Secular Relics: Narrative Objects and Material Biography in the Museums of Darwin, Elgar and Holmes
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Secular Relics: Narrative Objects and Material Biography in the Museums of Darwin, Elgar and Holmes Caroline Morris A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries, University of the West of England, Bristol, January 2017 This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. Secular relics: Narrative Objects and Material Biography in the Museums of Darwin, Elgar and Holmes. Abstract This thesis investigates objects considered to be significant through their association with historically noteworthy persons and how these objects are displayed. Such objects and their related cultural practices are regularly compared to sacred relics. However, this has not been tested in the existing literature on the subject. If these objects and their display are analogous to relic practice how can this be explained in the modern museum? If this analogy holds then the presence of the biographical object in modern museum display is anomalous. Are they simply anachronisms, or can they be understood in terms of the period from which their modern display emerged? These objects and their display are indicative of a particular relationship to material culture and to the figures with which they are associated, that has persisted into the twenty-first century. This thesis considers these objects and their display as a cultural practice. It establishes their historical context and interrogates the relic analogy. It focuses on the objects and museums of a scientist (Charles Darwin), a composer (Edward Elgar) and a fictional detective (Sherlock Holmes) rather than the literary subjects which dominate existing literature. The narrative objects in these museums tell stories of their association with their subject through their display, in doing so they become a material form of biography. The particularities of objects, subject, display and location observed in these biographical museums provides the material through which to question the whole phenomenon. This thesis argues that the construction and communication of these objects’ association with their subject, by their museums, can encourage the perception of their relic-like connection with a particular past. The museum visually narrates and authenticates its objects, apparently preserving the traces of their subject’s life. In turn, this simulates the subject’s presence encouraging empathetic engagement with the subject and their objects. This enables the objects in the biographical museum to be viewed as both relic-like and as products of modernity. Contents Introduction_____________________________________________________________ 1 Biographical Object and Modernity_________________________________________ 9 Biographical Museums in the United Kingdom________________________________ 12 Chapter One: Biographical Objects and the Changing Rhetoric of Display in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century__________________________________________________ 24 Speaking Objects: how Relic and Curiosity Display Narrates its Objects___________ 26 Specimen Display and the Rhetoric of Facts: how Shifts in Natural Sciences changed Objects Display________________________________________________________ 38 A Return to Narrative and Tension in the Museum: how Object Display Returned to Earlier Display Rhetoric__________________________________________________ 47 Chapter Two: Residues of the Past: Significant Traces and the Romantic Sensibility in the Biographical Object___________________________________________________________ 57 Sense of the Particular Past: Romanticism, Representation and Genius____________ 60 Significance of Decay: Past as a Quality Inherent in the Object ___________________ 67 Paroxysms of Genius: Evoking Creative and Mental Labour in Biographical Display___ 78 Chapter Three: At Home in the Biographical Museum: the Home as an Expression of the Self, and its Reconstruction as a Museum______________________________________ 91 The Foundations of the Biographical Museum: how Late Nineteenth-Century Notions of Biography and the Home Combined to Create the Modern Biographical Museum ____ 93 Material Biography: how Everyday Life is Impressed on the Home, and the Insights its Reconstruction offers the Modern Visitor ___________________________________ 102 How to Create a Biographical House Museum: the Formation and Means of Assuring Biographical Museum Significance________________________________________ 114 Chapter Four: Channelling the Subject in Biographical Museums: Object and Museum as ‘Medium’ for Speaking with the Dead_________________________________________ 127 The Potential for Contact with the Dead through Objects, and how that might be Translated into Biographical Object Practice ________________________________ 131 Curation as a Technique for the Creation of Presence or Haunting in Biographical House Museum_____________________________________________________________143 Visitor Re-enactments of Biographical Subject’s Activities as a Technique for possible Contact______________________________________________________________153 Chapter Five: Between the Secular Relic and the Viewing Pilgrim: Viewer Attachment and the Creation of Empathetic Engagement _____________________________________ 163 Secular Relic and Secular pilgrims: Empathetic Engagement with Objects_________ 166 The Shifting View: Transitional Space between Secular Relic and the Viewer_______176 Secular Relic Explained in Modernity______________________________________ 184 Bibliography___________________________________________________________ 187 Appendix______________________________________________________________ 202 Illustrations Introduction Figure 1 - Down House - Darwin's Home. Photograph: Caroline Morris _______________ 18 Figure 2 - Elgar Birthplace – Photograph: Caroline Morris _________________________ 19 Figure 3 - 221b Baker Street - Sherlock Holmes Museum. Image: Edward Harding _____ 20 Chapter One Figure 1 - Becket Casket. Images © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford_________ 27 Figure 2 - Henry VIII's hawking glove and Hawk's hood. Images © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford _______________________________________________________ 28 Figure 3 – Thorn detail, from the Holy Thorn Reliquary, © The Trustees of the British Museum ________________________________________________________________ 29 Figure 4 - “Ainkhurn”, or unicorn horn - Courtesy of Kunsthistoriches Museum Wien ____ 31 Figure 5 - Portable reliquary and its contents - © The Trustees of the British Museum ___ 34 Figure 6 Stavelot triptych - The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York _________________ 35 Figure 7 – Darwin’s study reconstruction in Down House © Guardian News and Media __52 Chapter Two Figure 1 - Jane Austen's table. Photograph: Caroline Morris _______________________ 68 Figure 2 - Watt's Workshop, Science Museum, London. Photograph: Caroline Morris____ 74 Figure 3 - Watt's Workshop, Science Museum, London. Photograph: Caroline Morris____ 75 Figure 4 - Darwin's study, 1932 reconstruction. Wellcome Library, London. ___________ 76 Figure 5 - Darwin's study - English Heritage interactive site 2009 - Reproduced by permission of Historic England_______________________________________________ 77 Figure 6 - Darwin's notebook B – Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library ________________________________________________ 79 Figure 7 - Manuscript of Elgar's cello concerto - ©Royal College of Music / ArenaPAL ___ 81 Figure 8 - Screenshot of page of ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ manuscript – © Victoria and Albert Museum, London ____________________________________________________ 82 Figure 9 - Close up of Austen's table. Photograph: Caroline Morris __________________ 83 Figure 10 – Darwin’s chair - screenshot of interactive Down House site Reproduced by permission of Historic England_______________________________________________ 84 Figure 11 - Dickens’ china monkey. Photograph: Caroline Morris____________________ 86 Chapter Three Figure 1 - Screenshot of the drawing room from the 2009 English Heritage interactive site – Reproduced by permission of Historic England _________________________________ 105 Figure 2 - Screenshot of hotspot from the 2009 English Heritage interactive site – Reproduced by permission of Historic England ________________________________ 106 Figure 3 - Stair slide. Screenshot from Historic England website - Reproduced by permission of Historic England______________________________________________ 107 Figure 4 - Screenshot of the study from the 2009 English Heritage interactive site – Reproduced by permission of Historic England _________________________________ 108 Figure 5 - Screenshot of hotspot picture of Darwin's stool Reproduced by permission of Historic England _________________________________________________________ 109 Figure 6 - Plan of the ground floor of Down House, from English Heritage guidebook - Reproduced by permission of Historic England ________________________________ 111 Figure 7 - The dining room in the Dickens Museum - in 2008 and 2014. Photograph: Caroline Morris __________________________________________________________ 115 Figure 8 - A bedroom in the Dickens Museum - in 2008 and 2014. Photograph: Caroline Morris _________________________________________________________________ 116 Figure 9 - Elgar Birthplace - The Birth-room.