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.

Over the last couple of weeks our Field Archaeology Unit has been working on a community dig at Leasowe on the Wirral. Here's a report from Dr Liz Stewart, curator of archaeology and the historic environment, on the progress so far.

"We are now half way through the community dig and are finding the remains of some buildings which once stood next to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1763. A late eighteenth or nineteenth century stable and coach-house is shown in some early photographs and on old plans but the excavation has revealed more detail about how it was built and used at different times in the past.

There were initially some ideas that the floor of the building was slate, and flat slates were found, but small holes in them suggested they had been used as roof tiles, and then as they were lifted a brick floor started to be revealed underneath.

The brick floors to each of the rooms are now cleaned, and it is clear that they are made from bricks of different sizes, possibly suggesting different dates, the stable against the lighthouse being earlier than the coach-house.

Darkening of areas of the floor and small pieces of coal suggest that the outbuildings were used as a coal store rather than a stable towards then end of their existence. The buildings were demolished in the early twentieth century.

The dig continues until 19 October and the next phase may reveal earlier phases of buildings, or possibly even earlier use of the site."

Menaka in action

I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of a Sattirya dance performance this morning at World Museum Liverpool. Award-winning classical dance star Menaka Bora was checking out the space and practicing a couple of moves in preparation for her performance at the Treasure House Theatre on Saturday 20 October.

Dressed in fabulous traditional costume Menaka gave us a flavour of the Dashavatara which tells the story of the Hindu god Vishnu. If you're a budding dancer and fancy having a go at this ancient Indian dance technique Menaka will be running a workshop at 3.30pm on the 20th. Give it a try - if John Barnes can master ballroom dancing there's hope for us all!    

Yachting is very popular in and around Liverpool and the sight of them, particularly off Otterspool where the river is generally quiet, is a constant source of pleasure for me, Stephen Guy. Among the great ships entering and leaving the Mersey can often be seen yachts scurrying before brisk breezes.

Steam yachts were popular 100 or more years ago when wealthy people used them for relaxation and travelling in style.  They were status symbols and often had luxurious fittings to reflect the wealth of the owners. Some yachts were used for coastal waters and beyond and others were steamed in the Lake District, for example.

Me admiring the Firefly II's engines and paddle wheels. Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there are the original engine and paddle wheels from the steam yacht Firefly II (shown). She was built for Lord Newborough, who lived in Anglesey, by W Roberts of Chester in 1900. The compound direct-acting diagonal steam engine gleams with its brass, copper and polished wood fittings. These parts of the vessel were discarded shortly after the First World War when Firefly II was converted to screw propulsion. Builder’s plans on display show that the 42-ton Firefly II was an elegant yacht which cut a dash around Liverpool Bay. She was 72 ft long and the 12 hp engine had a steam pressure of 140 psi.

Another contemporary yachtsman is commemorated in the museum displays. Baden Percival was a member of the West Lancashire Yacht Club and achieved fame among the local yachting fraternity when he won the 1908 Liverpool to Isle of Man Midnight Race in his boat Zulu. Percival was awarded a beautiful silver epergne (table centrepiece) which is now on show with photographs of the Zulu. At the time the Manchester Guardian ironically reported about the Zulu’s crew:

“Lancashire courage is unquestioned and now Lancashire modesty may range alongside it. They said that at 2 am they had had  about enough of it and didn’t care whether they won, as all by then had forsworn yachting, intending in future to keep hens instead.”

Built in 1900 at Fleetwood, Zulu is now in the United States and is called Zulu Chief.

There is a model of the 1906 Royal Mersey sailing yacht, Myfanwy, which was built by Samuel Bond of Birkenhead for WS Taylor and NA Hall of Liverpool.

The Royal Mersey Yacht Club, founded in 1844, promotes yacht racing in the River Mersey and adjoining waters. It is one of the many yachting and sailing clubs which thrive in and around Liverpool.

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

'Christ Discovered in the Temple' by Simone Martini

Sharp eyed visitors may have noticed that a few of our paintings are not on display in their usual places in the Walker and Lady Lever Art Galleries. Don't worry, they haven't gone forever, they are just out on loan to other galleries. Our works of art are always in demand and this autumn is no exception, with National Museums LIverpool making significant loans to three major exhibitions.

The Walker's Simone Martini painting Christ Discovered in the Temple is one of 18 items from our collections, including paintings, frescoes, ceramics and stoneware, that are now on display just down the M62 in the Art Treasures in Manchester exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Another eight paintings have been lent to the Millais exhibition at Tate Britain down in London.

We haven't been left with empty walls though as we've received reciprocal loans from their collections. You can see four of the Tate's paintings including 'The Little White Girl: Symphony in White no 2' by Whistler in the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery are lending 'Crucifixion' by the School of Duccio to the Walker.

We have also sent five paintings, including The Scapegoat, Mrs Mounter and Mr and Mrs  Atherton, even further afield to the British Vision: observation and imagination in British art 1750 - 1950 exhibition at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (or Museum of Fine Arts) at Ghent in Belgium. Paintings conservator David Crombie, who was there earlier in the week to install the paintings, reported back:

"British Vision is a very large exhibition with over 300 works including paintings, sculpture, sketches, prints and photographs spanning two centureis of British art. The Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent has only recently been reopened after a complete refurbishment, and the exhibition takes up about half of the entire gallery space in the building. The permanent collections are also significant and more of these will be re-displayed when the exhibition finishes. The historic city of Ghent is well worth a visit if you want to see the show and there is a gallery of contemporary art as well, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK)."