National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, July 27, 2007

It's most people's favourite time of the week, the last few hours and minutes of work on a Friday before the weekend. Yet sometimes it's hard to escape reminders of the working week completely. At the moment there are a few quite artistic reminders out there.

In the latest exhibition to open at the National Gallery, artists explore the themes of Work, rest and play from the 16th century to the present.

Meanwhile, on our own website you can see photos from the Stewart Bale archive in a work-themed online exhibition. I really like this one of the laying of the keel of the Mauretania II at Cammell Laird shipyard. If you've ever wondered how to build a ship, it seems that you need a lot of cranes and a lot of scaffolding. You can zoom in on the Mauretania being built and work out the rest for yourself with the zoomify feature. 

I'm sure that this far into 2007 most people are pretty well aware that it's Liverpool's 800th birthday, so I wont mention that again here. Apart from just then, that is, but I'm done now. Really.

With all the historical activities that have been taking place this year I thought that I'd heard just about everything there was to hear about the story of this great city. So I was quite impressed when just a quick look through the research for the Magical History Tour exhibition revealed all sorts of new facts and anecdotes that I was completely unaware of. For example, did you know that the first x-ray machine in Britain was installed at Liverpool's Southern Hospital in 1896? 

If you did know that and consider yourself a bit of a local history buff then you should take the Cab driver's challenge quiz on the exhibition website. Or from tomorrow you can pop along to see the exhibition itself. The opening weekend promises to be quite spectacular, with performances from the Beat Beatles and all sorts of other activities.

The Guardian has an interview with illustrator, Shirley Hughes, on the homepage of its books channel - you can listen here.  There's also an article about her latest collection (in case you're wondering why I'm telling you this, we had a Shirley Hughes exhibition a few years ago and still get a fair few enquiries about it).

Local after school clubs have been treated to a programme of activities showing a different side to the Walker Art Gallery over the past couple of months. Starring King Henry, Millie Smith and the Athlete Struggling with a Python, almost 700 children have witnessed characters from the collections come to life in a production by Fuse Theatre company. Staff from the Walker have also been bringing out the children’s creative side with art workshops and follow up visits to Big Art for Little Artists. I remember when all I had to look forward to after school was an ice-pop, the occasional game of kerby and if I was really lucky an episode of Fun House with Pat ‘The Mullet’ Sharp and those scary twins.

The closing days of Liverpool as an emigration port were witnessed by me, Stephen Guy, as a teenager watching the Empress liners embarking from the Pier Head decorated with bunting and streamers.

Liverpool was probably the most important mass emigration port in world history in terms of numbers of people carried. Between 1830 and 1930 more than nine million emigrants from all over Europe sailed from the port to seek new lives.

During the Victorian age sail gave way to steam including ships involved in the emigrant trade.  By 1870 almost all emigrants to the United States and Canada went by steamship. Liverpool-based steamship lines such as Cunard, Inman, Guion, White Star, National and Allan dominated the carriage of emigrants to North America.

Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

On the Australian run, steam did not overtake sail until the late 1870s. There were a few steamships taking emigrants to Australia from the 1850s. However, they had sails and only used steam for part of the voyage. 

Between 1860 and 1900 conditions improved on the emigrant ships. The 1855 Passenger Act had introduced cooked meals for all emigrants and a doctor on larger ships.

Exhibits at the Merseyside Maritime Museum include a model of the Inman Line steamship City of Paris built in 1866 for the Liverpool to New York run. In 1852, Liverpool-based William Inman had introduced the first transatlantic steamer service for emigrants. On display is a Swedish emigrant’s Guion Line ticket from about 1890. The emigrant travelled by sea to Hull, then by rail to Liverpool before joining a ship to New York.

By the early 1900s steamships were bigger and faster. There is a fine detailed model of the Cunard Line’s Saxonia built in 1900 specifically for the emigrant trade without a cheap steerage section.  All the passengers on Saxonia were accommodated in cabins, including 1,600 emigrants in third class.  She operated on the Liverpool to New York and Liverpool to Boston routes before being transferred to the Mediterranean to carry emigrants from southern and eastern Europe to America.

A new generation of super liners came into service during the Edwardian age. Ships like the Mauretania and the ill-fated Titanic and Lusitania had elegant, luxurious first class accommodation but they also carried many emigrants in third class.

The First World War brought a temporary end to emigration. From the 1920s emigration was limited by newly-imposed entry restrictions to the US and Canada.

More information on Liverpool emigration and emigration to Australia on our main website.  There is also an interactive following the fate of a family emigrating to Australia through Liverpool - Leaving from Liverpool.

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

The installation of the new access ramp at the Lady Lever Art Gallery is continuing this week with the fitting of the new glass balustrade. Did a previous post on the ramp itself if you are interested.

The first piece of glass is lowered into position

Preparation work for Magical History Tour Exhibition, which opens 28 July at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, is well underway.

Illustrator and artist Olivia Du Monceau can be seen here hard at work on a recreated Medieval market scene. The weekly market was held in Castle Street, Liverpool.

She has even managed to feature a few familiar faces in the scenes - see if you can spot them when the exhibition opens!

Paul O'Keefe in full flow

If you've not yet been to the rather splendid exhibition, Out of this World: the Art of Josh Kirby, you might want to download a gallery tour by Paul O'Keefe to take on your visit. The tour starts in the smaller entrance gallery and then moves into the main hall.

If downloading isn't your thing, or you're not going to get to the exhibition, you might just want to read the transcript or listen to the talk from the comfort of your own PC.

Just 36 more sleeps until the opening of the International Slavery Museum (cue hysteria from the project team). Joking aside, the fit-out, ie installing the actual exhibits, is well underway and I've put a few progress snaps on our Flickr page. This pic shows the Igbo compound in the west gallery.  I'll put more up as the museum develops over the next few weeks.

Igbo compound

I saw him standing there

Having recently bumped into Philip Olivier and Bombhead from Hollyoaks I’ve known for a while that William Brown Street’s cobbled knoll is a haven for Liverpool celebrities, but even I was surprised to see the Walker Art Gallery playing host to some true A-listers.

To mark Liverpool’s birthday celebrations, St Margarets C of E High School have been working with local primary schools to create Scarecelebs, a display of sculptures representing Liverpool legends. King John is currently keeping a watchful eye on John Lennon, Robbie Fowler and Levi Tavari, while Cilla Black’s contending with Ken Dodd and his tickle stick. 

James Baines statue

The idea of millions of people setting off to new lives is slightly unnerving to me, Stephen Guy, perhaps because my family has stayed put in Liverpool for 300 years.

An astonishing nine million people emigrated through Liverpool between 1830 and 1930, usually to start new lives in the USA, Canada and Australia. For most of this time Liverpool was the greatest mass emigration port in the world. Huge numbers came from Britain and Ireland but they also travelled from as far away as Scandinavia and Russia.

Until the early 1860s, most crossed the Atlantic on sailing ships. On the Australia run, sail continued to be more important than steam until the late 1870s.

Initially, emigrants were of secondary importance to cargo on sailing ships but by 1850 the majority were carried in American-owned sailing packets. The passage to the USA or Canada took about 55 days and the voyage to Australia usually lasted between 10 and 16 weeks. Most emigrants arrived safely but sometimes there were outbreaks of typhus and cholera in the overcrowded conditions.

At the Merseyside Maritime Museum visitors experience what it was like to be emigrants heading for new lives in the 1850s. They walk along a re-created Liverpool quayside with a noisy lodging house and warehouses. They board the emigrant ship and see how the vast majority of passengers travelled in steerage class. Trunks were piled up and a table was available for simple meals, with the constant roaring of the sea day and night.

Exhibits in the museum's Emigrants gallery include a model of the Black Ball Line clipper Marco Polo, one of the most famous of the Liverpool-based ships carrying emigrants to Australia. In 1852 she made a record-breaking passage from Liverpool to Melbourne in 68 days, an amazing 50 days less than the average. However, the achievement was marred by a measles epidemic which claimed the lives of 55 of her emigrants. Legend has it that upon her return to Liverpool she passed through the Canning Half Tide Dock, now part of the Maritime Museum, flying a banner proclaiming The Fastest Ship in the World.

James Baines was the founder of the Black Ball Line and a statuette (shown here) depicting him in a green frock coat and carrying a grey top hat is among exhibits. On his death in 1889 Baines was buried in Smithdown Road Cemetery, Liverpool.

More information on Liverpool emigration and emigration to Australia on our main website.

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

This afternoon's roving report comes from our press officer Laura Johnson, who attended the screening of three short films by local film maker Doaa Al Soraimi at World Museum Liverpool as part of the Arabic Arts Festival. If you missed this, you can still catch dance and music workshops and performances at the museum on Sunday, at the close of the festival.

Doaa Al Soraimi discussing her films

"Doaa introduced her films, which included 'A Bite Of Life' exploring themes in the lives of children from an ethnic background and 'Veneer', a video installation that speaks metaphorically about how individuals make judgments based on appearance. 'Veneer' was driven by Doaa's own experience of wearing the Hijab.

There was an informal chat after we had seen all three films. Doaa was interested in hearing what members of the audience had made of 'Veneer' in particular. People had quite different interpretations of the messages she was conveying but all understood the general theme of looking beneath the surface. It was really interesting. Some people had specific questions about Arabic customs and Islamic traditions, which came up in the documentaries so it was quite informative too.
 
Her brother was her camera man so they are obviously a talented family!"

'Observance', our video installation by Bill Viola, is back on display in the Walker Art Gallery. It was last seen in April 2005 shortly after it was purchased with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund in 2004.

'Observance' in Room One of the Walker Art Gallery

Rather than taking its place amongst contemporary items from the collection, curators have placed the work in Room One alongside works such as Ercole de' Roberti's 'Pietà' and 'The Lamentation over the Dead Christ'. These are the sort of works that inspired by Viola to make his series 'The Passions'.

I've just been shown this really cool feature about The Rediscovery of John Hayls' A Portrait of a Lady and a Boy with Pan 1655-9 on the Tate Conservation website. It's written by Helen Brett, one of our former paintings conservators who was based at the Walker Art Gallery at the same time I was. It's great to see that her talents are being put to good use down in the capital!

I have to confess, when I saw the title I was expecting to see a painting of two people with a kitchen utensil, not a Greek god. That's what comes of watching too much Gordon Ramsay I guess.

The painting itself has a fascinating history, which Helen gradually uncovered during the conservation. During the 1930s - long before the Tate acquired the painting in 1995, I should point out - a previous owner overpainted large areas, hiding two Cupids, or putti, holding a wreath in the background, as well as several other details. You can see below how the putti were revealed as the overpaint was removed.

That was just one part of the story though, as another layer of earlier overpainting was revealed underneath. It still amazes me how people treat paintings sometimes - as well as the skilfull ways that conservators combat that mistreatment. Do have a read of the full article, it's quite a tale.

Detail of the partly conserved painting. Copyright Tate, London 2007

Curator Charlotte Stead has sent me this photo of some of the important behind-the-scenes work being carried out by our volunteers. These ladies, Pat, Judy and Ann from NADFAS, have been helping out with some of the ongoing improvements in our stores.

The Maritime Museum has about 253 flags in the collection, most of which have previously been stored flat in boxes. However, it's better to store them rolled up in acid free tubes with tissue to keep the flags in as good condition as possible. As you can imagine, Charlotte wasn't looking forward to re-packing all 253 flags herself, so was extremely grateful when these ladies offered to come in once a week to help out.

Last week the volunteers were shown how to handle and pack the flags correctly by one of our conservators. As you can see, they have put this training into practice already. In the photo they are packing one of the penants from the museum's own pilot ship, the Edmund Gardner.

I think Charlotte will be putting the flags out to celebrate getting this done - but not literally, becuse then she'd just have to put them all away again.

If you missed it when it was at the Museum of Liverpool Life (RIP), you'll be pleased to hear that our hugely successful exhibition,  Living With The Romans, is on at the Museum of Lancashire, on Stanley Street, Preston from this Saturday until December 21.  The museum is open Monday - Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10.30am until 5pm. Admission prices are adults £3, concessions £2 and children free.

Part of the new Egyptian gallery (which I am ridiculously excited about and it doesn't even open until next year) will explore the ancient Egyptians' relationship with their environment, including animals. Ashley Cooke's sent me snaps of some of the objects that will feature in this section of the gallery (the snake and crocodile are on our flickr page, along with other pics from the gallery development).

The hollow base of this beautiful little bronze statue contained the mummified remains of a mongoose; admired for its ability to kill snakes and crush crocodile eggs. During the Late Period (664-525BC) statues like this one were mass produced and purchased by private individuals. They donated them to the priests of temples when they went on pilgrimages to different cult centres throughout Egypt - almost like a holiday I guess.

The ancient Egyptians respected the violent power of the crocodile, despite it being their close Nile-neighbour. The god, Sobek, was portrayed as a crocodile and had a temple cult centre in the Fayuum region, which is where this bronze Late Period figure was excavated (see it on our Flickr page).

The snake was similarly admired, mainly for its ability to seemingly regenerate after shedding its skin. This Late Period bronze statue of a snake contained the mummified remains of a snake within the hollow rectangular base (again, check out our Flickr page).