National Museums Liverpool Blog - Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Here's the final blog post from Tom McConnell, our work placement student and Beatles fan, who has been lucky enough to see some rather special objects from the band's history.

Hi

On Tuesday and Wednesday I have been working on the Beatles stage that John Lennon played on when Paul McCartney first met him. I had to sand parts of it and help take it apart before it is fully constructed.

Today I have been in paper conservation where I found all the Beatles autographs!! and I also saw many other Beatles items such as a Beatles writing pad.. Beatles stockings.. Beatles tickets.. Beatles newspapers.. and much more.

You know what it's like, you wait ages for a cultural bus then two turn up at the same time.

The Living Memorial

One bus, 'The Living Memorial', is actually a unique mobile memorial to the Nigerian activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian-born artist Sokari Douglas Camp. It will be visiting the International Slavery Museum from 23-25 April as part of Celebrate Earth Week 2008. The programme of events for the week involves three days of African-inspired live music, art and poetry across Liverpool, including an artist's talk in the International Slavery Museum.

The week before that Liverpool City Council, the Culture Company and English Heritage are offering free coach tours of Liverpool's World Heritage Site - an area of the city including several of our venues. Appropriately enough the tours will take place on International World Heritage Day, 18 April at 11am and 2pm. Each 2 hour tour starts outside St George's Hall and takes in sights including the Albert Dock, Pier Head, Stanley Dock, Ropewalks and the historic commercial district. For further details or to book a free place see the Liverpool World Heritage website or ring 0151 233 2880.

'Art Matters: The Pool of Life', image courtesy of the Singh Twins

In the normal scheme of things, art galleries are where you go to see paintings. However, in the fantastic work of the Singh Twins (deserved winners of the recent Liverpool Art Prize People's Award), you can look at art galleries in paintings instead.

You may remember that last year I spotted some of our venues in their painting 'Liverpool 800' when it went on display at St George's Hall. The talented sisters have just unveiled a new painting, 'Art Matters: The Pool of Life' to celebrate Liverpool's Capital of Culture year. As always, the picture is bursting with life, featuring a plethora of Liverpool people and landmarks infused with the vibrant colours of the traditional Indian miniature style of painting.

There's way too much detail to cram into a tiny space like this, but you can just about make out in this image that the Walker Art Gallery has made an appearance once again, half way down on the right hand side. It's being visited by the blue time-travelling taxi from the Magical History Tour exhibition, which appears to be driven by an escapee from World Museums Liverpool's Bug House. There's even a poster advertising the upcoming exhibition The Beat Goes On (thanks for the publicity ladies!)

Here's the latest update from Tom McConnell, our work placement student, who in case you hadn't noticed is a big fan of a certain Liverpool band!

Hello,

Today I have been checking up on the music desk at the International Slavery Museum. This basically involved listening to many tunes on the desks and writing if it was working and to see if any improvements could be made to improve it for the benefit of the visitor… I particularly enjoyed "Sail Away" by Ray Charles but was disappointed that The Beatles had been taken off!!

The music desk at the International Slavery Museum. Photograph © Redman Design/International Slavery Museum

One of my favourite scenes in the classic film Around the World in 80 Days (1956) is when virtually everything that’ll burn is thrown into the furnaces to keep the ship going – with hilarious results. A real incident many years before may have inspired French author Jules Verne when he wrote the original story in 1873.

The paddle steamer Sirius was the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone. She achieved the feat in 18 days, arriving in New York on 22 April 1838. Setting out from London and stopping briefly at Cork, she battled against head winds on the stormy ocean crossing in a race to be the first to steam all the way across.

As Sirius neared Long Island and the end of her voyage, she had run out of coal and was burning her supplies for fuel. A great crowd gathered in New York harbour to cheer her in. Sirius arrived just eight hours before her much-larger rival, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western, which had set out three days behind her.

Only 200 feet long, Sirius was built in Scotland for the coastal trade between Cork and London. Although she had sails, her steam-powered paddles were her main source of propulsion.

Early in the epic Atlantic crossing, her captain – the naval officer Lt Richard Roberts – had to persuade his crew not to turn back because of the bad weather. Sirius was carrying 40 passengers (29 man, 11 women) travelling in three classes. Cans of salmon, oysters and lobsters were among the provisions carried.

Both Sirius and Great Western suffered big financial losses, mainly because neither ship attracted many passengers for the return voyages to Britain. However, this trans-Atlantic steam race had sparked the imagination of the public and shipowners began to build steam packets to meet the demand. Steamers had conquered the mighty Atlantic, changing ocean travel forever.

The Sirius. The text at the foot of the painting reads: Steam-vessel Sirius, Lieutenant Richard Roberts: R.N Coff New York. The first British Steam-vessel that ever crossed the Atlantic: performed her Voyage from Cork in 18 Days!!

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a fine oil painting of Sirius (shown). She is seen off New York with passengers and crew on deck, her helmsman at the wheel. There is also an exhibition model made by D Balfour and SH Phillips at the time of her 100th anniversary (1937). Sirius sank off Ballycotton, Ireland, in 1847 with the loss of 20 lives.

Until the mid-19th century sea travel was often unpleasant and hazardous. It was not usually undertaken lightly and only if absolutely necessary, such as for business reasons.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Here's the latest update from Tom McConnell, who seems to be keeping busy on his work placement at National Museums Liverpool:

Ancient Egyptian scaffolding!

Hello,

I’m now on my third day here at NML. I had a good day yesterday at World Museum Liverpool. Highlights for me were seeing the new Egypt galleries taking shape and a visit to the zoology department. I also fitted in a visit to the National Museums Liverpool stores where I spied a fab looking Paul McCartney poster.

Today I was back at the stores helping with the Museum of Liverpool project. There I had to locate and find objects for the up and coming The Beat Goes On exhibition. These objects included Stuart Sutcliffe’s Guitar, a Beatles 7 inch vinyl singles folder, a piece of fabric from the original Magical Mystery Tour bus in the film and Beatles bobbing-head dolls.

A childhood game left me claustrophobic so I cannot abide crowds of people in enclosed, windowless spaces.

The popular Liverpool school playground activity in the 1950s involved a group of lads piling on top of you until you screamed for mercy. As a result, submarines are not for me.

Germany’s U-boats waged an underwater campaign against the transatlantic convoys bringing vital supplies to Britain during the Second World War.

But once the Allies had gained advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic there was no escape for the U-boats and it was only a matter of time before they were routed.

Although the Germans developed new U-boat weapons and equipment, they came too late. Renewal of the U-boat offensive was ended by Allied advances in Europe.

German naval commander Admiral Karl Donitz issued the ceasefire order on 4 May 1945. The U-boat crews were elite seafarers who were proud of their achievements. At the end of the war, more than 200 U-boats were scuttled by their crews so they would not fall into the hands of the Allies.

There is a display of U-boat exhibits at Merseyside Maritime Museum.  A U-boat issue grey leather jacket, made in Vienna, hangs next to a German-issue sweater with zip-up collar.

A pair of binoculars was taken from a captured U-boat commander. A Kriegsmarine ensign emblazoned with a swastika is believed to have come from a surrendered U-boat.

A wooden heart decorated with flowers has the humorous inscription in German: “The cunning of women is endless”. Kriegsmarine badges and personal effects were “liberated” from German naval barracks at Emden, north west Germany, by a British soldier.

A photo shows the crew of a U-boat standing with heads bowed as the sub docked at Wilhelmshaven naval base following the German ceasefire.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

An aerial view reveals more than 60 surrendered U-boats at Lishally, near Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

A number of German submarines arrived in Liverpool and the surrendered U1023 is seen in the Mersey.

On display is the painted emblem from the conning tower of the U249, the first German submarine to surrender at sea to the Royal Navy at the end of the war. On 9 May 1945, following orders from German High Command, U249 surrendered to HMS Magpie and HMS Amethyst.

The emblem was the gift of Mrs P Symonds of Dorset in memory of her late husband, Capt George Symonds, in command of HMS Magpie at the time of the surrender.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

Here's the first post from a new contributor to the blog. As you can see from this picture, Tom is already hard at work on his first day at National Museums Liverpool.

Hello,

I'm Tom McConnell and I'm in Liverpool on my work placement for two weeks. I will be working in various NML venues throughout the city. I live in Newcastle Upon Tyne and have done since I was 2 years old, but was born in Liverpool.

I've spent an interesting day today with Community Partnerships learning about the new Museum of Liverpool.  I am particularly excited about the Beatles section of the museum as I have worshipped them since I was 5 (and I'm 15 in two weeks).

Launch of the Mauretania II

There are many many reasons why the exhibition Metropolis: capturing modern Liverpool, which has just opened at the National Conservation Centre, is really rather brilliant.

Firstly the photographs, which all come from the Stewart Bale collection held at the Maritime Archives and Library, are all stunning. If you don't believe me, The British Journal of Photography (who know a bit about these things) described the name of Stewart Bale as being "associated with a quality of performance never equalled in the field of photography".

Secondly, they document a period of tremendous change and significant events in Liverpool's history, including the construction of the Anglican cathedral and launch of the Mauretania II at Cammell Laird to name just a couple.

Thirdly, there are lots of instantly recognisable local streets and landmarks in the photographs. Some of them have changed significantly, others are only subtley different now, but all of them make really absorbing images. I really like the view across the city's rooftops from 1934, which includes St Luke's church and the partially built Anglican cathedral. Since then the cathedral's tower has been finished but the church (known locally as 'the bombed out church') is now an empty roofless shell, so you still wouldn't get a completed view of both buildings today.

Need I say more? Do pop in if you have a chance, you've got until 10 August when the exhibition closes.

I was very inspired after going along to the launch of Liverpool Reads at The Bluecoat recently. It was an event that was made even better as we were the first public to see the new gallery before it opened to the masses!

2008 is the National Year of Reading and Mal Peet is this year's Liverpool Reads author.The books chosen are 'Keeper' and 'Tamar', which are being given away for free all over the city right now, in libraries and other outlets.

Jane Davis (left) and Bea Colley (right) from Liverpool Reads and author Mal Peet (centre) at The Bluecoat.

'Keeper' tells the story of El Gato - the Cat - the world's greatest goalkeeper - and how he, a poor South American logger's son, learns to become a World Cup-winning goalkeeper so good he is almost unbeatable. 'Tamar' is a story of espionage, love, jealousy, and tragedy set in Nazi-occupied Holland and appeals to all ages.

Liverpool Reads are also hoping to bring groups of young people to Merseyside Maritime Museum and the Pier Master's House, so they can learn more about people's experiences in the Second World War, that they will have read about in 'Tamar'.

Mal talked about how important he thought it was for parents to read to their children, to inspire imagination and to create a bond. It was great to hear someone speak so passionately about the power of books.

The second of Samantha Parker's Museum of Liverpool progress videos is now available on the Liverpool Echo website. Fills you in on the progress with the steel structure, the next stage of the build and the view from those big windows at the end of the building.