National Museums Liverpool Blog - Friday, January 15, 2010

Yasmin, one of our youth v volunteers has the honour of being the first volunteer to receive her v50 Award certificate in 2010. The certificate recognises the completion of 50 hours of volunteer work as part of the vinvolved project for people aged 16-25.
 
The staff in National Museums Liverpool's volunteers team and Education and Communities team have said a big well done and thank you to Yasmin for her time and commitment. Yasmin herself said of her time here:

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"Volunteering at the National Conservation Centre has given me the opportunity to develop a number of skills. I performed a variety of tasks from helping to deliver visitor workshops and walks for health, to being involved with the Stephen Shakeshaft exhibition.

The workshops were particularly useful as they involved working with a wide range of skills and visitor ages. My favourite workshop has to be Felt Making, because I enjoyed helping the visitors design and make their final pieces.

My time at the National Conservation Centre wouldn't have been as enjoyable without the encouragement and support of the Education and Communities team. As well as developing skills such as confidence, IT and customer service, I have also learned that nothing is impossible and that I can achieve many things."

I know we have all heard enough about the cold weather but may I just explain how much I hate the snow. Not only does it reduce me to walking at a snail’s pace for fear of falling over but when traffic turns it into ugly, sludgey, grey lumps my heart sinks.

With a fresh batch of unwelcome snow delivered today I decided to have a look at how the new Aubrey Williams exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery is looking. One painting is actually called Hymn to the Sun IV and its lovely fiery hues were just what I needed.

As I arrived, members of the exhibition team were working on the display case for objects from World Museum’s Americas collection. The ancient indigenous cultures of Central and South America were a significant influence on his work and this small collection of objects mirror the colour and shapes that can be seen in his paintings.

Aubrey Williams: Atlantic Fire opens Friday 15 January.

Here is this week's post celebrating the World Museum's 150th anniversary this year! This week we have a story from Ian Wallace, our Curator of Conchology & Aquatic Biology. Read on to find out about the staff who travelled on a luxury steam yacht to collect new specimens for the museum...

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On January 16th 1876 the Museum’s Director, Reverend Henry Hugh Higgins, and museum assistants John Chard and James Wood, left Liverpool on board the brand new luxury steam yacht 'Argo'.  This had been chartered by Mr Holt of Sudley Art Gallery fame (now called Sudley House), for a cruise to the West Indies and museum workers were invited along to collect scientifically important specimens for the Liverpool Museum (now called the World Museum).  The museum authorities allocated Higgins £50 to cover all costs for the three of them and to purchase specimens.  He spent  £43 and 10d (10 pennies) !   

They were especially interested in collecting marine life and they focussed on sponges.  A sponge is one of the least complicated of all animal groups.  There are lots of cells in the sponge body but there is no organising brain or nervous system and no complicated body organs.  The whole body is a mass of small channels lined by cells that have a beating hair.  These beating cells draw in water and other cells grab tiny single-celled plants floating in the water, digest the plant cells and pass some of the digested food to their neighbours.  Other cells secrete a supporting skeleton of horny fibres or glass fibres.

These sponges may look a little strange but are of inestimable value in the scientific study of sponges.  Sponges have strange chemicals in their bodies to stop bacteria and other things killing them and these chemicals are being tested to see if any have properties to attack bacteria or even cancer, that affect humans.

Upon return to Liverpool, on May 27th 1876  the sponges were cleaned, labelled and sent to the national expert Henry Carter, in London.  He realised many had never been scientifically described or named.  The ‘type’ specimens on which these descriptions were made were returned to the museum.  Since then other sponge experts have asked to see them to understand exactly what Carter had in mid when he wrote his description. 

As luck would have it, the collection was away in London being examined by the then national sponge expert, Maurice Burton, at the time museum was fire bombed, in May 1941.  They were thankfully saved by being out of the city at the time and were returned to Liverpool after the war.

We have many of the documents relating to the voyage and Reverend Higgins wrote a book about it called 'A Field Naturalist in the Western Tropics'. It must have been a real adventure!  

I like to use spices when cooking but only sparingly. To my mind there's nothing worse than making things so hot or spicy you can't taste the food.

Many years ago a friend took me around old spice warehouses on the River Thames when they were empty, awaiting redevelopment. I was overwhelmed by the wonderful smells that still permeated everywhere – this was part of the East transported to London.

British trade with India and China was controlled by the East India Company from the closing years of the Tudor era until the 19th century.

The company was granted a royal charter by Elizabeth I in 1600 and went on to generate huge wealth for many investors. The charter granted a monopoly of trade with all countries to the east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west of the Straights of Magellan in South America.

In its early days the company fought Dutch and Portuguese rivals in sea battles on the Indian Ocean. These operations were costly so the company decided to set up bases in mainland India, initially with the agreement of Indian rulers.

These footholds grew over the years until the East India Company was largely responsible for the British conquest of India and was used by the government to rule that vast country.

The company's ships were among the finest and largest of their time. Among the cargoes they brought back were tea, silks, spices, porcelain, sugar and rice.  They also carried passengers – mainly military and government officials – between London and India.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there is an oil painting called 'An East Indiaman taking a pilot off Dover', attributed to Robert Dodd (1748 – 1815).

This finely-observed work shows the ship with ensigns flying alongside other vessels off the White Cliffs of Dover as the pilot prepares to board.

The company’s century-long rule of all of India effectively began following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when Robert Clive defeated Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent ruler of Bengal.

The East India Company's monopolies were scrapped in the 19th century following a campaign in which Liverpool merchants played a leading part.

Liverpool’s Asia trade involving the export of cotton goods and import of tea, East Indian sugar and Asian produce underlined its importance as a world-class port.

The East India Company's monopoly of trade with India was abolished in 1813. The company was dissolved in 1858.

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 (£1.00 p&p UK).

John Moores Project Manager Angela Samata looks after everything to do with the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize - here she is to tell us about how things have been going with JM2010 so far...

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So, today is the day that the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize 2010 took the leap into the previously unknown world of Twitter - and what a response!  

The John Moores mailbox was full of entries and emails saying that other twitterers, if that’s the right term, had started following us when I arrived at the snowy and very chilly Walker Art Gallery this morning. 

The John Moores 2010 is also the first time that artists can enter online - another great success - with over 90% of entrants using this method to register for the prize and the chance to walk away with the £25,000 prize money.

The prize today has the same ethos it always has: to showcase the best of contemporary painting talent at the Walker art Gallery. It is open to all throughout the UK, professional and non professional artists alike.

Entrants now have just 6 weeks left to register, as the Call For Entries closes on 19 February 2010.

So enter online today at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/johnmoores or email jm2010@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk to request a registration form.

For all the latest JM2010 news, you can follow us on Twitter: @JohnMoores2010

Good luck with your entry!

Please note that due to the adverse weather conditions and for the safety of our
staff and visitors, National Museums Liverpool's venues will be closing at 3pm
again today. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Even while it has been snowing outside this week, our staff have been working away behind the scenes inside the Walker Art Gallery to prepare the next exhibition Aubrey Williams: Atlantic Fire. The exhibition of 14 paintings by Guyanese-born artist Aubrey Williams opens on 15 January 2010.

Handling and transport technicians Paula and Paul took some great photos on their way to the Walker in the snow on Tuesday. You can see more in the Moving stories set on Flickr. I hope they had a nice Liverpool fire, or even some central heating, at home to warm them up when they got home from work.

Please note that due to the adverse weather conditions and for the safety of our staff and visitors, National Museums Liverpool's venues will be closing at 3pm today - Wednesday 6 January. Apologies for the inconvenience.

We hope that you all keep safe and warm while it is snowing. And don't forget that while the venues are closed you can still enjoying our winter-themed online exhibition on the website.

Happy New Year everyone! As it's a brand new year here's a brand new caption competition to wake your brains up and get you all thinking. This time we've chosen a seasonal photo from the fantastic exhibition Liverpool People by Stephen Shakeshaft at the National Conservation Centre. If you haven't been to see the exhibition yet then you've got three weeks before it closes on 24 January 2010.

If you can think of an amusing (and clean, don't forget) caption for this photo then post it as a comment by the end of the day on Sunday 17 January. The winner will be announced the following week.

Stephen Shakeshaft himself will be judging this month's competition. The lucky winner will get a signed copy of his book 'No Illusions' which includes many of the pictures from the exhibition and more from Stephen's first 30 years as a newspaper photographer.

The idea of taking a slow boat to China is very appealing to me but the company would have to be good and the surroundings congenial.

Travel should be enjoyed as a part of a wider experience rather than just as a means of getting somewhere. Between the ages of 16 and 24 I went on many walking holidays, savouring the people and places I encountered.

Sea travel offers similar experiences as events unfold gradually so we are able to adjust better to our surroundings. It is also much more comfortable and relaxing than air or road travel, for example.

More than 70 years ago people could take a cruise from Liverpool to London, stopping at a number of ports on the way.This was still a comparatively leisurely age with large numbers of people being carried across the seas and oceans. Air travel was in its infancy as passenger aircraft were only capable of carrying small numbers of passengers.

Aerodromes were the provinces of the very rich – everyone else going abroad took to the waves. Likewise road travel was still a big adventure. Before the Second World War, lorries were only permitted to travel at slow speeds.

They would frequently break down and had great difficulties going up hills. Roads crawled through every town and village on tortuous routes across the country before the age of the bypass. It is not surprising, therefore, that some people still preferred to travel by sea between British ports – as they had for centuries – if they had the time and money.

Coast Lines grew into the largest coaster company in the world after being formed in 1913 from the merger of three Liverpool coastal shipping companies. Business declined in the 1950s largely due to the growth of road transport.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum’s World Gateway gallery there is a builder’s model of the Coast Lines’ motor vessel Ocean Coast of 1935 (pictured). She ran a regular cargo service between Liverpool and London.

The 1,700-ton Ocean Coast carried general cargo and up to 10 passengers. The round trip took about 10 days and made an unusual cruising holiday.

Ocean Coast was withdrawn from service in 1964 and she was sold to a Greek company. A smaller half model in the Life at Sea gallery shows how mixed cargo was stowed on the Ocean Coast.

Most cargo vessels carried a wide range of goods. The Merseyside Maritime Museum holds the Coast Lines archives (see our Archives section on our main site).

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).