National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, November 28, 2008

Sunday is a special day. Yes, I know it is the last day of November, and that many of us will be counting down to Christmas from Monday – but it is also the very last day of voting for the very last The Beat Goes On Top Ten.   

The digital jukebox is now full – packed to its limit with fantastic, home-grown tunes for your listening pleasure – and so we won’t be having any more Top Tens for the moment. But at least you can escape the Slade, Roy Wood and the like – not to mention the controversial X-Factor cover of Hallelujah that’s about to be inflicted on us - and come down to the museum for some proper music. Infact, I suggest you suspend all X-Factor related activities and vote for The Beat Goes On instead!

There’s just one more tune to be added. Who will it be? You decide:

Aeris Presley 

Emma Jane’s Monkey Mind 

Puzzle 

Little Miss Strange

Rude Ruby

15 Storeys

The Sums

BeakerFolk of The Bronze Age

Polaris

Great North Western Hoboes 

Lilian Thuram (on the left) – the most capped French footballer ever - on a visit to the International Slavery Museum

Hello there.

Well for those of you who are regular followers of my blog (surely double figures?) then you will know I have a penchant for the beautiful game. We were fortunate enough to be visited last week by the great French defender and World Cup winner Lilian Thuram who was in Liverpool as a patron of the Only a Game? exhibition at World Museum Liverpool.

Lilian is now retried from football but he is looking to start an origanisation which tackles issues such as racism and discrimination in Europe. As a result he wanted to come to the International Slavery Museum to look at some of exhibits which focus on this subject as well as talk about the possibility of some sort of collaboration. Lilian was particularly impressed with our Black Achievers Wall. A message he thinks is important to get across to children of African descent across Europe. 

Some of my colleagues had a good laugh at the attached picture. I have to admit myself it is not difficult to spot the famous footballer and the museum professional. Maybe if I had not smiled quite as much and looked all excited it would have been harder to choose! Sad as it might seem, after the tour and our official discussions, I could not resist asking him to come out of retirement to play a few games for my own team (Leeds United for those who don’t already know). He smiled and asked what league we were now in? He genuinely looked surprised when I told him it was the third tier of the English league. Well, if you don’t ask you don’t get as they say.

I also recently gave a talk to the Merseyside Archaeological Society one evening. I knew the organiser from my days as a PhD student at the University of Liverpool so it was good to catch up. It was held in the Friends Meeting House in Liverpool. This is particularly interesting because of the relationship between Quakers and the abolition movement. Now by no means were all Quakers always against slavery, many owned slaves themselves in the 17th and 18th centuries in particular. That said, when the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in 1787 with William Wilberforce as its parliamentary spokesperson, several of the founding members were in fact Quakers.

I am also very excited at the prospect of flying to Atlanta, Georgia, later this week, to attend the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database at Emory University. I have been invited to be a panel member which will discuss some of the ways the database can be used. The database has information about almost 35,000 slave voyages and will be an essential tool for research in my opinion. Whilst there I hope to be able to visit a number of institutions and historic sites connected to Martin Luther King Jr, who was born in Atlanta. In particular the King Center and his birthplace.

I will update you on my return.
 
Bye for now.

'Clytie' being manoeuvred into place at the gallery

I have always been intrigued by Frederic, Lord Leighton, who is very much an unfathomable figure to me.

A couple of years ago I visited his former London residence, the Leighton House Museum, off London’s Kensington High Street, and was mesmerised.

This amazing villa in Holland Park Road has a room that reminded me of beautiful tiled palaces I had visited in Morocco. In the entrance a photograph shows Leighton gazing at a statue of a naked youth. All around there are hints of what his contemporary Oscar Wilde called “strange sins” – dark corners and sumptuous furniture set in gloomy rooms.

Despite this, bachelor Leighton lived a life that was squeaky clean – it must have been because Queen Victoria ennobled him. Any whiff of scandal and the Royals cast you into outer darkness in those days.

Leighton was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896 just days before his death.

When distressed friends and colleagues went over his house they found Clytie – his final great painting – standing unfinished in Leighton’s huge studio.

Now this stunning work is on display at the Lady Lever Art Gallery for a year. This is because Leighton House Museum is closed for a £1.3 million refurbishment until the end of 2009.

Clytie was placed at the head of Leighton’s coffin before being removed to the Royal Academy, where Leighton was president. The painting depicts a heartbroken nymph who, abandoned by her lover Apollo, spends nine days in a wild and isolated place imploring his return and watching him drive his chariot across the sky. 

Clytie joins several other Leighton paintings in the Lady Lever collections including his massive masterwork The Daphnephoria (more of his work can be seen in the Leighton featured artist section). Sharp-eyed visitors will see a tiny study for Clytie nearby in the main hall.

Our picture shows skilled members of the National Museums Liverpool handling team hanging the picture using specialist equipment.

Clytie was acquired by Leighton House this year. Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity.

The public have spoken! After several weeks of voting, you have chosen Julian Brain's painting, 'Special Relativity', as the worthy winner of the Visitors' Choice Award. Julian was also chosen by this year's jurors as one of four runners up in the main John Moores 25 competition and is the only self-taught artist in the entire exhibition. 

He was at the Walker Art Gallery this morning to collect his prize. Alex Richmond from Rathbone Investment Management presented him with a cheque for £2008 to celebrate the 2008 Capital of Culture year. Julian was also given a bottle of champagne - though he said it was a bit early in the day for him to open it!

Alex Richmond (right) presents Julian Brain (left) with a cheque for £2008.

So the prices of new potatoes and i-pods are going up and we're being told to be prepared for a measly Christmas. But what does this mean for fashion? Will we be wearing polyester smocks for spring/summer 2009? Well one theory is that hemlines rise and fall with the stock market, so maybe we can expect ankle-skimming skirts to be everywhere. Though a recent article in the Guardian argues that this rule doesn't really work as; 'During the wartime years, arguably the period of greatest privation in modern history, hemlines were shorter than before or after the war.'

I think the tenacious fashion world will be ok as it's been through harder times than this and still made it to the other side with great style. Times are of course not as tough as during the second world war, when people had to 'make do and mend' while also facing the rationing of clothes and the introduction of 'utility' wear.  And this didn't mean combat trousers from Gap!

One of our curators, Alyson Pollard, will be giving an insight into these hard times for fashion, in a talk about our 1950s dresses display at the Walker Art Gallery.

Recovering from an economic crisis can inspire a whole new fasion trend!  Silk, satin and chiffon dress with sequins and silk thread decoration, by Jean Dessès

She explains; 'From 1939 women had learnt how to cope with the shortages caused by the war. However, in June 1941 the shortage of material for clothing was so severe that the government introduced clothing rationing. Clothing could only be purchased by giving up a fixed number of coupons from a very limited quota. Each person was given 60 coupons for the year; a skirt was seven coupons, a short jacket  was 11 and shoes were five coupons. Buying enough clothing for a whole year was a struggle.'

Though despite these restrictions on clothes, the '1940s look' is still one that remains extremely popular - remember Kate Moss and her tea-dresses from this summer? After the war ended, gradually the fashion world got back on its feet and was able to celebrate the end of rationing by designing dresses using acres of fabric - the classic fifties look was born! Our object of the month, a stunning evening dress by the designer Jean Dessès, is a great example of this.

If you want to find out more about the dresses of this period, then come along to Alyson's gallery talk on Wednesday 26 November at 1pm at the Walker. And the best thing is that like all our talks, it's absolutley free. So beat the credit crunch and come along!

There are two new exhibitions for 2009 that explore different aspects of fashion; 'Fashion V Sport' at the Walker and a Francesco Mellina photographic exhibition at the National Conservation Centre. Check our forthcoming exhibition listings for more information.

Photo sent by Mrs Alice Solomon in Sierra Leone to her husband. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

A young Merchant Navy officer lived opposite us and for months his mother would wait with growing anticipation for him to return home on leave. There was always a big party when Gordon arrived – so packed that they took the downstairs doors away to make more space. The following morning empty beer bottles were placed neatly around the front gate – and at intervals all the way to the bus stop.

The downside of going to sea can be that seafarers leave home, family and friends for weeks or months at a time. In the days of sail they could be away for several years and no-one would know whether they were alive or dead.

While many mariners and their families are often able to cope with this occupational hazard, others cannot. Long voyages and lack of contact made family life especially difficult for the crews of sailing ships. Sailors on steam and motor ships usually benefitted from shorter voyages and faster communication. Occasionally, captain’s wives and children accompanied them.

Today seafarers stay in regular touch and close family can even accompany them on some ships. The arrival of mobile ‘phones, texting and e-mails in recent years means that mariners can communicate with home in many parts of the world and even on the high seas with cheap satellite links.

On the other hand, many seafarers have found leaving the sea to be a painful experience. The longer someone is at sea the harder it may be to leave or “swallow the anchor”. My late cousin Ken Guy was a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy and experienced major challenges after he left. He was so used to people obeying his commands that he had few interpersonal skills.

Marriage and parenthood often marked the beginning of the end of a seagoing career. For many the experience was made worse because jobs were hard to find ashore.

In the Life at Sea gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a display called Family Life.There are photographs sent by Mrs Alice Solomon from Sierra Leone to her husband who served as a clerk on the Volta Palm in the early 1950s (one is shown here).

A creamware jug inscribed The Greenwich Pensioner was possibly made in Liverpool between 1780 and 1800. Two retired sailors, one with a wooden leg and the other with a hook for a hand, are seen sitting outside an inn.

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 the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

The one that didn't get away...

It's Friday so the handling and transport team decided to go fishing. Not in the Mersey though, they fished through the museum stores to find this giant turtle which needed to be taken to the taxidermy department at the National Conservation Centre for restoration.

They finished the week, which has included transporting everything from a Superlambanana to some ancient Egyptian artefacts, by helping taxidermmist James Jackson to install some scenic material on the Chirotherium display at World Museum Liverpool. You can see some of the highlights of their week on our Moving stories Flickr photo page.

As promised in an earlier post, here's an update on the work of Kensington Youth Inclusion Group who have recently been creating their own versions of paintings from the John Moores 25 exhibition. Their interpretation of 'Black Bile' is certainly a refreshing new take on the painting, using an attractive candy pink! Here's Learning Officer Lauren Gould to tell us more...

Over four after-school sessions at the Kensington Youth Inclusion Project centre, we have created some fabulous works.  Local artist Keiron Finnetty help each of the two groups to create a large work based on some of their favourite paintings from the John Moores exhibition.

They collectively worked on a re-interpretation of 'Fontana' by Peter McDonald and 'Black Bile' by Alex Gene Morrison.  I highly recommend making a visit to the Walker Art Gallery once these unique works go on show at the beginning of December!

Each young artist then created a painting of their own, based on sketching done during their visit to the John Moores 25 exhibition in October.  This coming Saturday they will make their final visit to the Walker to write poems responding to the paintings that inspired them most. 

Anyone who has ever carefully wrapped their best china in newspaper before moving house will appreciate what a tricky challenge the handling and transport team faced this week. They had to collect this incredibly delicate 5000 year old Egyptian pot from North Devon and transport it to World Museum Liverpool - a distance of 267 miles.

The good news is that drivers Paul Kelly and Andrew Mountfield delivered it safely, so visitors will be able to see it on display when the new Ancient Egypt gallery opens on 5 December.  You can see their photos of the trip - including a shot of the stunning scenery they saw along the way - in our Egyptian gallery Flickr photo page.

It’s World Toilet Day.  There’s no polite way of introducing it – you’ve just got to say it. You have to wonder who thinks these things up, but then there is a serious and worthy message about the state of the world’s sanitation to be gleaned.

Actually, museums and art galleries have formed a healthy relationship with the toilet that goes back beyond Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ or urinal.  What self-respecting museum would be caught out without the humble (or in some cases the ridiculously ornate) chamber pot? You can see one that was designed for Napoleon, no less, in the Walker’s Craft & Design Gallery.

A quick internet search will reveal more toilet-related museums and collections than you imagine, including the Flushed With Pride gallery at Gladstone Pottery Museum  I love this female chamber pot or ‘Bourdalon’ at the Science Museum. Replica ‘pee’-pots (I’ve sanitised the phrase for blogging purposes) are still very much in demand in the historical re-enactment community. They are incredibly handy for using under inaccessible kirtles and petticoats (as well as in tents).  

In addition to the bog standard collection of chamber pots, National Museums Liverpool has got some top notch toilet exhibits. At the Seized! gallery at Maritime Museum you can see a ‘Special Isolation Unit’ or frost chamber which was used to locate internally smuggled drugs once they passed through the body. According to our web page, ‘Before its invention customs officers used rubber gloves and a colander, so this was seen as a much-needed replacement!’  Yak.

This tuneful toilet was used during an RLPO concert as an April Fool

If lavatories are your idea of a laugh then look no further than The Walker’s truly spectacular Loophonium, which was designed and played by Fritz Spiegl, The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s former principal flautist. I’ve heard of toilet humour, but that is just ridiculous. 

Believe it or not we actually have a Loophonium e-card. I can’t think of many occasions when it would be appropriate to send it (although I can think of a few people who would fit the bill) so we may as well make the most of World Toilet Day.

But if you really want to celebrate World Toilet Day in style then how about downloading our podcast, and listening to it ...  on the loo?

Peter Beardsley as you've never seen him before

Curators can find themselves doing all sorts of unusual things in the name of duty. However Tony Parker, assistant curator of zoology, never expected to be signing the transfer papers for Peter Beardsley.

The Peter Beardsley in question was not the famous footballer though but a mounted specimen of a duck. Peter the duck is thought to be a cross between a Pekin and an Aylesbury duck. He was once the beloved pet of local lady, and was named after Peter the footballer's spell at Everton. Unfortunately it was never discovered whether he would live up to his namesake's skills on the football pitch, as he was tackled and killed by a dog (presumably not an Everton supporter) when he was 8 months old.

Peter's owner had him mounted in a display case after his death 16 years ago. She recently donated him to World Museum Liverpool, as she wont be able to take him with her when she moves house. Although she'll miss him, she decided that he would be in good company with the other mounted bird specimens in the museum's collections. Peter is currently on the reserve bench in the museum's stores but is available for researchers and study groups.