National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Don't set off too quick kids, Gerry didn't bring the Pacemakers

The Walker Art Gallery played host to a musical icon this afternoon as Liverpool legend Gerry Marsden joined local school children for the launch of Merseyside Walk to School week. Pupils across the country are taking part in this national initiative aiming to cut down on pollution caused by the daily school run. It seems no matter how small the feet there’s no escaping those carbon footprints. Gerry got some practice in for Athens and gave us a quick blast of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ - let’s hope for more triumphant renditions next week.   

If you’re still not convinced of the merits of shanks’ pony head over to the National Conservation Centre and check out The Long Way Home. Bernard Fallon captured many of the Liverpool images featured in this exhibition on his walk to Art School. Documenting the changes to Liverpool’s landscape, both physical and social, Bernard’s photographs capture the essence of the city. Something that can be all too easily missed as we race by.   

Emily Tinne © courtesy of Dr Alexine Tinne

For Museums and Galleries Month I've been asking which everyone to nominate which people from the past related to our collections they would bring back if they could, so it seems only fair that I should share my suggestions. It has taken me a while to think of somebody, mainly because there's so many to choose from, I just couldn't decide.

It'd be interesting to talk to any of the sailors from past centuries related to the Merseyside Maritime Museum's collections - the people who set out to sea during an era when they were never really sure if they'd make it home safely again. I'm sure they'd all have some great tales of their adventures on the ocean wave, but I can't narrow down my choice to just one.

I'd also like to talk to the person who did some rather strange things to a 15th century painting of St Michael and the Dragon, which were discovered by our paintings conservators recently, as I'd like to know how they could treat a work of art that way.

I'm tempted to have stern words with the questioning soldier in the painting 'And when did you last see your father?' and tell him to pick on someone his own size, but I realise that he's not real so doesn't really count.

So in the end I've decided that the person I'd bring back would be Mrs Emily Tinne, whose enormous collection of clothing was the focus of the exhibition A Passion for Fashion last year. I'd love to take her shopping to see what she thinks of all the designer shops springing up in Liverpool now. Today's clothing may be a bit too daring for her tastes, but I'd love to get her to at least try on a colourful new pair of shoes, as the shoes from the Tinne collection tend to be more practical than glamorous. I'm sure I could convert her to the joys of bling footwear!

For Museums and Galleries Month 2007 we've been asking which people from the past related to our collections you would like to meet and talk to. Our internal communications officer Karen Young has this cracking suggestion. If you would like to suggest anyone else you can email me using the link at the end of this post. Don't be shy - your idea could be the next one featured here!

National Museums Liverpool is lucky enough to have acquired many unique Beatles objects, including the original stage on which John Lennon’s skiffle band, the Quarrymen, played in 1957. 

It is this stage that I would like to re-build and bring a legendary scene back to life - when John met Paul.  On 6 July 1957, The Quarrymen played at an annual garden festival at St Peter's Parish Church in Woolton, Liverpool. During their concert, one of the audience members was a young man named Paul McCartney, who was there with a mutual friend of John's.  Paul was introduced to the members of the band backstage and picked up a guitar and began to play one of Lennon's favourites, 'Twenty Flight Rock'. John was very impressed by Paul and a friendship began which led to him joining the band soon after. The Quarrymen, of course, went on to become the Beatles.

For me this stage symbolises the true birth of the greatest band of all time, even before the Cavern and the Beatlemania that gripped the world.  As a massive John Lennon fan I admire his changing musical style through the years and to see him on stage at such a young age, would be amazing.  Bringing this scene back to life would mean I could witness one of the defining moments in rock and roll.  It is without doubt one of the events when you could proudly say "I was there"!

The Museum of Liverpool, opening in 2010, will uncover the unique and creative character of Liverpool exploring why the city has produced such an amazing roll call of writers, performers, comedians and sportsmen. The planned Creative City gallery will include this original stage and I can’t wait to see it on display!

The stage while it was still in use. Please note: performing on this stage does not guarrantee a successful international pop career

The winning touring exhibition, Eye for Colour

Last week our exceptionally successful exhibition, 'Eye for Colour', won in the 'Temporary or Touring Exhibition' category at the annual Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence. The awards recognise and celebrate best practice in the industry, so to win is a real pat on the back.

Head of exhibitions, Fiona Philpott, was thrilled to receive the award, especially as the exhibition was developed and designed in-house by our own team. In her acceptance speech she thanked the eTEC consortium as this award is very much a tribute to the success of this unique consortium (National Museums Liverpool, At-Bristol, W5, Magna and Science Projects) and thanked the Millennium Commission who gave us a very substantial grant towards the cost of the exhibition.

More on the awards and all the categories and winners on the Museums & Heritage website, and more on 'Eye for Colour' on our main site.

If you missed 'Eye for Colour' at World Museum Liverpool you can catch it now at W5 in Belfast. The good news is that it will return to World Museum Liverpool later this year (Oct 07 - Feb 08), before it travels to Magna in Rotherham. It is also available for hire (contact our exhibitions dept.).

And while I'm on the subject of awards, 'Big Art for Little Artists' is nominated in the 'Large Visitor Attraction' category of The Mersey Partnership 2007 Tourism Awards. Lynn Taylor from the Lady Lever is also short-listed in the 'Outstanding Customer Service' category. Fingers crossed for the ceremony on 1 June.

A couple of programmes to catch over the next couple of weeks. On Wednesday 16 May at 7pm on BBC2, Jonathan Meades: Abroad Again will be looking at urban regeneration, and visits Liverpool when he'll be checking out the Art and the Sea gallery at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Then, 26 May sees the reopening of Sudley House. BBC Radio Merseyside are marking the occassion on the Sunday (27 May) at 1-3pm with a mix of pre-recorded and live interviews from the gallery. 

Model of the Agamemnon. Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

The legendary Holt family left their mark on Liverpool and I, Stephen Guy, have always admired their talents and business skills.

Alfred Holt (1829 – 1911) revolutionised sea trade with his remarkable fleet of steam ships in what became known as the Blue Funnel Line. In 1865 Alfred founded the Ocean Steamship Company with its technologically advanced ships featuring distinctive black and powder blue funnels which made them instantly recognisable around the world. He came from a family of five wealthy and talented brothers, the sons of successful cotton broker George Holt.

Alfred showed early promise as a railway locomotive engineer. However, it was as a marine engineer and ship-owner that he was to make his name. In 1864, when he was in his mid-30s, Alfred developed a type of compound steam engine enabling ships to travel much further and more economically than ever before. His engineering talent and business acumen were to make him a wealthy man living in an impressive mansion called Crofton, which still stands in North Sudley Road, south Liverpool (more on the Holt family and Sudley House here).

Alfred Holt was highly regarded by his peers and among the items in the collections of Merseyside Maritime Museum is the James Watt Medal awarded to him by the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1878. There is a scale model of the steam engine from the Blue Funnel Line’s Prometheus of 1886. Alfred designed this compound marine engine of the type used in all his ships until the 1890s. Compound two-cylinder engines made better use of steam than one-cylinder engines. The steam drove two pistons instead of one, producing more power at less cost. Like most great ideas, it was a simple concept.

There are two models of the Agamemnon of 1865 (one is shown here) – first of the Blue Funnel ships and one of the most influential steamships ever built. Agamemnon was important because she showed that long-distance ocean voyages were economically practical for a steamer.

The museum has personal possessions of William Elston of Birkenhead, a crew member on the Agamemnon between 1866 and 1873. Among other items is his concertina and an embroidered book mark believed to have been made for him by his first wife. It shows a sailing ship and bears the poignant message: “Think of me when far away.”

More about the Blue Funnel Line next week.

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

Planetarium operator John Moran explains all the fuss over the latest planetary discovery.

An artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image couresy of NASA.

After discovering some 200 or so planets orbiting distant stars, scientists have finally found what looks like an Earth type planet. Gliese 581c is the smallest "Extrasolar planet" ever discovered. Most Exoplanets discovered so far have been many times the size of Earth and more resemble gas giants like Jupiter. But the detection of a world so close in size to the Earth, has got the scientific community very excited.
 
But even more significant is the planets location around its parent star: Gliese 581c orbits around its Sun in a narrow band of space known as the "Habitable zone", defined as the region around a star where liquid water is stable. And as we all know, where there is water, there is a good chance that some kind of life may have formed.
 
Over the last few years, scientists have discovered hundreds of Exoplanets. How they do this is by studying a star's spectrum and looking for periodic shifts. These are tell-tale signs that the star is wobbling - rocking to and fro because of the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet. This wobble was detected in a small and quite dim star called Gliese 581, which is in our galactic  neighbourhood, 20.5 light years away. This wobble was the sign that it had a companion, and this companion turned out to be a Neptune sized planet orbiting very close to the star and completing its course every 5.4 days. But they noticed that the wobble did not fit the usual pattern, something  else seemed to be tugging at the star. As it turned out there where two more low mass planets  orbiting Gliese 581 and it is the middle of the three that has caught the attention. Not only is it the lowest mass planet ever found, but the distance from its Sun means it may  have a surface temperature of around 0 to 40 degrees Celsius and consequently water would be liquefied not frozen.
 
The fact that a Red dwarf is of much lower mass than our Sun makes the detection of small rocky planets that much easier. All in all, both the low luminosity and the low mass of Red dwarfs favour the detection of Earth-like planets around such stars, and with Red dwarfs being the most abundant stars in the Galaxy, the possibility for similar discoveries is very real. 
 
John Moran

Brian Jones in the wartime garden at the Piermaster's House

We've already brought you news on the archaeological dig at the former Manchester Dock. However, did you know about a much smaller dig at the Piermaster's House, nearby in the Albert Dock?

Museum staff planted a vegetable garden at the front of the Piermaster's House a few years ago, to complement the wartime theme of the displays inside. The garden shows the sorts of vegetables that people would have grown themselves to ensure a healthy diet when food was scarce during the Second World War and during the years afterwards, when strict rationing was still in place.

The garden is still maintained by green fingered museum attendant Brian Jones, with help from some ladybirds on pest control duty. Despite difficult conditions in the exposed location with salty air blown in from the mouth of the river, he has produced a bumper crop each year. Last year there was enough to cook a large pan of scouse for the attendants at the end of the summer.

Brian showed me how this year's plants were doing this morning. I was surprised at just how much was growing in such a small space, including rhubarb, tomatoes, strawberries, parsley, potatoes, carrots, onions, runner beans, lettuce, peas, some rather large leeks, plus a bed of herbs. You can see more photos of the garden in a Flickr slideshow.

If you are a keen local gardener and would be interested in helping out as a volunteer at the Piermaster's House garden, we would like to hear from you. Email the Museum of Liverpool team (who look after the Piermaster's House) for further information.

There are also some handy hints on creating a wildlife friendly garden from the experts at World Museum Liverpool's Bug House.

The Ellan Vannin. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

The tragic story of the Ellan Vannin has fascinated me, Stephen Guy, since childhood holidays on the Isle of Man. Everyone on board the Manx ferryboat perished in a terrible storm when 24ft waves sent the sturdy vessel to the bottom as she approached Liverpool.

Ellan Vannin (Manx Gaelic for 'Isle of Man') left Ramsey on 3 December 1909 with 14 passengers, 21 crew and 60 tons of cargo including sheep, pigs and vegetables. The weather was reasonable when she set out but deteriorated as the voyage progressed. By the time she reached the Mersey Bar the wind was near hurricane strength with mountainous waves crashing into the ship.

The court of inquiry concluded that the most probable explanation for the disaster was that the 339-ton Ellan Vannin was overcome by the huge seas, although the precise cause of the tragedy remains a mystery.

When the storm abated, her masts could be seen sticking out of the sea. Divers examined the wreck and found damage to the bows. The lifeboat davits were swung out ready for lowering. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board later blew up the wreck as it was a danger to shipping.

In the Merseyside Maritime Museum collections there is a builder’s wooden half model showing the doomed ship when she was first built in 1860 as the paddle steamer Mona’s Isle. In 1883, she was converted to twin-screw propulsion and renamed Ellan Vannin. The model reflects the view that she was a strong ship. She had put to sea in many a storm when other vessels had run for cover in Ramsey Bay.

A contemporary broadsheet carries photographs of some of the people who died in the shipwreck. Dressed in their finery or everyday clothes, they are frozen in time. They include passengers Mr and Mrs Heaton Johnson looking the personification of respectability – he is in his immaculate high-collared shirt, she in a fashionable ruffled dress. Another passenger, WE Higginbotham, appears in full Highland costume. Manxman Mark Joughin stares out of the picture with a full beard, sporting a trilby hat. Captain Teare is in smart uniform while seaman T Corkish wears a lifejacket and sou’wester. Stewardess Mrs Collister has her hair in a bun. All very different people who shared the same fate.

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

Monday is the 92nd anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, one of the most horrific incidents at sea during the First World War.

You can see some poignant reminders of the ship in Merseyside Maritime Museum's recently revamped gallery, Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress, including an unusual survivor from first class - the sofa cushion pictured opposite. Able Seaman Henry Grew spotted the cushion during search and rescue operations. He got hold of it with his boat hook but it ripped when he lifted it out of the water. You can see where the tear was repaired in this photo.

Marketing Assistant Enes updates us from "On the Road"

Geir Tonnessen, hotel general manager and Ben from Childwall

The latest addition to Museum of Liverpool - On the Road  was launched this morning at the Radisson SAS hotel. The child-sized post box was specially made for the children at Fazakerley Children’s Home to post their letters and cards.

National Museums Liverpool curator Kay Docherty, hotel general manager Geir Tonnessen, and local lad Ben appeared for regional press who attended the presentation.

Update 14.05.07: Sorry, we originally spelt Mr Tonnessen's name wrong.

The themes for Museums and Galleries Month this May are 'People: Who Are We?' and 'Night of the Museum'. To combine the two, the organisers are asking for nominations of a person, featured in a UK museum or gallery, who you would bring back to life as in the 'Night at the Museum' film.

Kay Docherty, assistant curator at the Museum of Liverpool has two great suggestions, the regal Statue of Liverpool that once graced the roof of the Walker and Leasowe Man, the oldest surviving skelton from Merseyside, who was conserved at the National Conservation Centre for our former exhibition Living with the Romans.

"I would love to see the huge Allegorical Statue of Liverpool, at the National Conservation Centre, which was on top of the Walker Art Gallery from 1877 until 1993, come to life. I'd ask her about the many Liverpool events she must have witnessed from high up on the roof and what she thinks of Liverpool today? Also does she like her new home and what does she think of the copy of herself now on the roof.
 
For Leasowe Man I'd ask him what life was like in Merseyside at the time of the Romans, what his name was and what it was like to live in a Romano British round house. From analysing his skeleton archaeologists believe that he was muscular and was used to heavy labour - I'd ask him what he did."