National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, August 15, 2008

Superlambanana outside World Museum Liverpool

They’re not small, or fluffy, but they have certainly proved to be cute and cuddly.

The Superlambananas, which have taken the city by storm in Culture Capital year, are now approaching their final week on display and I will be sad to see them go.

Here at National Museums Liverpool, we have been watching visitors engage with our own Superlambananas – located at World Museum Liverpool, The Walker Art Gallery, The National Conservation Centre, and the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight. These colourful creatures have been receiving a lot of hugs and will no doubt feature in hundreds of photograph albums and holiday snaps.

If you haven’t been to see our flock, remember they will be going away on August 25 – so we’ll see you soon!

John Masefield. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

I live in West Derby - an ancient community, now part of Liverpool, with links to the famous White Star line. Near my house is beautiful Broughton Hall, now part of a school, where the company was set up over a game of billiards in 1869. White Star, owners of the Titanic, operated sailing ships before steam triumphed and dominated the seafaring world.

Ironically, the last sailing ships to be built were among the most beautiful ever constructed and marked the high point of the traditional shipbuilders’ powers. The last and largest sailing ship to be owned by White Star was the 318-ft long California, a deep-sea barque built by Harland & Wolff of Belfast in 1890. She belonged to the North Western Shipping Company whose principal shareholders also owned White Star. Possession of the White Star sailing ships was transferred to the new North Western Shipping Co in 1886.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a striking model of the 3,099-ton California, a steel-built four-master. She had relatively small cargo hatches which made freight handling slow but provided better protection from the heavy seas which frequently swept her decks. The California was sold when the North Western Shipping Co was dissolved in 1895. The ship passed through several German firms and was renamed Christel Vinnen in 1912. After the First World War she was allocated to Italy as part of war reparations. In April 1927 she became stranded near Panama and became a total loss.

Among the other last White Star sailing ships was another four-masted barque, the Gilcruix. Built in 1886, her crews included the 16-year-old John Masefield who was Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967. His wrote Sea Fever which starts with the immortal lines: 

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

Masefield’s voyage on the Gilcruix in 1894 was as an apprentice. It was his first voyage, sailing from Cardiff bound for Iquique, Chile. The ship had to negotiate the notorious Cape Horn and Masefield was so ill that he had to be hospitalised.

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).

The Rev Jesse Jackson visiting the museum in 2007. Photograph © Simon Webb

Hello there

Well since my return from Paris I have had a pretty varied couple of weeks which amongst other things included several meetings related to our forthcoming exhibition programme. It also included a visit from two judges for the European Museum of the Year award. This is a very prestigious award and goes to show just how successful ISM has been in its first year.  Hopefully this time we will be successful and I feel that the judges went away really understanding the fact that we are a museum which is at the forefront of a campaign to actively challenge present day racism and discrimination and various other injustices which exist. The shortlist is announced in early 2009.

I mentioned our exhibition programme. The plan is to have a varied range of exhibitions within the current galleries which highlight the broad subject of slavery. We are still in the planning stages but we will be shortly announcing our first exhibition which starts later this month, both a celebration and a reflection on the museum's first year. It will include information about all the milestones we have achieved (to date we have had upwards of 275,000 visitors and some very high profile visitors!) as well as the different types of responses we have had, some challenging, some thought provoking and others which are purely offensive. But we feel it is important to show the entire range of responses, positive and negative, so that we can move forward and really make the museum a tool of social change.

Other exhibitions will highlight various forms of contemporary slavery, as well as African sport and the link between natural history and slavery which uses many of the plant collections we have in National Museums Liverpool. It is an exciting programme so watch this space for further announcements.

The forthcoming week is a very interesting one, for starters I get out of the office on a few occasions (I have a great view of the Albert Dock from my office but when it is sunny it is hard being sat behind my desk!) Tomorrow I am meeting two respected local community historians to look at some archives which might be in need of being rescued from a building due to be renovated and then I go to London to visit the British Film Institute mediatheque to get some ideas for our Phase 2 resource centre. We want the resource centre to include a range of media so visits to established media facilities are really helpful. I'll let you know how it all went in my next blog post.

Remember; drop me a line if you have any comments about the International Slavery Museum.

Bye for now.  

Monks lining up to give khata and receive blessings from the Rinpoche

This week has been a particular special one for the Tibetans living here in Boudhanath.The weekend saw two very good days for gaining extra merit. It had been calculated that on Friday and Sunday just one good deed on these days would be worth 10 thousand, or on Sunday, 10 million good deeds! To take just one round of the stupa, give money to the needy or to just be nice to the people you know would be a very auspicious or fortunate thing to do.

Then on Monday, Chökyi Nyima, the head Rinpoche or teacher of the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, known locally as the White Gompa, (this is the monastery I go to school in) came home. The monks lined the path to the monastery and offered Rinpoche 'khata', the white silk scarf that is such an important part of Tibetan culture. Rinpoche blessed each scarf then placed them over the monks' shoulders. It took him some time to bless each khata offered, but finally he made it to his room - we knew this because his pet dogs barked happily a few moments after he climbed the stairs.

The following day the Rinpoche's first puja since his return took place. This puja also coincided with the date that the Buddha of this era descended from Tushita Heaven to live as the human Siddhartha Gautama. Pujas were held all across Boudhanath, and trumpets, conch shells and chanting could be heard throughout the night.

Of course, the Tibetan community here in Boudhanath is being kept busy with other non Buddhist matters this week. Today the Olympic Games opens in China and this week has seen an increase in the protests and vigils happening across the city.

Sam Sportun putting the finishing touches to one of the clay master panels

As you are probably aware, our conservators - and talented sculptors - Chris Dean and Sam Sportun have been involved in a major project to recreate three missing bronze relief plaques from Sefton Park's monuments. We have been following their progress on the blog as they have recreated clay masters for the missing bronzes using traditional techniques.

Today I was fortunate to get to see them at work while they finish off the fine details - such as adding fingernails - on the clay masters before they are taken to the foundry to be cast in bronze. Photos of them at work and some of the details of the clay masters are on our Sefton Park monuments Flickr slideshow, which has pictures from the very beginning of the project right up to date.

As I mentioned yesterday, the fantastic Metropolis exhibition closes this week. The exhibition is packed full of incredibly detailed photographs of recognisable Liverpool landmarks and some unfamiliar places.

The project team for the exhibition had the difficult task of selecting just 60 photographs for display from almost 200,000 negatives in the Stewart Bale collection. Here Nicky Lewis from Paper Conservation explains a bit about this process and chooses her favourite Metropolis shot:

"Picking a favourite Stewart Bale photograph is not an easy task.

During the image selection process for Metropolis: capturing modern Liverpool I spent time, as part of the project team, weighing up the merits of many of Bale’s photographs. We searched the archive for striking images that best portrayed Liverpool as a developing, modern metropolis- a reflection of the city today. The most difficult part was choosing only 60.

To me Abbey Cinema exterior is a stunning photograph - much more Hollywood than Wavertree. By taking the image at night the photographer could exploit the building’s illuminated architecture. You can see why we chose this as an image to enlarge for the exhibition.

I‘m also captivated by Crowds at the launch of Mauretania II. The launch of a ship was obviously a very popular event in those days, something we no longer experience. The amount of detail in the photograph is exceptional. Take a look at the extent people will go to for a good view. Some are perched on top of shed roofs and cars, whilst other dare-devils cling to steel work. 

That brings me to my favourite Metropolis image. It is not a highly iconic shot and does not depict a famous event or landmark architecture. It is Anglia Vans on the Assembly Line. Obviously Ford played an important role in Liverpool’s history and the image shows cutting edge technology of the time but my reason for picking it is much more personal. We always wanted to include ‘never-seen-before’ images from the Bale archive in the exhibition, not an easy task considering that our film negatives are frozen to stop them deteriorating (see How have the photographs survived? for more detail).

Using the order books from the Bale company combined with documentation from the storage process we were able to pinpoint a box (out of just over 1300), that contained images commissioned by Ford - we had no idea what they would look like however. The box was removed from its freezer and transferred to an insulated bag, where it would defrost at a slow rate. Twenty-four hours later, after removing the protective packaging layers I had a bundle of film negatives. It’s so thrilling to be the first person to look at these images since they were originally commissioned- you just never know what you may find.

As you look through them on the light box, the anticipation builds and you fear the image you are hoping for isn’t there... Then in a eureka moment it appears. The image stood out instantly as fitting the Metropolis theme and had all of the expected high qualities of a Stewart Bale work. Its composition is striking, with the assembly belt giving a great line of perspective. Not only is it satisfying to have brought this image into public view but I also see it as a symbol of how much hidden potential the Stewart Bale archive has.

NML’s long term aim is to digitise the Stewart Bale collection, to allow the public to view them more easily."

Detail of Anglia vans on assembly line at Halewood factory, 1965

This morning I saw an article on the BBC site on the megalodon - a giant prehistoric shark - and the strength of its bite. It seems its jaws exerted something between 10.8 and 18.2 tonnes of pressure as it bit down which is pretty impressive for an animal that had a cartilege jaw.

It reminded me of a quiz we did a good few years ago now where a fossilised megalodon tooth was one of our exhibits (the quiz is here if you want a go, or just skip to the megalodon bit and see the tooth). It was pretty awesome handling that tooth.

Something that did strike a chord in the article was the bit about your average house cat. Apparently pound for pound the cat has the stronger bite, which if you've ever tried to push a pill down your cat's throat you'll know full well.

You might remember a while ago I mentioned a rather large painting that was about to undergo conservation, 'Flower Sellers of London'. A few people commented on it, thought it was an interesting piece. Conservation work has now begun and painting conservator, Rebecca Kench, has the latest.

This image shows a detail from the flowers section of the painting. Before consolidation is on the left and after on the right. You can see that the section on the right is noticeably cleaner and smoother.

The painting came into the Conservation Centre for treatment at the end of last year. It's been in need of treatment for a while and we have finally been able to fit it into our schedule.  The painting was bought from the artist shortly after it was painted in 1875 by Henry Thompson. He gave it to the Walker in 1880.  "The Flower Sellers" is painted on canvas attached to a stretcher and the figures are a little larger than life size.  Treating this painting presents me with several problems. Firstly I need to deal with anything which could lead to paint loss. When the painting arrived in the studio, the paint was flaking and needed to be consolidated, or reattached, to the canvas.  This mainly affected the area of the flowers where there is damaged and broken impasto (thick brush strokes of paint), and old paint losses down to the canvas.   Although this area has been consolidated (stuck back down to the canvas) in the past, there are still some areas which are loose and fragile.  In order to fix this, I laid the painting flat on a table, with a support behind the canvas, and any flaking areas of the painting were laid flat and consolidated using a water based fish glue.

The selection process for 'The Best of Merseyside' involved a lot of intense discussions and difficult decisions

We've reached the last few days of the rather fabulous Metropolis exhibition at the National Conservation Centre, so if you haven't seen it yet then do try to get over there this week.

Preparations for the next exhibition, 'Best of Merseyside', which opens at the National Conservation Centre on 22 August, have been taking place all year and seem to have involved a mammoth operation. Sarah Craven from Knowsley Arts Service was on the selection panel, and has kindly explained the process below. You can also see some behind-the-scenes photos in our Best of Merseyside selection process Flickr slideshow.

"Best of Merseyside is a selection of the best from the open exhibitions run by the Merseyside boroughs: Halton, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral. In putting together this exhibition we have drawn on entries to existing exhibitions and selected from them. 10 artists have been chosen from each of the 5 exhibitions and together they give 50 artists; 50 works that reflect the variety, the breadth of work that is being produced in the area. The majority of these are not professional artists, who often do not enter the local open exhibitions, but semi-professional or talented amateur artists who are glad of the platform these open shows offer.

The selection process is now over. The selectors for this exhibition were Jo Dry and myself from Knowsley Arts Service, Louise Hesketh from The Brindley, Runcorn, Jess Bowstead from St Helens Arts Service, Colin Simpson from the Williamson Art Gallery and Phillip Wroe from Sefton Arts Development. We all have very different Open exhibitions in our Boroughs so the selection process has been fantastic. We have had laughs, arguments, stamping tantrums and lengthy debate over the artworks. We were looking for technical ability, use of medium, creativity, subject matter, composition and sheer genius which we have found in excess as we travelled around greater Merseyside.

One of the highlights of the selection was 'Man in a Blue Sweater' by Michael Kirby, from Kirkby, Knowsley. This small but powerful image has been used to promote the exhibition in the publicity so the portrait will be printed on thousands of flyers and banners. 

We will be running workshops to support this exhibition which will be announced shortly so watch this space for details.

Thanks are due to Arts Council England and to National Museums Liverpool, we couldn't have done it without you."

Blue Funnel Line poster. Image courtesy of Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

Liverpool’s docklands used to be wafted by the aromas of the world before containerisation sealed them off hermetically, so to speak. I remember particularly the smells of spices, fruit and wood mixing together to create a feast for the nose.

Liverpool had the world’s first commercial wet dock and helped pioneer dockside warehouses, fire-proof dock buildings, hydraulic cargo handling and internally-linked dock systems which all eventually assisted in transforming the way cargoes were handled worldwide. The vast and innovative port was critical to Britain’s development in the 19th century and played a vital part in the growth of the British Empire.

Almost 300 acres of enclosed docks were built along seven miles of the Liverpool waterfront. Under engineers like Jesse Hartley and George Lyster the port played a key role in the development of dock technology.

In 1857, by creating the non-profit making Mersey Dock and Harbour Board  to oversee the docks’ growth, Liverpool also led the way in port management. By the late 19th century Liverpool’s port provided direct employment for 60,000 people – around one-in-five of the male working population. Its mariners, port officials, dockers and carters handled almost one third of Britain’s trade.

Work on the docks was dangerous and men were recruited on a mainly casual basis. It offered workers the chance to earn high wages but also brought insecurity and poverty. This period is examined in the Magical History Tour exhibition at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

By 1900 one-seventh of the world’s shipping was registered in Liverpool. Ships owned by Liverpool companies travelled to all parts of the globe. They were the essential link between Britain, its trading partners and Empire.

Maritime exhibits include a sextant made by J W Ray & Co of Liverpool about 1910. The Liverpool area held a prominent position in the supply of clock components until the 20th century. As Liverpool grew, the skills needed for clock-making were also used to make navigational instruments for ships.

A Liverpool-made Dinky Toy from 1934 -1940 depicts the legendary liner Queen Mary, including the New York skyline, in its original box.

A James Watt medal for engineering was awarded to shipowner Alfred Holt by the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1878. Holt, founder of the Blue Funnel Line in 1865, earned recognition for his development of a compound steam engine.

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).

The three clay masters for the bronze relief panels are now almost complete

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.

"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.