Copyright Stephen Shakeshaft

The photographs in the exhibition Liverpool People by Stephen Shakeshaft have struck a real chord with visitors and brought back a lot of memories, as the comments made during reminiscence sessions in the exhibition have proved. Some of these comments have been included with the photos on the exhibition website now, and there are more below.

If you would like to take part in a reminiscence session there are a few more planned, with the next one taking place tomorrow afternoon. Full details are in the exhibition events programme on the website.

And don't forget that there are just a couple more days left to enter the caption competition and win a signed copy of Stephen Shakeshaft's book 'No Illusions' - so get your thinking caps on if you haven't entered yet!

"One thing which stands out is the expression of resilience mixed with hope on the faces of the people in our great city."

"We seem to have grown up in poverty but children always seemed to be laughing. The photographs made me realise this."

"The photo of the clothes rack reminds me of sitting at the kitchen table with wet clothes dripping into your dinner."

"The photograph of the lady with the washing rack reminds me of my gran's house. She always had the kettle on and cake in a tin."

"My son can't believe some of these photos. Why have an indoor washing line?"

"I love the photograph of the lady with the gas mantle. Looks like she's just come in from the wash house, is so pleased with her washing all done and is ready for that cup of tea. I can almost hear her sigh."

"The photograph of the carters reminded me of my dad and brother who used to be carters. They would dress up the horses with brasses and ribbons and go to shows. We used to take the horses back to the stables in Whittle Street."

"I'm reminded of the rag and bone man with his goldfish. Where did he put all those goldfish on his cart?"

"The photograph of the carter reminded me of having our milk delivered by Mabel in her pony and trap in West Derby in the fifties. Sometimes she'd give me a lift to the Saturday cinema in the village. I couldn't tell whether the smell was Mabel or the horse."

"The shop with the children reminds me of shops always having a bell that rang whenever the door opened."

Copyright Stephen Shakeshaft

It's competition time again and this month's picture comes courtesy of the rather wonderful exhibition Liverpool People by Stephen Shakeshaft, which is at the National Conservation Centre until 24 January 2010.

Have a look at this photograph from the exhibition - you can see a larger version on the exhibition website - and see if you can think of an amusing caption for it. Post your entry as a comment (please keep them clean) by the end of the day on Sunday 22 November and the winner will be notified the following week.

Stephen Shakeshaft himself has very kindly offered to judge this month's competition. The lucky winner will get a signed copy of his book 'No Illusions' which includes many of the pictures from the exhibition and more from Stephen's first 30 years as a newspaper photographer.

Françoise Chircop Rutland of the University of Liverpool, who is doing her PhD on NML Hittite collections, asked Annemarie Le Pensèe in Conservation Technologies to scan a mysterious mould from an excavation by Professor Garstang in 1907 to 1911 at Sakje Gözü, southern Turkey.  Making a computer positive from the scanned negative it turns out to be a mould for a type of axe known in Middle to Late Bronze Age Egypt - between 1300BC and 1180BC.

Screenshot of a 3D computer model of the the cavity of a Hittite mould mirrored and reversed. The 3D model was created using non-contact laser scanning.

The axe - called a 'fenestrated "duck-bill" axe' on account of its window shaped apertures and its duck-bill shape - is known from other examples (not in our collections) though both moulds and axes of this type are rarely found outside of Egyptian collections. There's not many moulds about... and moulds, presumably, facilitate the production of more axes for use in the ‘smiting’ of which the Hittites were so fond according to the Old Testament of the Bible.  Some archaeologists now believe that these axes were used for ritual battles between prize fighters and symbolised high social status both in life and death – since these axes were buried with them. 

Stephen with the photo of Lizzie Christian

We would drive around Liverpool in a mini chasing news – two six footers crammed in the tiny car.

Stephen Shakeshaft was already an established staff photographer at the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo in Victoria Street when I joined as a news reporter in April 1970.

Even as a young man he was very distinguished-looking, tall with an aristocratic nose and an excellent head of hair (which he still has). Stephen was also very funny ha-ha, veering between droll comments and biting sarcasm. We got on well and often traded insults.

It was obvious that he was a rising star among some other very talented people in the office including John Sergeant, Tony Wilson and Roger Alton.

This is not to mention others making their mark such as Phil Key and a youthful, pipe-smoking Joe Riley. I worked with them all until September 1973 when I joined the Press Association in Fleet Street.

Stephen sometimes gave the impression of being rather cautious and methodical. This was deceptive as I could see he was always looking out for a good picture.

I have never seen him at a loss or flustered in any way. I think he may have sometimes regarded his day-to-day work as unchallenging – such things as head-the-ball shots at soccer matches, people scurrying out of the criminal courts or competition winners.

Stephen always poked behind the scenes for gold and about 70 of these largely hidden treasures are on view in his new exhibition Stephen Shakeshaft: Liverpool People at the National Conservation Centre until 24 January 2010.

I find this show totally and utterly fascinating. These brilliant studies capture a Liverpool going through great change from the 1960s onwards.

This is the third of Stephen’s exhibitions I have helped to publicise. I think it is the best because it demonstrates his great ability to capture the personalities of ordinary people.

He has also recorded some of the city streets as they were before pedestrianisation, CCTV, pelican crossings and hideous steel shutters.

This is a world before superstores sucked the life out of our corner shops and closed local pubs, where most people got around on shanks’s pony or took public transport.

To me the pictures evoke a time when people enjoyed mucking in together and laughing at the experience.

I also remember some of the people in the pictures. One of my favourites is this famous shot of greengrocer Lizzie Christian at her city centre barrow (shown). Mrs Christian always had a ready smile for everyone, lighting up the street around her.

Other pictures I like include a crowded wash house which was a great place for exchanging news, Prime Minister Harold Wilson at a packed public meeting and two dockers with a traditional wooden handcart.

When they handling team say they're moving houses they usually mean literally!

As I've mentioned many times before, there's never a dull moment for the handling and transport team. Since I last reported on their activities they have safely transported a huge variety of objects from our collections, including ship models, paintings, a stained glass window and some Hindu Gods (well, sculptures of them, anyway). Some have been moved from storage to the conservation studios for treatment and back again, other objects have been gone on or off display and a few have ben loaned to other organisations.

Some of the more unusual jobs have involved taking a whole rack of uniforms to the conservation freezer to treat a possible insect infestation and weighing weapons from the collection in order to determine the floor loadings of planned displays in the new Museum of Liverpool.

On a rare break from work a few weeks ago the team had a sneak preview of the new galleries currently under construction at the Museum of Liverpool. They were all impressed by the scale and design of the building. However in the back of their minds I'm sure they were all thinking the same thing - they'll have their work cut out installing all of the many objects in this huge building in time for the opening.

You can see what they've been up to in the Moving stories Flickr set of photos.

Something got Mick started... A young Mick Hucknall outside Pickwick's club. Copyright Francesco Mellina

With the Summer Pops in full swing a huge variety of international musicians have descended on Liverpool. The festival always attracts a lot of new big names to the city but also features many familiar faces and bands who started in the area many years ago. It was interesting to read an interview with Mick Hucknall in the Daily Post in which he reminisced about rehearsing in Liverpool in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His first band The Frantic Elevators, which he played in for seven years before forming Simply Red, was managed by Roger Eagle, one of the co-owners of the legendary Eric's club.

Inevitably another familiar figure on the Liverpool music scene at the time, the photographer Francesco Mellina, met and photographed Mick Hucknall many times during that early part of his career. Here's one of Francesco's photographs taken in a back street behind Pickwick's club. It's just one of the fascinating glimpses of bands before they were famous that you can see in the Sound and Vision exhibition at the National Conservation Centre - which also includes U2 back in 1980 when they were the opening band for Wah! Heat and Pink Military.

Here's a special report from Isobel, who spent last week helping out behind the scenes at World Museum Liverpool for her work experience placement.

"When asked to choose a work experience placement, the traditional primary school or office jobs didn't really appeal to me. So instead I decided to work in the World Museum. My mum works there, but I didn’t really have a clue what she actually does. Maybe the readers of this are more knowledgeable than I am, but 'curator of numismatics' doesn't mean much to me! I wanted to find out what museum work entails, as I, like a lot of people, didn't really know what goes on behind that 'no entry' door.

My first day was with Emma, head of Ethnology, in the museum stores. Along with Chrissy, I helped measure, handle and photograph Buddha figurines. I learnt so much about different types of Buddhas and symbolism in Buddhist figurines and felt so lucky to pick up and hold things that are usually behind a glass case! It was so amazing to think about the culture and history surrounding each Buddha.

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to be shown the zoology stores by Tony, including vast cabinets of insects, spirit stores full of interesting samples, and stuffed animals from old displays.  I was at the National Conservation Centre on Tuesday as well, watching an interactive activity for the Weston Discovery Centre being made. In the afternoon I was with my mum looking at a new acquisition, a set of bravery medals being awarded to a seaman who gave himself up to the Japanese during World War II to save his ship. The human story behind those medals was really interesting, and more valuable to me than the solid gold coin I had been handling minutes before!

Wednesday was back at the museum stores, putting together Egyptian pots. This is a challenge, but very rewarding when you find two pieces that fit together. I can describe it as the most difficult and oldest jigsaw I have ever attempted! I also held a pot that was seven thousand years old and still had the potter's fingerprints on it. Among the Egyptian stores I also saw a mummified cat's head, which looked disturbingly like my pet, Boots.

My favourite day had to be Thursday, spent at the Clore Natural History Centre. I'm interested in Biology and it was great to spark the kids' interests in something and see how excited they got. Additionally I had spent all my other days behind the scenes, so it was a nice change to be front of house. Although I didn't have the knowledge to answer all of the children's questions, I learnt through listening to the demonstrator's answers, and, like what I've been told by many staff at World Museum Liverpool, working here means you are constantly learning!

Finally, my last day, Friday, was spent in the museum stores working with Roman coins. I've learnt so much this week, and the variety of the work I've done has been wonderful. I enjoyed my time there so much I am considering doing some volunteer work at the museum!"

If, like Isobel, you are interested in a career in the museums and would like to volunteer to get more experience you can find out more on the Volunteering pages on our website.

Helen Halliwell and Bill Sillitoe installing the new display

Yesterday I saw the installation of a new display of Islamic ceramics in the Weston Discovery Centre at World Museum Liverpool. The display is a very personal project for technical services technician Helen Halliwell, as she has been closely involved from the outset.

Helen used to work as a demonstrator in the Weston Discovery Centre before joining the technical services team over at the National Conservation Centre recently. When the display of Islamic ceramics was proposed to tie in with the Arabic Arts Festival next month, Helen’s expertise was called on as she has a background in ceramics - she worked as a ceramics technician while studying for her Masters degree in the subject. So Helen worked with curator Emma Martin to select pieces of 13th and 14th century Islamic pottery from Iran, Iraq and Egypt for the display. The pieces, which have never been on display before, were chosen as they are great examples of the geometry and patterns in their designs, which Islamic ceramics are famous for.

After finalising the selection Helen joined technical services, which is the department responsible for creating mounts and installing displays. So she has been involved in that side of the project as well, including specifying the layout of the display case.

I caught up with Helen and senior technician Bill Sillitoe when they finished the display off yesterday. Bill made the supports for the wall mounted sherds in the display, using wire with a silicon tubing covering to protect the artefacts. Although they look quite simple, each one is specially made to support a specific sherd safely at the correct angle.

You can see more photos of the installation in our Islamic ceramics display set on Flickr.

Boxhead recreating his pose from one of Francesco Mellina's photographs

Yesterday evening the National Conservation Centre resounded with the sights and sounds of the 1980s to celebrate the opening of the exhibition Sound and Vision - music and fashion photographed by Francesco Mellina, Liverpool, 1978-82.

The exhibition takes a look at the music and fashion scenes in the city at the time, including punk, New Wave, New Romantic and Rockabilly. There's also some great shots of some of the local and visiting bands who played in the city at the time, including an early photo of New Order still finding their feet without Ian Curtis. You may also recognise a certain unknown Irish band who opened for Wah! Heat and Pink Military on tour in 1980. What was their name again? Oh yes - U2!

As you would expect, the opening event was attended by lots of fashionable Liverpool faces, some of whom you can see in our Sound and Vision opening event Flickr set.

It seems that Eros, the Greek god of love, has been working his magic again, as Liverpool.com have just named Café Eros in the National Conservation Centre at the top of their list of five secret coffee bars. Of course, if caffeine and rather lovely statues are not your thing then you may be tempted by some of the cakes and other treats on offer - check out the Café Eros menu on the website.

If you are immune even to the charms of giant muffins and wickedly rich hot chocolate then another reason to visit soon is that there's less than two weeks left to catch the fantastic Recollections exhibition of photographs by Philip Jones Griffiths, which has been extended until Easter Monday.

Stephen Shakeshaft with just a few of his photographs

Today anyone passing through our Design offices might have thought they'd taken a wrong turn and ended up in the news room of the Echo, with picture editor Stephen Shakeshaft sifting though a selection of photographs to pick the perfect ones to illustrate a story.

We haven't started our own newspaper up though - Stephen was working on the selection process for an exhibition of his photographs which will open in the National Conservation Centre in September.

Many people will remember Stephen's earlier exhibitions, which took a candid behind-the-scenes look at the famous faces from the worlds of football (Soccer Shots at the former Museum of Liverpool Life) and celebrity (Shooting Stars, also at the Conservation Centre). 

His next exhibition will cover a broader and arguably more fascinating subject - the people of Liverpool itself. Stephen has been photographing the city's residents for the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo since the 1960s, so it could be the understatement of the century to say that he's a bit spoilt for choice in terms of material for this exhibition. As before his pictures will be accompanied by his fascinating anecdotes about the characters behind the pictures, giving an insight into the news and people that have helped shape the city over the last few decades.

Stephen has promised to keep the blog posted about progress and maybe even give a preview of some of the great stories behind some of his favourite pictures in the run up to the exhibition.

The handling team carefully wrap Jude the Giant's head in plastic sheeting

As I've mentioned many times before, life for National Museums Liverpool's handling and transport technicians is certainly never dull. This Flickr set of photographs of their activities this week look like scenes from a Victorian murder mystery - with dark, mysterious tunnels and body parts being wrapped.

The team were actually moving the mobile statue Jude the Giant. Many people will remember Jude, who was made in workshops at World Museum for the city's 800th birthday pageant in 2007, and has recently been on display in St Georges Hall.

She has now been dismantled, wrapped in protective packaging and taken to the National Conservation Centre for treatment before going back out on display in a new location later this year.

The handling team were assisted by textile conservators, especially when moving Jude's dress, which is a painted item that needs special care and attention. Handling technician and senior driver Paul Kelly thinks that the whole team deserves a big hand for doing such a great job.

Calling all part time art and craft students - how would you like to have your artwork displayed in our venues during Adult Learner's Week in May 2009? You could if you win the 'Inspired by...' competition.

Entrants in this year's competition must submit a piece of artwork inspired by the collections, exhibitions or displays in either Sudley House, World Museum Liverpool or the National Conservation Centre. You may submit any art, craft, multi-media, digital work, video or animation. Participants must be over 18 and studying arts or crafts part time. Full entry criteria and downloadable application forms are on the Inspired by... web page.

We've just published a cute little pocket guide to many of the fab happenings at NML in 2008. It's good to revisit highlights like Ben Johnson's residency, the Superlambananas, the opening of Seized! and exhibitions like Art In The Age of Steam and The Beat Goes On.

You can download your copy of The Little Book of Big Highlights here (pdf 6mb).

The rush to enter the competition started back in the 1960s... 'Street sign, Liverpool 1966' Philip Jones Griffiths/Magnum Photos. Courtesy of the Philip Jones Griffiths Foundation

Another month, another 'Name that object' competition graces the National Museums Liverpool web pages. This month you could win the rather fantastic 'Recollections' book of photographs by Philip Jones Griffiths, a selection of which are currently on show in the Recollections exhibition at the National Conservation Centre. The book has page after page of stunning shots - but you don't have to take my word about how good it is, just read the review 'The early vision of Philip Jones Griffiths' in today's Independent if you don't believe me.

A copy of the book will be winging its way to the first person to correctly identify the mystery artwork in this month's competition. If you are not a winner then get down to the National Conservation Centre shop, where a limited number of copies are available at a special discounted price during the exhibition.

Billy Fury thanks you for voting for The Beat Goes On! Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I know you will be truly excited about finding out the result of our poll to find out your favourite exhibition from our venues in 2008, so I will put you out of your misery. With an admirable 52.75% of all the votes, our monster music exhibition The Beat Goes On came out on top. But don't fret if you haven't been to this exhibition yet as it is staying at the World Museum until 1 November 2009. You can also check out our listings page to find out about any events going on that are related to this exhibition.

The one that didn't get away...

It's Friday so the handling and transport team decided to go fishing. Not in the Mersey though, they fished through the museum stores to find this giant turtle which needed to be taken to the taxidermy department at the National Conservation Centre for restoration.

They finished the week, which has included transporting everything from a Superlambanana to some ancient Egyptian artefacts, by helping taxidermmist James Jackson to install some scenic material on the Chirotherium display at World Museum Liverpool. You can see some of the highlights of their week on our Moving stories Flickr photo page.

Over the last few weeks the handling and transport team have been helping to prepare the Ancient Egypt gallery, which will open at World Museum Liverpool on 5 December. However in complete contrast to the ancient Egyptian artefacts, today they transported one of the newest works of art in our collections, the popular Superfiveadaybanana.

After spending the summer at the Walker Art Gallery, Superfiveadaybanana has been on display in local schools. Today Paul Kelly, Richard Roberts and Andrew Mountfield took the sculpture from Kensington New Park School to Kensington Junior School. Paul says that the children were really excited to have this unusual guest displayed in the main entrance to the school. You can see more of his photos of Superfiveadaybanana on the move on our Flickr page.

All hands on deck - the handling and transport team carefully manoeuvre the enormous painting of Jerusalem down the stairs

As you are probably aware, the popular Ben Johnson exhibition at the Walker closed earlier this month. Most of the paintings in the exhibition were on loan from other collections, so they have been packed up ready to be returned. One of them, the 'Jerusalem' painting, was too big for the lift, so it was carefully carried down the stairs this morning. This was quite an operation - for every person supporting the painting on one side in the photo above, there's another person hidden on the other side.

The good news is that one of the paintings hasn't left the Walker. The Liverpool Cityscape belongs to National Museums Liverpool, so it will go back on display on 21 November once the gallery it is in has been rehung.

Have you ever wondered what exactly goes on behind closed doors after an exhibition has closed though? Here's your chance to find out, as there are some photos of the handling and transport team taking down the Ben Johnson exhibition on our Flickr pages. I'll let handling technician, senior driver and ace photographer Paul Kelly explain what's going on in them:

"When works of art are to be moved from one location to another one of the principles we utilise is the creation of micro climatic conditions for the protection of the artwork. We achieve this by essentially wrapping the painting in large sheets of polythene which is then sealed. It sounds easier said than done simply because some of our works are extremely large and the Ben Johnson works fall into this category. The process is quite involved requiring assessment of the job in hand and almost telepathic communication between each member of the team if the goal is to be achieved safely. This work is seldom if ever seen by the general public because after the works are wrapped in Polythene they are put into large wooden crates then onto the vehicle that will transport them to their new location. Other work involved in dismantling an exhibition is the wrapping of the safety barriers and miscellaneous information boards - all part of just another day's activity for the handling team.

The crates used to transport large paintings need to be handled with extreme caution as they tend to be rather unstable when on the move and can be very heavy. We do have a wide range of skills and equipment to draw on and this enables members of the team to move these big objects effectively and safely."

Roberta from the National Conservation Centre cleaning the statue base of Ramses II

Here's an update on the refurbishment of one of Wold Museum's most popular galleries from antiquities curator Carolyn Routledge:

"In putting together the new ancient Egypt gallery at World Museum Liverpool we are introducing many new objects, but also bringing back some old friends. One favourite from the old Egypt gallery was a statue base that once held a statue of the famous pharaoh, Ramses II. 

The base was on open display and, for over 30 years, thousands of hands have traced the king's names and the pictures of prisoners carved on its sides. All this touching left the statue base very dirty. In order to show it to its best in the new gallery, our conservators have cleaned it and now the beautiful travertine stone can be seen by all.

The Ramses II statue base will be back on display when the Egypy gallery opens on 5 December this year."

Up the corridor without a paddle - the well packaged kayak leaves the National Conservation Centre

You can't really see it in this photograph but trust me, this photograph shows a c19th century Greenland kayak that belongs to Trinity House in Tyne and Wear - inside a lot of packaging. The kayak is quite rare as boats of this type are very fragile and tend not to survive. It has a wooden framework, with baleen bindings (the filtering material from inside a whale's mouth) and sealskin covering. However, the kayak was extremely dirty and showing signs of water damage when it first arrived at the National Conservation Centre for treatment. Parts of the skin and cockpit hoop were coated with a brittle black resinous coating, which had to be removed. The skin also appeared to have been waterlogged at some point in the past, resulting in severe shrinkage, distortion and blackening on drying.

Conservation of the kayak was a real team effort, with senior organics conservator, Tracey Seddon, working on the skin, while head of engineering and maritime conservation, Jonathan Carr, treated and repaired the internal framework. Once they had finished, furniture conservators Graham Usher and Malcolm Broadbere helped to adapt a special frame to support and protect the kayak on its journey back to the North East.

Its conservation complete, the kayak left yesterday for the journey back to Trinity House. At 5.4 metres long it was not an easy thing to move so Tracey called on the help of several colleagues to carefully guide it down the corridors and out of the building. That's nothing compared to what is to come though, as a first floor window is being removed in order to get the kayak safely back into Trinity House. Once inside it wil be displayed in a newly refurbished room.