National Museums Liverpool Blog

Scene from the play 'Grandma remember me?'

It’s National Dementia Awareness Week – an annual event organised by The Alzheimer’s Society that is taking place from 19-25 May 2013.

Dementia awareness is an issue that is very close to the Museum of Liverpool’s heart.  Since January 2012 we have been running our own dementia awareness programme, House of Memories, designed to support carers in helping people to live well with dementia. We will be starting a new set of training dates in the Autumn, and you can find details of how to book on our website.

As part of Dementia Awareness Week, The Alzheimer’s Society is coming to Museum of Liverpool on Thursday 23 May. Their team will be on hand to give you information throughout the day and they would love you to come and have a chat, especially as the theme for this year is ‘talking’.

In the afternoon there’s going to be an exhibition of artwork created by people living with dementia and ‘Singing for the Brain’ will be treating us to a selection of songs – come and join in! Singer Jess will also perform her new single, So If You Forget Me, in aid of The Alzheimer’s Society.

In the spirit of Dementia Awareness Week, Museum of Liverpool is also hosting a powerful play on Wednesday 22 May, called ‘Grandma remember me?’ which is presented in partnership with PSS (person shaped support). On Wednesday we will also be showing a short film about the House of Memories programme in World Museum’s Treasure House Theatre. 

There should be plenty to talk about – get involved on Twitter using the hashtag #TalkDementia and find out more about Dementia Awareness Week on the Alzheimer's Society website.

Merseyside Maritime Museum archives and library

Lorna Hyland, Assistant Librarian at the Merseyside Maritime Museum Archives shares this update:

Liverpool’s Literary Festival, “In Other Words” is now drawing to a close and as the festival celebrated the city’s reputation for producing much loved story-tellers, poets, authors and playwrights, I thought I’d mention the library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

We have a wide selection of stories of seafaring life, some written about well known seamen and others published by the seafarers themselves.  Sailors have traditionally been viewed as great ‘spinners of yarns’.  They lived interesting lives, travelling to exotic (and not so exotic) places often being caught up in extraordinary events. 

Our library collection of seafarers’ memoirs includes gems such as the memoirs of Violet Jessop.  Published under the title, Titanic Survivor, the book provides an insight into the everyday working life of a stewardess on a large liner, as well as Violet’s personal experience of the sinkings of Titanic and Britannic.  In Life is a four letter word, Nicholas Monsarratt tells the real story of his Battle of the Atlantic experiences in the Royal Navy, whilst in the book, Tramp Steamers at War, the slightly less well known George Gunn recalls his experiences as a young man on the tramp ships of the North Atlantic convoys of World War II.  From sail to steam, Commodores to apprentices, we have memoirs covering a huge spectrum of seafaring life.

So if you want to read a good ‘yarn’ about life at sea, come down to the Maritime Archives & Library.  I’m sure we’ll have something to suit your tastes.  The library is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10.30 am till 4.30 pm and can be found on the second floor of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp near the Polish town of Oświęcim

Hello,

On Wednesday I gave a talk for the West Derby Society at the very grand Lowlands built in 1846.  The taxi driver, on being told what I did for a living, said something along the lines of ‘great museum, but not everyone in Liverpool supported and profited from slavery.’  I explained that we don’t say that, we talk about Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and of course we focus on Liverpool, it is after all where we are located, Liverpool took the trade to a new level, there were over 5,000 slave voyages made from the port plus several other  facts. I also pointed out that new research is shedding light on the diverse range of people (plantation owners/profiteers not the enslaved) that were awarded compensation under the 1833 Abolition Act (there was a Slave Compensation Commission) which shows that it was not just MP’s or the well-known merchant families but regular business folk too who profited from the enslavement of Africans.

The conversation made me realize what aspects of history people often prioritize or remember, and indeed what they might remember to forget.  It was a timely thought as I have been carrying out some research on historical consciousness - how people view the past - mass inertia and the manipulation of the past, whether it be by governments or the public in places and locations which have been affected by terror and trauma such as World War II landscapes (concentration camps,  extermination centres, buildings used by the SS) and sites of genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans to name a few.  

An article  by the archaeologist Paul Mullins (who I first met during my PhD research on African American archaeology at Ransom Place in Indianapolis) on WWII landscapes in Finland, particularly Oulu which was occupied by the Nazis,  succinctly sums up some of the ways of remembering and forgetting: Some communities have chosen to efface Nazi materiality as thoroughly as possible; others have aspired to leave it an “open wound”; and many more chart a middle ground.

The next CSIS seminar on the 21st May by Joanna Ewart-James (Anti-Slavery International) focuses on the Staff Wanted Initiative: hotels’ responsibility to respect human rights and reduce workers’ vulnerability to exploitation, trafficking and forced labour and on 12th June ISM is hosting an innovative workshop in partnership with the University of Liverpool on the benefits of implementing organizational change to combat human trafficking.

Bye for now,
Richard

Everyone at the Merseyside Maritime Museum welcomes the arrival of a very impressive and grand visitor to Liverpool. Cunard’s Queen Mary II docked at the pier head landing stage in the early hours of this morning. It’s the first time in forty five years that passengers can sail on a Cunard liner from the Pier head waterfront.

Pulling up at the lights during my commute into the office, the QM2 dwarves the neighbouring buildings and certainly has the wow factor with her classic red funnel.

The museum has a very fine collection of china and tableware which relates to the first Queen Mary (1936-1967) which was at the time the largest and fastest ship in Cunard’s fleet. She was certainly remembered as the grandest belle of the sea.
On display in the Life at Sea gallery we have tableware which was supplied to Cunard by Stoniers Ltd. of Liverpool. Stoniers supplied fine china to major British shipping companies for over a century. Life at Sea also exhibits other objects from Cunard’s long association with Liverpool.

Follow the below link for the museum’s maritime archives ‘Cunard Queens’ online exhibition.
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/displays/cunard-queens/

We recently got some lovely feedback from a couple of our members. If you’ve ever wondered about joining the National Museums Liverpool membership scheme this is what it means to John and Cynthia from Southport:

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The last thing on our minds when my wife and I visited the then recently opened International Slavery Museum was to become members of National Museums Liverpool. It was fairly shortly after we moved to Merseyside and we were becoming more and more excited at the vibrancy of the area and Liverpool especially. Therefore, I suppose we were in just the right frame of mind when Sarah approached us to ask if we would like to become members of the new membership scheme and we have not for one moment regretted the decision.

The most important thing for us is feeling a part of the organisation which means that we care about the institution. We have particular pride in the groundbreaking International Slavery Museum and the new Museum of Liverpool.

Membership events enable us to get a better understanding of, for example, new exhibitions. We get great talks by the curators who explain the background and what they are trying to achieve at the various sites and it also gives us a chance to talk to the people who are making it happen. 

Overall it is probably the basis for the pride we take living in Merseyside as passionate advocates for the city of Liverpool and the surrounding area. 

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Find out more about becoming a member.

Dusk at Museum of Liverpool (c) Ben Kirkpatrick

There’s not long to go until Liverpool’s one-night arts festival, LightNight this Friday and here at the museums we’ve got plenty to offer.

Museum of Liverpool are celebrating ancient history with Big Heritage’s Roman Medicine Roadshow from 4-8pm. There’ll be the opportunity to join a workshop with a bone specialist who will demonstrate how we can learn about past lives from human remains; then watch Roman Gladiators fight it out and have their wounds healed using Roman herbal remedies. You can even look like you’ve been part of the battle by paying a visit to make-up artists, So Coco Rouge who will be using their skills to inflict battle wounds and scars on willing visitors.

Up at the Walker Art Gallery from 5-10pm there will be a feast for the senses with singing from Liverpool Community Choir and LIPA students taking place amongst the gallery’s artwork. Both groups will be singing songs inspired by this year’s LOOK/13 photo festival theme, ‘who do you think you are’. Then learn more about the gallery and its works with bitesize tours which will be running throughout the evening.

Little ones will be able to join the fun too as Little Liverpool at Museum of Liverpool is open until 6pm and Big Art at the Walker is staying up until 7.30pm.

See the full LightNight programme here.

Sandra Barber © Rankin

This week is an exciting week for the Walker Art Gallery as we open our new exhibition, 'ALIVE: In the Face of Death' by world renowned photographer, Rankin this Friday. The exhibition forms part of the 'LOOK/13: Liverpool International Photography Festival' which sees dozens of photographic exhibitions taking place across the city centre.

The theme for this year’s festival is ‘who do you think you are?’ Rankin’s exhibition explores this theme candidly, with portraits of people who know that their time is running out or people who have overcome great adversity. Though, rather than being morbid, the exhibition is about empowering the people in the portraits, celebrating their life and exploring people’s diversity of character.

On the same day that the exhibition opens, the Walker will also be until 10pm for LightNight, which sees cultural organisations and venues around the city centre throwing open their doors until late. This gives people an exciting and rare opportunity to take in a new exhibition after-hours. Liverpool Community Choir and LIPA students will also be performing songs inspired by LOOK/13’s theme making for an interesting atmosphere in which to discover 'ALIVE: In the Face of Death'.

As well as Rankin’s new exhibition, there will be a further two LOOK/13 exhibitions open at the Walker for visitors to view this Friday; 'Every Man and Woman is a Star' looks at who Merseyside was with photographs by photographic chroniclers, Tom Wood and Martin Parr. Plus 'Double Take: Portraits from the Keith Medley Archive' will display portraits of Merseysiders shot twice using the same glass plate negative resulting in an eerie series of double shots. 

You can see the full LightNight programme here.

Students performing the Chester Noah play

And so started the weekend of Moby Dick on the Mersey marathon readings at 9am on Saturday, each day beginning on board the wonderful Kathleen and May schooner moored outside the Merseyside Maritime Museum, then moving inside the museum from 10am. BBC Northwest arrived and stayed most of the morning to interview readers and film excerpts for their evening slot.

Highlights of our accompanying events included wonderful performances by students from the University of Liverpool of the Chester Noah play. Performances took place in the open air on a very windy grassy knoll next to the Piermaster's House. The dialogue retained its medieval English language roots, but even so was accessible and very funny. And as with the performances at the time, certain aspects were contemporised, hence the chart songs by Mr and Mrs Noah and the cast.

On Sunday local children’s author Jon Mayhew enraptured a young audience enticed outside by the sunny weather, with his stories of 'Terror on the high seas' on the decks of the Kathleen and May. Meanwhile inside the museum families were making their own model whales to take home.

A thank you of Moby Dick proportions to all the staff from the University of Liverpool who made it a thoroughly fun and well organised adventure, and to everyone who took part in the readings or offered their services to the weekend.

If you missed the weekend's events there's still time to catch the last of our Moby Dick themed Wednesday lunchtime lectures, which continue for a few weeks.

Letter from Major Caleb Huse to Charles K Prioleau, November 1862 (Maritime Archives and Library reference B/TF/BOX1/27).

Palaeography, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the science or art of deciphering and interpreting historical manuscripts.  It normally refers to ancient manuscripts in long dead languages, but I will make a case for applying it on the many handwritten letters within our collections.  The technique is more or less the same.  You need to know a bit about the context (in this case the American Civil War) and a bit about word and letter forms (for example, initial lower case 'p's that go both above and below the line) and the right balance between thinking what is likely to be being said and putting your own words in the mouth of the author.  Then the squiggles turn into prose before your eyes. 

This page of a letter from Major Caleb Huse, arms procurement agent for the Confederate States Army, to Charles K. Prioleau of Fraser, Trenholm & Company, Liverpool merchants and bankers who acted for the Confederacy reads as follows-
 
'six months armistice and meantime those life preservers at Birkenhead can be finished - so far as getting supplies in or cotton out is concerned, we shall be quite independent of the three great powers.

Col. Maine is I understand, in town, but I have not yet seen him. Wither he is to return'

More information on the letter can be found here and the original, along with some others from our fantastic American Civil War archive collections are on display outside the Maritime Archives & Library at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. I'm not convinced I've got the Colonel's name right, any better suggestions?

One of Andy's tests ahead of LightNight © Andy McKeown Lightworks

I shall be posting a few blogs to round up some of the activities and events the museums have to offer. This week I’m looking at a venue that's sure to wow people.

Light and new media artist, Andy McKeown is heading a project called 'Fragments' which will see a large scale series of projections wrapped across two sides of the Oratory. Originally the mortuary chapel to St James’s Cemetery, the Oratory is a National Museums Liverpool site that can be found within the grounds of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral.

The projection will be made up of photographs that Andy has taken of the Cathedral’s stained glass windows and will then be transformed into slow moving, brightly coloured kaleidoscopes. Judging from the pictures, ‘Fragments’ is not only going to be stunning to behold but will also showcase a kind of digital craftsmanship.

You can see these spectacular projections from 9.30pm-midnight on Friday 17 May. 

Check out the full LightNight programme here.