National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, October 28, 2010

There’s only four days left of October which means only four days left of Black History Month, a national celebration that aims to promote and celebrate Black contributions to British society.

We had a packed programme of events for the whole month and there is still time to take part in some more.

Today at the International Slavery Museum there is an arts and crafts session about the art of Adrinka from 1-4pm, a curator talk highlighting the representation of women in the Museum at 1pm and another talk from collector Leslie Braine Ikomi who will talk about the presence of Black people in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries also at 1pm.

On Saturday 30 October lecturer Ron Noon will be giving a talk at the Merseyside Maritime Museum that looks at links between Liverpool and sugar.

Even if you don’t manage to come along to these events the International Slavery Museum also has exhibitions that may be of interest. Beyond the Boundary explores the relationship between cricket, culture, class and politics. Trafficked highlights the ongoing struggle to combat human trafficking around the world. Home alone: end domestic slavery explores the issue of the exploitation of domestic workers. 

There are only four days left of Black History Month

Recently we updated the blog with news of how filming’s going for our football immersive experience Kicking and Screaming in the new Museum of Liverpool, and now it’s your chance to get involved.

TJ and Charlie, two of the young actors who appear throughout the film in the Kicking and Screaming football immersive

A film about football in Liverpool wouldn’t be complete without an insight into ‘Derby Day’, and soon we will be recreating our very own with the help of reds and blues across the city.

It’s true to say that football can unite, but many families across Merseyside are split down the middle, with some members supporting one team, and others pledging allegiance to another.

At least two days a season, this division can really catch up with us, as Liverpool and Everton go head to head in a Derby game. Rivalry is fierce, tensions high, but nothing quite matches up to the anticipation and exhilaration of a Derby game, and if you’re on the winning side (and I’m pleased to say I was recently) the sensation of a Derby victory is really quite something.

So, reds and blues, we are offering you a chance to be part of a really exciting project that demonstrates our mutual appreciation and true passion for the game, in recreating a classic scene in the build up to a Derby, of walking to the match.

If you’re interested in taking part, we will be filming on the evening of Monday 1 November at a location in Liverpool to be confirmed. Reds and blues of all ages can get in touch with Katie Louise Brown for further information on how to get involved by emailing katielouise.brown@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or calling 0151 478 4069.

The film will feature in the Museum of Liverpool for some years to come, so we can’t have recent strips or names of famous players on show. Retro strips, scarves, hats and non descriptive clothes are fine, and it will be cold so wrap up warmly in hats and scarves of your team colour.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo

I have many memories of Liverpool’s docklands when they were labour-intensive before the widespread use of containers.

Once I was flung off my motorcycle when the wheels got caught in the dock railway lines. The windscreen and front mudguard were shattered.

As I wheeled my machine past the police officer he joked: “You crunched!” (This was a catch phrase from a crisps advert of the time, 1968.)

Some 25 years earlier the Port of Liverpool fought a daily battle of survival bringing in vital supplies.

Imports were essential for Britain’s survival during the Second World War when convoys of merchant ships criss-crossed the Atlantic between Liverpool and America.

Many food products were rationed throughout the war and into the post war period. All kinds of commodities were brought in on the ships. The Germans targeted the convoys with submarine attacks in an attempt to stop as many as possible.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said: “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”

The total amount of cargo handled at British ports in the 12 months starting April 1940 was unusually low – about half the wartime average. This was due both to Germany’s successes and the organisational problems of the ports.

For example the ports of Liverpool and Manchester dealt with 4.2 million tons – 31 per cent of UK ports’ total trade. In this period the main west coast ports handled about 60 per cent of Britain’s imports.

A photograph in the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s Battle of the Atlantic gallery shows Liverpool dockers unloading a ship’s cargo into railway wagons alongside a bomb-damaged dockside in April 1943 (pictured).

A modern painting by David Cobb is called 'A Convoy Arrives in Liverpool', showing the cargo vessels escorted by war ships.

No less than 1,285 convoys and an impressive total of 76,000 ships arrived in the Mersey during the war. This was an average of four convoys and 280 ships (not all in convoy) every week. A similar amount of traffic headed out of the river.

Since every convoy (or part convoy) might consist of up to 60 ships, the amount of shipping involved put a severe strain on the port workforce and facilities.

Dockers played a vital role in unloading the cargoes. Delays in unloading were generally caused by the number of ships in port and the damage caused by air raids.

By 1944 far more cargoes were being handled than before the war.

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 and bookshops.

Test your skills as a docker in the online game Cargo-a-go-go.

Yesterday morning there were 15 eager first year Egyptology students waiting outside the museum doors in the pouring rain. They were here for a museum class translating inscriptions in the Ancient Egypt gallery, all done early in the morning before the museum opens to the public. The group had an hour to make their way round the gallery and translate hieroglyphic inscriptions on a varity of artefacts - wooden coffins and stone stela. Some had to crawl on the floor to read the very bottom lines of text on the coffins.

This is their second museum class of the new academic year: last Saturday they came round for a tour of the gallery to get them familiar with the collections. It's always good to meet the new students, especially when they are so keen and excited about putting their first month of language training into action with ancient artefacts in the museum. I look forward to seeing them keep returning over the next 3 years of their degree. In recent years the museum has become more involved with the teaching of Egyptology at the University, building on a relationship that stretches back over 100 years. Much of World Museum's Egyptian collection comes from the university's excavations by Professor John Garstang who was digging in Egypt, Nubia and the Near East in the early part of the 1900s. The university still continues to excavate in Egypt and next week I'll be joining colleagues from the university to assist with the on-going study of a fortress town of Rameses II. I'll be updating the Ancient Egypt gallery Facebook fan page with news from Egypt if you want to find out more.

It is that time of year again when the shops are packed with witches and warlock costumes. I for one have shunned mass-produced costumes and favoured a more DIY aesthetic. Over the years I have taken great pride in my costumes, which although a bit rough around the edges, were usually unique and a bit of a conversation-starter. However I have never had the pleasure of going to a party with artist Marcus Coates, who I fear may have a costume wardrobe to outshine my own.

Journey to the Lower World, Beryl 2004. Photography by Nick David. Courtesy of Kate MacGarry and Workplace Gallery

It is seven years since Marcus created "Journey to the Lower World", a film artwork in which he performs a shamanic ritual before a group of fascinated and amused onlookers from Liverpool’s Sheil Park housing estate.

Next week Marcus will be reunited with some of the residents at the Walker Art Gallery in an “in conversation” event with Liverpool-based artist Leo Fitzmaurice. The free event, which forms part of the Contemporary Art Society’s Centenary Programme takes place on Thursday 27 October 2010 at 1pm. To book please call 0151 478 4697.

"Journey to a Lower World" a major piece of work by the artist, was recently acquired by the gallery with the help of the Contemporary Art Society’s Acquisitions Scheme. This is the first time it has been on public display in Liverpool and is on show until early next 2011.

DEMS gunners are not specifically listed on crew lists, because they are listed under their main job title.  However, because they were paid an allowance for their gunnery responsibilities they can be spotted in the wages books.

Assistant curator Graham Hodson has been researching DEMS gunners using the wage books within our shipping company archives. In the wage account dated 12 September 1944 he spotted the aptly named Cannon and Ball being paid a gunner's premium on board the Harrison Line vessel Wanderer.  We're not suggesting they are the later comedy duo, although some jokes were probably made at their expense!

You can find out more about DEMS in Information sheet 71 on the website.

The Mapping Memory project team ran an impromptu workshop at Doreen's Cafe last month, focusing on the local community around the Park Lane area. Local residents helped recreate the neighbourhood for the team by using a map to plot interesting landmarks from the past. The resulting picture was of a bustling community during the 1950s and 60s, with many popular local pubs, shops and cafes along Park Lane. Pubs in particular seemed to be a dominant feature of the area, with several dotted along the road, including 'The Long Haul', 'The Lord D Tabley' and 'The Lettuce.' With all the pubs long since demolished it was a great opportunity to capture memories of the area as it once was.

Local Park Lane residents plotting landmarks of the past for our research team

Do you remember Park Lane and the many pubs located along the road? Do you have any stories of other pubs, shops and cafes that existed around the central waterfront and L1 area between the years 1950 and 1980? With more workshops and interviews planned over the coming months we'd love to hear from you. If you'd like to share any of your memories please get in contact with me (Laura Balderstone) on 0151 794 2416 or email L.Balderstone@liverpool.ac.uk. For more information on the project itself check out the Mapping Memory web page.

The project is a collaboration between NML, Liverpool University and Re-Dock. We're grateful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding it as part of their Beyond Text Programme. 

Stephanie George. Over 200,000 children in Haiti work as 'restaveks' - children sent from their family homes in rural areas to work as domestic workers in the city. © Pete Pattisson

Today, 18 October, is Anti-Slavery Day. Many people may think that slavery is something that is part of history but in fact it’s something that still exists today in many forms.

An estimated 12.3 million people across the world are in slavery today, forced to work for little or no pay and denied their most basic human right of freedom. Many people continue to fight for freedom and Anti-Slavery Day on 18 October offers the perfect opportunity to make a stand and join the campaign for freedom.

To understand more about slavery in all it’s forms visit the International Slavery Museum where it’s currently hosting an exhibition called Home Alone: end domestic slavery in conjunction Anti-Slavery International which tells the story of domestic workers. Home alone, invisible to society and lacking legal protection, domestic workers are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world.

Image courtesy of the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo.

To me he looks hardly more than a boy but this chilling photograph clearly demonstrates the glorifying of war with little thought for the victims.

The man in the picture with German dictator Adolf Hitler is 31-year-old Gunther Prien, brilliant U-boat submarine commander. He is being awarded a medal for sinking a British battleship with huge loss of life including more than 100 boy sailors.The wreck lies upside down in just 100 feet of water – HMS Royal Oak, sunk with the loss of 833 lives.

In a meticulously-planned operation masterminded by Germany’s Commander of Submarines Karl Dönitz, U-47 crept into Scapa Flow on the night of 13 October 1939 when tides were high and there was no moon. Dönitz hand-picked Prien for the operation. Four of Prien’s torpedoes hit the anchored Royal Oak which keeled over and sank in 13 minutes.

The attack was seen partly as an act of revenge for the German High Fleet surrendering and scuttling itself at the same place following defeat in the First World War. Sinking the 29,150-ton Royal Oak, an outdated vessel launched in 1914, was also part of a German strategy to displace British warships from their haven in the Orkney Islands.

First Lord of the Admiralty (later Prime Minister) Winston Churchill conceded that the raid was “a remarkable exploit of professional skill and daring” but added that Royal Oak’s loss would not strongly affect the naval balance of power.

Prien and his crew were lauded as heroes when they arrived back in Germany. Prien was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross while each crew member received the Iron Cross Second Class.

Prien was a U-boat ace – the U-47 sank more than 30 Allied ships including the Arandora Star, also with the loss of more than 800 lives.

Prien and all on board U-47 mysteriously disappeared in March 1941. They  may have hit a mine, suffered an accident or been hit by depth-charges.

At Merseyside Maritime Museum there are miniature models of the Royal Oak and the U-47, contrasting their sizes. A souvenir pamphlet commemorates Royal Oak’s visit to Liverpool in June 1937 as part of the celebrations to mark George VI’s coronation.

Royal Oak is now a designated war grave. Work still continues removing 3,000 tons of fuel oil that was on board when she sank. Salvage work can only be done during summer months because of difficult conditions.

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).

Our World Museum 150th anniversary celebrations kick off tomorrow, so here it our final fact for the day taken from our archives.

Did you know... that in January 1956 the museum reopened for the first time since war damage in 1941.  Writer, heiress and political activist, Nancy Cunard also visited the museum that day.

Don't forget to leave your memories of the World Museum on our 'memory wall' if you are visiting us this weekend!

Interior of the museum in 1956