National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, April 16, 2009

I cannot apologize for what has happened in the past - But I can do my best to never let it happen again.

It's always interesting and sometimes extremely moving to read the comment books and cards in our venues and get direct feedback from visitors. Some of the comments cards that I noticed in the International Slavery Museum this week for example have been extremely poignant and are a testament to the power of the incredible real life stories told within the museum's walls.

You can read a small selection in our visitor comment card set on Flickr.

Yesterday people were invited to Merseyside Maritime Museum to indulge in some creative writing with a difference. 

As part of The Liverpool Map project, we asked the public to come along and write about their favourite and most memorable places in Liverpool, with the opportunity to become part of a Liverpool legacy. 

The Liverpool Map has been researched and developed in conjunction with the people of Merseyside, and will go on display in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2010. 

International glasswork artists Inga Panels and Jeffrey Sarmiento will use pioneering techniques to create a large multi-layered glass monolith, and want the public to continue to be involved in its design.

The map will be a 3D structure featuring many layers of sheet glass fused into a solid block, each printed with a variety of images and designs showing Liverpool as a city defined by culture and heritage rather than lines on a map. One of these glass layers will be a community layer, including some of the handwriting captured in yesterday’s workshop.

Nell and baby John from Maghull take part in the handwriting workshop for the Liverpool Map

Ideas for favourite places included the Albert Dock, Greenbank Park, the former St Martin's Bank building on Water Street, and Bold Street with its local landmark St Luke's Church - or as locals call it the 'bombed out church'.

 

You can still put your handwriting forward for inclusion in the Liverpool Map, by visiting the Performance Space at BBC Radio Merseyside on Friday 24 April between 10am - 5pm.

 

Come along with ideas of your special places on Merseyside, or if you need further inspiration you can copy out extracts of the Liverpool Saga; an 800 line poem written by people from Merseyside to celebrate Liverpool's 800th Birthday in 2007. It includes some brilliant examples of special memories of places in and around Liverpool!

Photo by Ibrahim Rahmin and Ian Burns, from the Street Life exhibition

Liverpool street fashion has always been an inspiration for professional and budding photographers alike. In 2006 we held the Street Life exhibition at the National Conservation Centre, which celebrated the unique styles of the residents of Liverpool no matter what their age. Our current Fashion V Sport exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery has inspired Creative and Media Diploma students from Liverpool Community College to create some striking images that explore current fashion trends among young people today. These images have been brought together to form Street Fashion, an exhibition in two parts; photographs by Level 2 students are currently on display until 29 April and Level 3 students will show from 1-31 May.

Also inspired by Fashion V Sport is our style-spotting competition! We are offering fashionistas the chance to win a £50 voucher for All Saints, Nike or Urban Outfitters or you could win tickets to see Pink or  Blur.  To be in with a chance of winning, come along to the gallery on Saturday 18 April when style-spotters from the Radio City Ground Crew will be at the exhibition. If you dress to impress then they might choose you to be a winner…

The crew of a Norweigan tanker with their simian and canine crewmates.

I remember the widespread introduction of containers on ships in the late 1960s but little realised how it would transform the character of Liverpool.

Seafarers were once highly visible around the city with their distinctive clothing and style. This photograph of Norwegian tanker crew members with a monkey and dog reminds me of similar scenes once common around the dock road. The almost universal use of roll on – roll off ships means that crew members now rarely spend much time ashore. We have lost much of the colour and vitality mariners brought to our streets by their presence.

In both the First and Second World Wars members of Britain’s merchant navy and those of its allies were on the front line in the struggle for survival. Until 1939 most people involved in British shipping used the terms Merchant Service or Mercantile Marine in relation to the merchant fleet and its sailors. It was only in the Second World War that the title Merchant Navy became the accepted usage. This development was greatly influenced by the issuing of a Merchant Navy buttonhole badge to be worn voluntarily by seamen from January 1940. There is one on display in the Battle of the Atlantic gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum.

In 1938 the British Merchant Service employed more than 190,000 seafarers. Of these, more than 130,000 were British residents while 50,000 were Indian and Chinese mariners. Women seafarers were relatively few and were usually employed either as stewardesses or children’s nurses on passenger liners. When the war began, most of these women lost their jobs as ships were converted to troop carrying and other duties. Some, however, continued to go to sea throughout the war.

The fiercely-independent, multi-racial body of civilians sailing under the Red Ensign had a long history of poor pay and working conditions.

In 1917 Parliament approved a standard uniform for general use by the Mercantile Marine. But during the Second World War most seafarers on British merchant ships wore either the uniforms of their own shipping companies or just ordinary clothes. A display of archive photos of merchant navy uniforms was held recently at the Maritime Archives and Library.

In May 1941 a shortage of manpower prompted the Government to set up the Merchant Navy Reserve Pool. By this, all seamen and some 60,000 former seafarers were obliged to register with the Pool.

Other exhibits include a Ministry of Information poster showing two gunners on an armed merchant ship with the slogan: “To the Merchant Navy – thank you!” and an officers’ Mercantile Marine cap badge from 1917 onwards.

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).

Press officer, Ed Casson, tells us about a fascinating soundtrack that has been created to accompany one of our most popular paintings...

'And When Did You Last See Your Father?', William Yeames

Aigburth-born Alison invited visitors to the Walker Art Gallery to give descriptions of the famous William Yeames painting 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' While some people were happy to give brief explanations of what they saw, others spent up to an hour outlining each precise detail of the piece. Alison edited these together to create a soundtrack, which was then played in front of an imprecise line drawing of the painting at a Liverpool DaDafest exhibition.

This fascinating recording has now been added to the 'And When Did You Last See Your Father?' page on our website where you can also see the painting, which shows a Royalist house under occupation by Parliamentarians and a young boy being interrogated as to the whereabouts of the master of the house.

Alison – the arts manager for Liverpool DaDa (Disability and Deaf Arts) – has recorded an interview with Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about the project, which will be broadcast later this year.

Better late than never I've put up last week's Museum of Liverpool progress snaps on Flickr. Everything is still progressing swimmingly. Last week's progress included cladding to the reveals of the end gables with corner pieces being fitted this week; pressure testing of pipework; installation of external drainage and services ducts; the suspended ceiling started to go in; concerte work on the north and south ramps, and concrete fire sealing works to structure/building cavities.

Update: Was so late with that last set that this week's have turned up as well - have just uploaded them. They include some nice shots of the interior so are well worth a look.

Guy Knight shows us some bees

This week I got to look around the entomology lab at World Museum Liverpool, at one of the creepy crawly tours that are available to visitors during school holidays. Zoology curator, Guy Knight, took us around the lab so we could see some of the thousands of mounted specimens housed in the back of the museum.

He showed us a case full of crickets that were found in Liverpool after they hitch-hiked here on some bananas. Then there were questions from some of the eager smaller visitors on the tour – my favourite being; ‘What happens if they come back to life after you’ve killed them?’ Maybe they had been to the Ancient Egypt gallery beforehand and had learned about the afterlife! Bees were next on the agenda – we have around 10,000 bees in our collections apparently. We learned that there are 250 different kinds of bees, but wild bumblebees are getting rarer due to the countryside changing and there being less wild areas for bees to live in.

In other bug news, you can now come and see a new ‘living display’ in the bug house gallery featuring the Indian Ground Beetle (Anthia sexguttata). The beetles’ new home has been created using a special sand and cement mix, which will allow them to dig burrows to lay their eggs.  Indian Ground Beetles are a large predatory beetle, which actively hunt down their insect prey and this species has never been bred in captivity. They can also spray an acidic liquid accurately into the eyes of their enemies if they feel threatened. Unbee-lievable!

Dr Alexine Tinne in front of one of her older sisters’ dresses

For Mrs Tinne shopping was more than just a necessity or a hobby, during the Depression she even elevated it to a charitable event. She was very concerned about conditions for women, especially the unmarried girls working in shops who received no salary and relied on the commissions from sales to make ends meet in those difficult times. Mrs Tinne would often buy expensive items like fur coats and glamorous evening gowns just so that the shop assistants would get the commission, even though she never wore many of these extravagant purchases.

Not surprisingly she amassed a huge collection of clothing for herself and her large family during the period from her marriage in 1910 until the outbreak of war in 1939. Many years later her youngest daughter, Dr Alexine Tinne, donated this collection to the decorative arts collection at National Museums Liverpool. Numbering more than 700 items, this is now probably the largest surviving collection of period clothes from one person's wardrobe in Britain.

Many people will remember the first exhibition about the collection, A Passion for Fashion, which was held at the Walker in 2006. Since then a large collection of letters has been discovered, which reveal a lot of background information about the well dressed family. Insights from this correspondence have been used to build up a broader picture of their lives for a new exhibition, A Sweet Life, at Sudley House

I was lucky enough to meet Dr Alexine Tinne when she came in today to give her approval to the exhibition before it opens to the public tomorrow. She talked fondly about her mother, who she remembered as being a very kind hearted and generous lady. Alexine's father, Philip Tinne, came from a wealthy family of sugar importers, a source of income that was relatively unaffected by the Depression in the 1920s. Besides doing her bit to support shop assistants, Alexine remembers that her mother was involved in running a couple of hostels for women where she was not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get stuck in with the practical work. She also worked with Bessie Braddock campaigning for pensions for spinsters. The whole family were involved in hosting garden parties for pensioners from Toxteth and Garston in the summer, which people queued for 2 hours beforehand to get into. Alexine and her sisters would prepare bunches of flowers for the guests in jam jars on the table, then give tours of the garden. The family also took part in Christmas concert parties at Garston hospital, inviting the whole cast back to the house for a cold turkey dinner afterwards.

Pictures of family life, including Alexine herself as a baby, and a number of accessories from the collection, help to round off what could only be described as a very sweet exhibition. You can have a sneaky preview peek at some of the displays in our A Sweet Life exhibition Flickr set.

At the end of March, we held a launch party to celebrate the release of 'Something Wild… at the Walker Art Gallery' - the very first storybook that National Museums Liverpool has published. Public Programmes Officer Nicky Fawcett can tell us what went on at the launch...

Jenny the Artist with two little artists...

We wanted to hold a launch party to thank everyone who had helped create the book and to encourage Liverpool primary schools to take up their entitlement to a free copy of Something Wild… All the children from St Pascal Baylon and St Columbas Out of school clubs were invited as they had worked with Kate Pankhurst to help draw the illustrations for the book.  The Mayor also came to the launch and gave out free copies of the book and a goody bag to everyone that took part. He congratulated the young illustrators on all of their hard work in bringing the book to life.

The launch was lots of fun as we had organised plenty of activities that families could take part in. The storytelling sessions proved most popular and 'Jenny the Artist', one of the characters from the book, led an exciting tour of the gallery to find all of the paintings and objects featured in the book.  We also had a mask making workshop and afterwards many of the children were wearing the horse, pig or bird masks they had made around the gallery!

The launch was a huge success and it was great to see just how much everyone enjoyed the night and most importantly the book itself.  We’re all looking forward to seeing families and schools having fun using the book at the gallery.

If you are a teacher in a Liverpool primary school, you can are entitled to a free copy of the book. If you are a parent who would like a copy to use with your children, you can buy a copy from the Walker (or any of our venues) or by mail order.

'Mauretania in Dazzle Paint' by Burnett Poole

I have just finished reading the fascinating 1935 autobiography of seafarer Charles Lightoller whose amazing career stretched from sailing ships to ocean liners. His book kept me spellbound with tales of shipwrecks - most famously when, as second officer, he survived the Titanic disaster. Lightoller saw service on merchant ships commandeered for operations in the Great War and also helped in the Dunkirk evacuations in the Second World War.

British merchant vessels and their crews have often been required to support military operations in a variety of ways. In both world wars, for example, many ships were converted for use as auxiliary warships, troop ships or hospital ships. The Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Life At Sea gallery has a section focusing on these roles.

The loss of the troopship Lancastria was one of the worst disasters to hit Britain. On the declaration of war in 1939, this Cunard passenger liner was requisitioned for troop carrying. On 17 June 1940 the Lancastria was anchored off the coast of France taking on board retreating British troops. There were more than 5,000 troops as well as civilians and crew when she was subjected to a heavy enemy air attack. To this day it is not known exactly how many people died but it was many thousands.

On display is a menu for lunch on the day Lancastria went down. A watch was worn by survivor Sidney Dunmall, of the Royal Army Pay Corps, as he leapt into the sea from the stricken ship.

A discharge book belonged to the Lancastria’s assistant butcher, Gerrard Walsh of Liverpool. There are also two miniature Lancastria souvenir trophies owned by Royal Engineers who also survived, Arthur Pownall and Corporal Bray.

A spectacular painting by Burnett Poole (shown here) shows the famous Cunard liner Mauretania in camouflage dazzle paint when she was used as a troopship and hospital ship during the First World War.  More on this work on our main site.

A handbook called War Instructions for British Merchant Ships 1917 contained a safety device. It was weighted so that, in the event of attack, it sank when thrown overboard rather than falling into enemy hands.

Handcuffs came from the troopship Antenor. She was used to repatriate troops at the end of the Second World War. The handcuffs were kept on board to restrain anyone under arrest, especially if troops got carried away during victory celebrations.

A plaque records the role of the Ebani as a troopship between 1914 and 1919 when she carried 50,000 sick and wounded troops.

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).

 

King Henry in formidable form

I recently watched the film adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s 'The Other Boleyn Girl’ – I can’t say I enjoyed the mixing of fact with fiction, but it made me think about how much speculation, debate and gossip Henry VIII has drummed up in the 500 years since he became King. I am sure he would absolutely thrilled that his reputation is still thriving in the 21st century due to his larger-than-life character, ill-fated marriages and the major decisions he made that have shaped the history of the country (not to mention a million documentaries and dramatisations). Any publicity is good publicity, right?

 

Henry was declared king in April 1509 and just about everywhere up and down the country with a Henry connection is marking the occasion. I am desperate to get to Hampton Court for the Henry VIII: Heads and Hearts exhibition, as well as the Dressed to Kill at The Tower of London and Man & Monarch at the British Library. Infuriatingly I’m missing out on the Great Recreation of Tudor Life at Kentwell Hall this summer which will be focused on the Henrican year of 1535. (Look out for Kentwell on Channel 5's ‘I own Britain’s Best Home’).

In the meantime I am relishing the prospect of David Starkey’s new documentary, Henry VIII - Mind of a Tyrant which starts on Channel 4 this Monday 6^th April. The episodes are billed with the tantalising subtitles of Prince, Warrior, Lover and Tyrant. The Walker’s own spectacular Henry VIII portrait is to be featured on 20^th April with David doing a piece to camera from the gallery. You can brush up (pardon the pun) on our iconic painting on the website – there’s an in-depth write-up and podcast, as well as some fun online stuff for kids to do.

If you’re looking for family friendly activities with a hint of Henry then don’t miss the Walker’s ‘Terrible Tudors’ day on 18 April when there’ll be mask making, music and drawing activities. Sounds fun – though I say less of the Terrible - the Tudor dynasty will always be undeniably terrific in my eyes!

It is with great sadness that I pass on the sad news of the death last week of John Hope Franklin, one of the most important American historians of the 20th century and a great advocate of the International Slavery Museum. The museum was fortunate enough to have been visited by John Hope Franklin in 2007 and it was an honour personally to be able to interview this great man, one who more than most strove towards a word free from racism and discrimination. It speaks for itself when messages of condolence are sent from current President Obama as well as Bill Clinton (who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour, in 1995) and a host of other eminent historians and scholars. 

For those of you who are not familiar with his life and achievements visit the John Hope Franklin website and I urge you to read the classic 'From Slavery to Freedom', a million copy bestseller and a landmark book which made people realise that African American history is not only a part of American history but the two are inseparable and are one.

On behalf of the International Slavery Museum we send our deepest condolences to his family and remind those who have yet to visit the museum that John Hope Franklin can be seen on our Freedom and Enslavement Wall.

A visitor at the Freedom and Enslavement Wall. Photograph copyright of Zak

It seems that Eros, the Greek god of love, has been working his magic again, as Liverpool.com have just named Café Eros in the National Conservation Centre at the top of their list of five secret coffee bars. Of course, if caffeine and rather lovely statues are not your thing then you may be tempted by some of the cakes and other treats on offer - check out the Café Eros menu on the website.

If you are immune even to the charms of giant muffins and wickedly rich hot chocolate then another reason to visit soon is that there's less than two weeks left to catch the fantastic Recollections exhibition of photographs by Philip Jones Griffiths, which has been extended until Easter Monday.