National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The painting is in a private collection and is currently on a long term loan to the Lady Lever Art Gallery. In her talk Sandra looks at Holman Hunt's early years, the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, his time in Italy and his aptitude for painting portraits of children.

Darth Vader. Alfred Hitchcock. Elephant Man. Captain Cook. Rincewind. Luke Skywalker. Monty Python. These iconic figures are all currently battling for wall space as the finishing touches are added to Out of This World, our Josh Kirby retrospective opening at the Walker on Friday.

Liverpool born artist Kirby is best known for his cover illustrations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, but he started his career producing film posters and book covers. Some of the titles for the books he illustrated are brilliant, The Robot in the Closet, A Whiff of Madness and Hello Lemuria Hello, to name but a few. I can’t wait to see how Kirby interpreted these.

Don’t forget to catch Unnatural Selection also on show from this Friday. Peter Chang’s vibrant jewellery, objects and sculpture are really breathtaking. Let’s hope Darth and Luke control themselves - note to participating science-fiction characters, all breakages caused by over-exuberant use of light sabers must be paid for. 

Update 15.6.07: If you click on the Out of This World link you can now see our lovely new Josh Kirby exhibition pages rather than our coming soon page.

The handling team hard at work

Last weekend Sharon Brown, Dave Letsche and Dale Riley, who look after the Museum of Liverpool's land transport collection, donned historical costumes and took the Burrell steam traction engine 'on the road' to Croxteth. Here's Sharon Brown's report from the event - with details of where you can see the Burrell next Saturday.

Dave Letsche entertains the crowds

We were at the Croxteth Heritage Sports Day last weekend as a backdrop as it was based around Victorian and Edwardian themed sports - tennis, rugby etc. We talked to people about the engine (built in 1909 - so it's Edwardian rather than Victorian) and about the Museum of Liverpool on the road project. We only took one turn around the park at the end of the afternoon as it was very busy and we didn't want to squash anyone! Everyone was fascinated with the engine and we had lots of positive comments about it - and ourselves in our rather fetching Victorian outfits - children kept wanting their photos taken with us - a novel experience - a bit like being a celebrity I guess!

Next Saturday (16th June)  we will be attending the carnival at Hale Village - another Victorian themed event and are hoping for cooler weather!

As you can see in the photo, Dave Letsche had a surprise under his top hat to keep the kids entertained (or bemused in some cases! - "Why 'ave ya got that rabbit on yer 'ed mate?" Dave's reply -"Its not a rabbit - its me hare!" The old ones are the best!)

Painting of the Titanic sinking. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

The film A Night to Remember about the Titanic disaster was a most unforgettable film for me, Stephen Guy, as a child. The sinking of the Titanic is probably the best-known shipwreck of all – everything went wrong for the supposedly unsinkable super liner in April 1912.

The huge ship never visited Liverpool but she had connections with the great port where she was registered as part of the mighty White Star Line.

The very name Titanic almost shouted defiance to the mighty seas that had claimed so many ships and lives across the centuries. Her construction would ensure that the vessel stayed afloat despite being holed. But her designers could not have foreseen the catastrophic damage that a huge iceberg could inflict on what was, by comparison, a puny mass of wood, metal, rivets and bolts.

The Merseyside Maritime Museum has many fascinating relics of the Titanic in its Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery. A 20-foot long model of the ship is as old as the original Titanic – it was made by the builders Harland & Wolff to promote the great ship.

A white cotton apron tells a remarkable tale. Possibly the only surviving item of clothing worn on the night of the disaster, it belonged to Laura Mabel Francatelli, personal maid and secretary to Lady Lucy Duff Gordon.

They were involved in a notorious incident when they were among just 12 people in a lifeboat - built to hold 65 - which was later dubbed the millionaires’ boat. Those in the lifeboat were criticised for ignoring the cries of hundreds of drowning victims because they feared the lifeboat would be swamped if they tried to pull people out of the bitterly cold sea.

Two gold watches in the museum collections tell another story from that momentous night. They belonged to Thomas and Ada Hewitt from Orrell Park, Liverpool. Thomas was a bedroom steward on Titanic. As the stricken ship lurched towards her doom, he is said to have passed the gold pocket watch to a stewardess. “Please give this to my dear wife,” he urged. She did so. Thomas died along with 1,500 other people on board.

Other items include a lifejacket, personal belongings, parts of the lifeboats, the massive report of the Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster, and the only known surviving firstclass ticket. There is also a list of the Titanic-related archives held by the museum.

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

Brian Jones tending the runner beans in the Piermaster's House wartime garden

When I was down at the Albert Dock yesterday I popped in to see the wartime garden at the Piermaster's House and managed to catch museum attendant Brian Jones at work tending the plants. This week he has planted some strawberries to replace the ones that didn't survive the winter. Other plants in the garden are doing really well already, the rhubarb and cabbages are huge. He reckons the runner beans will have reached the top of the poles supporting them by mid July, so I'll pop back then to have a look.

You can see how well everything is growing in a Flickr slideshow of the garden, which includes old and new photos.

MMM.1997.16.7

Whilst searching the Museum of Liverpool social history collections for images of Liverpool in the 1960s for the forthcoming exhibition – The Beat Goes On, which explores Liverpool’s popular music from 1945 to the present day (opening at World Museum Liverpool summer 2008), I came across these images taken by Harold Morton, who as a keen amateur photographer took many photographs of the city.

The image of the policeman directing traffic on Lime Street near St Georges Hall shows just how much the city has changed, and what could be more 1960s than the mini? – this image of one being loaded onto the Aer Lingus aeroplane at Speke Airport is great!

MMM.1997.16.88

Archaeologists among you may remember that back in 2004 an impressive hoard of Viking silver was found near Huxley in Cheshire. That silver, now known as the Huxley Hoard, has since been jointly acquired by Chester Grosvenor Museum, Cheshire Museums Service and National Museums Liverpool with Heritage Lottery Funding.

The hoard has gone on public display for the first time this week at the Grosvenor Museum as part of the Viking celebrations in Chester. You can see it there until Tuesday 17 July 2007, then it will come to Liverpool as one of the highlights of the Magical History Tour exhibition, which opens at Merseyside Maritime Museum on 28 July 2007. Look out for further details on the website nearer the time.

Martin Greenland, the artist who won the John Moores 24 prize last year with 'Before Vermeer's Clouds' is holding his first solo exhibition since his win. It's at Farfield Mill, just outside Sedbergh, Cumbria, and is on until 11th July 2007. It's a mix of new and older work, including drawings and paintings on paper, none of which have been seen before. More info on Martin's website.

(l-r) Jenni Whiteside from Lady Lever, award-winner Lynn Taylor, and Big Art marketing officer, Sam Vaux.

A few weeks ago I told you we had been nominated in two categories at the The Mersey Partnership 2007 Tourism Awards. Well, we're pleased to report that we won, and in both categories.  'Big Art for Little Artists' won in the 'Large Visitor Attraction' category, and Lynn Taylor from the Lady Lever Art Gallery won the 'Outstanding Customer Service' category. Obviously we're pretty chuffed with both awards and proud of Lynn's individual achievement.

More on the awards can be found on the icLiverpool website.

The Laird shipyard in around 1840

In the 1970s as a news reporter I, Stephen Guy, attended a ship naming ceremony at the Cammell Laird shipyard. What I remember most was the memorable meal that followed!

The Laird family of Birkenhead built their first iron ship – the paddle steamer Lady Lansdowne – in 1833, heralding a long and illustrious history of shipbuilding on the Wirral. Lairds - later Cammell Lairds - was one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many innovative vessels were launched from its shipyard - originally in the Wallasey Pool but from 1857 at the Birkenhead site it occupied for the rest of its existence.

Scotsman John Laird (1805 – 1874), son of company founder William Laird, was described as “the Father of Birkenhead”. John retired in 1861 and became the first MP for Birkenhead. As chairman of the Birkenhead Improvement Commission, he was influential in the design of the town. John’s three sons William, John and Henry took over the business. Sailing vessels and steamships of all types continued to be built. Laird Brothers merged with Sheffield steel manufacturers Charles Cammell & Co in 1903. Under the new name of Cammell Laird & Co the shipyard continued to grow.

The two world wars brought unprecedented demand for new warships and repair work. Cammell Laird responded in exemplary fashion. In the Second World War an astonishing 106 warships – an average of one every 20 days – were built. More successes followed. In 1956 the 30,000-ton ore carrier Leader was the largest of her type in the world. Three years later the Auris was the first petroleum tanker powered by gas turbines. Also launched in 1959 was the Windsor Castle, at 36,277 tons the largest passenger liner built by the company.

These are just some of the firsts scored by this hugely-successful company which later became the victim of changing times. The last ship to be built at the yard was HMS Unicorn in 1993.

Displays at Merseyside Maritime Museum chronicle the remarkable story of Cammell Laird’s with photographs, ship models and exhibits. Its first iron ship Lady Lansdowne worked as a pleasure steamer on Lough Derg and the River Shannon in Ireland. She sank at her moorings and in 1967 the wreck was identified. On display is a porthole, glass bottle and a metal bar from the wreck. Other ship models include the seventh HMS Liverpool, a Type 42 destroyer built in 1980 and still in service. 

Wirral Archives holds many Cammel Laird related records. You can find out what they hold on our main site.

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