National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, July 29, 2008

This summer our talented sculptors in the sculpture conservation department have been recreating three missing bronze panels from Sefton Park's monuments. Here's the latest news on the project from Kathy Wedge in Conservation Technologies, and pictures following the progress of the project from the beginning are on our Sefton Park monuments Flickr set.

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"The clay models for the three missing relief panels from the Sefton Park monuments to William Rathbone and the Right honourable Samuel Smith have really taken shape now as the photograph shows. They are almost ready to be sent to the fine art bronze casting foundry.

The warm weather, although lovely for us, has caused a few problems for the sculptors to overcome. The clay has been drying out faster than normal and even started to crack in places that were more exposed to the air than others.

The way around this was to make sure that the clay was kept as hydrated as possible. Each clay panel has been sprayed with water on a regular basis and covered with damp flannelette blanket and then a polythene sheet to keep the moisture in when not being worked on immediately. Even so a few cracks were noted after a weekend break when there was nobody here to spray and it took some gentle but steady applications of water to bring them back to the right condition to be worked on. Fortunately they had not dried out too much.

On Friday 1 August the officials responsible for Sefton Park will give their approval (hopefully) for the clay models to then be sent to the fine art bronze casting foundry where they will then be made into the magnificent reliefs that will complete the monuments. More pictures will follow in a couple of weeks when they get to the next stage."

I’m afraid it’s that time of the month when we prepare to say goodbye to another The Beat Goes On top ten. So if you haven’t already voted for your favourite track now would be a good time. It’s been another fantastic competition and I’ll be really sad to see the tracks come down.

We’ve been weeping into our pillows with Ellewood and Letters In Red … rocking out with Major Major, The Crew and The Extroverts … chilling with Minion TV, Sensorites and FoE … and singing our hearts out to The Lapis and The Affection. Ah, such sweet memories.

We’ve had almost 4900 votes so far this month with Ellewood and The Crew seriously going for it - but the race is by no means over, so vote now! The poll will close at 11.59pm on 31st July.

Don’t forget you can already listen to June’s winner, Jessica’s Ghost, on the digital jukebox in The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum Liverpool.

My Guy ancestors settled in Liverpool around 1700 as the port was expanding and I am proud that we have been involved in various ways throughout its changing fortunes.

British colonies in North America opened up new overseas markets with the result that Liverpool saw big changes from the 1660s. The town had been relatively unchanged for centuries. It was the growth in sea trade which turned Liverpool into a major world port.

New types of business people arrived in the fledgling metropolis. Some came from London after the devastation caused by the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire the following year while others were local. All were keen to exploit these new opportunities. The Guys, who were not in business, probably made the modest seven-mile journey from Melling.

Soon Liverpool was the fastest-growing port after London. The boom in importing luxuries such as tobacco, cotton and spices transformed the small fishing port into a thriving centre with worldwide links.

Stages of this exhilarating growth are examined in the Magical History Tour exhibition at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Sarah Clayton was among the women who were active in 18th century Liverpool business. She had interests in coal exports and property speculation and developed Clayton Square (now the Clayton Centre) in the 1760s and 70s.

In Britain the campaign to end the slave trade began in 1787 and Liverpool – Europe’s leading slave trade port - was bitterly divided. Slave trader Banastre Tarleton, the town’s bullish MP, attacked the anti-slavery petitions of the 1790s as “the work of deluded fanatics”. He thundered: “Should the Africa trade be abolished … weeds will grow in the streets of Liverpool.” Tarleton’s views were shared by the Liverpool merchants whose profits were under threat.

In contrast, many of Liverpool’s citizens actively supported abolition. The most notable was William Roscoe, who defeated Tarleton to become the town’s representative in Parliament. He spoke in favour of abolition during the debate which ended British involvement in the slave trade in 1807. Liverpool’s prosperity did not collapse as many had feared. On display are several Roscoe items including a token with the inscription “Roscoe for Ever 1804” supporting his election campaign.

Abolition encouraged merchants to explore new opportunities offered by the industrial revolution. From the 1830s Liverpool became probably the biggest emigration port in world history.

More about Liverpool’s growth next week.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from www.merseyshop.com (£1.50 p&p UK).

Last weekend marked the half way point of my time here in Kathmandu, Nepal. Not only was it my birthday, but it was also the school's mid-term break.

A group of us took a trip to a resort 12km from the Tibetan border, to blow away a few cobwebs and try to forget about Tibetan verbs for a few days. The drive was arduous, taking over 5 hours along roads that only just clung to the mountainsides. As we got closer to the border there were more and more landslides, many of which would have been completely blocking the road only a few hours before we arrived. We gave our driver several rounds of applause as he got us over yet another slide.

But once there we realised it was well worth it. The resort was made up of several tents covered with thatched roofs to protect us from the monsoon rains, and a fantastic view of a swollen river, perfect for white water rafting. While I'd just come to while away a few days reading and sighing at the incredible green mountains that surrounded us, others in the group walked the 12kms to catch a glimpse of the Tibet border. Alas security was pretty tight and the 'Friendship Bridge' between Nepal and Tibet was off limits.

Monday was our last day at the resort and a number of brave souls from my class decided to throw themselves off a bridge 160m above a monsoon-flooded river to try out Asia's highest bungee jump. Not for me I was content just to take the pictures!

So, after a few very relaxing days, I'm now back to school. I seem to have forgotten everything I learnt before the holiday, so working hard to memorize what seems to be an endless list of verbs and nouns.

Bonjour!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be in Paris for the launch of the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery exhibition at the UNESCO HQ. Along with Katérina Stenou, Director of the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue and HE Mr Peter Landymore, Ambassador, permanent delegate of the United Kingdom to UNESCO, I said a few words. It was well attended by a number of delegates; interestingly one was a relative of the Senegalese poet and statesman Léopold Senghor who is on our Black Achievers Wall. 

It was a very satisfying occasion as this was the culmination of at least 12 months work by several members of National Museums Liverpool and UNESCO staff. The conception of this exhibition began when I met Edmond whilst attending a conference in London. Edmond was fully aware that the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery was closing down as a result of the International Slavery Museum opening up on 23 August 2007. A date familiar with UNESCO as it is Slavery Remembrance Day.

Up until June last year the Transatlantic Slavery Gallery in the Merseyside Maritime Museum was one of the most challenging, thought provoking and informative galleries in the world on the subject and was visited by politicians and dignitaries form most countries around the world. As such it had quality, well researched displays and information panels, of which 30 now make up this touring exhibition.

ISM is one of the newest and most highly technological museums in the world and as such there was the possibility that these panels might not be used again. But both Edmond and I agreed that this would be a great loss, especially as it is quite obvious that many museums, some which have exhibitions and displays about transatlantic slavery, do not have the resources available to them that ISM does.

Not one panel was simply packaged and sent to Paris. We went over all the panels to see whether we felt the information was still relevant and indeed accurate. Due to the professionalism and expertise of people like Tony Tibbles, in 1994 the curator but now director of the Merseyside Maritime Museum, we felt that most of the panels would still be a valuable educational tool on the subject. Along with some new panels detailing the work of ISM our learning team designed some educational materials to accompany the exhibition.

As well as being an informative exhibition on the subject of transatlantic slavery it will hopefully visit many countries and continents in the coming years. I was pleased to hear that representatives from Ghana, Serra Leone, Angola and Barbados had enquired about the exhibition.

Well I could not justify three days in Paris just for the launch so I had a very busy schedule of visiting museums and art galleries which might inspire me in some way whist planning the research and resource centre for Phase 2 of ISM.  I was particularly impressed with the Centre Pompidou and its array of stylish and very functional sections. I found the media centre to be very interesting with its simple layout and vast archive of music and art videos. I am not an art aficionado, or indeed a prude, but I was slightly embarrassed by finding myself looking at a film of the Viennese actionist artist Hermann Nitsch. Lets just say it would be shown after the watershed in the UK so I quickly fumbled with the mouse to change the film!

I also managed to visit the architectural wonder which is the Institut du Monde Arabe. It covers Arabic art and the sciences and has a large exhibition area (which had a temporary café inside serving great coffee) a museum and library. It was one of the 'Grands Projets' in the 1980s, initiated by Francois Mitterand, the French president. Other projects included new wings at the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay.

One final observation is that all the places I visited had an entrance fee, some only a few Euros but it does add up. It made me realize that here in Liverpool we have free entrance to world class museums and art galleries unlike anywhere else in the world.

But before I left France my admiration for French innovation and architecture was severely challenged by having to spend several hours in Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. I understand that certain low cost airlines might not be given a prime slot but to say that the terminal where you go to fly to Liverpool was dreary is an understatement. You will get a flavour of the place when I say it had a café there which made Little Chef look like The Ritz. No offence to Little Chef, I used to work at one for over two years many years ago!

Au revoir.

When Liverpool’s music heritage is mentioned, you immediately think of The Beatles, or maybe Gerry Marsden; but there is so much to discover about the history of Merseyside’s melody makers at The Beat Goes On.

I popped in for an hour and found visitors spanning three (and sometimes four) generations remembering their past and enjoying the present, with some even aspiring to be part of Liverpool’s musical future, trying their hand and their voices in the singing booth.

There is something for all tastes, from tableaux on Fifties chart-topper Lita Roza and high-kicking Frankie Vaughan, to The Real Thing and The Zutons, while the kids seem to get a real kick out of dressing up in rock star costumes with toy guitars.

Posters, press cuttings and archive photos add authenticity, as do the good old 45 ‘singles’. I marvelled at the Parlophone and Apple labels which I recall from playing my mother’s records when I was a child. But the show also takes you bang up-to-date with interactive digital track mixers.

There are sections devoted to Billy Fury, skiffle, jazz and folk, before reaching Merseybeat. It’s wonderful to see master of mirth, Ken Dodd, in the early years. His ballad, Tears, topped the charts for five weeks in 1965, after all.

For me, listening to visitors’ reactions enhanced the experience. "Ay, look at her!" exclaimed one woman, nudging her husband towards a photo of a very young Cilla Black. They went on to gaze wistfully at Cilla’s frock, one she wore for a 1960s Top of the Pops appearance, on display in a glass case.

A little girl was so excited by the music she was listening to, through headphones, she yelled to her mother: "Come and hear this, Mum, it’s boss!"

Despite being a Beatles fan, I like the fact that theirs is not the first and most obvious display when entering the exhibition and instead they take their place in the exhibition’s timeline. The stage from St Peter’s Church hall in Woolton, the meeting point for Lennon and McCartney, and the blanket from John and Yoko’s Bed-in For Peace protest are iconic, but funnily enough I found John Lennon’s jacket very moving. I could picture him wearing it.

The timeline includes key historical moments, including England’s World Cup victory in 1966, Lennon’s assassination in 1980 and the city’s industrial decline in the same decade. ‘Back In The DHSS’ by Half Man Half Biscuit is a perfect example of how the political scene influenced music and how Liverpool humour always shines though in the face of adversity.

I learnt about Eric’s club and why it closed (licensing problems). Of course, Frankie Goes To Hollywood is celebrated, and there is also an atmospheric Cream club scene installation. And so much more.

Like a favourite piece of music, The Beat Goes On is something I’ll happily revisit. And I am certain to find even more gems the next time … and the next. Meanwhile, I’ll be voting for Merseyside’s best new band on our The Beat Goes On myspace page – don’t forget to do the same!

You might have seen that we're currently preparing for the opening of the new Egypt gallery in December, however the antiquities team are also working with some of the Near Eastern collections. Ashley Cooke has more.

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For the past few years the museum has been receiving visits from Semitic scholar Dr Eric Cripps. Eric is producing a new edition of some forty-five cuneiform tablets from the Old Akkadian period (2210 BC), held in the Near Eastern  antiquities collection at World Museum. These tablets are over 4000 years old and were excavated in Iraq and purchased by the Honourable Arnold Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle, who was a Member of Parliament for Birkenhead. The museum purchased the collection in 1956.

The cuneiform script was invented in the fourth millennium BC. Cuneiform is a wedge-shaped script that was developed by Mesopotamian cultures. Mesopotamia is the area  located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, that now incorporates Iraq and parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey.

The museum has about 335 cuneiform tablets which is a sizeable amount for a museum outside of London. One tablet dates to the Early Dynastic Period (about 2900 - 2350 BC), 47 to the Akkadian Dynasty (about 2350 - 2150 BC) and over 200 to the Third Dynasty of Ur (2100 - 2000 BC). The Near East collection also includes other objects such as bricks and cones with cuneiform inscriptions. Eric's new edition of the Akkadian Dynasty tablets will provide hand drawn copies of each accompanied by transliterations, appropriate translations and full cataloguing. Eric's new edition should be published next year and will make a valuable contribution to Mesopotamian archaeology.

Ashley Cooke

Well, Toxteth TV in fact. Here's the lowdown from Jo Connor, the Treasure House Theatre co-ordinator at World Museum Liverpool, who was there to see all the action (and you can see some of her pictures in our Ancient Egyptians at Toxteth TV Flickr slideshow):

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"Curator Carolyn Routledge, Paul Browne, Mark Saunders and Paul McMullan from the AV team and myself have been involved in filming excerpts to be shown in the new Ancient Egypt gallery when it opens in December 2008. We had four fantastic actors - Colin, Eddie, Nalini and Maria - as Pharaoh Rameses, his architect  Bakenkhonsu, a Chantress and a House Maid. These characters from the world of ancient Egypt were all brought vividly to life.

It was fascinating watching the costume and and make up ladies weave their magic spells. And I was incredibly jealous that I didn't get chance to wear the wig Nalini had on for filming which Bill Watson from Design nicknamed 'the sofa' because of its size and shape.

Unfortunately we didn't get to film on location,(didn't want to spend a week in Egypt anyway... honest) but with 3 days in Toxteth (apart from the rain and the wind) I could almost believe I was there!"

You may well have seen that the Tall Ships visited Liverpool over the weekend. I paid a visit to Wellington Dock on Friday evening while there was still room to swing a cat, but missed the Parade of Sail on Monday as I was here in work (boo!) Luckily (and lucky) other staff saw it though and took plenty of fab snaps. There's a selection on our flickr page (the slide show is here), taken from the old pilot's platform at the Pilotage on Liverpool's waterfront, including this one of a helicopter over the Brazilian entry with Cammell Laird's in the background.

My colourful new paperback Mersey Maritime Tales – True Stories of Shipwrecks, Heroism

and Human Endeavour is out now price just £3.99. Although I say it myself, it’s a great read with amazing stories packed with all sorts of entertaining and inspiring things.

It’s available at Merseyside Maritime Museum as well as newsagents and bookshops in the Liverpool and north Wales areas. In addition you can order it through www.merseyshop.com or by calling 0845 143 0001 (plus £1.50 P&P UK).

Here’s an extract from my Foreword to the 92-page book containing 40 Tales plus a cargo of Did You Know facts and figures:

People tell me: ‘You are clever, knowing all those stories with so many dates and facts’. However, the Tales owe their existence to the outstanding displays at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

There is an amazing array of exhibits which prove a constant inspiration to me. The museum houses some of the finest ship models as well as the rarest historical objects. For example, the 20 ft long original builder’s model of the Titanic is probably the most popular single exhibit among the many thousands of objects on display.

Next to it in the Titanic, Lusitania and the Forgotten Empress gallery is an apron worn by a passenger, possibly the only item of clothing worn on the night of the disaster in a public collection.

This gallery alone has inspired several Tales, the Titanic story continues to fascinate succeeding generations of visitors.

I have to confess there is a trick in writing the Tales. I write four at a time and the drafts are checked for factual errors by Merseyside Maritime Museum curators and other staff. The Tales are done as part of my job as press officer for National Museums Liverpool.

I was a newspaper reporter for many years and am a proficient writer in Pitman’s shorthand. I can write down large amounts of information in a relatively short time using those peculiar phonetic symbols and short-forms. This particular skill is very handy in preparing the Tales. Sometimes I have an idea in my head before I make my monthly visit to the museum to do Tales research. More often than not it is quick flashes of inspiration which will see the birth of a Tale.

Many of the Tales involve my own research and in this area the Internet has opened whole new areas to countless people, myself included.

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

Sorry to those of you who won't have seen the answer to July's Name That Object competition - slight technical hitch. The answer was 'Waiting for Legal Advice' by James Campbell, and the winner of the exhibition catalogue was A Porter of Liverpool. Another competition and another prize next month.

Lauren Gould, Learning Officer at the Lady Lever Art Gallery writes to invite artistic young people to join a summer course...

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We still have a few vacancies on this year's week-long course for young people who want to explore their artistic side.  There will be plenty of sketching, outdoor painting, art history, and photography during the week of activities.  The course is free, although participants will need to bring a packed lunch. It is suitable for all 11-16 year olds.

The course runs from Monday to Friday, 28 July to 1 August, 10.30am-4pm at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Bebington, Wirral. Contact 0151 475 4143 to book a place.