National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, March 30, 2009

Ah what can you say to describe the amazing PJ Harvey? Rock star. Legend. Fan of Nick Cave. Player of Gibson Firebird guitars. The most glamorous person to come from Dorset...and now a lover of bouncy castles! Let me explain. 

PJ Harvey has been recording with her long-time collaborator John Parish and the first single from their forthcoming album will be out on 13 April. The video for this single, 'Black Hearted Love', has been made by British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman who we were pleased to have on the jury for the recent John Moores 25 Contemporary Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery.

The video is pretty cool I think, spooky yet graceful is what I'd say. Here's what the Chapman brothers said about it: "We decided 'Black Hearted Love' deserved something haunting and enigmatic - yet brazen and colourful. Hence, a collision between an ominous forest and a garish bouncy castle seemed entirely appropriate..." (Quote from NME.com)

Have a look and see what you think...

Prince Rupert. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

I’ve always admired the style of Prince Rupert, probably the most famous cavalier of the English Civil War. He lived in an age when a man had to be able to fight and when not using his sword could elegantly trip a dainty measure (dance) with a lady.

However, Liverpool gave Rupert a massive challenge when he marched his Royalist army to the heavily-defended town expecting a walkover. The sea has always provided a means of escape from danger and this was true in this famous siege.

In the war Royalist cavaliers were led by King Charles I and the Parliamentarian roundheads by Oliver Cromwell. Dashing Prince Rupert was Charles’ nephew and besieged Liverpool held for Parliament by the town’s governor John Moore, member of a powerful local merchant family. Moore was also a vice-admiral and commanded a small fleet of six ships which inflicted substantial damage on the Royalist fleet in the Irish Sea.

Rupert camped at Everton, which was then a small village on the hill outside Liverpool. When the siege started, he haughtily dismissed Liverpool as “a mere crow’s nest which a parcel of boys might take”. However, it was a month before Rupert took Liverpool after a constant cannon bombardment and the loss of more than 1,500 of his own troops.

Moore concluded that the town was no longer defensible. He and his men escaped by sea in ships that had been moored in the Pool, the creek which gave Liverpool its name. Moore’s action was taken without consulting the local civic leaders and the town was left defenceless. Many citizens fought on and Rupert’s men had to take Liverpool street-by-street. No mercy was shown and about 400 people – many unarmed – were slaughtered. The troops were then allowed to ransack the town. Liverpool was recaptured by Parliament a few months later in November 1644 after it was cut off by land and sea. Moore became governor again.

There is a fascinating display of Civil War armour and weapons in the Magical History Tour exhibition at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

A breast plate carries a small dent indicating that it was proof against pistol shots. A mortuary sword was a common type of cavalry broad sword. It is believed to get its name from the basket hilt resembling a human rib-cage.

Part of a timber beam is believed to have come from the cottage on Everton Brow which served as Prince Rupert’s headquarters.

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).

Eleanor Beyer, an art historian from the British Museum's conservation and science department has been visiting the National Conservation Centre and working with Nicky Lewis in the paper conservation department. Here's a review that she has very kindly written about her impressions of our facilities.

Nicky Lewis at work in the paper conservation studio

"I was excited to be given a tour of the National Conservation Centre by conservation mount cutter Nicky Lewis as it is fascinating to learn more about what takes place behind the scenes. I was looking forward to hearing about the day to day dramas which unfold in the conservation world, for example, how millions of tiny pieces of ceramic might be carefully pieced together to reconstruct a smashed museum object.

Though I did not see this aspect, I did learn more about how National Museums Liverpool's collections are preserved and cleaned for presentation to the public. The centre deals with an extremely varied collection from ceramics, paintings, prints and drawings, sculptures and other objects, very much like the British Museum's collections and conservation sections.

The mounting studio has up to the minute equipment which will be used in the coming months, for instance to supply mounts for the new displays at Liverpool's docks. In the painting studio, several paintings were being cleaned and conserved, for example the 'Virgin and Child in a landscape' by Luca Signorelli (or his nephew) where large parts were now exposed revealing original painting, and some later additions which are still be cleaned away.

The new centre with its airy light well equipped spaces provides an excellent facility for taking care of the collections, and even better you can get an idea of the work which goes on by visiting the Reveal gallery."

Black achievers plaque unveiling

Hello there

Well before anyone sends me an accusatory email I will admit I am not the world's best blogger! Strange really considering I constantly annoy my colleagues by saying "That would be a great blog picture" or "I can blog this and that" etc.  So I am back and hopefully once again people will read my blog to support my rather bold claim that this is one of the most visited parts of the National Museums Liverpool website. I can hear the laughter coming from the web team office! 

Ok, so what has happened since I was last in cyberspace? Well one very successful event at the museum was the US Black History Month event on 17 February called From Lincoln to Obama: a look at the progress of civil rights. As well as a number of noted speakers such as Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote and Wally Brown, the ex principle of Liverpool Community College, three new Black Achievers plaques were unveiled. Most notable was President Obama, a very popular choice and someone who rightly deserves his position on the wall. Equally deserving though are the two achievers flanking him - the Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer  and Dr Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space. 

As people have rightly pointed out there are thousands upon thousands of people who are achievers and who deserve a place on the Black Achievers Wall but we are receptive to any ideas so send your nominations in. As an insight to how the International Slavery Museum team often works our logic on this occasion was the connection between the three of them. The pioneering work Fannie Lou Hamer carried out on voting rights and the fact that Dr Jemison literally reached for the stars. This echoed Obama's words at a recent rally where he said "The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there". Sentiments that people believed in and as a result voted in their millions.

I have also given several presentations recently. The first was at the Exhibiting Slavery:  Problematics & Possibilities conference at the Horniman Museum in London in early March. The conference looked at the legacies of the 2007 commemorations and the unprecedented interest in, and exploration of, the meaning of slavery in our contemporary moment. My paper focused on the issues involved in developing future strategies and programming for the museum such as a contemporary collecting policy and contemporary slavery educational resources whilst not ignoring transatlantic slavery and keeping repeat visitors, new audiences and interested parties alike, informed, interested and engaged.  

The audience of museum professionals, interested members of the public and some leading academics in the field were pretty receptive to my ideas. That said, the majority were from London institutions and it is not unusual for people to assume that London is indeed the centre of all major and significant advances in the cultural sector. This is not the case and although I do not get defensive I truly believe people need to be told in no uncertain terms that there is quite a bit going on up North! One example was when a member of the audience who I had never met before but who claimed that the International Slavery Museum would fudge the big issues; and would not dare to look at issues which central government might find uncomfortable. Neither I or members of the team are mavericks, we do not aim to simply shock or be controversial but equally we have strong values and a sense of purpose. I explained this to them and to be fair they acknowledged that their earlier statement was in fact unfounded on this occasion.

The other presentation took place at the University of Manchester to a group if students on the Manchester Leadership Programme on the subject of leadership and culture. Basically, how I deal with various challenges within the cultural sector. The vast majority of the hundred plus students had not visited the International Slavery Museum or indeed had much understanding of the subject. I also had the feeling that they expected a museum professional to turn up with cobwebs hanging off them! They might have been pleasantly surprised then (or shocked) when someone stood in front of them who spoke with a Yorkshire accent and announced that he would pick on someone to ask a question if they were too shy to do so!

Not sure I will blog again until the end of April as I am on leave for a few weeks. I am going to Japan, and even though it is not a work trip as such I am sure I will not be able to resist popping into a few museums. I'll update you on my return.  

Sayonara for now.

In these grim economic times and rainy days, we could do worse than remind ourselves that there is usually a light at the end of the tunnel! Forty years ago this week, John Lennon and Yoko Ono set about bringing a message of peace to the world from their bed in the Amsterdam Hilton hotel. They vowed to stay in bed for a whole week (24 - 31 March, 1969) in what they called a "bed-in for peace". It certainly drew alot of media attention to their message of peace and in particular their stance against the war in Vietnam, which can only be a good thing.  While this might not be everyone's idea of a great honeymoon, I can't think of a better place to stage a peace protest than a nice comfy bed. I took part in an anti-war demo in Manchester once and by heck it was freezing!

Feel the love

This wasn't their last bed-in though. A few months later on 26 May 1969, John and Yoko checked into Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel to start their next peace protest, to continue the momentum of the first one. For another week the couple, along with Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko, entertained guests including U.S. black civil rights advocate Dick Gregory, Quebec separatist Jacques Larue-Langlois and American cartoonist Al Capp. It was at the end of this bed-in that a historic and spontaneous performance of 'Give Peace a Chance' was recorded.

Here at the museums, we're very proud to hold a piece of this moment in history. In our collections we have an 'All You Need is Love' beadspread that was handmade by the local Montreal Hare Krishna Chapter and given to John and Yoko for the protest. 

Currently you can see the bedspread from the Montreal bed-in for peace in The Beat Goes On exhibition at World Museum Liverpool. Peace out.

Stephen Shakeshaft with just a few of his photographs

Today anyone passing through our Design offices might have thought they'd taken a wrong turn and ended up in the news room of the Echo, with picture editor Stephen Shakeshaft sifting though a selection of photographs to pick the perfect ones to illustrate a story.

We haven't started our own newspaper up though - Stephen was working on the selection process for an exhibition of his photographs which will open in the National Conservation Centre in September.

Many people will remember Stephen's earlier exhibitions, which took a candid behind-the-scenes look at the famous faces from the worlds of football (Soccer Shots at the former Museum of Liverpool Life) and celebrity (Shooting Stars, also at the Conservation Centre). 

His next exhibition will cover a broader and arguably more fascinating subject - the people of Liverpool itself. Stephen has been photographing the city's residents for the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo since the 1960s, so it could be the understatement of the century to say that he's a bit spoilt for choice in terms of material for this exhibition. As before his pictures will be accompanied by his fascinating anecdotes about the characters behind the pictures, giving an insight into the news and people that have helped shape the city over the last few decades.

Stephen has promised to keep the blog posted about progress and maybe even give a preview of some of the great stories behind some of his favourite pictures in the run up to the exhibition.

The Cretic on display in the museum. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

Great oaks from little acorns grow is a real truism and one that particularly applies to ships.

I like to think of early adventurers taking to the water countless centuries ago, presumably on logs that were later hollowed out to make primitive boats. The technology got better and better and today we are still improving our ships which seem to increase in size as each year passes.

The first steamship on the River Mersey was the paddle steamer Elizabeth which arrived on 28 June 1815 to serve as a ferry boat. This was also the dawn of a new era of comparative peace that was to last a century. The Elizabeth’s arrival came just 10 days after the Battle of Waterloo at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Although regarded by many people as a passing novelty at the time, ships such as the Elizabeth were in the vanguard of change which would see the maritime world transformed.

A 1:48 scale model of the Elizabeth in Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Art & The Sea gallery shows how small she was. Models on the same scale appear giants alongside the tiny wooden ship. The Elizabeth was fitted with an eight horse-power engine and inaugurated the ferry service between Liverpool and Runcorn. She made just one trip daily travelling at between nine and ten knots.

The first experimental steamboat was built in 1704. However, it was the brilliant English engineer James Watt (1736 – 1819) who realised the importance of steam and its great potential. His work inspired others to develop the concept of steamships. The first practical steamboat was the Charlotte Dundas which towed barges along the Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow in 1802. Her success opened the floodgates to steamship development in Britain and abroad.

The 1:48 scale model of the 13,518-ton Cretic (pictured), in the same case, shows the huge changes in steamships in less than a century since the Elizabeth was built. It is like comparing a whale to a sprat.

Cretic was a passenger and cattle carrier with the famous White Star Line of Liverpool. She was bought by White Star in 1904 and remained with the company until 1923.
Cretic could carry 245 passengers while the Elizabeth could only transport a fraction of this number and had no cabin accommodation.

Steamships continued to be built until recent times. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was the last passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic before being converted to diesel in 1986.

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).

Big Art volunteer Sarah (left) receiving her v50 Award certificate from NML's youth volunteer officer, Claire Olson (right)

At National Museums Liverpool we have a dedicated youth volunteering programme aimed specifically at 16-25 year olds, funded by v, the youth volunteering charity. Young people can get involved with all kinds of interesting and fun volunteer projects and if they complete 50 hours of volunteer work they are awarded a v50 Award certificate.

Our latest volunteer to achieve their v50 is Sarah. Both the Learning team at the Walker Art Gallery and the Volunteers team would like to congratulate Sarah on her achievement and hard work within the gallery – well done Sarah!

If you are aged 16-25 and would like to find out more about youth volunteering at National Museums Liverpool, please email our youth volunteer officer Claire Olson.

Here’s what Sarah has to say about her time volunteering:

"Hello I’m Sarah and I’m 24. I volunteer in Big Art for Little Artists at the Walker Art Gallery and I have just completed my v50 Award.

I love volunteering in Big Art, as you meet and get the chance to talk to many young children and each day is different. I enjoy helping the children to use the wide range of interactive and practical resources. I especially like assisting them with the craft activities, such as making magic maize pictures, finger puppets etc.

As well as logging my hours for when I volunteer in Big Art, I also went on a Disability, Diversity and Equality training course for my v50 Award, which I found really interesting."

Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

Teamwork is vitally important in human endeavours but teamwork is nothing without leadership – and I think this is especially so in wartime.

Arguably the most important theatre of the Second World War was the convoy system that brought vital supplies to besieged Britain standing alone against Hitler’s legions. There were many examples of great leadership on different levels as the Allies battled with the U-boat submarine menace. I believe leadership at sea can be one of the most testing because of isolation and lack of back-up.

The dominance of Germany’s U-boats was broken in the spring of 1943 with a decisive victory during the Battle of the Atlantic. In late April and early May, the escorts of convoy ONS 5 (UK to Halifax, Nova Scotia) scored conclusive success over the Wolf Packs.

For eight days and nights, the British B7 Escort Group led by Commander Peter Gretton on the destroyer HMS Duncan and assisted by two Brirish Support Groups, beat off attacks by 40 U-boats. They sank five and damaged many others for the loss of 12 merchant ships. Two other U-boats were sunk by the Royal Canadian Air Force and RAF aircraft. Even for the largest U-boat packs the cost of attacking convoys had become too high. This defeat marked the end of the U-boats’ ascendancy in the Atlantic.

Displays in the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery include this photo of three heroes of the ONS 5 battles. Commander Gretton is seen between Lt Cdr Raymond Hart (HMS Vidette) (left) and Lt Commander James Plomer, Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (HMS Sunflower). Commander Gretton had a distinguished naval career, later becoming a vice-admiral. Among his many honours was a knighthood in 1963.

A map shows the positions of U-boats in May 1943. A 1944 poster features a painting of a convoy seen from an escort ship.

In 1943 most of the American and Canadian troops and supplies needed for the Allied invasion of Europe were sent across the Atlantic. Victory in the Atlantic was essential if the Allies were to win the war in Europe.

While most of the naval escort work during the Battle of the Atlantic was done by the Royal Navy, the ships of many other navies were also involved.

A photo shows the Free French corvette Aconit on convoy duty in the North Atlantic. In March 1943 she and the British destroyer HMS Harvester sank the U 444.

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).

Elevation of the Midland Goods Warehouse. Reproduced with the consent of the Partners of Edmund Kirby & Sons.

I originally came to Liverpool to study architecture at uni, back in the days before computers took over the world when we made 'proper drawings' to millimetre accuracy. I'll never forget being told on work experience that I'd never be an architect if I couldn't draw a straight line.

I never did become an architect but have never lost my fascination with architectural drawings. It was a real treat therefore to see an exhibition of drawings by the local Victorian architects Culshaw & Sumners at Liverpool's Central Library. The exhibition has been curated by architectural historian (and former Walker curator) Joseph Sharples, who researched a huge archive of 6,000 drawings by the firm.

One of the firm's city centre buildings is the Midland Goods Warehouse, which was converted in the 1990s to become the National Conservation Centre. The elevation shown here isn't in the exhibition, but you can see a section through the building showing how the architects took advantage of the slope in the land to make it easier to unload carts.

Exhibitions of this type usually focus on grand designs, whether built or unbuilt, so it's a refreshing change see the inclusion of drawings for tiny court houses in Toxteth. The drawings were submitted in 1843 but were rejected as they fell short of the legal requirements for healthy housing established in the Liverpool Building Act the previous year. Together with the other drawings, showing grand business premises and housing with carefully routed staircases to keep servants out of the way, this gives a fascinating glimpse of life in the city at the time.

The exhibition is in the Piction Reading Room at the library until 31 March 2009.