National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, January 25, 2007

The view from the ferry this morning

Coming in on the ferry this morning, I couldn't help wondering what the Liverpool skyline would look like if Lutyens' Cathedral that never was had actually been built. It's hard to imagine something that big towering over everything around it.

The new Museum of Liverpool is another significant building that at the moment only exists as a model. However, it took a step closer to becoming a reality yesterday, when the HLF announced that a major grant has been earmarked to support the fit-out of the new museum. Read more about HLF announcement in our newsroom.

How long would you spend getting ready for an evening event at the Walker Art Gallery? A few hours perhaps? How about thirteen years? That's how long it has taken to conserve the huge and intricately detailed Lutyens cathedral model pictured here. However, everybody who attended the preview of the exhibition The cathedral that never was yesterday evening agreed that it was time very well spent, as the model is truly breathtaking.

I managed to pin down four of the conservators who worked on the model, David Parsons, John Whitehead, Chris Moseley and Bernie Morgan, at the end of the evening for this photo. You can see the whole team of ten conservators involved in the project and behind the scenes pictures of them at work in the Lutyens cathedral model image gallery.

The exhibition looking at art and climate change finishes this Sunday, 28 January 2007.

Print of Robert Burns from the Customs and Excise Museum collection, accession number CENM1996.928

Here's a bit of trivia to impress your whisky drinking chums with when you're out celebrating Burns night this evening. If you ask most people for 3 facts about Robert Burns, they would probably tell you that he was Scottish, he was a poet and he has a night held in his honour every year to celebrate his birthday. But did you know that he worked as an Excise Officer?

In 1789 Burns was appointed Excise Officer in Dumfries. His job was to gauge the vessels used by brewers and other traders in the manufacture of liquors on which Excise duty was charged and to charge the duty on the liquors when manufactured. A very conscientious officer, Burns was selected for promotion to supervisor, the official in charge of an excise district, but unfortunately died before he could take up his post.

His way with words didn't appear to rub off on those around him, as his confidential character assessment from 1792 simply states "The Poet. Does pretty well".

If you'd like to know more about Scotland's national bard have a look at the Burns Night feature on the BBC website. Or to find out how modern day customs officers are still 'doing pretty well' at protecting our ports and airports, you could pay a visit to the Customs and Excise Museum.

'The Enchanted Garden', John William Waterhouse

At the second attempt, I managed to record Sandra Penketh's picture of the month talk yesterday at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on John William Waterhouse's 'The Decameron' and 'The Enchanted Garden' (mp3/transcript/links).

The paintings are companion pieces, 'The Enchanted Garden' depicting a scene from Boccaccio's Decameron. Sandra's talk looks at the contemporary influences on Waterhouse, the story of the Enchanted Garden and Lord Lever's unusual approach to buying from Waterhouse's widow.

Fans of Cute Overload! shouldn't miss this photo buried in the podcast's suggested links (although whether 'mouse about to be savaged by cat' counts as cute is debatable).

The object of the month talk at 1pm in the Walker tomorrow (Thursday 25 January 2007) is on a Vivienne Westwood outfit from her Buffalo Girls collection.

I must confess, I was a little tired this morning after dancing, singing myself hoarse and generally getting over excited watching Kylie perform the last date of her Showgirl Homecoming tour in Manchester yesterday. Words couldn't describe how thrilled we were that the postponed concert was rescheduled, so I'm expressing my joy through this suitably antipodean picture of a black-footed rock wallaby, photographed in the wild by Clem Fisher during her Australian adventure last year.

Fans of Ms Minogue have another treat in store, when Kylie - The Exhibition opens in the V&A in London next month. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to seeing Charlene's overalls from Neighbours almost as much as her designer frocks?

Did you know that Kylie performed at the Liverpool Empire quite early on in her career? The occasion was captured by Echo photographer Stephen Shakeshaft, who showcased some of his best celebrity pictures in the exhibition Shooting Stars at the National Conservation Centre a few years ago. Read his entertaining reminiscences on the exhibition website.

We might not have any of Kylie's fabulous clothing here in Liverpool, but you can see designer clothing from the last forty years in the Inspiration display at the Walker.

The frond under UV light

A couple of month ago I told you about a monster of a 50 year old palm frond we had just acquired. Plans are to put the frond on display at World Museum Liverpool but first it needed some TLC in the form of treatment at the National Conservation Centre. This primarily involved removing the enhancing layer of acrylic paint to expose the original fossil (it's much paler).

This image shows the frond under UV light before work began. The purple areas are the acrylic overpainting and retouches. Images of the conservation work in progress and the finished article can be found on our Flickr page.

Update 23.01.07: apologies, that should have read 50 MILLION year old palm frond.

An emigrant's trunk from the last century.
Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

When I, Stephen Guy, was a child growing up in West Derby, Liverpool, in the 1950s our neighbour had an old wooden seaman’s chest stored outside.

It was slowly rotting away but when you lifted the creaking lid another world was revealed. Inside the top was a colourful painting of a ship with billowing sails racing across an azure sea. This battered object had the power to conjure up images of distant ports and a lost way of life.

 Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
 Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
 Drink and the devil had done for the rest
 Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum …

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, wrote these famous lines in 1881. They capture perfectly images of ancient sea chests brimming with golden doubloons and other loot.

Merseyside Maritime Museum has a number of chests and trunks on display. Sea chests were usually made from wood then tarred or painted to keep water out.  A seaman’s chest dating from about 1880 was used by seafarer Ted Garland to carry his personal belongings while at sea.

Ditty boxes were used by mariners to keep valuable items along with letters and photographs. One on display dates from the 1930s.

There is a stylish passenger trunk owned by Gertrude Walker and her daughters Doris and Winifred, members of a wealthy family who frequently travelled on passenger liners. Gertrude first went to Chile, South America, in 1911. During the next 50 years she and her daughters crossed the Atlantic many times. The trunk, donated by Mrs JV Bucknall of Heswall, is displayed with some of the clothing and accessories it once contained – a fascinating time capsule from a bygone age.

Another is a passenger’s state room black oval bag with a Cunard White Star label still in place. The bag was used by Mrs Hadwin, a third class passenger on the Athenia sailing to Montreal on 23 July 1923.

An emigrants’ trunk from 100 years ago (shown) contains some of the simple belongings carried by people seeking a new life abroad – photographs, books, crockery and a wall plaque bearing the fitting Biblical quotation, 'My God shall supply all your need'.

A new Maritime Tale appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

The special exhibition galleries at the Walker are having a bit of a makeover thanks to our upcoming exhibition Doves and Dreams. 

For me the highlight of the exhibition - devoted to the work of artist-couple Frances MacDonald and J. Herbert McNair - is definitely the spectacular Turin room. Long before the bed had even entered Tracey Emin’s head, MacDonald and MacNair created the Ladies Writing Room, an ambitious art installation for the 1902 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art in Turin. As you can see below the room is being carefully reconstructed for Doves and Dreams and contains many of the original artefacts, including glass, furniture, watercolours and graphics - these two were truly multi-talented.

Photographs of the highly stylised interior of the couples own Liverpool home are also on display. So if like me you’re addicted to Relocation, Relocation and like nothing better than a Wednesday evening in with Phil and Kirstie checking out other peoples houses, come and sneak a look at some true avant-garde splendour. The exhibition opens this Saturday, 27 January.

It would be wrong to highlight eighties photos of Liverpool on Flickr without pointing everyone to Nancy023's superb collection. Now based in Seattle, most of these photographs were taken during a year spent in Liverpool over twenty years ago.

Milk Bar, New Brighton

Commutation Row, Philip G Mayer

Philip G Mayer's flickr photostream contains some great early 1980s photographs of Liverpool, including this one of Wellington column outside the Walker with the row of buildings that were demolished to make way for Commutation Plaza.

Philip has also set up the Old Liverpool pool, inviting anyone with a Flickr account to post their photos to it. The pool includes this great set of postcards that he dates to around 1906 -  I love the Prince's Avenue and Bold Street ones. The postcards are all based on original photographs. There's also a very stylish artist's impression of the interior of the Mersey Tunnel and a set of photos of the last night of Woolton Cinema.

While David Beckham is making a splash in the US with his LA Galaxy ‘soccer’ antics, World Museum Liverpool has itself been subject to a bit of an American invasion.

Liverpool Centurions AFC is our local community American Football Club – and they’ve been down to LoveSport to give us a bit of taster.

Jon Askew and Andrew Morris show their tender sides

On their website, Centurions' chairman and fullback Jon Askew (pictured right) explains that, “Visitors to the display will get the chance try out at Flag Football, which is a great introduction to the sport”.

Apparently flag football is a non-contact version of the game - which is handy if you don’t fancy getting knocked over by this pair of bruisers. Joking aside, I am assured that the Centurions are a charming bunch of fellows who love their sport and want to spread the word about the game.

They’ll be back at World Museum Liverpool for another taster session on 24th January from 10am until 2pm. 

In the meantime, I am relishing the start of the rugby league season. Centurions of another variety, Leigh, are visiting Knowsley Road on Friday night for a friendly opener against the Saints. The match is also Sean Long’s testimonial and sees old team favourite’s Chris Joynt, Tommy Martyn and Paul Newlove back in the fold for the occasion. Can’t wait!

Patrick Caulfield's 'Still Life: Autumn Fashion' is one of the most popular pieces in the Walker's 20th century collection and is currently on display in Room 13 at the gallery.

The excellent Patrick Caulfield collection display at Tate Liverpool (not one of our venues) finishes early next month (4 February 2007), images of all fifty two works are available on the Tate website.

To mark the end of the display, Marco Livingstone will be giving a talk in the display space next Wednesday (full details). In 1981 Marco Livingstone selected works for the Walker Art Gallery's Patrick Caulfield retrospective.

We take it for granted sometimes that everyone understands which venues we represent at National Museums Liverpool, but personal experience suggests it can be confusing. It's even more confusing when we occasionally highlight events and exhibitions at other Liverpool museums and galleries on this blog.

I'm creating this post so that when I mention a Merseyside gallery or museum, I can include a link to this explanation.

We are - Walker Art Gallery, World Museum Liverpool, Museum of Liverpool, Merseyside Maritime Museum, International Slavery Museum, Sudley House, Lady Lever Art Gallery, HM Customs & Excise National Museum and National Conservation Centre.

We're not (but we like) - Tate Liverpool, FACT, the Beatles Story, Open Eye Gallery, University of Liverpool Art Gallery, Greenland Street, View Two Gallery, Almiro Gallery, 52 Roscoe Street, Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead Priory, Wirral Museum, Renew Rooms, Alima Centre gallery, National Wildflower Centre, 59 Rodney Street, British Lawnmower Museum, Western Approaches, Spaceport, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Atkinson Art Gallery, Blue Planet Aquarium, South Bohemia Art Gallery, Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, World of Glass, EggSpace, Mendips, The Artfinder's Gallery, Arena, Dot-art Gallery, Cornerstone Gallery, Cube Noir, Museum Man, Liverpool Academy of Arts, The Royal Standard, Williamson Tunnels.

Hope I've not left too many off the list (and we'll look at Prescot Museum another day..).

A subterranean Liverpool landmark celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Since 1957 generations of clubbers have trailed down the stairs for a night out at the Cavern. I myself spent many happy hours on its dancefloor as a student (as well as several not so happy hours in the seemingly neverending queue for the ladies).

The Cavern is of course most famous as the venue to see a certain local band at the start of their career in the 1960s. The  Beatles played at the Cavern on at least 292 occasions, their first recorded appearance being 9 February 1961, and their final one on 3 August 1963.

Among recent additions to the collections of the Museum of Liverpool is the Cavern membership card from 1964 pictured above, which belonged to John Marsh of Huyton. You can't see this card on display yet, but fans can enjoy a lot of the museum's other Beatles memorabilia in our Beatles online exhibition, or just have fun with the Beatles games.

A mystery that has intrigued many local historians is the exact location of the original Cavern club, which was filled in when the venue closed in 1973. The reincarnated Cavern was rebuilt using the original bricks in a different part of Mathew Street in the 1980s. I'm not sure how helpful this is, but another membership card from the museum's collection has these directions inside. Frustratingly, I don't think the map is drawn to scale though.

Cavern Club membership card, 1962 Season, owned by member Peter Day of Wallasey, dated 18-2-62. In the Club Notes section Peter listed the bands he saw at the Cavern, complete with dates, including the Beatles, 20 June 1962. Kindly donated by Mr Peter Day.

Detail of a Master's Declaration, announcing Shackleton's last expedition in 1921

Today is the anniversary of the day that polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton found the magnetic south pole in 1909. You'd think that after returning from an adventure like that he'd just want to stay at home with a warm mug of cocoa, or tick off the 'visit south pole' box on his travel wish list and start planning a cruise round the Caribbean to thaw out. He obviously wasn't the sunbathing type though, as he led several more expeditions to the Antarctic after this.

One of the prized documents in the collection of the Customs and Excise Museum is a Master's Declaration that announces the outward journey of his ill-fated last expedition in 1921. Sadly, Ernest Shackleton did not reach the Antarctic on that occasion as he died of a heart attack on South Georgia Island in January 1922.

Another famous explorer who has been in the news lately is Captain Robert Scott, whose moving last letters to his family will go on display at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum in Cambridge tomorrow. The Customs and Excise Museum also have a letter from Captain Scott in the collections, that he wrote to request exemption from tax for the ship Terra Nova for an expedition in 1910. Nowhere near as poignant as the incredible letters to his loved ones, but still an interesting side of polar exploration that you wouldn't normally see.