National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, October 26, 2007

I went down to World Museum Liverpool earlier this week to meet the stars of this weekend’s Irish arts day. Eleanor King and Cecilia Ferguson took us through a few of the steps they will be performing with their troupe from the Ferguson School of Irish Dance tomorrow. Taught by a former world champion their twinkle toed performance is not to be missed. Irish singing sensation Helen Roche and Knotty Ash choir will also be entertaining us with the unique sounds of the Emerald Isle with performances of traditional Irish folk songs. The events are part of the Liverpool Irish Festival, check out the rest of the events happening across the city on their website. All this talk of Ireland has made me a bit thirsty, I'm off for a pint of the black stuff ...

Hello there! The various presentations I mentioned in my last blog post about Black History Month, volunteers and lots of talks went really well (I was not jeered anyway). The audiences were all very different and that is one of the things I like about this job. At the Harris Museum in Preston I had to speak for 30 minutes, without using a PowerPoint to hide behind, to a mixed group with several members of the Preston Black community in the audience.  It is not a large community but incredibly varied with a fascinating history. Currently on show at the museum is an exhibition called Bitter Sweet: Legacies of Sugar and Slavery in the Caribbean until March 2008.

My last engagement was at Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. My sister Lorraine lives there (she told me not to say older sister!) so I stayed over for the weekend. On the Saturday I was fortunate enough to see Oxford United v Woking with my brother-in-law Tom and nephew Samuel (both Arsenal fans unfortunately). It was truly a battle between giants of the lower divisions (minus goals or indeed excitement).

The rest of my time was spent discussing and planning the impending havoc of my niece Cara’s 18th birthday party. Over 200 of her friends (yes, I did say 200) will be strutting their stuff until the early hours in a few weeks. A table for the oldies has been arranged at the back of the room to save her from any embarrassment.

This week has been a really interesting one. Yesterday I had the pleasure to interview Nkosinathi Biko, son of the South African activist Steve Biko, and Chief Executive Officer of the Steve Biko Foundation. He is here along with his brother and mother for an event at the Merseyside Maritime Museum this evening.

Yesterday evening I gave a talk at a Manchester Black Health Agency event to commemorate the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade act. It was very well attended and it was a pleasure to have been invited to speak. The only downside of the evening was that my train back to Liverpool broke down just outside Newton-le-Willows. I set off at 11pm. I got back to Liverpool at 2am!

Well I will sign off for now but before I do an apology to my legion of football blog fans. Last week I said Leeds United were playing Millwall. It was in fact Brighton (we won 1-0). Tomorrow is Millwall so hopefully we can keep the unbeaten run going.

National Museum Liverpool's collections are an important source for a whole range of scientists, academics and researchers. One man who is no stranger to the zoological collections is acclaimed wildlife artist David Quinn. For over 25 years he has worked as an illustrator of a broad range of natural history publications. His incredibly detailed illustrations have featured in many books and journals dealing with bird identification issues and in academic studies concerning the biology, behaviour and ecology of birds. Not only are his illustrations and paintings extremely accurate, they are so incredibly lifelike and animated that the creatures depicted look as if they will spring to life at any minute. It's no surprise that he's a former winner of British Bird's 'Bird Illustrator of the Year' award.

David's work is the result of painstaking research, both in the field making studies of live birds and animals, and in museums including World Museum Liverpool, where he takes advantage of the fact that our mounted specimens don't move around to sketch the finer details of their plumage and markings.

You can see an exhibition of his work, 'Nature in the Frame - Portraits from our Living Landscape' in the Joseph Banks Room at Chester Zoo until 2 December 2007. The exhibition is a collaboration with the zoo and Cheshire Mammal Group and includes some pencil and ink illustrations for their forthcoming book, due out next spring. There are also some mounted specimens of some of the animals David has illustrated, including a bat and vole on loan from World Museum Liverpool.

Here's a report on some special half term activities from Claire Noble, one of our Treasure House Theatre demonstrators, who was out yesterday helping Liverpool children to escape half term boredom with games that have been played for thousands of years:

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"At 10.30am sharp Alex Shears and myself began our first 'BORED?' session, the first  of a set of two full day workshops at Aigburth Family Centre. Based on the very fact these kids (like all kids do) get BORED over the school holidays, myself and Alex Shears decided that, what better way to keep kids from climbing the walls... but to teach them loads of games!! 

The first hour was nicely packed with drama icebreakers and story building games, all of which were devised so that they could play it themselves whenever they are BORED and need something to do. After a quick break (and happily the five attendees didn’t run out the door, but in fact stayed!) we introduced them to two ancient board games from the Weston Discovery Centre, which went down a treat. Menkala and Fox and Geese were played for a solid hour and at times the tension was unbearable! 

The afternoon session was craft based, beginning with the moulding and painting of their own scarab beetle board piece and then the making of a giant snakes and ladders board game that they can keep and play in their centre. There were a few 'eeeeees' when explaining why the Egyptians idolised the dung beetle and to show them an actual dung beetle provided to us by Jen in the Bug House was the icing on the cake. They were impressed too by the image of a 13th century Snakes and Ladders game from World Cultures Gallery too, especially as it was made by a monk for his sick mum!

Alex and I were really pleased overall with the sessions. After telling them that tomorrow's sessions will be inventing their own games and creating an instructional DVD for it, they were already thinking of ideas. Let’s see what tomorrow brings!!"

Thought this snap of the Museum of Liverpool building site was a nice contrast with Sam's sunrise photo from the other morning. So much going on and really vibrant, contrasting colours. You get a better idea of the progress made.

If you're not familiar with the site you are looking from the Maritime Museum area north west (ish) towards the Pier Head. You can see the graving docks in the foreground, and Wallasey across the river on the Wirral. There's a ferry boat at the landing stage.

We're often told that we should open our minds to new experiences in galleries and try to approach art from a new angle. Visitors can now do this literally at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, where the old south entrance has closed and been replaced by a new fully accessible entrance at the west. Director David Fleming and head of the gallery Sandra Penketh are shown welcoming some of the first visitors to use the new entrance.

This is just the first of a series of imporvements at the gallery, find out more on the capital projects page.

Noticed that tomorrow night (Tues 23 Oct) at 11.20pm BBC2 are showing a documentary looking at the making of the Beatles' second film, 'Help!' If you've not already seen our exhibition, 'Now These Days Are Gone' which is also based on 'Help!', the programme might whet your appetite for all things Fab Four.

Sea sickness is for me, Stephen Guy, possibly the worst sensation to be experienced without actually being physically harmed. As a child, I once spent four hours slumped over a washbasin on the Isle of Man boat in mountainous seas. If someone had offered to shoot me to relieve my suffering, I would have been very tempted to accept. But sea sickness is just one of the milder things the sea can unleash upon the seafarer or traveller.

Seafarers throughout the ages have respected the sea with its changing moods. The weather is just one of the dangers faced by mariners – accidents, war and many other hazards make life at sea unpredictable. Crews face risks 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Among the main dangers in the past were bad weather, navigational errors, unsafe or under-manned ships, fire, war and piracy.

Sometimes drunken or incompetent seafarers have added to these perils.  From about 1850, Governments, unions, charities and others made increasing efforts to reduce risks. While much progress has been made, dangers remain today.

Merseyside Maritime Museum has a display called Danger at Sea with exhibits linked to the perils of the deep. A commemorative handkerchief depicts Samuel Plimsoll, whose Plimsoll Line has been on ships’ hulls since 1876 to indicate safe loading levels.

A contemporary illustration (shown) depicts the sinking of the steamship La Plata in 1874.

Jack Selby, chief engineer, saved Charles J Coleman from the gas-filled hold of their Liverpool ship, the Devonian, which was berthed in Boston, USA, in 1916. Jack received awards and gifts for his bravery which are on display.

Robert William Blythyn, of Bootle, Merseyside, was a saloon steward who died on the Lusitania, sunk by a German submarine in 1915. Exhibits include Jack’s commemorative plaque awarded to those who died in the First World War.

Merchant seafarers are often placed in extreme danger during wars. For generations their ships have carried troops and supplies in war zones, thus becoming enemy targets. Nearly 15,000 seafarers lost their lives on British merchant ships in the First World War and 32,000 in the Second World War.

The losses of the huge bulk carrier Derbyshire in 1980 and the cross-Channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987 remind us that safety can never be taken for granted. The Derbyshire display is particularly poignant to me because, as a reporter, I filed the names of the 44 crew victims to the world’s media via the Press Association.

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

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.

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!

 

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.

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.

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

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"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:

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"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."

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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.