.

It was later put on display in Blackpool before being given to Liverpool museums in 1951 and in the early 1980s was restored and displayed in the Merseyside Maritime Museum as Titanic.

Second Officer Charles Lightoller (played by Kenneth More), the most senior officer to survive, gives an interesting description of Titanic’s Captain Edward Smith in his 1935 autobiography Titanic and Other Ships.

Lightoller served with him on different ships over many years. Smith was known affectionately as EJ and was quite a character in the shipping world. The tall bearded captain, despite his appearance, had a pleasant quiet voice.

"A voice he rarely raised above a conversational tone – not to say he couldn't", recalled Lightoller.

"In fact, I have often heard him bark an order that made a man come to himself with a bump. He was a great favourite, and a man any officer would give his ears to sail under."

A new exhibit in the Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery is a builder’s half-model of the Mount Temple, one of the ships that rushed to the aid of Titanic but arrived too late.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

What caption do you think fits?

Unless you are from Mars, you are probably aware that Valentines Day is coming up and to mark it I've chosen perhaps a slightly anti-romantic image for this month's competition! Well things do get a bit too sickly-sweet this time of year don't they?

So let's go against all of that with this painting by Robert Walker Macbeth, called 'Our first tiff', which hangs in the Walker Art Gallery. 

To enter the competition, post a comment below to tell us what you think the caption should be for this image. The caption we think is funniest/quirkiest/most inventive will win this month's prize!

The prize is a great book, 'Ben Johnson's Liverpool Cityscape' edited by Ann Bukantas. The book offers a unique insight into Ben Johnson's mammoth painting of the city of Liverpool that took three years to create.

You've only got a couple of weeks to enter - we will close the competition at the end of the day on Sunday 21 February. The winner will be announced the following week.

So put down your heart-shaped choccies and get thinking!

Please note: This is competition isn't open to NML staff or their families. The judge's decision is final. There's no alternative prize. Please keep your suggestions tasteful!

The second story taken from the archives this week about World Museum, is from 1888. I'm not sure how our curators would feel about sending cabinets of precious specimens out to schools today, but at that time the museum's 'schools loans service' provided a great way for children to learn about different types of artefacts while in the classroom.

A portable museum!

On 3 February 1888 John H Wood, Secretary of the Liverpool and District Teachers’ Association, wrote a letter to the museum in praise of its schools loan service:

"…as a proof of the usefulness of the boxes, that scholars were set thinking and enquiring, so they have proved a real aid to teaching. We should be glad to get them oftener, since they have been so helpful an interesting.

...the selection and arrangement of duplicate specimens of instructive and attractive character from the museum collections, and placing them in small portable cabinets of less than two feet cubical measurement, of plain simple construction, and very portable.

These cabinets are circulated one by one for a definite period of one month among such of the public elementary schools of all denominations, within the parliamentary boundaries of the city, as have, on invitation, expressed a desire to see them.

Sixteen cabinets are in circulation, and sixty-four schools have each had a cabinet for one month, with very satisfactory results."

The pioneer schools loan service was launched at the museum in the spring of 1884, and was the first in any museum.

Enjoy a romantic afternoon tea on Valentine's Day

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day with your beloved than a romantic meal at the Michelin Guide 2010 listed Maritime Dining Rooms?

Enjoy a delicious Valentine's Day Afternoon Tea for two with a bottle of Astoria Lounge Prosecco for only £25. This special offer is only available on Sunday 14 February - see the afternoon tea page for the full menu.

The full Sunday lunch menu and children's menu will still be available alongside the fresh new Spring menu. Booking is advisable: to book or for enquiries please call the Maritime Dining Rooms on 0151 478 4056. 

Located on the fourth floor of the Grade I-listed Merseyside Maritime Museum, the Maritime Dining Rooms offers stunning views over the city. Executive chef Nigel Paul Smith's menu celebrates British and local produce, combining classic flavours with modern presentation.

This week is a bumper week for our memories of the World Museum as we continue to pull out historic gems from the museum's archives from the last 150 years. We have two interesting tales for this week in history. Firstly a report of 'rowdyism and almost unimaginable crowds' from 2 February 1935, when the Liverpool Post quoted museum director Dr. Douglas Allan complaining that the museum was overcrowded and disorderly on Sundays:

Dr. Douglas Allan: preferred promenading to hide-and-seek.

"...according to Dr. Allan, the number of people who crowd into the museum on Sundays is becoming unmanageable.  Many of the visitors are very young children, who occupy their time mainly in games of hide-and-seek… It is proposed, therefore, that children must be accompanied by guardians.  The limitation of the total attendance at any one time to a figure  consistent with both convenience and safety is also apparently desirable.  Is this thronging of the museum an indication that there are not sufficient facilities in other directions for indoor and outdoor relaxation on Sundays?"

and there was more...

" Disorder at the museum. Sunday Crowds of nearly 7,000: 'Hide and seek' round cases. Following complaints of rowdyism and almost unimaginable crowds at the Liverpool Museums on Sundays, Liverpool Libraries, Museums, Arts and Music Committee yesterday decided to make recommendations to the Council. There was only one door by which exit to the street could be obtained, and the fact that it took twenty to twenty-five minutes to clear the building raised a serious position if any accident occurred.

Answering questions, Dr. Allan said that of these 7,000 persons more than 3,000 were children whose ages ranged from three to twelve years.  Many of them played hide-and-seek round the cases.  A large number of young men and women used the museum for promenading, and the number of people who were visiting the museum for the purpose of inspecting the exhibits was less than 4,000.

The committee decided to recommend to the Council that children should not be admitted to the museums on Sunday afternoons unless accompanied by adults, and that when the attendance reached 5,000, further admissions should be regulated according to the numbers leaving."

Fun and games preventing promenading at the museum? That would never do! It would have been great to see what Dr. Allan would have thought of all the children who will no doubt come along to enjoy our new science exhibition, Plantastic!, opening next week!

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

I don’t hold with the saying that you have to be a comedian to live in Liverpool, although there are probably more here than anywhere else.

I’m convinced much of this is down to our seafaring tradition – mariners tend to have a strong sense of humour to help deal with the many challenges faced on the briny.

Ships’ crews carried out bizarre rituals at sea such as the Crossing the Line ceremony for passengers and crew going over the equator for the first time. Initiates appear before King Neptune and his court and are plunged into water and subjected to other indignities.

Two lesser-known rituals are examined in the Life at Sea gallery in Merseyside Maritime Museum. Life on sailing ships left crews with little time for recreation. Despite this, sailors developed various customs that reflected their way of life.

The ceremony of Dropping the Dead Horse originated in the 19th century when seafarers were allowed their first month’s wages in advance to pay for gear and clothing. During this month they felt they were working for nothing or 'flogging a dead horse'.

The end of the month was marked by dragging a canvas horse stuffed with wood shavings and stones along the deck before hoisting it up the main mast and dropping it into the sea to cheers and raucous laughter.

On display is a picture of the Dead Horse being prepared for dropping overboard. It was on the John O’Gaunt while sailing to Melbourne, Australia, in 1889.

Music has always been popular at sea and crews often formed small Foo-Foo bands as a way of relaxing. These enabled musicians to disturb everyone else by making an appalling din while dressed up in ridiculous clothes.

A photograph shows a Foo-Foo band (pictured) on a British sailing ship in 1900 with members dressed in funny hats and playing an assortment of instruments including mouth organs and a squeeze box.

Once ashore fun could turn to fear for sailors on a spree. Sea ports around the world have a reputation for being violent and dangerous places. Mariners often took steps to protect themselves.

Crews paid at the end of voyages could get several months of back pay. There were many people in port ready to separate seafarers from their cash once they got ashore.

Another display features a switchback knife and leather cosh carried by sailor Robert Bruce when he was in the Merchant Navy in the early 1940s.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1 p&p UK).

I'm not very green fingered (I have accidentally killed a few cacti, it's true) but luckily we have a number of expert botanists here at the World Museum! This week they got together with staff from the horticulture and botanical team of Liverpool City Council Parks and Greenspaces to create a lovely display in the atrium of the museum.

Here is Donna Young, our Botany Collections Manager, to tell us more about the display:

The plant display in World Museum

The plants in the display are from all over the world and are from Liverpool’s famous living collection which dates back to the opening of the city’s first botanical garden in 1803. Through the 19th century, the garden’s unrivalled collection grew. Plant collectors, exploring new lands, brought back plants of great economic and scientific value. Plants were also sent around the world, including plants for the imperial gardens in Russia.

Many of the plants were preserved as dried specimens for scientific research and now form part of World Museum’s natural history collection. There have been many ups and downs in the history of the living collection. It closed to the public in the 1980s when greenhouses fell into disrepair – but the plants lived on. You can now see some of these plants in Sefton Park’s Palm House and at Croxteth Park."

We are also gearing up for the opening of our massive science exhibition, 'Plantastic!', which will come to life on 13 February 2010. The exhibition will have 40 fascinating interactive exhibits and games, which will help to uncover the secrets of the amazing world of plants.

You will be able to enter a magical realm with giant leafy canopies, massive seed pods, huge root systems and strange man-made trees. There will be areas where you can relax and be inspired by nature or find out more about topical issues and their effects on plants such as biodiversity and climate change.

So look out for the exhibition next month and come along to have a Plantastic time!

Interior of the museum in 1956

This week's blog for the World Museum's 150th anniversary year, is focussing a very important event in the museum's history; the day it reopened to the public for the first time after World War Two. Our Executive Director of Collections Management, John Millard, has been digging around in the archives and he's found an interesting anecdote about this day:

On the 26 January 1956, the museum reopened for the first time since war damage in 1941.  Writer, heiress and political activist, Nancy Cunard was visiting the museum and left a note for the director;

"Today, Saturday, 2 days after ceremonial opening and one day after public opening of "Lower Horseshoe" your attendant was counting the people as they came in: by 4pm – (when I arrived) the number was 2,419 – By 5, when the Museum shut, 2,892.  So well over 400 came in the last hour! A very good sale of booklets too."

We'd still like to hear from you if you have happy memories of visiting the museum. Can you remember the first time you ever went? Was it the first time you'd ever seen an Egyptian mummy? Did any artefacts from the museum inspire you in later life?

Leave your memories as a comment below...