National Museums Liverpool Blog - Tuesday, April 28, 2009

From 1910 to 2010, sailor chic rocks!

When choosing an outfit for a sunny day (though it is raining right now) you can't go wrong with navy and white. In particular, I'm very into the nautical stuff that is around at the moment. On a recent trip to Beyond Retro in Shoreditch I had to be talked out of purchasing a vintage sailor bib top, possibly taken from a real sailor in the mists of time (that's an actual era you know.)

In 1910, fashion fanatic and philanthropist Mrs. Emily Tinne would have been right on trend for this summer with her quirky sailor inspired espadrilles, which are now on show as part of A Sweet Life at Sudley House until Spring 2010.

Everywhere you look on the high street right now there are beachy espadrilles and sailor-style pumps, but none that combine the two things quite as well as Mrs.Tinne's little beauties. They are made of white linen and have a cool anchor design that has been hand-embroidered onto the toe with red wool.

Even über-model Agyness Deyn is a fan of the nautical trend - who would have thought Mrs.Tinne and Aggy would have something in common!

Just looking at this plan of a slave ship hold almost makes me break out into a cold sweat.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have a strong aversion to crowded enclosed spaces. This print of 1789 brings home to us all the hideous nature of the slave trade.

Liverpool’s slave ships carried their human cargoes from West Africa over the Atlantic to the Americas and Caribbean on journeys that took six weeks or more. The Africans were held in atrocious and dehumanising conditions – violence, terror and degradation were everyday occurrences.

They had already suffered terrible hardship before reaching the coast. Sometimes the slaves were forced to march hundreds of miles from the interior of Africa. Sold several times over, they passed from one owner to another, their sense of disorientation and dread increasing with each sale. However, the prisoners took every opportunity to escape. One group of women tracked their husbands for several days before breaking them free.

Some African leaders were actively involved in the trade but others took a stand against slavery. They included Tomba, leader of the Baga in Guineas and Agaja Trudo, king of Dahomey.

The slaves’ final destinations on land were forts and places such as the island of Goree where they were held before boarding ships. The message to potential escapers was clear – skeletons of those who tried to make a run for it were impaled on spikes as gruesome warnings.

The horrors of the Middle Passage, as it was known, were made worse because many of the captives had never seen the sea. They were packed into unbelieveably hot, cramped and suffocating conditions in the holds. The men were kept separated from the women and children. In good weather they were brought on deck.

The men were humiliated and forced to ‘dance’ for the crew. This also have an ulterior motive – to keep the slaves fit and healthy so they would fetch higher prices. Women were abused by crew members and rape was common.

The physical conditions, fear and uncertainty left many of the captives totally traumatised and unable to eat. Some preferred death and took their own lives. Disease and brutality took their tolls. Between one tenth and one quarter of enslaved Africans died on every journey. Mortality among crew members was also high.

At the International Slavery Museum, in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building, there are displays which explore slave voyages including a model and painting of slave ships.

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).

Some of the Museum of Liverpool team are at BBC Radio Merseyside today collecting people's handwriting entries for the Liverpool Map.

Check out what's happening right now by looking at the BBC Radio Merseyside webcam! 

The team are there until 5pm so why not head over and add your entry to the Liverpool Map.

I'm never quite sure how to mark St George’s Day. I’m a vegetarian and perhaps predisposed to feel some sympathy for the dragon – a creature which is celebrated rather than vilified in Chinese mythology. I suppose slaying a dragon is really quite an achievement and this painting by James Campbell certainly depicts just how small and feeble a man might look in the mouth of the dragon’s lair. The kids are also big fans of ‘Jane and the Dragon’ in which the feisty and flame-haired squire (or knight apprentice) Jane befriends rather than beheads the dragon. So on behalf of dragon lovers everywhere, I thought I might give some other Liverpool Georges a look in. Here’s my Top 5 of Liverpool Georges:

1. George Harrison - recently given his own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Go and see his suit and other Beatles memorabilia in The Beat Goes On exhibition.  

2. St George’s Hall – the spectacular neighbour of the Walker Art Gallery and World Museum is now open to visitors and has its own heritage centre.

3. George Melly - This colourful character is the focus of an equally colourful exhibition of Maggi Hambling’s paintings at the Walker. George was also a regular childhood visitor to Sudley House.

4. George Stubbs – Liverpool’s most famous painter and Britain’s greatest painter of animals.

5. George Holt - Founder of the Lamport and Holt shipping line and fabulous art collector. You can his paintings in situ at his former family home, Sudley House.

You too could add your handwriting to a community layer of the Liverpool Map

People should get along to BBC Radio Merseyside this Friday 24 April between 10am and 5pm, for another opportunity to make their mark on the Liverpool Map.

After the success of last week’s Handwriting Session at Merseyside Maritime Museum, you can still put your handwriting forward for inclusion in the Map, which will go on display in the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in 2010!

Come along ready to put pen to paper with your memories of favourite places in or associated with Liverpool, or you can copy out extracts of the Liverpool Saga; a poem written by the people of Merseyside to celebrate the city’s 800th birthday in 2007.

For more information on the Liverpool Map, see last week’s blog, or visit the website.

Men at work in the Museum of Liverpool

The latest batch of Museum of Liverpool construction snaps has been added to the museum's set on Flickr. They include this one of scaffolding against the interior of the north window (that's the Liver Building etc outside).

At this very second in time the museum's Twitter page has attracted a satisfactory yet surmountable 361 followers - not in the Stephen Fry league yet but give us time! If you've not checked it out yet have a look.

I have always wanted to invent something that cannot be bettered - the best ideas are always the simplest. What could possibly be better than the wheel? Another idea that I think will never be improved is the wash basin plug. You could think of all sorts of weird pumps and other devices to do the same task but not so simply. Traffic lights solved a problem people had agonised over for years before discovering the (now) obvious solution. The anchor is another simple foolproof invention.

HMS Conway anchor. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

Anchors must have been created shortly after the invention of the boat and the earliest ones were hauled up by hand. Ship models found in Ancient Egyptian tombs dating from around 1600 BC have grooved or perforated anchor stones. By 800 BC bronze anchors were being produced in Malta. By about 300 BC anchors, now made of iron, had a more modern appearance. A 16-foot long anchor from a ship of the tyrannical Roman Emperor Caligula – dating from about 40 AD - was salvaged from an Italian lake in 1929.

It is said that the first iron anchors forged in England were made in East Anglia in 573 AD. There is a modern-looking anchor in the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

As ships and anchors got bigger, a device needed to be invented to haul the anchor up – thus the capstan was born, probably more than 2,000 years ago. This is a vertical rotating drum originally operated by sailors using removable levers known as handspikes. Crew members would sing popular songs and sea shanties as they raised the anchor - probably the best known is The Drunken Sailor. These days capstans are powered by petrol motors, electricity, hydraulics or even pneumatics.

A large anchor outside the main entrance to Merseyside Maritime Museum  came from HMS Conway, a 92-gun wooden battleship built in 1839. Surprisingly, it is about the same size as the one from Caligula's Roman ship.

In 1876 HMS Conway became a school ship where thousands of Royal Navy cadets were trained. She was anchored in the Mersey for many years before being moved to North Wales. She was wrecked in the Menai Straights in 1953 and later broken up. The anchor, saved from the wreck with other relics, was later donated to the museum by the Conway Club – a group made up of former cadets.

Merseyside Maritime Museum is open seven days a week, admission free. 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).

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…