National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, October 19, 2007

Here's the view from this morning's ferry of the Museum of Liverpool construction site. Not the most informative photo I'll admit, but I'm just a sucker for a beautiful sunrise. You can't really tell from this but trust me, lots of progress has been made since I last wandered out on deck with a camera in my hand. You can just make out the top of the formwork in between the two central cranes. After all the years of planning, this really brings home the reality that we'll have a whole new museum before too long.

I would say that I'll keep you updated with pictures of the progress but with the mornings getting darker it could be a while before it's light enough to see what's going on!

Update 26/10/07: I did get a slightly clearer photo this week but if you actually want to see what's happening then have a look at Karen's post of the Museum of Liverpool construction by day.

Here's yet another example of one of the creative endeavours that our staff are involved in after a hard day's museuming. Every Thursday a small but dedicated group of past and present staff and volunteers known as the Knitwits meet up after work to knit, stitch and chat over a few drinks.

We've made a variety of scarves, socks, jumpers and (in true Generation Game style) cuddly toys over the last couple of years and have recently focussed our efforts on the Big Knit. This has involved knitting lots of little bobble hats to go on Innocent smoothie bottles. The behatted bottles go on sale next month and for every one sold 50p goes to Age Concern, who will use the money to support older people through the winter. They are hoping to get at least 400,000 hats. We packed ours up yesterday ready to send and it looks like we've got at least 100 towards that total.

Gathered together our little hats were quite a sight - sort of a miniature, colourful woolly version of the Chinese terracotta army. See what you think - have a look at a Flickr slideshow of our bobble hat army.

The replica FA Cup

Football seems to be a bit of a touchy subject today for some reason. So here's a story about a major trophy that isn't in any danger of leaving England, in case that cheers up a few football fans out there.

In 2005 the oldest surviving FA Cup (produced in 1896 after the original trophy was stolen) was up for auction and in danger of going overseas. Luckily businessman David Gold, director of Gold Group International and chairman of Birmingham City Football Club, saved it for the nation and gave it to the National Football Museum in Preston on a long term loan basis, so that it could be seen and enjoyed by all football fans.

At the invitation of the National Football Museum, he then commissioned Conservation Technologies to produce an accurate replica of the trophy for his private use. They worked with silversmiths BDG Manufacturing Ltd and the Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre to produce the replica shown here, using a combination of cutting edge laser scanning technology and traditional skills.

David Gold was delighted with his replica trophy and the National Football Museum is ‘over the moon’ with the original. Find out more in a case study about how the FA Cup was replicated on the Conservation Technologies website.

Well I have been silent for over a week as I have been on leave. I went back to see my family in dear old Tadcaster. I am sure you have now all seen the fantastic website which shows you that Tadcaster is an ideal holiday location. Forget about Spain, France or the USA, save on your carbon footprint and travel to Tadcaster on the Yorkshire coastliner bus from Leeds station!

The week prior to my mini break was a really interesting one. On Monday 1 October I gave the keynote speech to open Trafford Black History Month at the Imperial War Museum North. It was a diverse audience, with local schoolchildren, civic dignitaries (I had a coffee with the mayor!) and museum professionals. I talked about the development of the International Slavery Museum as well as the need for Black History Month and indeed the teaching of Black history in schools.

On the Tuesday it was a pleasure to meet and interview Paul Robeson Jr, an advocate of the Paul Robeson Institute, and on Wednesday we held the museum’s first volunteer day. If you are interested in volunteering at the International Slavery Museum you can email Claire Holden our volunteer co-ordinator.

Yesterday I gave a talk to the St Helens Historical Society on the development of the museum. One of the most interesting aspects of my job is meeting all sorts of audiences, and so later this week I am giving several other presentations. Tomorrow at the Harris Museum in Preston on ‘Issues regarding the historical and contemporary representation of transatlantic slavery and enslavement in museums’, then on Thursday I am speaking at a seminar for the Communities and Local Government Department about the need to highlight Black history in museums and on Friday I am at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford for a lunchtime seminar for students and staff.

So a pretty busy week. But my older sister lives in Oxford so I can stay with her and the family over the weekend which I am looking forward to.

 I’ll sign off for now but just before I go (I know my football blog info is a highlight for some people!) I have to let you know that this weekend Leeds United have the privilege of hosting Millwall at Elland Road. Should be interesting to say the least. Last Saturday we drew with Leyton Orient and missed a penalty to win in the last few minutes. Not good for my blood pressure. The highs and lows of being a football fan!

Just to prove I am a Leeds fan!

What makes the Lusitania disaster even more horrific to me, Stephen Guy, is the circumstances in which the great ship went down – a bright spring day on a calm sea within sight of land. Unlike the White Star Line’s Titanic, that other great doomed ship, the Cunarder Lusitania was a regular visitor to Liverpool as she plied the seas between that city and New York.

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

She was heading for Liverpool on a May day in 1915 when she was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank in just 18 minutes.

The Lusitania had been a popular liner on the Atlantic run since she came into service in 1907. Many thousands had experienced life on board during the crossing.

The First World War had been raging since August 1914 but the Lusitania continued to carry passengers across the Atlantic to the neutral United States of America.  A torpedo thudded into the side of the huge vessel. Almost immediately she began to list as water poured through the gaping hole. Passengers heading for the open decks after lunch were trapped in the lifts, going to their horrific deaths struggling to escape.

Throughout the ship passengers and crew made for the lifeboats. But such was the speed of the ship’s sinking that many were trapped on board to meet their fate. Around 1,195 out of 1,959 people on board died – including 123 Americans.

There are a number of Lusitania items on display in Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery. There is an elaborate dusky pink sofa cushion from the first class music room. It was fished out of the sea by a Royal Navy seaman using a boat hook – the repaired damage can still be seen.

A gruesome German Dance of Death propaganda medallion shows a skeleton looking at the sinking Lusitania.

A deckchair from the stricken vessel was recovered from the water by fisherman Patrick O’Driscoll, who relaxed in it for many years outside his Cape Clear Island cottage.

Ship’s carpenter James McKee made the striking model of the Lusitania (shown) from solid teak taken from a piece of the liner’s damaged handrail.
 
Smaller items include a lady’s souvenir fan marked 'Cunard RMS Lusitania', a silver snuff box and tea spoon – and a brass key which opened the door to the ship’s deck store.

But perhaps most poignant of all is one of the Lusitania’s propellers which was recovered from the wreck 360 feet down in the Irish Sea and is now on the museum’s Historic Quaysides.

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

Uber-shop assistant Lynn Taylor has scooped yet another award. She won in the Customer Service category at the North West Tourism Awards held last night in Manchester. You might remember that she's already the holder of the 'Outstanding Customer Services' The Mersey Partnership Tourism award, and now goes on to the national tourism finals.

I also just realised I said I would give you an update on the Daily Post's fashion shoot of Vivienne Westwood clothes, which happened a few weeks ago at County Sessions in the Walker Art Gallery. My previous post gave you a taster from behind the scenes and here is some video taken by the Daily Post of the whole shoot... See if you can spot a member of the press team, Angela Barlow, who was there to make sure it all ran smoothly!

I was in Paris last weekend and went to a cool exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, an amazing glass fronted building near Montparnasse cemetery (I had just been to visit the graves of Samuel Beckett, Serge Gainsbourg and Charles Baudelaire). The exhibition was 'Rock'n'Roll 39-59', which looked at the birth and evolution of rock'n'roll in the USA from its blues, jazz and gospel roots, right up to the late '50's.

View of the exhibition Rock’n’Roll 39-59 From June 22 to October 28, 2007 Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris. Photo : André Morin

I really liked the huge screen with comfy bean-bags you could lie on while watching footage of stars like Chuck Berry and of course Elvis, in a film that told the whole story of rock'n'roll. It made you realise just how crazy singers like Jerry Lee Lewis were and how shocking he probably was in his time. Of course Little Richard seems pretty odd now, so imagine his impact on audiences in the 1950's! Though where were the female performers? I like Wanda Jackson and she wasn't in the film, though she was in the music pods that we listened to later on. We also saw some priceless objects, such as the actual guitar that Elvis used during his first recordings at Sun Records! 

It actually got me thinking about the forthcoming exhibition at World Museum Liverpool, 'The Beat Goes On', which will show from 2 July 2008 – 1 Nov 2009. It will look at the history of Merseyside's music scene and celebrate the creativity of the city. Keep an eye out for more details on what you can expect to see in this exhibition...

Yesterday Liz Stewart gave an update on the community dig at Leasowe. Here's a follow up report from Frances McIntosh, the finds liaison officer for the region's Portable Antiquities Scheme, who is based at National Museums Liverpool, when she's not digging up trenches

"We’re into our third week now and have so far only had two days of rain, pretty lucky for the North West!! We’ve had 2 open days with hundreds of people coming to see what we’ve been up and to and find out more about the history of the lighthouse and its surrounding areas.

We have two main trenches open by Leasowe Lighthouse which have uncovered the outbuildings from when the lighthouse was occupied and functional. There was no running water in the 18/19th centuries inside the building and so the wash room and toilet were outside. We have also discovered the old stables and pig sty.

All the volunteers have been offered the chance to get a picture of what archaeologists do on a daily basis and have got their hands dirty! We have been finding lots of debris in the outbuilding from the time when they went out of use. We also have lots of glass, most likely from the lean-to tea-shop set up beside the lighthouse. All these finds have kept us busy with the finds processing side of excavation. This involves washing, sorting and bagging all the finds uncovered whilst digging.

During the second week of the excavation West Kirby Metal Detecting Club were invited to take part in a survey of the wider area around Leasowe to see what we could find. Although we did not find any Roman finds, a few of which have been found on Leasowe Common and the beach in previous years, we did get a few interesting objects including a 18/19th century harness decoration and an 1860 silver penny.

Other projects around the area have included lots of test-pitting to try and find further areas for excavation. As many people will know from the finds at Meols we know that the Wirral was not as quiet in the past as previously thought. So far the sandy soil and high water table have been foiling our attempts at opening more trenches but we are hopeful that we will be able to open some more trenches soon. If you see a JCB about with two ladies in yellow jackets it is probably Clare and Helen, archaeologists from the Field Unit."

World Museum Liverpool's herbarium is an important resource used by many researchers and experts over the years. It recently hosted the British Bryological Society's annual meeting and conference. As Head of Science John Edmondson reports, this included the opportunity to see rare books from the collection, test museum samples and even become film stars:

"The meeting started with a tour of World Museum Liverpool's herbarium and library along with an opportunity to view an exhibition of rare and unusual bryological books.

The main Saturday programme began with an experimental workshop session in the World Museum Liverpool’s Community Base, where draft copies of the new British Bryological Society Field Key were available for testing along with unidentified samples from the museum herbarium. A video-microscope was provided, along with conventional binocular dissecting microscopes and a range of floras; experienced bryologists provided informal guidance to beginners.

Here's a photograph of the Bryologists bryologising on Whixall Moss on the last day of the conference. This was part of an excursion to a large raised bog in Shropshire led by Martin Godfrey (the man on the right) with considerable help from the warden of Whixall and Fenn Mosses National Nature Reserve, Joan Daniels (who is standing next to him). The reason for the microphone and camera is that we were preparing a sound recording, with short film clips, as a record of the meeting. In this photo they are being interviewed by Sara Bellis (Shropshire Wildlife Trust) and filmed by Rachel Davies."

Update 9/11/2007: The short video that you can see being recorded above is now available on the British Bryological Society website. So if you want to see Bryologists in action, or find out how why the future of peat bogs potentially affects the whole planet, have a look at the Whixall Moss video.