Remembering ‘Everyday’ Heroes: The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice

When it comes to London I am known for avoiding the tube where possible and travelling by foot. It’s a habit I’ve acquired from my Dad who used to take us to London a lot when we were kids and for whom, travelling by foot was the favoured mode of transport. You can just imagine the whingeing and whining that often happened as he powered ahead with two kids who could barely match his stride, struggling to make two for every one of his. But now, some 15 years later, I can both understand and appreciate his way of thinking. Not only has it resulted in me having confidence in navigating around the city, but it has also revealed so much more of the city to me, including the subject of this blog.

Short cuts can reveal all sorts of unusual places and on a recent visit to the Museum of London I stumbled across Postman’s Park, where I was surprised to discover The Watts Memorial to the Heroic Self-Sacrifice. At first I saw it from a distance – this rather imposing and curious looking memorial – and there was just something about it that lured me forwards. It was quite different from any other I have seen and curiosity took over, particularly when I saw the inscription which ran across the top of the wooden structure and read ‘In Commemoration of Heroic Self Sacrifice’.

The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice
Picture © Eleanor Larsson

As I approached specific details began to stand out more - the number of individual plaques that each bore a name, dates and writing. To one side there was a sign that read as follows, offering some explanation behind the memorial:

G.F. Watt’s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice.

Unveiled in 1900, The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice was conceived and undertaken by the Victorian Artist George Frederic Watts OM RA (1817-1904).

It contains plaques to those who have heroically lost their lives trying to save another.

Watts believed that these ‘Everyday’ heroes provided models of exemplary behaviour and character.

‘The material prosperity of a nation is not an abiding possession: the deeds of its people are’ G.F. Watts

‘Greater Love Hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,’ John 15:13.

Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey.

Picture © Eleanor Larsson

I found this memorial incredibly poignant and as I moved along the wall, reading more of the individual plaques and the ways in which each lost their life whilst saving that of another, I couldn’t help but respect and admire the bravery of those remembered there.

The people remembered span across some 150 years. The most recent dating from 2007, while the earliest case comes from 1863 and is that of Sarah Smith, a pantomime artist at the Prince’s Theatre, who had tried to extinguish the flames which had enveloped her companion, but she herself died of the injuries she sustained in trying to do so.  

Other cases document those who had been in the emergency services and acted while on duty, policemen and members of the fire brigade, while others were reacting to workplace incidents, air raids or freak accidents they just happened to witness. The cases documented are such human stories, featuring men and woman, child and adults, all ordinary people, who if it weren’t for the events that took their lives, would have been hidden from history. The memorial really made a strong impression on me.

Picture © Eleanor Larsson

It would seem that Watts had a particular motive in mind when creating this memorial - moral improvement, one of the key concerns of the Victorian age. But I think it also stands the test of time. By reminding us of ‘everyday’ heroes we are forced to confront quite an uncomfortable truth. I think we’d all like to think that in a crisis we’d respond and react in a similar way, but how many of us would actually do so when so often we walk along with headphones in our ears, buried in our phones and completely oblivious to the world going on around us.

Discovering this memorial caused me to have an interesting moment of reflection, one which was prompted by a fascinating piece of history.

You can find more information about the memorial here - http://www.postmanspark.org.uk/about.html

Düsseldorf’s Mahn- und Gedenkstätte

The Main Square

Back in December I took a bit of a break and went for a long weekend to Düsseldorf to do the Christmas Markets, but what’s a trip without a bit of history? We were a bit limited for choice, but chose to spend the afternoon at the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte in Aldstadt, which was established in the 1980s as a memorial for the victims of National Socialism.

Having looked it up retrospectively, it appears only to have reopened in May this year after a four year closure, with a new permanent exhibition - “Düsseldorf children and young people under the Nazis” and actually, even though I hadn’t know that at the time, the quality of the exhibit was fantastic and you can see that current museum display theory has been fundamental to its new design.

I’d always been a bit curious about how WW2 is remembered in museums in Germany never having visited before, so I’m really glad we chose this museum to visit. It’s steeped in history, both the area in which it’s situated and the building itself, which was once the state police headquarters.

As English speakers we were given audio guides, which we were completely dependent on and were our only real way to access information. They were fantastic bits of kit and well produced. The tier system of information has been used to structure the audio guide clips, each successive clip offering more in depth information, based upon what you’d previously heard. It also offered a ‘?’ option for some points or items if you wanted more information on them specifically.

At first I responded really well to the exhibition and accessing it through the audio guide. However, because I was completely dependent on it, it made it somewhat difficult to maintain that level of concentration. It wasn’t possible to listen to every single clip and I had to try and dip in and dip out of clips that I was particularly interested in.

That said, the exhibit was packed with information, images and photographs, oral history testimony and objects, many of which were shown or displayed in interesting and interactive ways. You could open drawers, slide or spin text panels and listen to testimony through a receiver. And at each step, there was a corresponding number for your audio guide. A huge amount of work has clearly gone into the redevelopment of the exhibit and as a visitor I really appreciated that and could see the huge effort that has gone in to make it modern and accessible.

There were two additional points that I was also particularly taken by. First, was the effort gone to put Düsseldorf in the context of wider history. Local history was told alongside national history and examples of how events we know of at a theoretical level materialised in the communities in Düsseldorf were also included. They wrote themselves and their community into the historical narrative and I thought that was both quite brave and very nicely done. The second point was how the exhibit was told from the perspective of young people, which doesn’t often happen, but also how it covered multiple perspectives - those of Socialists, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Democrats, Homosexuals and Edelweiss Pirates vs. Hitler Youth. It was really interesting to see all those points of view side by side and talked about quite openly.

The aim for the memorial is that it remains a place of learning, of research and of remembrance (1). They also have a temporary exhibition gallery, which at the moment is ‘Helpers + Healers: Jewish Women in Medicine 1933-1945, and an open access reference library with books, documents, photographs and other archival material which invites visitors to look in more depth at the topics the memorial covers.

I was hugely impressed by this museum and am really glad we took some time to explore the culture of Düsseldorf beyond the Christmas Markets!

(1)    This is the webpage, although it’s in German! -http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/duesseldorf/besucherinformationen.html

Blenheim Palace: Two opinions are better than one!

Bloggers Unite!

Blenheim Palace is one of those places that I expect is on a regular driving route for many people and every time you pass it, you probably think as I do, “I really must go and see what it’s like”. Other than this vague notion that it was Churchill’s family home, I had no idea what it was like or what to expect, only that the word palace evoked this sense of grandeur in my mind.

How about you Katy?

As a local, I visited Blenheim Palace as a small child on a school trip. I recall a grand house with many paintings but little else had stayed with me. Like Elle, it was on my 'places to visit list' despite being so close!

Well a few weeks ago we ended up making a visit. It was a lovely sunny day, if a bit windy, we packed a picnic and off we went to investigate. So, what exactly did we two public historians make of this historic house?

First Impressions:

Katy: My immediate reaction upon seeing Blenheim was surprise at how large the building and the surrounding grounds were. When you return to places visited as a child, they are usually much smaller than you remember and so I was stunned at how much land there was in the estate! It is an impressive, aesthetically -pleasing building which deserves the title palace rather than house. We noticed straight away that the car parks were already very full and I was keen to get inside and have a look around!

Blenheim Palace

Elle: As soon as we drove up the driveway and the Palace came into view I was impressed. It’s an amazing looking building, although not quite what I had imagined. It seemed more continental than I’d perhaps envisaged, the yellowish brick work reminding me more of the Palace of Versailles than other English aristocratic houses and ‘palaces’. I was also amazed at how many people had already arrived, I mean we were early but it was already a hive of activity, and that certainly added to my anticipation about what was in store.

What does Blenheim Offer:

We chose to start the day by upgrading our day tickets to an annual pass which is a free upgrade. A lot of heritage institutions are doing this now and while I’m always a little sceptical that I will revisit within the year it’s always worth doing I think, if for no other reason that it gives you the option. However, it was while upgrading our tickets that our attention was drawn to the WW2 memorabilia that was around, including a Winston Churchill look-a-like and military personnel walking around the site. It was explained to us that the day we’d chosen to visit marked the anniversary of the D-Day Landings and several things would be going on to mark this occasion. But had we not been told this, the presence of a spitfire in the courtyard and fly pass would have been bewildering. As it was there was no real attempt to explain this, I think it was pure chance our attendant had been so chatty and told us about it. So that was a little baffling. Anyway…

Spitfire on Display in the Courtyard

Winston Churchill enjoying a refreshment on the Water Terraces.

Our first stop was to head into the Palace itself. Groups are held in the foyer area and given an explanation of the layout, before being invited to join one of the regular tours that are given of the state rooms. There appeared to be plenty of staff/volunteers around, each of whom came across as very approachable and well informed. You can’t help but overhear sometimes and I noticed how captivated the audience were with the stories and anecdotes they’re being told by their enthusiastic guides, and the sheer size of the groups for that matter.

A Collection of Winston's Own Art work on display

We opted to make our own way around, first doing the Winston Churchill Gallery, then the State Rooms and finally the Untold Story gallery. The Winston Churchill exhibit has recently been redone to coincide with the 50^th Anniversary of his death. It’s very nicely done and it well presented. A lot of family photographs have been used and objects – I particularly like the inclusion of Churchill’s own artwork for I hadn’t realised he was such a talented and keen painter. The curators have really emphasis certain periods of Winston’s life and his abilities – his childhood and romantic life are featured heavily, his time as a wartime leader and state funeral also receive notable attention, as do his skills as an orator, and some of his famous quotes are printed on blank wall space and onto window coverings.

There are notable omissions however; Churchill’s mental health, his career before being Prime Minister and his less palatable views towards those within the British Empire were not included. I think we would both recommend visiting the Churchill War rooms in London for a more detailed understanding of Churchill’s life and personality. Although they did an excellent job of going through Churchill’s main achievements in a physically small space, the information glorified Winston instead of presenting a more balanced portrait of one of Britain’s best loved leaders.

The Library

What can be said about state rooms? Well they’re much like any other really, with the exception that they feel more lived in. When we were in the dining room for example, a member of staff was cleaning the glasses and laying the table, we suspected, for an upcoming dinner at the Palace. It’s an occupied residence and you actually get a sense of that, unlike at Windsor Castle for example. Family photographs are strewn about the place and you get a real sense of the people that lived and, still live there. It has a recent history, as well as a historic one.

The Column of Victory

And that just leaves The Untold Story for gallery’s in the main Palace – however I suspect that it was both of our favourite bits, or at least something that really stood out, so might leave that for us to discuss later on. We then opted for lunch in the grounds, overlooking the lake with a commentary of a rowing competition going on in the background. It was noticeably busy, with a huge demographic of visitors – it’s clearly a popular destination. After lunch we took a stroll to the Column of Victory, a memorial to the 1^st Duke of Marlborough, and then went for a wander around the gardens, which are beautifully landscaped and provide a nice scenic route for a stroll on a sunny day.

We also came across The Temple of Diana, which we’d earlier learnt was the location for Winston’s proposal to Clementine and the Water Terraces where we stopped for an afternoon refreshment. Talk about a wedge of cake. The day really did fly by, but we made a last ditch effort to head over to the pleasure grounds which would appear to cater for family groups of visitors, with a butterfly garden and hedge maze.

Katy stood by the Temple of Diana

It really was a jammed packed day and actually I can now see why they offer an annual ticket. We did a lot, but there’s still things left for us to return and see.

So what was your favourite part:

A shot of The Untold Story Gallery

Elle: By far my favourite part was the The Untold Story gallery. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it. It did really fit into the ‘edutainment’ category of being more like a feature in an amusement park than a historic house, but at the same time I thought it was brilliant. Katy commented on the day how state rooms can all begin to merge together and I couldn’t agree more. However beautiful they are, after a while they all become a bit samey and you don’t really remember specific details. However, The Untold Story really bucked this trend and offers something much more memorable.

The combined use of reconstruction, mechanics and digital technologies that moved the visitor through a time line and series of experiences and encounters was hugely effective. It was also interspersed with more traditional galleries with text panels, objects on display and screens to interact with – the only drawback being that you didn’t really get a great deal of time to read this material before you were encouraged to move on, everything being timed. I suppose we could have gone around again, but the ‘wow’ factor might have worn off if we only wanted to read the more traditional bits and there was still so much to see. Also, given that much of Blenheim Palace is still an occupied private residence, this method is advantageous in that it presents a fair chunk of the Palace’s timeline in smaller space and doesn’t depend on access to authentic and original rooms. I’m not sure I’d be a fan of historic houses always opting for this approach, but it will certainly make Blenheim stand out in my memory and did add to my overall visitor experience.

As a side note, I also want to mention how much I loved the gardens - especially the fact that the huge lake and cascades are manmade and part of a design by Capability Brown, who was also responsible for much of the landscape at Longleat. The whole site, palace and gardens, made for a great experience as a visitor – there was so much to see both indoors and out, I loved it!



View looking back down the Avenue from the Column of Victory

Katy: I totally agree with Elle – The Untold Story was excellent! It really helped to explain the family’s history through the ages and worked well for Blenheim given the limited space. If you are slightly wary of live actors and the forced interaction that often occurs, this approach allowed you to be addressed directly and immerse in the time period without the pressure of bantering with the actors. I wish there had been more time to enjoy the interactive sections as they provided additional information about the family and the times, which was fascinating. Unfortunately, it would be difficult to achieve given the strict timing needed for the experience to run smoothly. I found it refreshing that the flaws and quirks of the various family members were acknowledged and explored, rather than presenting them as faultless heroes.  If you are visiting the Palace, I would encourage you to make sure to include this section in your itinerary for its unique approach to discovering the family’s history!

Did you find anything particularly surprising?

We don’t know if surprising is the right word or not, but we certainly hadn’t realised that Blenheim Palace wasn’t Winston Churchill’s family home, but rather was the ancestral home of the Churchill family as the Dukes of Marlborough. It took visiting Blenheim for us to piece together his family history and how it was his uncle who inherited the title of the 9^th Duke – we hadn’t quite worked out that Winston was a cousin of the direct line and not part of it.

Did anything else particularly stand out?

Katy: The grounds were particularly beautiful and I am tempted to return in order to spend the day exploring the secrets gardens, water features and temples at a much more leisurely pace than we did!



The Cascades

Elle: Yes, I suppose so. I was quite struck by how homely and warm it felt – there were lots of personal items, photographs and the like around which made it feel quite different from other stately homes I’ve been too. And I also hadn’t realised that Winston had trained as an Officer at Sandhurst (just down the road from me) and that he’d seen active service as a cavalry officer in the Queen’s Own Hussars. I have to admit this led me to admire him that little bit more, knowing he’d been a soldier (all be it an officer and war correspondent) because I suspect this later influenced his decisions as a wartime leader. It might not have, but I can’t see how that sort of experience wouldn’t influence you in some way.



There were lots of photographs all around the Palace

What was lacking?:

Elle: I’m not sure anything in particular was lacking, as a visitor I had a really good experience. Although, I suspect I agree with Katy here, that there needed to perhaps be a more balanced exhibit on Churchill, moving away from that narrative of him as the Great War Leader. It’s great they include his childhood and show the room in which he was born and romance with Clementine, but at the same time there’s a lot more that could have been said and challenged. I think it was safe, when it could have been more forward thinking in terms of the Winston Churchill story.

Katy: What Elle said. It would be great if they allowed people to move beyond the heroic image of Churchill; I have a deeper understanding and a cautious respect towards Winston thanks to the Churchill War rooms’ honest approach. I was a little disappointed that the history of the Palace being used during the Second World War was not emphasised more as that could be a really interesting way to engage the public beyond Winston as a leader.  Also, the oral history films of those who have lived or worked at the Palace are fascinating, and it would be great if these were made more obvious!

And most importantly, how was the cake? Well it wouldn’t be a public history outing without sampling the cuisine…

Katy: It was extremely delicious and the generous portion was excellent value for money. I would recommend sharing it...

Elle: Never thought I’d say it, but that wedge of cake defeated me!

So would we recommend it?

Both: It’s definitely worth a visit!

We'll be back...!

A Change of Focus - The history of the slave trade as told in two different museums

Over the last month or so I’ve been fortunate enough to delve into an area of history that I haven’t looked at for quite a while. Once you find your area, the thing that makes you tick, that subject becomes all-consuming, taking all your energy and attention and for me that was the Victorian period and animal studies. But a friend of mine is doing a lot of research into the Slave Trade and I’ve recently joined her on a couple of museum visits, to view exhibitions focused on the topic.

Now the history of slavery and the abolition movement is something I have studied in the past. My first introduction to it being in Year 9, when I first engaged with the transatlantic slave trade and the ‘triangular trade’ and first heard of Olaudah Equiano. But it was some years before I returned to the subject again, when I opted in the second year of undergrad to take the History of the British Empire 1763-1900 module and would later write my essay on the importance of slave narratives to the abolition movement.

Museum of London Docklands
Authors own photo.

However, it’s been a refreshing change to return to the subject and divert my focus from the work I’ve been doing. To be able to engage with a different area of history and to view exhibitions as purely a visitor and not necessarily as a critic has been a rather nice position to be in. But I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t have a few thoughts to share on what I’ve seen. There are two examples I’d like to discuss. The first being Museum of London Docklands Gallery, London, Sugar and Slavery , and the second, the M-Shed’s exhibition on Bristol’s involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Bristol People Gallery.

The first observation I have is how influential it can be visiting these sorts of places with someone who is so interested in and passionate about the subject that an exhibition or museum focuses on because when they engage, you naturally do as well. I’m really of the opinion that museums and galleries should be places of exchange and dialogue, not silent halls that epitomise that traditional, oppressive museum atmosphere. And when you visit with someone who is actively engaging with what they are looking at or reading, that’s exactly what you get and that is in so many ways more beneficial to your overall learning experience.

Often that other person will be able to tell you something that’s missing, or a different view point that they’ve read and you begin to see more of the bigger picture, than can be conveyed in that particular space or with the funds available. And I didn’t just notice this on these particular visits, but also when viewing a Monet exhibition with my friend who’s a Monet enthusiast and at the Freud Museum in Vienna, where my friend worked on a project to produce a walking tour. I can still tell you now things I learnt from those three individuals having visited places with them and engaged with their particular specific interests. I don’t proclaim to know anywhere near as much as they do, but I now know more because I was inspired by their enthusiasm to learn about those topics.

Plaque in the dock area
Authors own photo.

So what of the exhibitions we went to view. Well let’s start with London, Sugar and Slavery exhibition. If you’ve read my blog recently you’ll have seen how unimpressed I was with the Museum of London Docklands overall and many of those criticisms also, sadly, extend to this exhibit. At a theoretical level it’s fantastic and I base that assessment on what I understand of its aims – to readdress the narrative focus away from the efforts of the parliamentarians and to prioritise the experience of those enslaved; particularly dissenters and black abolitionists. But to be honest, you could have fooled me, the section on resistance being all too easy to overlook in favour the table where the bill was drafted. If it hadn’t been for my friend telling the aim of the exhibition and having done a little reading online, I’d have missed that completely if I’m honest. I felt it was badly executed, either that or its dated very badly since its unveiling in 2007.

Unfortunately it has adopted the “book on the wall” approach. There is loads of information, but I’d question its layout and also some glaring oversights. For example, in some cases there weren’t captions to pictures so you had no idea where they came from, who created them or who they featured. While in others instances where there were captions of who pictures depicted, there was limited information beyond a name so their relevance could easily be missed by an ‘unknowing’ visitor – thankfully I had an expert to assist!  I noticed this in particular about Mary Prince, a picture featured early on in the exhibition but her ‘role’ if you like, wasn’t explained until much later.

Captions at M-Shed
Authors own Photo

That said, there were some really interesting nuggets of information, but they were all too often buried in huge wads of text – personally I would have picked them out and centred them in some areas of blank space, of which there were quite a few. Drawing on my later example as comparison, Bristol did this particularly well, having quotes running round the top of the exhibition space and across the front of the display cases.

I would commend the use good use of oral testimony by the Museum of London, in the contemporary section of the exhibition and this added a level of engagement that otherwise was quite underwhelming. But again, I also felt there was a missed opportunity to show the modern link to human trafficking in the 21^st century, especially in terms of connecting with a younger audience. So often youngsters question why the past is relevant and I think this exhibition could have provided a strong example of why it is and why it’s important to possess knowledge of history. As I said of the whole museum, it just felt very flat and lacking in anything that might provoke more than superficial engagement.

Bristol and the transatlantic slave trade diagram
Authors Own Photo

But I think that’s enough of my whinging about that particular museum. To Bristol. It’s notable in that it’s both a smaller museum and exhibition but as soon as I walked in I was immediately more impressed. The huge diagram of the triangular trade that greets you as you walk into the gallery was both eye-catching and informative. It wasn’t just simple black lines between London, West Africa and the Caribbean, but it featured pictures, statistics, item lists and captions which demonstrated the nature of what was being traded, who funded it and enormity of it. It was off to a good start. It actually told more of what you perhaps didn’t necessarily want to know, the unpalatable truth about the subject. It dealt with that head on and I responded really well to that.

M Shed Exhibition
Authors own photo

In essence it is all shown in a small room, but it used all the tools I wanted to have seen in London.  It made good use of technology (most of which was actually working) and which allowed you to engage with the material beyond what was on display. The interactive screens also offered sound bites, which although limited, catered to a more multi-sensory experience. The only drawback was that you couldn’t take a seat and peruse through the material more comfortably.

Contemporary Link
Authors own photo

The cabinets of objects on display were also not static. They were fuller for starters, but also had clear object lists and as I previously said, quotes were placed on the glass which immediately drew your attention. There was also a map of the area showing buildings that were constructed from the profits made from the trade and the modern thread was also clearly present. In the centre of the room there was a large table with contemporary newspaper articles focusing on the legacy of the slave trade and also to one side, an interactive screen which invites visitors to vote about whether Bristol should commemorate the Slave Trade in some way. The effort to make it relevant and contemporary was much obvious here and also more successful. You were being invited for your opinion and it successfully engaged me.

The only slight odd thing about it was that slightly apart from the main exhibit you had continued display on the slave trade but it was tied into a thematic display on activism in Bristol, so the information on resistance and role of women in abolition movement was a little more difficult to find. It was effective having it encompassed in that thematic display but did feel a little separate from the main exhibition. 

I have to admit it was also helpful to have a guide who knew so much more than the exhibition divulged because it was quite limited. But I didn’t tire of this exhibit like I had done in London, despite its smaller size. I was quite happy reading the information and navigating my own way around, because there was so much to engage with in so many different ways.

We couldn’t really have picked two more contrasting places. I was disappointed by one, while the other exceeded all expectations. It just goes to show that actually the scale of a museum doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality of visitor experience, for in this case I would say the M-Shed outshone the Museum of London and that is something I didn’t expected I’d be saying.

Åland Maritime Museum: An ethos to aspire too!

Is it possible to love a museum that you’ve never actually been too? Well that was how I felt after hearing the director of Åland Maritime Museum, Hanna Hagmark-Cooper, speak at the recent Rhul Public History Alumni Seminar. I found her talk completely fascinating and decided I’d take the time to share a summary of it and its key themes with you.

Maritime industry is a key part of the island’s history and both national and cultural identity are tied to this historic relationship with sailing ships. The Museum began in the 1920s as a private collection, and as a reaction to a decline in the maritime industry. Soon after, a club emerged to support this private collection, the purpose of which was to create a dedicated museum to preserve the maritime industry and its part in the Island’s history. Exhibits were collected through donations, but club members also petitioned for donations – there was, and still is, a strong level of personal investment in the museum. It was run as a private enterprise until the 1980s when it became a charitable trust as it remains today.

Now when the decision was made to rebuild the museum, I was surprised to learn that it faced no opposition – I can’t imagine a similar attitude necessarily being adopted here in the UK, for I don’t think a single museum is seen as that important to our national or cultural identity. But people from the Åland Islands wanted this redevelopment and were happy for investment to be diverted from other sectors towards the museum project.

Hanna began work at the museum in 2004 at which time the focus was very much on the display of sailing ships. However, since it’s re-opening in 2012 and under the instruction of Hanna, the museum has now introduced topics which broaden its scope, including the impact of steam engines, ship building and safety at sea. From what was described, it is no longer just a showcase for old boats, but has more substance and narrative for visitors to experience. 

It was this element that originally caused slight resistance, for there was a fear of what modernism might mean for the museum. Museum staff and supporters were aware of the need for a new approach to draw in new visitors, however at the same time they didn’t want to alienate the core visitor group. This led to what I have to admit finding most fascinating – the strong sense of shared authority between museum staff and specialist groups invested in museum. Huge emphasis appears to have been placed on consultation, staff being acutely aware of the ‘strong local commitment’ to seeing the museum be a success, both in terms of its original goals and what would draw in visitors.

With only a core staff of 5, this emphasis on shared authority has also been beneficial in other ways. Museum staff have been able to call on specialist groups, those with expertise in ship building, mechanical engineers and sail makers for example, for help during the redevelopment. Hanna described how a sense of mutual respect has developed between museum staff and specialist groups, because they each have knowledge of their own ‘trade’ and appreciate the limits to their own abilities. By working together, sharing ideas and exchanging information, they’ve created a productive and effective environment in which the redevelopment has been able to prosper. And amazingly this relationship continues, currently three years on, with no sign of that ending soon. The community spirit and shared investment in what is clearly such an important part of their shared heritage, is something I found really inspiration and evocative.

Also particularly interesting, and in fact the intended main focus of the talk, was the museum’s use of social media to create and research new and interesting exhibitions. In this case Hanna referred to a Facebook exhibition, which successfully broadened the museum’s reach by presenting a topic of greater interest to people beyond the core group of visitors.

Hanna recalled how she had first been invited to a closed group on Facebook where people involved with the maritime industry, exchanged photos and stories of their experiences. I’m sure we are all part of a similar group, perhaps a school reunion group, or local history? Anyway, Hanna described her interest in watching this develop over time and the end result was a temporary exhibition. The Museum took just 14 of the thousands of images uploaded to the group, and displayed them, together with accompanying comments, in a temporary exhibition in the museum. The group was consulted throughout this process and was involved in, from what it sounds like, most decisions. It had the community element right at its heart and I just think it’s such a fantastic idea. Again, the museum is enacting the principle of shared authority and I just think a lot could, and should be learnt from this example and it's methods adopted by other museums.

Hanna speaks with a degree of pride about how this exhibition made marginal histories central to the narrative told by the museum, if only temporarily, and drew in a new audience demographic. We were told how usually objects are what survive from ships and therefore are displayed, not the stories of the people who served and sailed upon them; and in fact thinking of examples of ships I’ve visited, at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the  S.S Great Britain, this is true. I can remember clearly some of the objects, but nothing particularly about the people. And so as you would expect, by displaying these stories, interest in the museum increased and people’s perceptions of the museum were dramatically altered.

I came away from this talk with two key phrases in my mind – community collaboration and shared authority and I just so impressed to hear how well the Åland Maritime Museum has invoked these principles. Hearing of how this one temporary exhibition has changed the museum’s outlook and opened up further opportunities for collaborative projects, including the collection of items and inclusion of photos and comments from Facebook in the archive, reinforced my belief in the importance of Public History and the emphasis that should be placed on community/visitor involvement.

Having been so UK-centric in my studies, it was really interesting to hear how the Public history philosophy is carried out in a European context and I think it would be really interesting to see some of the UK’s museums adopt some of these approaches and the resulting impact it might have on their appeal and level of visitor engagement.

Trip to the Åland Islands anyone?

Museum of London Docklands: A Trip to Sailor Town

London Docklands

I’ve tried to let some time pass between writing this blog and my visit to the Museum of London Docklands to see if my initial disappointment would subside and I could gain some objectivity. However, on this occasion that logic doesn’t appear to have worked because I still feel quite disappointed by my recent visit and am left feeling that the museum has so much potential, but that has yet to be fully realised.

Traveling out to the Docks is not something I get to do very often and my first impressions were really good. I was excited to be there and excited to visit one of the major London museums that I hadn’t visit before. The sense of atmosphere was striking. The juxtaposition of old against new and the character of the former warehouse building, where the museum is located, was exactly as I’d envisaged. It didn’t matter that the warehouse now houses a museum and various restaurants and bars; you could just imagine it once bustling with industry, as ships were unloaded and produce from around the world was moved into storage. It still has that Victorian age vibe and it felt as if things had happened there.

Museum Location

I think the trouble is I went with an agenda. My fascination with the docks ties in with 19^th century imperialism and… wait for it…. the exotic animal trade. That’s why I’m interested in the docks and surrounding area - for the role they fulfilled in the trade. So I was quite disappointed at how little this topic featured in the narrative told within the museum. There were limited references - the odd twentieth century photograph, whale jaw bones from the late 1700s found in the Thames; a cabinet of curiosities featuring animal products bought in from around the world, ostrich feathers, eggs, shells and ivory; while I also honed in on a reference to the gifting of turtles. It’s there I suppose, but in fleeting references and I just feel so much more could have been made of it – as a hook, to capture people’s interest who might not otherwise find the docks of interest. Perhaps I had hoped for too much.

However, that lack of substance didn’t just apply to the animal trading side of things. I’m fortunate to be aware of how much trade was being done in London across the Victorian period and preceding that, but as a visitor I didn’t really get a sense of that from the museum. I mean it’s there within the narrative, but the impact and sheer scale of it just gets lost. I’m not entirely sure how you would convey it, but it just felt very flat. I can’t really explain it. Even galleries that you would think could have bought in some emotion, like the London, Sugar & Slavery and Docklands at War, didn’t really do so.

Animal Related Items

Don’t get me wrong the topics covered are fascinating; they were just not presented very well. Well that, or, they’ve struggled to stand the test of time. Perhaps my view on this is sort of like the struggle I had with the IWM before its refurbishment? Times have changed and as visitors, we’ve begun to expect something different now. We don’t want a “book on the wall” approach, we want to be engaged, enticed and intrigued. We want to be able to control our “learning journey”, by reading more about the bits we are interested in and leaving the rest and to do that the information needs to be presented in a particular way. Small chunks, with “sign post” headings, images, eye catching quotes, directionality, and a strong narrative.  The museum has the content; the design is just somewhat outdated.

There is part of me that feels I am being overly critical and I probably am because there were people clearly engaging with the exhibits, I just felt disappointed. And perhaps that’s the risk of going with a preconceived idea of what you’ll find, or hope to find.

The nearest we got to anything particularly strong in terms of the animal trade was in Sailortown, which features the ‘Animal Emporium’ of George Bignold. Great, we have a recreation of his shop with accompanying sound effects and objects such as skulls and shells, but there was no information and it just felt like there was a missed opportunity to really entice people’s interest. I mean a group of 40+ schools kids just strolled past it without stopping to engage and yet, I know it’s something people find interesting when they know a little more about.

Advert in Sailor Town

Now hands up, this is my area of expertise and one I want to tell everyone about it, but it need not have been this element that captured peoples interest, it could have been barrel making or knot tying – I don’t know, but there was nothing really to interact with, no single industry that left an overriding impression. You had to read and observe, occasionally watch (if the screen wasn’t being affected by technical issues, as most were on this visit) – it wasn’t a very forceful transmission of knowledge and I think actually it needed it to drive the museum narrative home. It needed a wow factor.

It’s a shame because the history of the docks is so colourful and multicultural, with interesting events and characters, but none of that really came across. Social history is the hook for me, I like to know about people and their stories and how that fits into the historical narrative, but the museum seem to have opted for themes within chronology and I don’t think that particularly works. One of my favourite bits was the small exhibit on East End identity, looking at both historic and modern perceptions, because it took a different approach and linked the two different periods together, making direct cultural references. It also used a range of tools to transmit that, from audio-visual to objects and texts. That had the “wow factor” I was looking for.

I am glad that I went and got to experience the Museum, it was interesting and I did take some nuggets of information away, the overall experience just felt flat. I know that isn’t a useful term to come back too, but I can’t think of how to describe it any other way. It just needs shaking up – making it more interactive with some wow factor, if it wants to keep pace with the other London museums. I mean in the Museum of London itself can achieve that, why not its sister branch?

Final Thoughts:

• I was surprised to learn…. That the Romans built the first timber bridges across the Thames in 110AD and were only replaced by stone c.1176-1209.
• I hadn’t realised that…. There was an African Community in Seven Dials that pre-dates 1778.
• I was left wondering… what on earth a Hogshead was. We narrowed it down to a measurement of some sort but it’s taken some post-visit research to discover that it is in fact a measurement, usually for beer and ale, that in the UK (after 124 adoption of the imperial system) was equal to 54 imperial gallons or approximately 245.49 litres. 

Crowd-Funding an Exhibition – Please show your support

‘We only have 2 weeks left to raise the money to stage Mark Fairnington’s exhibition at the Horniman Museum and every pound counts. To find out more, make a donation and get wonderful rewards visit http://www.artfund.org/get-involved/art-happens/mark-fairnington-the-hornimans-hidden-world’

This week I received the above email asking me to help support the crowdfunding efforts of the Horniman Museum to stage the exhibition Mark Fairnington: The Horniman’s hidden world and rather than just tweet or flag it on Facebook I thought I’d quickly mention it here.

The idea of the exhibition is to stage Mark Fairnington’s paintings alongside their inspiration, the Horniman’s hidden taxidermy treasures. The objects will be presented as they are in storage, the aim being to ‘evok[e] the wonder Mark experienced when he found them for the first time’.

Now, I’ve never heard of museums or galleries crowdfunding before, but a quick scan of www.artfund.org show’s me to be rather naïve in that view. So I guess it’s just never appeared on my radar before – but what a fantastic idea! We all know of the growing pressures museum face, especially with regards to funding cuts and this to me just seems like an imaginative way to get an exhibition up and running.  It’s placing emphasis on public engagement and asking the public to get involved and support institutions and culture they value.

I donated – why? Because of my interest in natural history, taxidermy and fondness for the Museum, but also because of my curiosity about how Mark has taken something so ‘of its time’ and made it relevant. I’m really interested to see how the specimens will be represented in his modern art and how he has used the collection. It will bring modern art and natural history together and show that natural history collections are relevant and continue to provide inspiration, outside of a scientific context (my thoughts not the museum’s!!!). It will also enable the museum to show a more extensive selection of its holdings, that it could not otherwise display, which again can only be a good thing, for us curious members of the public!

Anyway, I didn’t intend to review the museums fundraising technique, I just wanted to say what a fantastic idea I think it is and hope that maybe some of you who read this, might also feel as impassioned about this idea and offer a donation to help it become a reality.

Follow the link if you do - http://www.artfund.org/get-involved/art-happens/mark-fairnington-the-hornimans-hidden-world

Thanks!