National Museums Liverpool Blog - world museum liverpool

Did you know that almost eighty Africans are known to have donated more than 500 objects to World Museum. Their donations helped to create one of the most important historical collections of African cultural artefacts in Britain.

A new display at World Museum shows photographic portraits of some of the West Africans who made donations to the museum between 1897 and 1916.

Most of them were taken by West African photographers. All the donors were friends or contacts of Arnold Ridyard, the steamship engineer who transported their gifts to Liverpool.

Ridyard was a prolific collector himself. He brought an astonishing total of 6,450 artefacts and natural history ‘specimens’ to the museum in Liverpool while serving as Chief Engineer with Elder Dempster & Company’s West African shipping service.

Little is known about some of Ridyard’s West African friends and collaborators so Zachary Kingdon, Curator of African Collections at World Museum, is helping to uncover their forgotten stories through his current research.

The picture below is of Nii Kojo Ababio IV, (formerly Amoako Atta) (1873 - 1938). Kojo Ababio IV was Mantse, or ‘king’, of the Alata Quarter of Accra’s James Town in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). He was an important figure in Accra’s politics during the colonial period. He donated ten Ga artefacts to the museum, four of which are on display in the World Cultures gallery in the museum on the third floor.

Photographer: J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije, Accra c.1935. Permission: Isaac Bruce-Vanderpuije.

This Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April at World Museum you can build a Labyrinth.

For those born in the 80s you may get excited and think that David Bowie will show up with a host of Jim Henson puppets. Unfortunately this isn’t the case but what you can do is far more exciting.

From 11am – 4pm you can join in the Labyrinth event and, alongside staff and students from John Moores University, build a labyrinth in the museum. In Greek Mythology a labyrinth was to hold the Minotaur, a mythical creature that was half man and half bull. Luckily there won’t be a real mythical monster at the centre of the labyrinth you build.

Later that day between 1-4pm there is a 'Minotaur mazes and masks' workshop. Here you can find out the difference between a maze and a labyrinth (who knew there was one!) and make a Minotaur mask to take home.

Tiger? Pah! Your Minotaur mask will be much scarier!

As World Museum’s Age of the Dinosaur exhibition draws to a close on 15 April music fan Dickie Felton looks at one rock group’s prehistoric obsession.

Dickie Felton pictured with REM’s Michael Stipe in Dublin September 2001

REM, one of the world’s first big alternative rock bands, had a craze for plastic dinosaurs. The figures began to appear mysteriously in the 1980s; invading amplifiers and stages around the globe.

When REM first formed honorary band members included a tiny T-Rex and a Triceratops. They even sat in on recording sessions for three decades until 2011 when the band decided to call it a day.
Plastic dinos would go on world tours and pop up on speakers and instruments. In the 1996 song “Wake-Up Bomb” singer Michael Stipe sang about practising his “T-Rex moves and make the scene.”  It wasn’t that Stipe was a secret palaeontologist. It was more to do with creature comforts than a deep rooted fascination.

In 2008 the band revealed they’d always kept plastic figures of the extinct giant reptiles for moral support. Guitarist Peter Buck said: “We travel all the time and it’s nice to have some friends with us. You have very few friends in this business and having little dinosaurs on stage makes me feel better and I’m not going to be ashamed of it.”

Of course REM were not the only US alternative band to have Jurassic jangles. A Massachusetts group called themselves Dinosaur Jr. While REM’s Athens compatriots The B-52’s briefly became The Bc-52’s to sing the theme tune to the Flintstones movie.

In fact American rock seems to have had the monopoly on dinosaur band names and songs. Detroit’s Was (Not Was) sang “Walk the Dinosaur” while the legendary Johnny Cash penned a track called “Dinosaur Song” in 1975. 

Over here? Well in the late 1960s Marc Bolan’s glam rockers named themselves after the most famous dinosaur around and later shortened their name to T-Rex.

Are there any other bands out there with desires on dinosaurs?

There's not long left before Age of the Dinosaur closes on 15 April at World Museum. Before it finishes we have one more blog by dino-expert Geoff Tresise. This blog tells us about about the Gallimimus.

A dinosaur's teeth give valuable clues as to its diet and hence its lifestyle.  Predators have pointed biting teeth whereas herbivores have flatter teeth for grinding vegetation. 

However dinosaurs such as Gallimimus from Mongolia and Struthiomimus from North America had no teeth at all.  What did they eat and how did they live?  The fact that their bodies were very like those of ostriches provides a clue.

Gallimimus, the ostrich-like dinosaur seen in 'Age of the Dinosaur', lived in the late Cretaceous period.  It had strong hind-legs and stood about 2 metres tall with a long neck and small head.  It must have been a powerful runner.  Fast-running animals today (like antelopes and cheetahs as well as ostriches) live on grasslands but in the dinosaurs' day there was no grass and so no grasslands. 

Gallimimus lived in a semi-arid landscape with only scattered vegetation. In this environment the Gallimimus diet might include fruit and seeds, insects, lizards and dinosaur eggs.  Even baby dinosaurs may have been on the menu.  If food was scarce, an opportunistic dinosaur would be likely to snap up anything edible.

The Gallimimus stands tall in the exhibtition.

One of World Museum’s most prized objects, a rare Mexican deer skin book more than 800 years old, has been investigated by a team of Italian scientists to reveal its secrets.

As well as being the museum’s treasures it is also considered one of the world’s greatest treasures. The priceless object even took pride of place in the Royal Adademy’s 'AZTECS' exhibition in 2002.

The Codex Fejérvary-Mayer dates back to AD 1200-1521 and is an illustrated, painted book. Codices were written in pictograms, rather than words derived from an alphabet.  Histories, genealogies and tribute economies were recorded in the pages. They served both educational and ritual proposes and at the same time, they were objects of great cultural, literary and artistic value.

The scientists carried out a study of the pigments, dyes and binders used in the making of the Codex to provide insights into how it was created. Due to the age and fragility of the object, the expert team did not actually touch the Codex. Instead, they examined it using specialist equipment that got within millimetres of the book.

Although a fragile object it is in remarkably good condition in comparison to other ones. It is of great international importance and there are only two dozen books of this kind in existence. Of these, only half - among them the Codex Fejérvary-Mayer - are likely to be pre-Cortesian (before AD 1521) making this an exceptional window into the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world.

Collecting the data took a team of four scientists an entire week, while the assessment of that data will take months, which in turn will generate many years of interpretation and study.  The project promises to be ground breaking, expanding our understanding of this iconic artifact, and we all look forward to learning more in the coming year.

The Codex was carefully studied in order to reveal it's secrets.

To get involved all you have to do is switch off your lights for one hour! More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011. 

The lights at the following landmarks were also switched off in 2011: Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, The Forbidden City, Buckingham Palace, Golden Gate Bridge and Christ the Redeemer statue. 

It is hoped that this event sends a powerful message for action on climate change and shows how great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause.  

For more information on this inspiring event visit the Earth Hour website.

Tiny the dinosaur © LosKaos Limited 2002-2010

Want to get involved in some free pre-historic hysterics this weekend?

On Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 March between 1-4.30pm you will have the opportunity to meet Tiny, a juvenile Stegosaurus at World Museum.

Tiny has wowed audiences up and down the country and the animated dinosaur is set to do the same in Liverpool. Using a combination of live sound, facial animatronics and extreme puppetry Tiny will really come to life.

The dinosaur will also be accompanied by a palaeontologist who will give a lively and informative natural history show. You will be encouraged to ‘get tactile’ with Tiny and have a go at being palaeontologists yourselves.

If this Jurassic giant isn’t enough there is also an exhibition of amazing life-sized moving dinosaurs in Age of the Dinosaur. On until 15 April 2012 you can experience the sights, sounds and smells of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The admission charge for Age of the Dinosaur is £6 adults, £3 children and concessions, under 5s free, £14 families. Book online at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/dinosaurs

Tiny the stegosaur is brought to Liverpool by interactive street artists, Los Kaos.

John Moran, demonstrator from World Museum's planetarium, on an exciting event taking place this Friday 23 March at Sudley House:

Sudley House's uninterrupted view of horizon offers good platform for stargazing.

One night, several different types of telescope, binoculars and the whole night sky to explore. Sound good? Then come and join us for an evening of celestial fun.

Staff at the planetarium will be running this event in conjunction with Dark Sky Discovery who have awarded us a grant of £1500, which is nice of them, with the aim of increasing people’s awareness of the night sky.

We have decided to run this event at Sudley House as there are uninterrupted views to the horizon, much less light pollution and if it's clear gives us the scope (no pun intended) to see more of the sky then we would normally have from the level 5 balcony at World Museum.

By the way, we will be utilising the terrace and rose garden area of the grounds so please don’t wear your best Jimmy Choo’s or your Louboutins, that includes the guys. Please wear suitable footwear and dress warm.

We will have a wide range of telescopes for your viewing pleasure and to give you some idea of the difference between a reflecting and refracting telescope. It gives us so called experts the chance to show off our knowledge of the night sky because as well as telescopes and binoculars to look through we will also be doing some naked eye observing and giving you some tips on how to find your way around the constellations. Don’t worry its not as daunting as you think, plus we'll be putting out some information sheets to take home with you!

There will also be some simple crafts like badge making and colouring in for the little ones and there will also be limited access to Sudley House so you can get yourself a cuppa and a sandwich if you like.

The event is open to the public but, working with the Communities team, we are also hoping to bring in groups from across the city.

So if you fancy close-up views of Jupiter, Venus and Mars as well as a whole array of celestial treasures join us from 6.30pm-8.00pm on Friday 23rd March at Sudley House and grounds; I bet we can amaze you!

In the event of bad weather we will have to postpone the event until the following Friday (30th March) when we will hold it from 7.30-9.30pm. Please keep an eye on the website for updates.

One of the stars of the show in the 'Age of the Dinosaur' exhibition is the Camarasaurus. Curator and dino-expert Geoff Tresise tells us more about this herbivorous dino...

One of the stars of the show, the Camarasaurus

The largest of all dinosaurs were the sauropods, giant plant-eating herbivores.  The commonest North American sauropod was Camarasaurus and this is the form seen in the Age of the Dinosaur exhibition. 

Camarasaurus lived during the late Jurassic period 150 million years ago.  Fossils of adult and juvenile animals are found from the same localities, suggesting that, like elephants today, these dinosaurs lived and travelled in protective family groups.

When sauropod fossils were first found in the 1870s, there was considerable confusion between the bones of three forms: Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus (then known as Brontosaurus) and Diplodocus.  Only when more complete skeletons were found did it become clear that Apatosaurus was the largest and bulkiest, Diplodocus had an exceptionally long neck and tail while Camarasaurus was the smallest of the three. 

Even so, it could reach 20 metres in length and weigh an estimated 20 metric tons.  (By comparison, a large African elephant weighs less than 5 tons.)  It was only by Sauropod standards that Camarasaurus can be considered small!

This Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 March 2012 from 11am – 4pm, William Brown Street will come alive with Historical Happenings. The Victorian street will be transformed into a time machine where visitors will be greeted by figures from the past, inspired by Horrible Histories on at the Liverpool Empire.

At World Museum families can get involved with free hands on activities including Saxon helmet making, flint knapping, heraldic shield making, as well as a trail around the medieval streets of Liverpool.  Visitors can watch a medieval falconer or listen to the ancient sounds of the Gold Lyre of Ur, a replica of a 4,500 year old instrument. There will also be a  chance to meet and chat with Ancient Romans, Greeks, Vikings and an English longbowman.

Meanwhile, at the top of William Brown Street, the Walker Art Gallery will be hosting a weekend of activities dedicated to the Tudors. Home to one of the most famous paintings of Henry VIII, the gallery will be Tudor-tastic with mask making and dressing up. There will also be a Tudor painting demonstration to find out how paintings were made 500 years ago, as well as an opportunity to make your own portrait of King Henry VIII.  

We have teamed up with the Empire to offer two families the chance to win a family ticket for the show at 11am on Sunday 11 March. To win simply let us know how many wives Henry VIII had. Send your answers to press@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.

Check the website for more information on the fun family activities at Walker Art Gallery and World Museum that weekend.

A little time traveller gets into the spirit of things. (c) Mark McNulty