National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, July 31, 2009

Photograph from 'Shoot Nations'.

Quick reminder that Sunday 2 August is your last chance to see the Shoot Nations exhibition at the International Slavery Museum. The display features photographs by young people, highlighting the global impact of our changing environment, particularly the effects of global warming and intensive farming on the earth's natural resources.

While there you could also catch our latest display which opens today. Trafficked looks at a form of modern slavery - human trafficking - and follows the stories of those affected by the trade. 

Celebrations after Liverpool won the European Cup Final in Rome, 1977. Copyright Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

A little while ago I mentioned that preparations were already under way for the next exhibition at the National Conservation Centre. Opening from 18 September 2009 to 24 January 2010; 'Liverpool people by Stephen Shakeshaft', will include photographs spanning the career of the picture editor at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

It has been a tough process whittling down the huge selection of images available to a suitable number for the exhibition. Unfortunately there just isn't space to fit everything in. So over the next few weeks I'm going to be featuring some of the photos that didn't make it into the exhibition itself here on the blog. This one in particular made me smile. Here's the story behind it in Stephen's own words:

"The Eternal City was ready for the arrival ofthe Liverpool fans. I had arrived a week before to send build up features to the Echo. It was Liverpool's biggest match - ever!

The first train to arrive in Rome's main station could be heard a mile away, the L-I-V-E-R-P-O-O-L chant was getting louder by the minute.

Hundreds of fans stepped into the sacred city in red t-shirts and scarves - no suitcases, no toothbrush, no change of clothes - and marched towards the city. I watched a group swaying down a road tunnel still singing - when in Rome do as scousers do. The city was a festival of red, who were the other team? There seemed to be few German supporters around.

Liverpool won, even Tommy Smith scored, and at the end I made towards him to take a celebration picture. The other photographers waited for him to turn around as he jumped into the trainer's arms. I went the other wat and my picture was just what I wanted. I later asked Tommy why he had run straight to the trainer at the end of the match. 'He had my teeth in his pocket and I wanted them back before having my picture taken', he replied."

Liverpool Customs House. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

Great vanished buildings always hold a certain mystique and the Liverpool Custom House was one I would have loved to explore.

There are many pictures of the exterior of this huge H-shaped structure crowned with a dome but I have yet to see any of the interior. In its prime this was one of the busiest places in the port with people beavering away and rushing hither and thither.

The Custom House was damaged in the May 1941 Blitz and later demolished – although many believe it could have been saved.

On display in the new Seized: Revenue & Customs Uncovered gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum there is a large contemporary wooden model of the Custom House, built in 1837 from a design by John Foster Junior (circa 1787 - 1846).

Trade brings profits and those who do business through ports have to pay the appropriate duties and taxes on many items that are imported.

From the 1700s Britain’s trade with the rest of the world grew hugely. It fell to Customs officers to control it and protect the revenue so that the Government got its share.

On the quaysides and in the warehouses of Liverpool and every other port, amid the hustle and bustle of unloading ships and moving cargoes, the Customs officers went about their daily business.

Each man had a special job. For example, front line officers known as tide waiters met each incoming vessel and stayed with it until the cargo was unloaded. Some weighed and measured cargoes while others toiled at paper work in the Custom House.

Custom Houses were once the hub of every port. They were run by the comptroller who had immense power. He could prevent ships from unloading their cargoes or leaving port.

The Long Room was the heart of his domain where captains arrived from months at sea to present their paperwork to bench officers who made out a warrant and copied out six extracts. These were then sent to six different colleagues elsewhere in the building.

On display is a fascinating aerial view of the Custom House taken around 1935 (pictured). It shows the Overhead Railway station outside the entrance so that Customs officers on foot had fast and easy access to all the Liverpool docks.

An enamelled notice from about 1909 declares: “The Commissioners of His Majesty’s Customs and Excise hereby give notice that spitting is strictly prohibited in all parts of this building. By order.”

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).

Angelica Vanasse is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in MRes Art & Design (Curatorial Practice) at Liverpool John Moores University.  Angelica recently lead a drawing workshop at the Walker Art Gallery and is here to tell us how it went. You can see more photos of the group and their work on Flickr.

Image courtesy of Angelica Vanasse and Robert Flynn

My research involves looking at the role of participants in art galleries, using the gallery as an immersive space for experiencing and interpreting artwork. Using the Walker Art Gallery’s sculpture collection as inspiration, I lead sculpture drawing workshops to explore this concept.

At one session, I gave the group a variety of tools and techniques that they could use during the workshop.  With pencil, graphite, charcoal, conte crayon and a variety of papers, the group spread out in the gallery to begin their creative investigation.  It was fascinating to see the varied ways in which all of the participants were negotiating their drawings. 

I worked with them on a one-on-one basis to help with their drawings, which included mapping out the drawings, investigating proportions and creating shading.  To help with breaking away from rigid focus, we also spent some time on gesture drawings with quick poses. 

I’ve discovered that using drawing as a way to interpret artwork encourages participants to look more carefully at the work around them and think about how it is made, as a way to create their own work. The session went really well - here are some of the comments from the group:

“I’d always thought sculpture was quite static and peaceful, but using different techniques - especially fast ones - creates an energy.  It must be similar to what a sculptor can visualize in a block of stone.”

“It made me look at items in more detail and appreciate form, light, lines, etc.  I enjoyed trying something semi-abstract.  I would love to come to another one!”

A huge thanks to the education team and gallery staff at the Walker Art Gallery for assisting in making this possible, as well as the wonderful participants who attended!

Night At The Museum 2 poster

This week sees our final monthly draw to win pairs of tickets to your local ODEON cinema. All you have to do to enter is sign up for our e-newsletter. Everyone who signs up during the entry period is also entered into a draw to win Night at the Museum goodies including a telescope.

July is the last month to enter so be sure to sign up by this Friday. You can sign up on the registration page or learn more about the draw on our main site.

Thanks to ODEON Cinemas who have provided the tickets and goodies for this draw.

It was a depressingly long time ago that I was an A-level student. The only highlight of these two years of study was when the local Bargain Booze was raided causing delightful disruption to the school day, and a feature on Crimewatch!

However its safe to say that students from Sutton Sports College St. Helens, All Saints Catholic High School Kirkby and North Liverpool Academy Liverpool trumped my highlight with their A-level art work being put on display in a special exhibition called Showcase at the Walker Art Gallery.

Students at launch of Showcase A-level art work exhibition

These lucky students from each of these three schools were invited to display their art work by Find Your Talent. This exhibition is part of Find Your Talent, a national programme that aims to give each child and young person access to five hours of culture.

The exhibition had its official launch last week. Here nervous students showed their work much to the enjoyment of proud parents, family, friends and teachers. It was a lovely evening and it was clear that everyone was genuinely impressed and excited by the skill and originality demonstrated by all these talented students. 

On until 31 July, 2009 Showcase is well worth a visit and is a true testament to the talent regional schools can offer. 

To find out more about Find Your Talent please follow the link
 

Something got Mick started... A young Mick Hucknall outside Pickwick's club. Copyright Francesco Mellina

With the Summer Pops in full swing a huge variety of international musicians have descended on Liverpool. The festival always attracts a lot of new big names to the city but also features many familiar faces and bands who started in the area many years ago. It was interesting to read an interview with Mick Hucknall in the Daily Post in which he reminisced about rehearsing in Liverpool in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His first band The Frantic Elevators, which he played in for seven years before forming Simply Red, was managed by Roger Eagle, one of the co-owners of the legendary Eric's club.

Inevitably another familiar figure on the Liverpool music scene at the time, the photographer Francesco Mellina, met and photographed Mick Hucknall many times during that early part of his career. Here's one of Francesco's photographs taken in a back street behind Pickwick's club. It's just one of the fascinating glimpses of bands before they were famous that you can see in the Sound and Vision exhibition at the National Conservation Centre - which also includes U2 back in 1980 when they were the opening band for Wah! Heat and Pink Military.

The National Museums Liverpool strategic plan, covering 2009 to 2011, is now available to download, either from here or from the corporate information section of our main site. In it there is a summary of our key achievements for 2008-09, information on our mission and values, and details of what we've got planned for the period up to 2011/12 and beyond.

• download National Museums Liverpool strategic plan 2009 - 2011 [pdf format 689kb]
• download National Museums Liverpool strategic plan 2009 - 2011 [rich text format 324kb]

Update 27.07.09

The 2008 annual review - The Big Book of Big Highlights 2008 - is also now available to download.

• download Annual review 2008 [ pdf format 3.69mb ]

Rankin's studio at World Museum Liverpool

The bold and beautiful people of Liverpool called into World Museum Liverpool last Thursday to have their portrait taken by the acclaimed photographer Rankin.

For those who don’t know the name you will certainly know his work as there doesn’t seem to be a member of the glitterati he has not photographed. However it was “ordinary” scousers under the lens last week, as part of the Shoot Me, Rankin! project to photograph 1,000 people and form a portrait of modern Britain.

The whole process was quite fascinating to watch. A team of people looked after hair and make-up, while another team of photographic assistants worked on lighting, props, wind machines and the final touch ups of the portraits on the computer.

Rankin works amidst this whirl of assistants, producers, models and PR people, to produce stunning portraits that are all as different as each sitter but all maintain a Rankin "look".

The Shoot Me, Rankin! portraits will be on display alongside a major retrospective of Rankin's work at the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London from 31 July to 18 September 2009.

If you have missed your chance to be photographed by Rankin you can still be photographed by a professional photographer at the Walker Art Gallery. The Iconic Portraits Competition is inspired by the Cecil Beaton: Portraits exhibition (until 31 August 2009).

'The Scapegoat' by William Holman Hunt

We like a bit of TV glamour here at National Museums Liverpool, so we're pretty excited that one of our paintings is going to be featured on a new BBC program!

'Desperate Romantics' looks at the lives of the self-titled 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood', which was made up of the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Millais. We have paintings by all three artists in our collections - one of my personal favourites is 'Dante's Dream' by Rossetti, which is at the Walker Art Gallery.

You get all the juicy details of their rise to fame, with episode one following them on their search for a muse. One of our paintings was mentioned in this episode, when art critic John Ruskin compliments a youthful Millais on his painting, 'Isabella', which is also at the Walker. 

Each episode features a different painting by the artists and 'The Scapegoat' by Holman Hunt, from the Lady Lever Art Gallery will appear in episode four. So look out for it!

You can see a zoomable version of the painting with expert commentary on the BBC's 'Desperate Romantics' website.

Stewart Bale photograph of the Queensway Tunnel opening

This weekend was the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Queensway Tunnel. To celebrate this busy roadway was closed to traffic on Sunday, giving pedestrians the rare opportunity to walk 'Under and Over the Mersey' (well, actually they floated back over on a ferry). There have been some great photographs of the walk through on Flickr, like this one by mobilevirgin.

In contrast here's a picture of the official opening ceremony 75 years ago from the Stewart Bale collection held in the Maritime Archives and Library. The local photographic firm Stewart Bale Ltd documented the construction of the tunnel and produced an official souvenir album of the Queensway Tunnel opening ceremony in 1934.

Purely by chance the opening ceremony pictures also capture the extraordinary lengths that some people will go to for a good view of events like this, with a series of photos of a mystery figure climbing above the crowds in the background. See if you can spot him in the original photos with the zoomify facility.

The Mauretania II about to launch

My ancestor Henry Guy was one of many Liverpool shipwrights in 18th century Liverpool where life was often short and hard. Henry, of Peters Alley, died in 1763 aged 35, just six weeks after his wife Jane. They had been married for 13 years.

I think it is very difficult for us to imagine how hard life could be for people of those days. The poor struggled to survive – the rich may have had more comfortable lives but mortality was high among all sections of the community.

With so much activity on the docks in the 19th century shipbuilding, repair and supply became important local industries.

We have recently seen the resurgence of the former Cammell Laird’s yard in Birkenhead securing big Royal Navy contracts for ship repairs and renovations.

Until the 1860s wooden sailing ships and clippers were built in Liverpool’s Kings and Brunswick Docks. From this time onwards, the Mersey Dock and Harbour Board took measures to concentrate shipbuilding around Birkenhead.

Liverpool concentrated on repairing ships between voyages and this employed up to 20,000 people. Thousands more worked to supply the many items necessary for successful voyages – from ropes, flags and sails to brass fittings, telegraphs, tableware and kitchen equipment.

Laird’s yard in Birkenhead dominated shipbuilding on Merseyside by 1900. It built many great warships and liners including Cunard’s Mauretania II in 1939 (you can zoom into a photo of the launch on our main site) and Union Castle Line’s Windsor Castle (1955).

On display at the Magical History Tour exhibition in Merseyside Maritime Museum is a sailmaker’s tool kit in use with the Alexandra Towing Company until 1984.

It includes:

• Needles of various sizes for different jobs.
• Cord and twine for sewing seams and bolt ropes. (Bolt ropes are the ropes around the edges of awnings and sails.)
• Beeswax to waterproof the twine, making it easier to use when sewing.

The tool kit was stored in its own bag which was custom-made from sail canvas.

A Liverpool Shipbuilding Co brass tally dates from 1855. Nearly all shipbuilding and repair work was casual and workers were taken on only as required. However, some companies would give favoured workers such tallies so they could get work more frequently.

The Liverpool Shipbuilding Co (formerly Jones, Quiggin & Co) was one of dozens of companies in mid-19th century Liverpool building wooden ships.

There is a 1935 advertisement for J W Pickering & Sons, ship repairers. This was one of many small companies operating from graving docks scattered across Liverpool’s dock estate.

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).

Here's a special report from Isobel, who spent last week helping out behind the scenes at World Museum Liverpool for her work experience placement.

"When asked to choose a work experience placement, the traditional primary school or office jobs didn't really appeal to me. So instead I decided to work in the World Museum. My mum works there, but I didn’t really have a clue what she actually does. Maybe the readers of this are more knowledgeable than I am, but 'curator of numismatics' doesn't mean much to me! I wanted to find out what museum work entails, as I, like a lot of people, didn't really know what goes on behind that 'no entry' door.

My first day was with Emma, head of Ethnology, in the museum stores. Along with Chrissy, I helped measure, handle and photograph Buddha figurines. I learnt so much about different types of Buddhas and symbolism in Buddhist figurines and felt so lucky to pick up and hold things that are usually behind a glass case! It was so amazing to think about the culture and history surrounding each Buddha.

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to be shown the zoology stores by Tony, including vast cabinets of insects, spirit stores full of interesting samples, and stuffed animals from old displays.  I was at the National Conservation Centre on Tuesday as well, watching an interactive activity for the Weston Discovery Centre being made. In the afternoon I was with my mum looking at a new acquisition, a set of bravery medals being awarded to a seaman who gave himself up to the Japanese during World War II to save his ship. The human story behind those medals was really interesting, and more valuable to me than the solid gold coin I had been handling minutes before!

Wednesday was back at the museum stores, putting together Egyptian pots. This is a challenge, but very rewarding when you find two pieces that fit together. I can describe it as the most difficult and oldest jigsaw I have ever attempted! I also held a pot that was seven thousand years old and still had the potter's fingerprints on it. Among the Egyptian stores I also saw a mummified cat's head, which looked disturbingly like my pet, Boots.

My favourite day had to be Thursday, spent at the Clore Natural History Centre. I'm interested in Biology and it was great to spark the kids' interests in something and see how excited they got. Additionally I had spent all my other days behind the scenes, so it was a nice change to be front of house. Although I didn't have the knowledge to answer all of the children's questions, I learnt through listening to the demonstrator's answers, and, like what I've been told by many staff at World Museum Liverpool, working here means you are constantly learning!

Finally, my last day, Friday, was spent in the museum stores working with Roman coins. I've learnt so much this week, and the variety of the work I've done has been wonderful. I enjoyed my time there so much I am considering doing some volunteer work at the museum!"

If, like Isobel, you are interested in a career in the museums and would like to volunteer to get more experience you can find out more on the Volunteering pages on our website.

Bug House Demonstrator, Rebekah Beresford, tells us about the latest addition to the Bug House...

The weird and wonderful Wandering Violin Mantis

So, may I present to you the Wandering Violin Mantis or Gongylus gonglodes. This awesome looking insect is our newest addition to the Bug House. We have eight of these funky little creatures and they’re one of the most bizarre looking out of all the mantids.

These insects are part of the order Mantodea and are characterized by their slender limbs and stocky upper body. As suggested by the name, this mantis looks somewhat like a violin with leaf like appendages protruding from the legs to aid camouflage and a leaf like head. They’re from Southern India and Sri Lanka and come in a variety of different shades of brown.

The wandering violin mantis is more of a ‘sit and wait’ species rather than a hunter but that’s not to say that they’re picky. These mantids are confident, ravenous feeders and will snatch a variety of flies and moths from the air, if the dare to fly close enough. Most mantids are solitary and have to be kept individually but these are unusually social. Given plenty of space they can be housed together in small groups of 8-10 and pose no threat to each other. 

So, keep your eyes peeled for them in the Bug House! I’ll be putting them out on display in the next few weeks in a mixed exhibit with the hermit crabs and fresh water shrimps. Also keep an eye on the blog for my next posts on how I set up their new vivarium.