National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, February 10, 2011

This Saturday you can make a stand for love at the International Slavery Museum, at a free workshop making Valentines' Day cards with a difference. Our cards are designed to support the anti-trafficking campaign and raise awareness about modern day slavery.

Everyone deserves to be treated as special someone - not as a commodity to be brought and sold. So make a Valentines' Day card with an anti-trafficking message to send to someone, to support the Stop the Traffik campaign.

More information is on the Special Someone campaign website.

There are also some interesting free lectures coming up as part of Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) programme. The CSIS is a partnership between the International Slavery Museum and the University of Liverpool, where the lectures take place.

• Tuesday 15 February: 'Kara Walker's vision of American slavery', Michael Bibler (University of Manchester)

• Tuesday 29 March: Delia's Tears: Race, Science and Photography in 19th Century America,  Molly Rogers (University of Warwick) 

Both seminars take place at 5.15pm in Room 401 in the Cypress Building - number 108 on the campus map, available on the university website.

When you have your first ‘cuppa’ tomorrow morning you might want to give a little thought to one of the Walker Art Gallery’s best-loved paintings.

‘Mrs Mounter’ is by the British artist Harold Gilman who was born 11 Feb 1876, 135 years ago tomorrow.

Gilman was a founder member of the Camden Town Group, an influential London artist collective formed at the start of the 20th century.

‘Mrs Mounter’ is a colourful portrait of Gilman’s landlady. The charming depiction of the elderly woman in her distinctive red head scarf, sat at a table with an un-matching tea set, is really popular with our youngest visitors. In fact to view the painting on a week day during term time you will often have to look over the heads of an excited school party!

Painted around 1916/17 the techniques Gilman used for Mrs Mounter were inspired by the European Post-Impressionist painters, such as van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin.

'Mrs Mounter', currently in store, goes on display in the new interactive gallery, 'British Art: 1880 to 1950', from 25 March 2011.

Keep an eye on the progress of the gallery on Flickr. 

Francesca Aiken, assistant exhibition curator for the Global City gallery in the new Museum of Liverpool says:

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‘The Sailors Farewell’ cup and saucer, on display in the Global City gallery from July in the new Museum of Liverpool

 

Working late, forgot the flowers, no card this year? Spare a thought for the wife of this sailor, whose husband must soon depart for many weeks or months on board ship without contact from home.

 

A sailor’s life was a dangerous one, where being swept overboard or wrecked without hope of rescue were a constant risk.  Forget texts or Facebook, this young woman would have to wait until he returned home to know if he was safe or not.

Known as ‘The Sailors Farewell’ this porcelain teacup and saucer was made in China in the early 1800s for sale to European socialites who enjoyed the delicate art of tea drinking.

Due to be displayed in the new Museum of Liverpool opening this July, this rare example of a European couple painted by Chinese artists will feature in the Global City gallery alongside some of the best examples of Liverpool and Chinese pottery from the 18th and 19th centuries.

East meets West the story of Shanghai and Liverpool illustrates how potters in Liverpool upped their game by imitating Chinese porcelain (even going so far as to add fake Chinese marks to the base) to meet the insatiable demand of consumers.

My first construction kit was of a galleon with a solid balsa wood hull and colourful cardboard cabins and sails.

All the later ones were plastic. I have fond memories of making a big model of HMS Hood with The Searchers on the radio in the background singing 'Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya'. Strange how music can imprint pictures in the brain.

My favourite aircraft construction kit was a Swordfish - I marvelled how this hugely-successful biplane was put together, with a lethal torpedo slung beneath its fuselage.

Among the measures used by Britain to protect beleaguered convoys in the Second World War was a unique type of ship which catapulted fighter aircraft into action.

From the summer of 1941 onwards Britain converted 35 newly-built cargo ships into Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen – known as CAM ships. Each was able to launch a Hurricane fighter using a rocket-propelled catapult to protect a convoy from air attack.

The CAM ships had no flight decks on which the aircraft could land. Pilots would bail out and the fighters plunged into the sea after just one mission – a wasteful way to wage war.

Although in reality rarely launching their aircraft, between 1941 and mid-1943 (when they were withdrawn from service) the CAM ships were a useful deterrent against enemy aircraft on Atlantic, Gibraltar and Arctic routes.

On display at Merseyside Maritime Museum is a photograph of a CAM ship preparing to launch its Hurricane.

The CAM ships were replaced by MAC ships – short for Merchant Aircraft Carrier. These were grain carriers or oil tankers fitted, whilst being built, with a basic flat deck for three or four Swordfish aircraft (pictured).

These ships could not only provide air cover for convoys but also carry much-needed grain and oil for Britain.

From mid-1943 at least one MAC ship crewed by the Merchant Navy but carrying aircraft and men of 836 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, sailed with every North Atlantic convoy.

The Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber – affectionately known as The Stringbag by its crews - was one of the last biplanes to be built but gained a fearsome reputation.

First flown in 1934, they were considered outdated at the outbreak of war but went on to achieve some spectacular successes.

They famously crippled the German battleship Bismarck, leaving her floundering to be finished off by British warships. An Italian battleship was sunk and two others damaged by Swordfish in the Battle of Taranto.

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 or bookshops.

This week Ethnology curator Emma Martin said goodbye to some contemporary Bengali scrolls that will tour the northwest region over the next year.

Telling Tales: Story Scrolls from India features six never seen before, beautiful and vibrant scrolls, created by leading contemporary Indian artists.

The tour starts at Prescot Museum on 15 February 2011. The scrolls then travel across the North West over the next year as part of a partnership programme lead by National Museums Liverpool to share its ethnology collection with a wider audience. Later this year the tour will also bring the scrolls to World Museum before they continue the rest of the tour. 

Traditionally 19th century patuas or picture makers of West Bengal would to go from town to town to spread news of local heroes and of epic battles between good and evil using song and picture scrolls.

Telling Tales: Story Scrolls from India will display contemporary scrolls by modern-day patuas, that tell ancient stories alongside issues affecting society today. Their scrolls highlight important issues such as AIDS, women’s rights, global events like the tsunami and war in Afghanistan.

On Sunday 13 February 2011, hugely successful cricketing exhibition Beyond the Boundary, will come to an end.

This exhibition of powerful and emotive photographs at the International Slavery Museum explores aspects of cricket that have not been seen before.

Since the exhibition opened in March 2010 the International Slavery Museum has had over 380,000 visitors including cricketing legend Henry Olonga, who gave the Slavery Remembrance Day memorial lecture in Liverpool on 20 August 2010. During the inspirational lecture Olonga spoke about wearing a black armband in a Cricket World Cup in protest against Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe government.

Beyond the Boundary explores the relationship between cricket, culture, class and politics and how it can be seen as a legacy of British imperialism and colonialism and, paradoxically, as a means of resistance against it.

Through photographs featuring cricketers such as Viv Richards, Paul Adams and Basil D’Oliveira, the exhibition celebrates contemporary players who, by playing in the boundary of the cricket pitch, broke the boundaries of racial apartheid. Beyond the Boundary explores the story of enslavement and oppression of people from the African Diaspora globally, and their deep connections with cricket. 

We've just released a new video to give you all a sneak preview of our upcoming exhibition 'A Collector's Eye: Cranach to Pissarro', opening on Friday 18 February at the Walker Art Gallery! 

• Watch the video here

Our video gives a taste of what's going to be on display and lets you 'zoom in' and get closer to some of the paintings.

The exhibition will show the changing tastes of prolific art collector, David Lewis and his family. Expect to see serene landscapes by Sisley, a dramatic battle scene by Rubens and stunning portraits like the Vouet work pictured above.

If you want to see the exhibition before everyone else, then enter our Twitter competition! Up for grabs are 3 pairs of tickets to the private view of the exhibition at the Walker on Thursday 17 February.

To enter you should:

1. Log into Twitter
2. Go to @livmuseums and make sure you are following us
3. Find our recent tweet about the new video (tweeted on 1 February)
4. Re-tweet it
5. Wait and see if your name is picked out of the draw!

Do make sure you are following us though, so we can let you know if your name has been pulled out of the hat! The competition closes at midnight on Monday 14 February and we will inform all winners via Twitter, on Tuesday 15 February.

Full competition details can be found here.

The Victorian child’s brass telescope attracted my eye in the cluttered window of the old junk shop in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. After some cajoling, it was mine and I was soon down at the river scrutinising the great ships coming and going from the docks.

I still have the little telescope bought all those years ago and continue to be fascinated by the hidden worlds revealed by lenses.

The invention of the telescope helped transform safety at sea as mariners could now see distant shorelines and other vessels not easily visible to the human eye.

The great scientist Galileo greatly improved on the work of three Dutchmen who made the first telescope in 1608. They were Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen – both spectacle makers - and Jacob Metius, an optician.

Early instruments worked on the refraction principal using two lenses to magnify objects. British scientist Isaac Newton constructed the first practical reflecting telescope in 1668, using mirrors to improve image quality.

Binoculars were developed soon after the invention of the telescope when it was realised that mounting two side-by-side had advantages. However, binoculars were slower to be developed but reached their modern form in the 1850s when prisms were introduced to improve efficiency.

There are several examples of binoculars and telescopes on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum. A pair of binoculars dating from about 1860 came from the sailing ship White Star. Pilkington and Wilson’s White Star Line was a major player in the booming emigrant trade to Australia.

An impressive stainless steel telescope was used at the Falmouth Custom House. Dating from the late 19th century, it was in service until 2000 to observe vessels entering harbour.

A set of binoculars (pictured) came from the conning tower of a Second World War German U-boat submarine. These heavy binoculars were clipped on top of a torpedo aiming device during surface patrols. Bearings from the device were automatically transmitted to officers and men inside the submarine. The grey-painted binoculars are fitted with a viewfinder on one eyepiece.

Royal Navy binos in a case stamped HMS Hood date from 1940 -1. This old battle cruiser was sunk by the giant German battleship Bismarck on 24 May 1941 with the loss of 1,400 lives.

A cased brass and wood telescope by Abraham & Co of Liverpool belonged to 'Hellfire' Sinclair, a fearsome Black Ball Line captain who came to Liverpool in the 1850s at the beginning of his career.

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.

There's a very exciting year ahead at the International Slavery Museum and yesterday I got to meet the women behind the venue's latest project with the working title 'The woman I am'.

The project is led by photo journalist Lee Karen Stow, whose exhibition '42' Women of Sierra Leone opens at the museum in March, to coincide with International Women's Day. In addition to taking photographs herself, Lee has run a number of workshops in Sierra Leone and the UK, teaching women digital photography skills.

This week she has been working with the Liverpool Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) group on the photography workshops for 'The woman I am'. The group have are hoping to exhibit the photographs they have taken in the new centre for the Women's Organisation, which opens soon in the city. A selection of their photographs will also be featured on the '42' exhibition website.

When I caught up with them they were taking portrait photographs and had brought in some fabulous colourful clothes from their home countries to wear - and dress Lee and volunteer Abi in! Some photos from the day are in the WAST photography workshop set on Flickr.

Update 02/03/2011: You can now see the online exhibition of 'The Woman I am' on the website.

Lee told me that it had been a very successful week:

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"This week about sixteen women from all parts of the world have taken part - from Tibet, the Congo, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana. Women who maybe have done a little bit of photography before, snapshots, but they’ve never really focussed on using the camera to explore the things they like and things about themselves.

I have to give enormous thanks and credit to these women because they’ve come here this week, many of them are going through horrendous difficulties either with red tape, forms or legal implications; or stress or worries about back home or their future here.

And yet they’ve come in, picked up the cameras, listened to a few basic instructions and they’ve gone out and they’ve taken some really good pictures. Their energy has just been a complete overwhelming buzz to the class, so it's been a great experience, I’ve really enjoyed it and I think they have too.

There is a stereotypical view of asylum seekers. But if people look beyond the stereotype they will see women just like us with problems and dreams, wanting to make a better life for themselves."

The Maritime Archives & Library has a rolling programme of temporary exhibitions in the 3 showcases outside our door on the second floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.  Our current exhibition, in conjunction with our colleagues from the UK Border Agency National Museum, is on the Harrison Line vessel Politician, which ran aground off the island of Eriskay, Scotland.  The fact that the vessel was carrying a lot of whisky is well known, highlighted by the novel and film Whisky Galore, but there was a lot of other interesting cargo onboard, not least 290,000 Jamaican bank notes.  The recent publicity for the opening of the exhibition caught the eye of a man interested in the story of the ship.  He has kindly donated one of the very bank notes to us and we’ve added it to the exhibition.