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Henry James on Lamb House

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Lamb House Re-written Research and Presentation Plan Vicky Bevan, 2017 Aims and outputs Primary 1. To re-interpret and re-present Lamb House to the public, including all floors of the house, the garden and outbuildings, to take place over the next 3 years with a minimum additional 2 rooms opened in the first year . 2. To understand Lamb house and its development and significance enabling us to make decisions about future use and presentation. Secondary To inform public programming themes (next 5 years to be sketched out by completion of the project) To identify and create partnerships that will help us interpret Lamb in the future To inform the acquisitions and disposals policy for Lamb House To enhance the catalogue information and external interpretation of Lamb’s collections To inform any briefs to design and creative agencies The story so far Creative visioning workshops for the property have taken place see Lamb House Re-written Examples of small case studies see Matthew Trigwell’s (VEC) work here Other examples referenced in the course of visioning that deserve a visit include: William Morris Gallery and Roald Dahl Museum. A biography or a novel? tweed cap and a stout stick for the Marsh, a soft The idea of a handling collection of books has comfortable deerstalker if he were to turn aside to always been part of the project at Lamb and books the Golf Club, a light brown felt hat and a cane for in every room as there were in Henry James and Visioning work has shown a tension between the a morning walk down to the Harbour, a grey felt EF Benson’s time would be a good goal. These desire to do something new and creative at Lamb, hat with a black band and a gold-headed cane of might be curated to give more depth to the for it to be more than a ‘biographical’ house, and greater importance, if afternoon calling in town was experience, more details on p8 the need to respect its significance and rich history afoot. ‘ p114 MH and not disappoint visitor expectations. Good research and inventive thinking will be crucial in How about afternoon tea? balancing these two demands. Henry James’s Hats are currently kept in the Research details could really give depth to our telephone room, better placed on the Hall table or catering offer at Lamb House. Our starting point by the front door, possibly along with some The Birthplace, 1903 has always been the portrait of a lady quote ‘’ but handling collection hats could communicate both other details might also be relevant. For example And don’t They want also to see where He had these layers, accompanied by a simple quote from the fact that Henry James’s favourite drink was His dinner and where He had His tea? HG wells and a marked copy of Birthplace. Barley water to which he added lemon and sugar ‘They want everything . .They want to see and that a jug of this always stood on the where He hung up His hat and where He kept Staged or seasonal? sideboard (MHp114). His boots … Operationally Programming will be a big draw on a What they all most wanted was to feel that small property so some static spaces, especially In his description of Lamb House as Mr Longdons everything was ‘just as it was’; only the shock where we can display rooms with some historical House James describes ‘sitting-places, just there, of having to part with that vision was greater integrity will probably be a good idea. More market out of the full light, cushioned benches in the thick than any individual could bear unsupported.’ and audience research into how often wide spread of old mulberry boughs…’which might programmed elements would benefit from being be interpreted to form the basis of some of our The Birthplace is James’s satirical look at the changed is needed. seating in the garden, photographs of James in the struggles of a custodian trying to present the home Garden also suggest the sort of seating we would be looking for as part of a catering offer. of a famous writer (William Shakespeare reading between the lines) and wrestling with spirit of place and authenticity verses the ‘show’. The tale is Tone of voice? perhaps a caution against us being too Words and how we use them will be very important biographical, certainly against attempts to fabricate at Lamb House, one idea might be to make a an authentic experience where our collections and conscious decision not to input our own words evidence do not support it. But it could also be onto the experience at Lamb (or at least keep used tongue in cheek to give a humorous twist to them to a minimum) but to use those of the people displaying his own life story who lived and visited there and to ask today’s visitors to put their impressions of the place down in creative ways. HJ Wells wrote ‘On the table (an excellent piece) in his hall at Rye lay a number of caps and hats, each with its appropriate gloves and sticks, a Lamb is Lamb is not Theme 1: Inspiration and place gave a view over the surrounding streets. With its also the passion he felt for it, for example see p 94 secret cupboard artfully concealed behind an array Montgomay Hyde on his feelings about Drama. of false books, it was regularly used to host bridge parties.’ A curtain twitching palace where Lucia could lord it over the local community, Lamb was How this theme could be expressed: also featured in a number of the 70 short stories Getting visitors involved in and thinking about the EF Benson wrote. In addition Montgomary Hyde, creative process would be a fruitful area of later tenant of Lamb and distant cousin of henry interpretation, whether that is playing around with James also wrote two histories of Lamb House and sentence structure or thinking about what inspires Henry James’s life there. creativity, designing a garden, a work of art or a book cover. A brief to a creative agency might concentrate on just this element to make the most Lamb has the potential to explore how a work of of our limited resources. Programming themes and fiction can take you to a different time and place workshops along this theme would also work. and how a place can inspire creativity and storytelling. This could be a simple as asking The telephone room was used as a guest study and at the end of the route might offer a space for visitors to respond to areas of Lamb House or marking excerpts in / displaying works by James, visitors to respond to their experience of Lamb Benson, Godden and Caldwell in the creative House. Music is also an element to consider, EF spaces at Lamb. It could be highlighting views out Benson played the piano daily and AC Benson composed the lyrics to Land of Hope and Glory. of windows (Beatrix Potter) and letters that relate to Lamb and its sense of place. It could be by programming and creative workshops. Spaces: James laughingly call Garden house ‘the temple to the Muse’ p 90 MH but other rooms are A sense of Place Creative Process also relevant particularly the Green room, The work of Henry James, EF Benson, Rumer telephone room and the Garden (including the site Both James and Benson wrote about the creative of the Garden Room) Godden and Brian Caldwell Cook Batsford were all process, and about their work ethic. Henry inspired by a sense of place. Brian Caldwell Cook James’s The Art of Fiction and EF Benson Batsford’s iconic illustrations are rooted in the foreword of James’s letters for example as well as ‘The Green Room would lodge many of his British landscapes and Rumer Godden’s evocative Thoughts from EF Benson by… are a good place books; and presently certain pictures were descriptions of India through the eyes of an ex-pat to start. James’s secretary Theodora Bonsanquet’s hung—a Burne– Jones, an inscribed are central to her most well known works. In the account of Henry James at Work was published by photograph from Daudet, a small portrait of case of James, Benson and Caldwell Lamb House The Hogath Press in 1924 and Henry James’s Flaubert, some illustrations from an edition of itself is directly featured in their work and James Letters to and from the sculpture by Hendrick “Daisy Miller,” a Whistler etching ’Edel p468 and Benson spent the most prolific and successful Anderson give a more personal account of Henry periods of their careers their. For James it is the James’s response to art, patina of age, the idea of Englishness and the Collections include: Batsford sketches and related aesthetics of old houses ‘of coloured china Benson felt that ‘a writer is not someone who could Henry James Books, Godden Manuscripts and glimmering through glass doors and delicate silver write but someone who does’ and wrote 2000 Artworks by Visitors and friends (AC Benson, reflected on bared tables’ . For Benson Lamb words per day his routine is described in Routine Beatrix Potter..) eg. 204003, 204166, 204142 House is Mallards ‘Its entrancing airy garden room on p275 of Masters ‘The Life of EF Benson’. James also speaks of the work and the craft of writing but Theme 2: Refuge recognised that Lamb was an important. He wrote ‘There is no solid sense of home without it’ to Benson on signing the lease that Lamb has ‘a How this theme could be expressed: Henry James on Lamb House beautiful room for you (the ‘King’s Room’ – George Many of our visitors will not have a three story II’s [sic]– who slept there) together with every Georgian mansion of their own, but themes of What did Lamb House personally mean to those promise of yielding me an indispensable retreat homecoming, refuge, mental health and loneliness will certainly resonate.
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