National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, August 01, 2007

The latest in a series of online exhibitions of photos from the Stewart Bale archive is now on the website, featuring some of Liverpool's architectural landmarks. As always, they're all great pictures, but of particular interest to me are three photos showing the city's cathedrals during construction. It's fascinating to see how these now familiar features on the Liverpool skyline actually took shape.

You can zoomify in to see the details of each picture - in the interior shot of the Anglican Cathedral for example you can examine every block in a temporary wall at the back.

The British Bryological Society is holding its annual general meeting at World Museum Liverpool on 29-30 September. If you're new to the world of bryology (the study of bryophytes, aka mosses and liverworts) and want to learn more then the Saturday morning session is for you, with a workshop on identifying bryopgytes - feel free to drop in.  More on the BBS website.

When I, Stephen Guy, was a child we visited Bidston Hill with its windmill and glorious views. I was always intrigued by a series of neat holes bored into the solid rock. It was many years before I learnt the purpose of these strange holes. In the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s collections there is a painting which explains the mystery.

It shows the Bidston lighthouse in 1825 – and there next to it is a row of flagpoles, standing in the holes. Shipowners had their own flags which were hoisted when one of their ships was identified. This meant shipowners and others had notice that one of their ships was approaching port. Use of the flags was discontinued in 1826 following the introduction of the more sophisticated Hoylake to Liverpool telegraph.

Great ingenuity is used to guide ships safely to Liverpool – lighthouses, lightships, buoys and signals have all played their part during the long history of the dynamic port. Before the days of radio and modern communications, various methods were devised to announce the imminent arrival of a ship to dockmasters and owners.

Today the Mersey approaches are comprehensively marked according to the system agreed by the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities. This ensures that the meaning of every buoy and light is clear even to the master of a foreign vessel on his first visit.

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

Other items in the collections include a wooden buoy made by a cooper (barrel maker) and a model of the buoy tender Vigilant (1978) which is shown here. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company is responsible for the maintenance of buoys within the port limits. This ranges from the routine changing of gas bottles which power the buoy lights to bringing buoys ashore for repair and repainting. Fine detail on the Vigilant model shows a crane for lifting buoys in and out of the water. A buoy in the shape of a boat is used to mark a single hazard or point of interest.

A model depicts the buoy that was stationed at Spencers Spit off Hoylake. This had a bell with four clappers on each side so that the bell rang regardless in which direction the buoy rocked. The museum has a large model of the Mersey Bar lightship Alarm (1912) and the original lens from Hale lighthouse on the banks of the Mersey between Speke and Widnes.

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

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.