National Museums Liverpool Blog - Monday, January 25, 2010

I find the subject of slavery deeply disturbing and the more we find out about its workings, the greater the sense of disbelief.

It is astonishing that misery, disease and death could be imposed upon other human beings on such a vast scale. There are many important lessons to be learnt from the slave trade.  

The native peoples of the Americas and Caribbean were profoundly affected or exterminated and their cultures largely destroyed following the arrival of Europeans.

As colonies were set up and plantations established, there was a chronic shortage of labour because the local people had died in vast numbers.

The transatlantic slave trade happened because Europeans needed workers for their colonial enterprises. This resulted in the largest forced migration in human history as Africans were enslaved in their millions and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

When European explorers arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries, they exploited the riches of the new lands. Initially Spain and Portugal took the lead and were followed by England, France and the Netherlands.

These were the countries that developed the transatlantic slave trade. The Portuguese began growing sugar in Brazil in the 1540s. As Europeans acquired a taste for sweetened food and drink, the demand grew and plantations were established in Caribbean colonies.

Other profitable commodities also entered the plantation system including coffee, tobacco and particularly cotton which was later to play a big part in the growth of Liverpool, Manchester and other Lancashire towns.

On display in the International Slavery Museum, in the Merseyside Maritime Museum building, are two stone implements from the Taino culture  - rare survivals of the original inhabitants of the Caribbean.

Europeans looked to Africa for a new supply of labour. Liverpool was not involved in early English slaving but came to dominate the transatlantic slave trade by the closing decades of the 18th century.

On display is an oil painting by Henry F James showing Liverpool in 1811 (pictured) just four years after the abolition of the slave trade. During this latter period of the trade, dealings with the West Indies generated about 40 per cent of Liverpool’s wealth.

A Wedgwood creamware bowl of 1786 features a hand-painted view of a sailing ship called the Lord Stanley. It was almost certainly made for presentation to John Smale, the ship’s captain, prior to his departure to West Africa on a slaving voyage.

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 p&p UK).

Thanks to everyone who took part in our latest caption competition. This month's judge - and the photographer who took the photo - Stephen Shakeshaft said he was delighted so many people took the time to send in their entries.

The winner this month, who gets a signed copy of Stephen's book 'No Illusions', is Valerie for her topical caption 'Doctor Who seems to get younger each time he regenerates'.

You can see all of the entries by clicking on the Comments on the original blog post.

Don't forget there's just a couple of days left to see the fantastic exhibition that this picture is taken from, Liverpool People by Stephen Shakeshaft, which closes on Sunday.

And look out for a new caption competition on the blog in February.

Today's object featured on Radio Merseyside for the BBC's 'A History of the World' project, is the Ince Athena statue from our Classical collections. You will be able to hear Gina Muskett, curator of classical antiquities, talking about the statue on 'listen again' here. Here is Gina to tell us more about this beautiful and statuesque sculpture!

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I’ve been a curator at World Museum for less than six months, and so many exciting things have happened in such a short time. As well as a new gallery opening for a display of the museum’s collection of Greek objects, I was so pleased when Athena was chosen as one of the objects for the BBC’s ‘A History of the World’ project.

The statue has brilliant links with the local area, as it used to belong to Henry Blundell, who lived at Ince Blundell Hall. Many of you will have seen the entrance to the hall when travelling by road from Liverpool to Southport. We’ve just had an anniversary too – in 2009 it was 50 years since the statues came to the then Liverpool Museum, as a gift.

I’m so lucky to be the curator of the ‘Ince Athena’ statue. I knew about her (yes, I know the statue’s not a real human!) even before I worked at World Museum. I visited the museum a lot when I was a student, and can remember seeing Athena in the old Ancient World gallery, and am really pleased that she’s going back on display again.

As you can imagine, statues get quite grubby when they’re on display without cases, and Athena has spent quite a bit of time in the National Conservation Centre, being cleaned up. She looks wonderful again now, as I’m sure you’ll agree when you see her again – she’ll be on display from the middle of February, greeting visitors at the main entrance to World Museum.

I’m not a great pigeon fancier but I do have a soft spot for the biggest of this breed – the long-dead Dodo. Depending on what you believe, the flightless bird waddled or strutted into history around 1693 when it was wiped off the face of the earth.

There is a very rare skeleton of a Dodo temporarily on display at World Museum. It is going to be featured on Radio Merseyside at 8.20 am on Monday 25 January 2010 as part of the BBC’s exciting series, A History of the World. Our picture shows curator of vertebrate zoology Dr Clem Fisher, who was recently interviewed for the show, with the incomplete composite skeleton. It has been in our collection since 1866 and has not been on display for at least 40 years.

Clem will tell listeners how specimens continue to reveal secrets: “The skeleton was made up from various Dodo bones found in a bog and is quite complete. However, we recently discovered that the foot bones had been skilfully carved from wood – probably in Victorian times.”

I have discovered that there is quite a controversy over what the Dodo actually looked like when alive. Live ones were brought to Europe from its only home, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. These captive specimens grew fat and waddled about their cages. One was painted by Jan Savery and his depiction led to the popular perception of the creature as a bird buffoon.

We now know the reality was rather different and that Dodos were more likely lithe birds that strutted around. Being flightless, they must have been pretty agile to find food in competition with other species. This interpretation is backed up by the 1991 rediscovery of long-lost drawings showing a slightly plump but alert bird. 

Then there is the theory about how Dodos became extinct. The popular story is that they were killed by the crews of passing ships. The Dutch, however, thought the Dodo tasted loathsome. I suppose it would depend how hungry you were. Some people said Dodo meat was tough but good to eat. There were other birds and animals on Mauritius to tempt the palate. Looking at the World Museum skeleton, I am reminded of the turkey after Christmas dinner so perhaps seafarers had the same idea. Turkeys were discovered in North America by the Spanish more than 400 years ago during the time Dodos were being hunted.

The name is probably of Dutch origin, shortened from dodaars meaning knot-arse, referring to the knot or tuft of feathers making up its tail. The Dodo had a relation on the neighbouring island of Réunion called the Solitaire. Sometimes known as the White Dodo, it became extinct some time after 1705.

As we highlighted on yesterday’s blog, National Museums Liverpool is part of 350 museums and institutions across the country to have teamed up with the BBC for A History of the World project.

The BBC revealed yesterday a list of 10 objects chosen to tell a history of Merseyside and its place in the world. Five of these objects are part of National Museums Liverpool’s collection, and each will be featured on BBC Radio Merseyside over the next two weeks.

 

Tony Snell’s breakfast programme yesterday revealed the first object to be St Peter’s Church Hall Stage, and our curator of contemporary collecting Paul Gallagher, can be heard telling the story of the stage and its place in history.

 

Who’d have thought that in 1957, the stage would provide the meeting point for the world’s greatest song writing team, and signal the beginnings of the ‘Fab Four’?

 

The stage was most recently on display in The Beat Goes On exhibition which told the story of Liverpool’s musical heritage at World Museum, and will be on display at the new Museum of Liverpool when it opens in Spring 2011.

Hello

Well it is with great shock and sadness that I write this blog in light of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Nobody could not have been shocked at the images shown in the media this past week but it was particularly difficult for those of us associated with the museum as Haiti is central to the museum's history and ethos for several reasons.

On 23 August 2007 the International Slavery Museum was opened. This is a significant date as it commemorates an uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) in 1791. The date has been designated by UNESCO as Slavery Remembrance Day, a reminder that enslaved Africans were the main agents of their own liberation. Resistance to injustices and discrimination is a central theme of the International Slavery Museum.

An even more tangible link is the Freedom! scupture. The sculpture was commissioned by international development charity Christian Aid and National Museums Liverpool to mark 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007. The Freedom! sculpture is made out of recycled objects such as metal car parts and raw junk found in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and was created by young Haitians and sculptors Eugène, Céleur and Guyodo from Atis Rezistans in collaboration with Mario Benjamin, an internationally renowned Haitian artist who has represented his country at Biennials in Venice, São Paulo and Johannesburg.

Sadly one of the other artists (not one of the people pictured above) from the Grand Rue artists collective has died, along with thousands upon thousands of his fellow Haitians in the disaster. Our heartfelt wishes go out to all those who have lost family and friends in the disaster. Haiti has a strong and proud people and I am sure that with a sustained amount of aid the country will recover and grow after this horrific disaster. Please go to the following Unicef and Foundry TV sites for further information or to make a donation.

Update 10/02/10: We received some welcome good news recently that the Haitian artist Guyodo (Frantz Jacques), along with his family, are fine, as well as several colleagues from the Grand Rue artists collective, but sadly his home was destroyed.

Last week I spent an afternoon filming with the BBC Inside Out North West team, working on a programme being aired on BBC One this evening.

 

The programme is part of A History of the World project, formed out of a unique partnership between the BBC, the British Museum and 350 museums and institutions across the country.

 

For this particular programme, presenter Andy Johnson heads to the Wirral in search of Bidston Observatory’s Tide Prediction Machine, and our very own expert and curator of earth science Alan Bowden, was interviewed for the piece about National Museums Liverpool’s own collection of objects acquired from Bidston Observatory.

 

Tune into BBC One tonight at 7:30pm to unearth the history of Bidston’s Tide Prediction Machine, and learn of its place in the history of the North West region and its global connections.

 

You can also visit the Space and Time gallery at World Museum to learn more about our Bidston Observatory collection, and see some of the objects on display, and make sure you keep our blog and website for updates on A History of the World.

I don't know about you, but I think it's always good to start the new year by having a bit of a spruce up - whether it's spring cleaning or a bit of a make over! We're used to giving important objects a new lease of life here at National Museums Liverpool and this week we have Sculpture Conservator, Lottie Barnden, to tell us about the work she's been doing to help celebrate the World Museum's 150th anniversary...

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To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of William Brown’s gift of a library and museum to the city of Liverpool, a marble bust of the man himself has been brought out of storage for conservation treatment, prior to going out on public display. This portrait bust by Isaac Jackson was sculpted in 1851, just nine years before the William Brown Library was completed.

When it arrived at the sculpture conservation studios, it was thought to be one of the filthiest objects we’ve had in for a long time! I suspect that it hasn’t been cleaned since it was first made. The bust section is attached to a socle (a type of small round plinth) using a section of copper dowel. The plaster fill around this dowel has become brittle and loose and the bust now wobbles and turns on its base, making it quite unstable and unsuitable for going on public display as it is.

The first thing for me to is to take the bust off the socle and remove the copper dowel. This is a procedure we often perform on the older marble busts as the copper or iron pieces that were used as fixings in the 18th and 19th centuries corrode over time and the rusting can migrate into the marble causing deep staining. The dowel will be replaced with a new one in stainless steel.

Next I can begin the cleaning. When an object as dirty as this comes in it is very rewarding to see the dramatic difference that a good clean can make to it. It is often the case that the layers of dirt can obscure the fine detail of the carving or the cleaning process can reveal more problems with the sculpture than you originally saw. Happily, with this bust, the marble itself is in good enough condition that I can use a type of precision steam cleaner to gently clean away the years of soiling and museum dust. There are some paint splashes found below the dirt but these can be cleaned off using a solvent treatment and there are no other nasty surprises to be found.

Once the bust has been cleaned and restored back onto its socle, all that remains is for it to be given a protective coating of wax to keep the dust and dirt separate from the marble surface. 

This will help to keep Sir William Brown looking his best for the celebrations! The bust should be ready for display in February, so keep a look out for him at the World Museum.

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If you have any memories of the World Museum from either the past or present, then we'd like to hear from you! If you have a specific date that sticks in your mind, then all the better. You can submit your memories as a comment at the bottom of this post.

Like most boys of my generation, spotting trains, boats, planes and buses was my hobby. It started with car number plates before graduating to ships when I was in my mid teens.

This was the early 1960s and Liverpool was still a great port to look at vessels before tight security and containerisation swept away the old scenes.

I would cycle along the dock road or take the ferry to Birkenhead and Wallasey Docks. Among the many ships I recorded were those of the famous Harrison Line whose vessels were once common on the River Mersey and in ports throughout the world.

T & J Harrison Ltd was founded in Liverpool in 1853 as the port steadily grew in capacity and importance. The company, headed by Thomas and James Harrison, had small beginnings focusing on the wine and brandy trades.

In Merseyside Maritime Museum's Art and the Sea gallery there is a fascinating oil painting of one of the earliest Harrison ships – the West Derby, named after an historic village in Liverpool where I live.

West Derby off Egremont was painted by Thomas Dove (1811 – 1886) and shows the sailing ship making sternway – drifting slowly backwards so that the anchor takes hold in the riverbed.

In the foreground is an early Liverpool steam tug which has helped the West Derby into the Mersey. The painting shows five crew members furling (rolling up) a sail. Four stand precariously on the yard hauling up the sail while the fifth stands below manoeuvring the sail upwards.

A Harrison tradition started in 1857 with the naming of Philosopher, a full-rigged ship. From then on most of the company’s ships were named after trades and professions.
Harrison’s first two steamers were the Gladiator and the Cognac, both built in 1860 The last sailing ship was sold in 1889 and the company began to develop its routes which from 1902 included South Africa.

The most famous Harrison ship was the Politician, wrecked in 1941, which inspired the classic 1949 Ealing comedy Whisky Galore. She foundered off the Isle of Eriskay with 50,000 cases of scotch on board.

The Harrison Line (now Charente Ltd) sold its shipping interests to P&O Nedlloyd in 2000.

Shortly afterwards the huge Harrison archive was donated to the Merseyside Maritime Museum archives for use by researchers. A total of 134 boxes of records covering the period 1860 to 1980 give a remarkable insight into the expansion and day-to-day operation of the line.

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 p&p UK).

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."