Issue71 June 2013 Experimental Re-interpretation &Display Community Engagement atBirmingham THE NEWSLETTEROFSOCIALHISTORY CURATORS GROUP Eli Whalley’s Donkey Stones Eli Whalley’sDonkey Stones Medical Objects PartII Join SHCG? If you’re reading this and you’re Welcome to Issue 71 not a member of SHCG but would like to join please contact: At the end of June Laura Briggs a new permanent Membership Secretary exhibition opens at Email: [email protected] Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, in which the history of Write an article for theatre is charted SHCG News? from its origins in You can write an article for the News Ancient Greece to on any subject that you feel would be the present day. An interesting to the museum community. important part of Project write ups, book reviews, object the narrative studies, papers given and so on. We focuses on the welcome a wide variety of articles medieval mystery Model of Noah's ark relating to social history and museums. plays, in which Image courtesy of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: stories from the 18 October 2013 Bible were acted out. Among the best known of the mystery plays was the story of Noah and

SHCG NEWS will encourage the Flood. To help illustrate this in the Theatre Royal exhibition a model ark and publish a wide range of views from was sought, and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums were happy to help as those connected with history and we have, would you believe, not one but two models of Noah’s handiwork. museums. The News aims to act as a channel for the exchange of While processing the loan-out paperwork a documentation anomaly information and opinions about current occasioned the consultation of the original MDA catalogue cards from 1977, practice and theory in museums. in the hope that this would lead to some clarification. I was amused to read The views expressed in the News are under ‘production data’ that the ‘manufacturer’ was identified by the recorder wide ranging and do not necessarily as “Noah and Sons”, and the ‘association data’ group identified the express the views of the SHCG ‘associated person’ as “Noah and Friends”. Turning the card over, committee or SHCG, unless otherwise ‘description data’ yielded the dimensions “300 cubits x 50 cubits x 30 stated. cubits”, and under ‘documentation’ – following the format ‘author : date : title The suggested word count for : journal or publisher : volume : detail’, the recorder inserted “? : : Bible : : submissions is: Bulletin Board 100-300 Genesis : chapter 4, verses 14 = 16”. I take my hat off to the recorder, Dave words, Theory & Practice 900-1,000 Bowler, whose use of the MDA Data Standard made me laugh out loud! words, Reviews and Object Focus 400- 500 words (one page) or 900-1,000 All this got me thinking: setting aside whether or not you actually believe the words (two pages), Tea Break 200-300 biblical story, what tools might Noah have used to construct his ark? I posed words. Please submit your article by this very question to the Tools and Trades History Society (TATHS) and their e-mail, saved as a Word file (Arial 12 response was as follows: point). Images can be e-mailed or, if high resolution, submitted on a CD “If one believes that the world was created in 4004 BC, then the Great Flood (high resolution preferred). Images was probably about 2500-2000 BC and we know that by then both copper should be accompanied by a brief and bronze were being used, so the bronze axe, adze, chisel and the saw caption and credit details. would all have been available. Joining timbers would probably have been Alternative formats: done by the use of wooden dowels, called treenails, driven into pre-drilled Electronic copies and alternative holes, made by bow drills using bronze (or flint tipped) drill bits. All these formats are available on request. tools were available to the ancient Egyptians who could also work stone Send all contributions to: using them. A useful book is Experiments in Egyptian Archaeology by Denys Adam Bell A. Stocks (ISBN 978-0-415-58894-2). Waterproofing / caulking the hull Assistant Keeper of History would have used either natural asphalt eruptions which occur in the current Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums oil fields in the Middle East, or plant resins.” South Shields Museum & Art Gallery Ocean Road With the introduction in April of SHCG’s new membership structure, all South Shields NE33 2JA members will now receive digital copies of the Group’s publications, Tel: 0191 456 8740 providing an e-mail address was supplied on the membership renewal form Email: [email protected] (if members opted for ‘print’ membership a digital copy will be e-mailed in addition to the copy sent by post). As a special treat for members who would like to learn more about diluvian era ark building, I will include extra detail Front Cover: Inter Alia, an experiment from the nice people at TATHS when I e-mail the digital copy of issue 71. in re-interpreting and displaying the stored collections at Bury Art Museum, Adam G. Bell pp. 10-11. Editor, SHCG News Image courtesy of Danielle Quinn. Page 3 Bulletin Board Issue71 SHCG Matters SHCG Conference 2013 Contents Local Stories, Global Identities BULLETIN BOARD Thursday 27 & Friday 28 June 2013 The 2013 SHCG SHCG conference 2013 3 conference will be held SHCG e-mail list 4 in Belfast, Northern firstBASE 4 Ireland. SHCG committee looks Masonic periodicals online 4 forward to Silver of the Stars 5 welcoming A tipper toilet 5 you to the Ulster Museum Research into ’s and Ulster Folk suburbs goes online 6 and Transport Connecting History at the Ulster 7. Connecting History Museum for Museum 7 an exciting programme of papers, workshops, debate and discussion. Full Understanding British Portraits 7 details of the conference programme PRISM fund 8 can be found on the SHCG website: ’s new museum 8 www.shcg.org.uk. The great donate 9 If you are attending conference and wish to extend your trip, it’s worth considering a visit to the City of Derry. THEORY & PRACTICE The city is hosting a number of unique cultural events this year as part of its Inter Alia: an experiment in re- 2013 UK City of Culture programme. interpreting and displaying the stored collections 10 Staff at the Tower Museum in Derry have kindly offered to host a behind ‘If I ran Birmingham’: community the scenes tour of their museum for engagement and the new SHCG members on Saturday 29 June. Birmingham history galleries 12 A visit to Derry also offers a chance to visit the newly restored Guildhall and 10. Inter Alia Plantation exhibition, celebrating the Reviews 400th anniversary of the city walls. What is it? Medals & Militaria Please note that the Derry trip is 14 not a formal part of the conference What is it? Photographs 15 programme and private transport to What is it? Trade Tools 16 and from Derry will not be organised or provided by SHCG. However, public bus transport between Belfast and Derry is affordable and frequent. OBJECT FOCUS If you are interested in joining a group Eli Whalley’s Donkey Stones 17 of conference delegates for a visit to Derry on Sat 29 June please contact Medical Objects in Social History Jude or Ciara. Everyone is welcome. Collections: Part II 19 For more information about the City of Culture in Derry visit: www. TEA BREAK cityofculture2013.com.

Seventeen Years On… 22 19. Medical Objects Jude Holland and Ciara Canning SHCG Committee Contacts 23 SHCG committee [email protected] [email protected]

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If you’re not a member of the list, SHCG e-mail list you’re missing out! To join, e-mail Connect with SHCG [email protected], The SHCG e-mail list continues to stating your name and type of be a valuable platform to promote membership. events to museum colleagues. In the past few months it has been awash with details of job In addition to the e-mail list, we opportunities, workshops and also publicise our events and conferences, showing the range activities via our website and of opportunities that are around social media accounts, so please at the moment for those seeking feel free to visit www.shcg.org.uk, career development. follow us on Twitter@SHCG1 and like us on Facebook (search for The list has also proved useful “social history curators group”). for those needing help with We also regularly post new identifications as well as tips messages about the latest content on how to get the most out of a to be uploaded to firstBASE, so collections management system. it’s a great way of keeping track of Perhaps the most extraordinary what’s new there too. message of the last few months related to a query about 19th James Allen and Sons urinal in Catherine Newley century urinals and their flushing Bristol’s Great Western Dockyard, as mechanisms! featured on the list SHCG committee Image courtesy of ss Great Britain Trust [email protected]

resources on a range of subjects and newspapers. From the end with which you told us you needed of the 18th century up to the firstBASE support. Titles planned include present day, various series of The new version of firstBASE ‘how to date pocket watches’, ‘top periodicals were also published has now been live for six months, 10 friendly society objects in your by freemasons for a Masonic and it is really pleasing to see collection’ and ‘how to identify audience. the website becoming more ship models’. interactive. These publications are firstBASE can be found at important sources not only for We’ve currently got over 35 www.shcg.org.uk/firstbase and understanding the issues within active contributors who are remember, it’s now really easy to freemasonry but for providing sharing their experience and sign up and start adding your own information about the individuals knowledge of useful resources by suggestions of useful resources in involved and the localities where uploading them onto the site. The the Contribute section. lodges were based. Few complete new resources that have been series of these periodicals are uploaded echo the wide variety Victoria Rogers held in libraries and where of objects and topics we all look they exist there are only limited after in our collections – from SHCG committee indexes. chocolate to democracy, types of [email protected] glass to workhouses! The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, in partnership In the coming months we will with King’s College be adding a new section to the Department of Digital Humanities site, written by National Museum and Olive Software, has Wales’ (and SHCG stalwart!) Masonic undertaken a groundbreaking Steph Mastoris. This section project to provide free access will be a ‘beginner’s guide to’, periodicals to searchable digital copies with step-by-step pointers and of the major English Masonic suggestions of how to approach publications from the late 18th to identifying social history objects. online the early 20th centuries. In 1717 the first Masonic Grand The firstBASE Editorial Lodge was formed in London The titles digitised for this project, Committee are also working and it wasn’t long before printed which comprises approximately with around 14 different SSNs references to freemasonry began 75,000 pages, are as follows and specialist museums and appearing in an increasing (shown with the dates of organisations to create brand new number of English magazines publication available digitally):

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‘Star Designer’ area for children (and big children too!) to design Silver of their own pieces inspired by the exhibits. Visitors are also invited to be a ‘Star for the Day’ and have the Stars their photograph taken with props Edinburgh Museums & Galleries such as star-shaped glasses, hats is diving headlong into a and tiaras. new temporary exhibitions programme with the launch of The exhibition provides a a gleaming exhibition – Silver contemporary compliment to of the Stars. The Museum of the nationally important array of Edinburgh, set in a complex of traditional Edinburgh silverware 16th century buildings on the on display in this local history historic Royal Mile, is the latest museum, while adding a further to host this highly successful dimension to the information touring exhibition. It features the already available about the history collaboration of ten world-famous, of silversmithing in the Capital. It contemporary Scots including is accompanied by a dedicated Sean Connery, Lulu and Billy programme of events and entry Connolly, with ten of Scotland’s is free. Silver of the Stars runs finest silversmiths. Each pair has at the Museum of Edinburgh until created a piece of silverware 21 September 2013, and can be with the theme ‘a drink with a seen afterwards at venues in Wick, Title page of The Freemason, 1876 close friend’, and the results are Thurso, Inverness and West Kilbride. Image courtesy of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry as eclectic as the celebrities themselves. Gemma Lundie

• Freemasons' Magazine: or, The display at the Museum Curatorial Assistant - History General and Complete Library of Edinburgh celebrates the Edinburgh Museums (later The Scientific Magazine lavishness of the pieces and and Galleries creates a feeling of luxury and and Freemason’s Repository) [email protected] [1793-98] opulence by using rich purple colours throughout, swathes • The Freemasons' Quarterly of flowing silk, and highlights Review [1834-49] of sparkling silver. The display • The Freemasons’ Magazine and also taps into the sense of fun Masonic Mirror [1856-71] behind the pieces and includes a A Black Country • The Freemason [1869-1901] • The Freemason’s Chronicle tipper toilet [1875-1901] Winter maintenance work to • Masonic Illustrated: A Monthly re-lay a quarry tile floor in Journal for Freemasons [1900- an outside toilet at the Black 1906] Country Living Museum recently revealed an opportunity to bring Access to this digital resource a ‘tipper toilet’ back into use as is free via the Resources page another of the museum’s ‘live’ of the Library and Museum of exhibits. Freemasonry website at www. freemasonry.london.museum Designed by James Duckett of or the project website at www. Burnley, the tipper or ‘automatic masonicperiodicals.org/, where slop water closet’ was patented articles can also be found about the in 1887. It has a tipping tank development of the Masonic press. instead of a cistern tank and the water comes from ‘slop’ or waste water, e.g. from the kitchen or Diane Clements scullery sink.

Director The toilet in question, at the rear The Library and Museum of of our Brook Street back-to-back Freemasonry Museum of Edinburgh property, would originally have dclements@freemasonry. Image courtesy of Edinburgh Museums & received water from a drain london.museum Galleries located outside the brew’us

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(a Black Country name for the ‘wash house’). When the tank was almost full it tipped over, Research into sending a powerful rush of water to flush the toilet. Birmingham’s suburbs

During the 1890s and early 1900s the tipper closet was goes online installed in many backyards Social history curators at 4,000 word essays by each of the of working class houses in the Birmingham Museum and Art fellows. The website was officially midlands and the north, replacing Gallery have taken part in a launched in February 2013. the pail system which had ground-breaking collaborative continued despite many places research project. ‘Suburban The project enabled curators, in the south of England adopting Birmingham: Spaces and archivists and academics to the WC system much earlier. Places, 1880-1960’ was funded work together and learn from by the Arts and Humanities one another. All the participating Having discovered a pipe Research Council, and involved institutions gained an invaluable connecting water to the toilet Birmingham Museum and Art understanding of the others’ during the maintenance work, Gallery, Birmingham Archives and collections and methods of we are using a tap inside the Heritage and the University of working. Birmingham Museum water closet to feed the system. Birmingham’s Cadbury Research and Art Gallery’s new series of Final work on regulating the Library. Supervised by the history galleries, ‘Birmingham: its water is underway, so we hope to University, two research fellows people, its history’, features many from each institution undertook objects which were identified detailed research on aspects of during the research project, along Birmingham’s suburbs, drawing with a touch screen interactive upon their own and each other’s on which visitors can access collections. The Museum’s digitised objects and archival two social history curators material selected by the research researched the early history of fellows. Cadbury’s factory in Bournville, and Edgbaston in the late 19th century. Henrietta Lockhart and Jo-Ann Curtis The output of the project Curators of History, Birmingham is a website, www. Museum and Art Gallery suburbanbirmingham.org.uk, The tipping tank [email protected] Image courtesy of Black Country Living which features online galleries of [email protected] Museum objects and archival material and

have the toilet working soon by activating the flush periodically. We may also arrange for our costumed demonstrators to flush the closet by pouring buckets of water down the nearby drain which runs into the tipper tank.

The tipper toilet is part of a range of WC exhibits at the museum, from the pail system to an indoor toilet in our 1940s cast iron council house (constructed in the 1920s). However, visitors will continue to be directed towards the more modern facilities to spend a penny!

Clare Weston Curator – Domestic & Cultural Life Black Country Living Museum Entrance to Cadbury’s Bournville Works by Claude Buckle, 1930 [email protected] Image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust

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Connecting Understanding History at the British Portraits Understanding British Portraits Ulster Museum is an active network with free Earlier this year National membership for professionals Museums Northern Ireland working with British portraits successfully acquired funding including academics, curators, from the Heritage Lottery Fund conservators, museum learning towards the redevelopment of its professionals, researchers and modern history galleries. art dealers. The network aims to enhance the knowledge and The project ‘Connecting History’ understanding of portraits in all aims to forge connections between media in British collections, for people and their history in the benefit of future research, engaging, relevant and meaningful exhibitions, interpretation, display ways. A new multi-layered gallery and learning programmes. approach to interpreting the centuries from the 16th century The network organises a Elizabethan conquest of Ireland programme of seminars and up to the outbreak of the Troubles visits to private collections, is in 1969 will cater to diverse visitor 18th century Volunteer coat reputed engaged in mapping portrait to have been worn by United needs and learning styles. collections of every size Irishman James Hope throughout the UK, mapping Image courtesy of National Museums research and expertise in Another aim of the project is to Northern Ireland make the museum’s collections portraiture and associated more widely accessible to the Visitors from all over the world disciplines and providing online public through a wide-ranging can now access a wide variety toolkits to assist in the research, programme of collections of collections material including display and interpretation of digitisation. Since January 2012, photographs, silverware, portraits. over 1,200 objects have been weapons, souvenirs, propaganda added to the online records of the posters or costume and explore A new website was launched History collection. the many facets of historic events earlier this year offering such as the signing of the Ulster access to a database of A focus of the digitisation Covenant, the First World War, was placed on the Decade of the Easter Rising and Partition. Centenaries, which explores the defining period in Northern The recent online addition of a Irish History from 1912–1922. number of uniforms from around 1798 sheds light on an earlier period of ‘Connecting History’. The uniforms highlight the strong military culture of the time, with scores of men enlisting in local Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer regiments to police the land against rebels and dissenters. A new web-tour ‘Loyalism or Rebellion?’ addresses the shifting allegiances of the 1798 struggle and challenges notions of loyalism as a black-and-white concept. This and other online collection highlights tours can be found at: www.nmni.com/um/Collections/ Collections-highlights.

Sarah Kingston Mrs Townley, attributed to Richard Anti Home Rule sticker showing Sir Cosway (1742 -1821), painted about Edward Carson History Intern 1800. As featured on the UBP blog. Image courtesy of National Museums National Museums Northern Ireland Image © Private collection Northern Ireland [email protected]

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portrait specialists and portrait collections in the UK, online publishing opportunities for Wakefield’s new portrait-relevant reviews and articles, a guest blog with regular posts on new research and museum opens events, a queries section for members to post questions and Sir David Attenborough officially Waterton, a Victorian pioneer a bursary area with details of reopened Wakefield Museum of wildlife conservation, uses available funding opportunities in March. The museum moved innovative techniques to unlock and best practice case studies. from its former home, a Georgian his collection of natural history See www.britishportraits.org.uk. Music Saloon, to its new site specimens. A Cayman (like an in the £31m Wakefield One alligator) which Waterton rode The network’s next seminar building in November 2012. Sir out of a South American river is will focus on contemporary David said: “It is a great privilege displayed under the floor to give responses to portraiture and to open this spectacular new visitors his unique perspective of portrait collections, showcasing museum. It's a beautiful design, the animal. many of the projects taking is beautifully displayed and is full place in the this of interesting things”. The museum joins the library summer, and elsewhere. It will service at Wakefield One, be held at Birmingham Museum Wakefield’s collections are improving visitor experiences, & Art Gallery, and the Barber used thematically to explore visitor numbers and uniting Institute of Fine Arts on Tuesday the lives of the city’s residents local history collections and 16 July 2013. Further details of since it was first settled over knowledge. Local Studies the programme will be posted on 1,000 years ago. They offer a archives feature in the museum the network’s Events page: www. fresh approach to its history, displays and indeed many of the britishportraits.org.uk/events/. growth and development and are Wakefield people discussed in planned to change and evolve the displays were researched in Caroline Pegum over time. Emotive subjects such the library. as love (inspired by a beautiful Researcher / Co-ordinator medieval finger ring discovered John Whitaker Understanding British in the ruins of ) flow into displays which explore Portraits Museums Curatorial and different aspects of Wakefield Collections Officer [email protected] living, from working lives to Tudor Wakefield Museum at architecture and Rugby League. Wakefield One A special gallery dedicated to [email protected] the extraordinary life of Charles PRISM fund The new round of PRISM (Preservation of Industrial and Scientific Material) funding is now open. Grants can be between £500 and £20,000 with a match funding requirement of 10%. PRISM is open to museum and heritage groups in England and Wales, awarding grants towards the costs of acquisition and conservation of items or collections which are important in the history and development of science, technology, industry, and related fields. Applicants do not have to be Accredited, but do need to have charitable purposes. PRISM is a rolling fund and applications can be submitted at any time of the year. For more details see: www. artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply- Sir David Attenborough studying Charles Waterton’s ‘John Bull and the for-funding/prism/. National Debt’ – a composite piece of satirical taxidermy. Image courtesy of Wakefield Council

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The great donate Question: what do a 1970s sunlamp, a Wham! t-shirt, and a hand built model of a pit cottage have in common?

Answer: all of these items were donated to Beamish during our half term Great Donate event! For one week during February half term, Beamish’s Collections Study Room was transformed into a ‘donation station’, complete with 1950s style living room, try-on ‘50s costume, and a ‘design a ‘50s living room’ family activity.

Generous visitors were responding to the appeal for items from the 1950s and beyond, to help with the future development of Beamish – most importantly, the construction of a 1950s and 1980s area at the museum.

This project was an entirely unknown quantity – we had no idea how (or indeed if!), the public would respond. The results were amazing and beyond all our expectations – by the end of the week, we had collected over 2,000 items. All of these objects are now being processed, researched and catalogued, ready to go into 1950s buildings on site.

As well as objects for the collection, the Great Donate was an exercise in story gathering – visitors dropped in to tell us their memories and perceptions of the period and to fill in specially designed story forms. All of these stories and memories will be used 1950s boys’ annuals to research future developments Image courtesy of Beamish, The Living Museum of the North at the museum, and ensure that the story we tell at the museum reflects the memories and of the 1951 Durham County project, visit our website at www. experiences of communities in Development Plan, which aimed beamish.org.uk. the North East. to reshape the county of Durham for a brave new post war world Crucially, the Great Donate Cheryl Knight with sometimes severe and long ran alongside the ‘Category D’ lasting consequences for the project delivered by our Learning Assistant Keeper of Social History communities affected. and Community Participation Beamish, The Living Museum teams. This project explored the of the North For more information on the impact on local communities [email protected] Great Donate and the Category D

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Inter Alia: an experiment in re-interpreting and displaying the stored collections Inter Alia was a explore possible ways of working 'The students had collaborative project together. She was given a tour of the museum collection and an no pre-conceived between the curators of introduction to the type of objects Bury Art Museum and the Bury collects. After this meeting notions of what 3rd year students on the the students were given the the objects were, BA (Hons) Fashion Image following project brief: how old they Making & Styling course were, and quite at Salford University. ‘Working in collaboration with Bury Art Museum, students will often what they focus on the REINVENTION of With over 60,000 objects in the the way the collection is seen. would have been museum collection at Bury Art With a sense of ADVENTURE used for. They Museum we are conscious that we will be marching off the edge not every object can be put on of our map…! A restless need saw them as display at any one time. Eager to for change (REINVENTION), colours, shapes use our stored collections in an approaching the exhibition with innovative way, we approached a NON-LINEAR NARRATIVE, and things of the course leaders of the Fashion objects will be used out of beauty.' Image Making & Styling course chronological order –mimicking to collaborate with us. The the structure and recall of human a backdrop to their shoots. The outcome was Inter Alia - a project memory. The possibilities are that we feel pushed boundaries third group created individual case endless. A new world can be installations in the museum, an in how we can display and created through scenarios, sets interpret our collections. exhibition space which lends itself and photographs that play with to ever-changing displays, and the colour, proportion and volume fourth group took inspiration from Bury Art Museum curators had to emphasise SURREALITY; an initial meeting with course the museum and art collections to transporting you into a world of create their work off-site. leader Christine Ratcliffe to pure IMAGINATION. A correlation of the world of real objects and The students had no pre- the life of objects in the mind, conceived notions of what the by capturing imagined scenes objects were, how old they were, using props and sets creating and quite often what they would trompe l'oeil effects. What we have been used for. They saw see finally will have undergone them as colours, shapes and several changes initially from your things of beauty. Some students imagination (an unreal dimension), delved further, enquiring about to an actualisation in real space the stories behind the objects, but and real time before the camera, most built their own stories. and finally returning once more to the realm of fantasy through For instance, Ian Robert Slater, the eyes of the viewer. We know one of the eight students who the worlds we are creating are created a display in the museum, not a reality. It is a whim - an used a 1950s pink fridge and a entertainment to PROVOKE mannequin from the museum’s something in people, whether as Co-operative collection in his escapism or relief’. installation ‘Trey LaTrash: Pop Psychic’. He recreated a day in 32 students from the course were the surreal Pop Psychic life of divided into four groups. The New York artist and underground first group used museum objects club DJ Trey LaTrash. He also in their photographic fashion used quotes from interviews ‘Trey LaTrash: Pop Psychic’ shoots. The second group used about the New York scene which Image courtesy of Robert Slater the art gallery and artworks as appeared in JUKE Magazine,

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‘Shibari’ ‘Genuine in Existence’ ‘No Tears for the Creatures of the Night’ Image courtesy of Danielle Quinn Image courtesy of Jodie Stringfellow Image courtesy of Danika Gavin printing these on material and restraints used on the patients. use and display our stored suspending them across the back Danielle based her photo shoot in collections. of the display case. an abandoned building and she used found objects and props. We enjoyed working with the Danika Gavin worked with Her piece explores bondage and students in such a creative way museum objects and took restraint, not by showing women and the end products, we felt, inspiration from a work of art as submissive but the opposite were extraordinary. The legacy by Sir Joseph Noel Paton, by putting women in control; of this project will carry on, Dante Meditating the Episode of the theme of powerful women we now have a stock of high Francesca da Rimini and Paolo is very current in contemporary quality images from each of Malatesta, from the art collection. fashion. Shibari marries the the students and the students Danika used objects from the idea of restraint, bondage and themselves have gained museum’s medical, natural female empowerment by using invaluable experience through history and furniture collections the restraint methods based on working on a ‘live brief’. in her fashion shoot which took Japanese rope bondage, Shibari. place in the collections store. For us, seeing the collections Danika’s piece, ‘No Tears for Interpretation took the form of a interpreted so differently was the Creatures of the Night’, is book, which was on display for truly liberating. The project has an exploration of how “some the public to view alongside the given us the confidence to work dreams matter, illuminate a exhibition, featuring the students’ with people from beyond the crucial choice, or reveal some photo shoots and a brief outline museum sector and taught us intuition that’s trying to push its of their work. QR codes were new ways of working, displaying way to the surface” – (The Lake also created and placed around and interpreting the collections. of Dreams by Kim Edwards). She the museum which link to a newly took inspiration from surrealist created blog which features a artists Leonora Carrington as well selection of the photo shoots: as photographers Tim Walker, http://buryartmuseum.com. Susan Lord Camillie Vivier and Gareth Pugh’s Museum Curator Spring/Summer 2013 collection. The project has been successful Bury Art Museum in terms of visits to the blog, [email protected] Danielle Quinn was one of the visitor responses to the exhibition, students who created her photo as well as influencing our shoot off site. Her piece ‘Shibari’ curatorial working practices. We was inspired by the Museum’s feel that taking inspiration from collection of late 19th and early outside our sector and harnessing 20th century objects from the the creative energies of the Prestwich Asylum - in particular fashion industry has really pushed the stretcher, wheelchair and hand boundaries in terms of how we

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‘If I ran Birmingham’: community engagement and the new Birmingham history galleries

Community engagement would be central to the visitor – experiences which many of is a box that everyone experience. The outputs therefore today’s migrants can identify with. had to be historically accurate We chose community engagement wants to tick. But can and fulfil specific briefs. However, as a means of communicating community engagement one of the most exciting things these ideas. inspire not just the about community engagement is participants but visitors the unexpected - you don’t know We recruited a diverse group of too? And how far should exactly what you’re going to get! students from Birmingham School we try to influence what So the challenge for us was to of Acting and two freelancers: ‘square the circle’, to allow the a script writer and a film maker. the final output of a projects creative freedom and to Their brief was to produce short project should be? ensure that they gave us what films about migration prior to we needed. Here are just a few 1700. It was essential that the ‘Birmingham: its people, its examples. historical background was correct, history’ is a major new gallery and before the project started development at Birmingham One of the key themes of the two museum studies students Museum and Art Gallery which new galleries is migration to prepared detailed fact sheets opened in October 2012. Birmingham from the medieval about medieval and 17th century Community engagement has period onwards. We wanted to life. Once the creative process been at the heart of the project make the experience of medieval began, we had to maintain a from the outset, and we set out a migrants relevant to Birmingham’s balance between keeping the programme of consultation and diverse community, but most group on track historically and in-depth projects which ran for medieval migrants came from imposing too much control. three years. Wales, or from Warwickshire, Inevitably we made mistakes rather than from overseas. Could along the way – at one point the We wanted to integrate we show that moving from Wales freelancers had to ask us to step community engagement fully in 1300 might be as dislocating back. For us, there was a slight into our interpretation, using an experience as coming from feeling of looking over a precipice the output of projects to put the other side of the world today? – what if the scripts didn’t get across important and sometimes By the 17th century, reasons across the points we were trying complex ideas and themes. for migration included flight to make? What if they were over- These projects were not ‘add- from religious persecution as simplified, trite or just boring? ons’; the aim was that they well as economic opportunity Once scripts started to appear, however, we knew we were on to a winner. The finished films are hilarious (with nods towards Monty Python) but also profound.

The films are popular with visitors, and evaluation suggests that people are picking up our key message about migration. We took a risk in using a diverse group to present an aspect of medieval history, and some visitors have said that the films misled them into thinking there were black people in medieval Birmingham. However, we don’t regret having taken that risk – consultation had suggested that many people find medieval history quite difficult to relate to, Drama students tell the story of migration in medieval Birmingham and we wanted to counteract that Image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust

shcg news June 2013 Page 13 Theory and Practice

by introducing diversity into the interpretation right from the start. And since DNA research now shows that there were people of African origin in Britain from Roman times onwards, who knows who might have been here…

Some projects, however, presented us with the challenge of dealing with the unexpected. John Freeth was a coffee shop proprietor in 18th century Birmingham, who entertained customers with ballads he and his friends had written. The topical issues which inspired these ballads were exciting at the time but might seem obscure to our Artwork by a Year 6 pupil showing the journey of former slave Amanda visitors, so we felt community Smith from America to Birmingham Image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust engagement could bring the concept of the ballad up to date. We recruited a group of African- is selected, the 18th century and our community engagement Caribbean elders, and engaged a background soundscape changes programme has genuinely freelance writer to enable them to to reflect the atmosphere of enabled local people to take produce their own take on current Starbucks. The disparity between ownership of the galleries affairs. Our hope was that they the ballad format and the poems and contribute directly to the would use the historical material does not matter; the point is that visitor experience. Our long for inspiration, but for various people separated by 200 years term relationships with the reasons the freelance practitioner are essentially the same, and participants will vary; some felt this would not work, and their enjoy socialising in public spaces, may not want to continue any engagement with 18th century gossiping and complaining about involvement with us, but many ballads was very limited. The ‘the powers that be’. do, and most will have gained results were audio recordings new skills that they can take of poems of outstanding quality, ‘Crisis equals opportunity’; this with them into the future. under headings including ‘If I ran platitude occasionally proves true! A project in which fashion Birmingham’. We had a fantastic At the last minute we discovered students made garments body of material, but not the kind that one of our planned projects based on wartime ‘Make do of material we had expected. was too similar to one carried and Mend’, in consultation with out by another group a few people who lived through the Despite initial anxieties, the years earlier, and we had to Birmingham blitz, opened up a end result was far better than devise a new one rapidly. We new understanding of history for we could ever have anticipated. decided to focus upon black the students as well as teaching Working with a creative company abolition campaigners who visited them new skills. Many individuals (Centrescreen) on the final audio- Birmingham in the 19th century have discovered a new interest visual interactive was crucial. – an important story for which in the museum as a result of In the galleries, visitors use a we had no objects to show. A their involvement, and some touch table to listen to either the freelance artist worked with a have become repeat visitors. historical ballads or the poems. primary school to develop artwork When the 21st century material and creative writing. It proved Making community engagement highly successful both for us so integral to the interpretation and for the school, although we has presented many challenges flew by the seat of our pants as and has been a steep learning we weren’t sure what to expect curve for everyone involved. But and couldn’t plan how we were the experience it has offered going to use the material until to participants and staff has the project had been completed. been unique, and seeing visitors Faced with an outstanding range engaging with the results is the of material, we were able to build icing on the cake. the interpretation around the children’s work. Henrietta Lockhart

African-Caribbean elders from Across many different projects, Curator of History Birmingham share ideas about their city we were overwhelmed with the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Image courtesy of Birmingham Museums Trust quality of the material produced, [email protected]

shcg news June 2013 Page 14 Reviews

What is it? Identifying Mystery Objects Medals & Militaria Museum of Liverpool,18 January 2013

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, SHCG ran a series of free study days earlier this year. From identification and interpretation to handling and storage, participants gained practical skills and useful knowledge about items commonly found in many of our museum collections: medals & militaria, photographs, and trade tools.

On a snowy Friday in Additionally, the day provided January SHCG held everyone with an introduction to biographical research. a fascinating and Participants were made aware informative day on of the vast amounts of sources identifying medals and available to researchers, including militaria at the Museum the collections in our own of Liverpool. Despite museums, regimental histories, the weather conditions, war diaries, personal diaries and letters, photos and albums, local participants from across newspapers and local archive the UK came together offices, the Commonwealth War to find out more in Graves Commission, the National preparation for the Archives and fee paying services. forthcoming centenary of We were reminded however that it is not always easy to find World War I. personal details of individuals that served with the Army, although Tommy Atkins (aka Richard the mention of six and a half Gardiner) introduced us to the million pension records currently make-up of the British Army, Liverpool, introduced us to the being digitised by the Western himself wearing full military world of military medals. The Front Association aroused a uniform from the Great War more well-known ‘Pip, Squeak considerable interest among period. From Brigades to and Wilfred’ World War I medals, those assembled. Battalions, we got a sense of the named after characters in the scale of the Army in July 1914 Daily Mirror, were circulated and Next we looked at the and the way it was structured participants were offered hints iconography of British Army cap throughout 1914-18. Richard on how to handle medals. We badges. From bugles to cannons, also brought along his handling were given an insight into the white horses to castles, this was collection and chatted to meaning of some of the colours an exciting exploration of how participants throughout the day. of medal ribbons and discussed Regiments incorporate significant the displaying of medals, including elements of their history into their Karen O’ Rourke, Curator of the order in which they should be badges. A fun end of day quiz the King’s Regiment Collection displayed. picked up on the military theme based at the Museum of and re-enforced the learning from the session.

This was a useful and interesting course which offered insight and support for those working with military collections, and will do much to equip us for next year’s centenary of the First World War.

Jules Wooding Volunteer Cumbria’s Military Museum [email protected]

shcg news June 2013 Page 15 Reviews

What is it? Identifying Mystery Objects Photographs Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, 11 February 2013

The training day began with a talk by Colin Harding, Curator of Photographic Technology at the National Media Museum. This talk was a great opportunity to learn about the different ways of identifying photographic processes and to hear a brief history of photography.

As an Art Historian, I have had relatively little exposure to the history of photography, so I found this training day very interesting and revealing about just how One of the processes I found This explains why the photographs many types of photography there most interesting was the are usually enclosed in a case or are. It was also very useful as a daguerreotypes. This was the frame with a decorative matt and guide to identifying photographs first photographic process to be protective glass cover. and the preventative conservation announced to the public in 1839. techniques required to care for a It was achieved by using a copper The second workshop of the day, photography collection. This was plate with a highly polished silver provided by Christine Stevens ideal for someone new to working surface. This plate was then from Newcastle University, with collections in museums and sensitised to light by exposing it to was about dating photographs galleries. iodine fumes. After exposing the through costume. As a placement plate in a camera it was developed student currently working on the We were encouraged to handle with mercury vapour. At first, the costume collection at Newcastle’s some examples of photographs process was not very sensitive so Discovery Museum, I found that Colin had brought with him, the plates required long exposure this workshop most helpful. in order to have a go at identifying times; however improvements to Christine went through some the different processes used to the cameras and the chemistry of of the key features and styles create the photographs. It became the process gradually reduced the of costume from the mid 19th very obvious that identifying these required exposure times. century onwards, which can help processes would take a lot of to provide clues when dating practice! Each photograph had so I was very intrigued by the look photographs. many minute varying details that it of the daguerreotype, which would take a keen eye and some at first glance appears to be At the end of the day we were experience in order to correctly both a positive and a negative split into smaller groups and given identify all of them. image, depending on how the some images to date using the light hits the surface when you sitters’ costume as an indicator. tilt the image from side to side. This quiz allowed the group to put This appearance of the surface this method of dating to the test, is unique to the daguerreotype and with a respectable seven out which means it is one of the of ten, the group I was in was very easier processes to identify. happy with the end result!

Top Tip: For the care of daguerreotypes, always refer Ciara Phipps them to a specialist for cleaning. Curatorial Placement Student The image can be very easily Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums damaged by touching or wiping

as it is on the surface of the plate. [email protected]

shcg news June 2013 Page 16 Reviews

What is it? Identifying Mystery Objects Trade Tools M Shed, Bristol, 4 March 2013 I must admit I didn’t know • Might it work as a pair or a set? Two talks with illustrations and handling followed: on heavy edge a twybil from an adze • What do the wear marks tell tools (bill hooks) by Bob Burgess, you? before the training. By the whose personal collection end of the day, however, • Look for residues, e.g. sawdust numbers 6,000, and woodworking I could enthusiastically or straw, before cleaning. planes by Jane Rees and David explain the difference Schweizer, the range and variety • Never take a hand tool apart for of which should make you between a dado plane and storage, especially mixed media a plough plane! embarrassed for documenting objects like planes. them simply as a ‘woodworking The training day was delivered • Use trade catalogues, plane’. With the erosion of by The Tools and Trades directories and specialist subject-specialist curatorial History Society (TATHS). Jane publications like Shire books to training, the role of societies like Rees, Vice-President, began aid identification. TATHS in helping us manage and with an illustrated beginner’s interpret collections cannot be guide to identifying tools. The The ‘Whatsit’ quiz was the most overestimated. main principle is to treat tool edifying part of the day. Split into identification as a puzzle: teams we were invited to identify I am very grateful to SHCG for 20 tools placed in themed groups. awarding me a travel bursary • What does it do? (Cut, join, Guessing the theme was half to travel to Bristol from West bend, hold etc.) the battle, e.g. metal working, Cornwall. I look forward to sharing measuring, leather working. my new knowledge with others. • Is it for heavy or light work? Gently guided, we learned how to • What materials is it made of? exercise our powers of deduction. Memorable was a salt saw with (Don’t be misled by ivory in the Tehmina Goskar pre-plastic era) a copper blade (steel would have corroded) and a shoe stick (for Freelance Curator • Are there any maker’s stamps, measuring shoe sizes) which I registered design or patent (industrial and social collections) had figured, erroneously, was for Penzance, Cornwall numbers? measuring yarn. It’s the mistakes [email protected] • Does it seem complete or that help us never forget! incomplete?

shcg news June 2013 Page 17 Object Focus Eli Whalley’s Donkey Stones

Donkey stones and moulds Image courtesy of Tameside Museums and Galleries

Donkey stones are rubbed along the edges. "Doing part of Lancashire and the step" was an ideal occasion Production Yorkshire’s rich industrial for gossip between neighbours, as well as a source of rivalry. It was peaked in the history. Made of limestone, not unusual for a proud housewife cement and bleach, these to clean the pavement in front 1930s when small blocks were used for of the house too! It was a chore 2.5 million cleaning stonework such often bestowed to children at donkey stones as flag stone floors, front weekends. were made door steps and window The name ‘donkey stone’ comes every year. sills. from the trademark of a donkey used by Reads of Manchester, Donkey stones were originally who were among the first used in textile mills to provide a companies to produce the stones non-slip surface on greasy stone One manufacturer of donkey in the 19th century. Donkey stones was Eli Whalley and staircases. During the 19th and stones were very cheap to buy 20th centuries, they were adopted Co. which was founded in the and people often got them free 1890s in Ashton-under-Lyne, a by housewives as the ideal way to from their local rag and bone keep their front door steps looking few miles east of Manchester. man in exchange for old items. Whalley continued the animal like new. The step would be The stones came in white, cream washed first to remove soot and theme, choosing a lion as and brown, with cream being his company trademark. The dirt and then the donkey stone, the most popular colour around mixed with a little water, would be inspiration came from his many Manchester. childhood visits to Zoo.

shcg news June 2013 Page 18 Object Focus

bench where it was formed into a block using the wooden boards and cut to make two and a half '"Doing the dozen stones. Finally the stones were stamped with the ‘lion brand’ step" was an moulds before being transferred ideal occasion to racks to dry. Production peaked in the 1930s when 2.5 million for gossip donkey stones were made every between year. Placed end to end they would have reached from Ashton neighbours, to Blackpool and back. Eli Whalley as well as was reputed to have built himself the finest house in Ashton from a source of the profits of his business. rivalry.'

Demand gradually fell over the Eli Whalley’s workshop shortly before following decades. The decline its closure in 1978 at Portland Basin Museum in of the cotton mills removed the Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside. Image courtesy of Tameside Local Studies main bulk buyer of the stones and and Archives Open daily 10am-4pm, closed changing social trends meant it Mondays, admission is free. Eli Whalley and Co. was based on was no longer seen as essential Call 0161 343 2878 for further the old wharf of the Ashton and to have a donkey-stoned step. information or visit www.tameside. Peak Forest Canal meaning the By the time of its closure in 1979, gov.uk/museumsgalleries stone and salt could be delivered Eli Whalley was the world’s last by canal boats. The large chunks manufacturer of donkey stones. of stone were crushed in a stone Rachel Cornes crusher then mixed with cement, A selection of donkey stone bleach and water in the large making equipment including the Curator (Social History) pan to form a paste. The paste large stone crusher and lion brand Tameside Museums and Galleries was then transferred to the work moulds can be seen on display [email protected]

The donkey stone display at Portland Basin Museum Image courtesy of Tameside Museums and Galleries

shcg news June 2013 Page 19 Object Focus Medical Objects in Social History Collections Part Il Objects associated with medicine and health care are often found in social history collections. With such a range of types and materials, from bottles and jars of unknown substances to nasty looking surgical instruments, it is easy to understand why these objects can be seen as problematic.

In a previous role, as Keeper of Community History for St Albans Museums, I undertook a documentation project on around 150 hitherto undocumented objects associated with medicine and health. Through this project I discovered a range of resources and became fascinated with these objects, which provide a unique insight into both local history and Various medical containers on display at the Museum of St Albans the history of medicine. Image courtesy of St Albans Museums So, here is the second instalment of my medical object ‘Top Ten’. 6 – Medicine containers took home. They have printed It’s not based on any quantitative labels from local pharmacists research, purely my own There are a huge variety of and handwritten instructions. observations as a generalist. medicine containers in social This image also shows two The objects are pretty much history collections. 19th century round pill boxes. all nineteenth century, and are containers were mostly ceramic things that you are likely to come or glass. ‘Shop rounds’, such as Any residual material left across when working with a social the one at the back in this display, in containers should be history collection, although you were used by a pharmacist to will inevitably encounter older and store liquid, oils and granular rarer objects, too. ingredients for preparations. They are usually clear glass, round I have included reference to in section, with a paper label some further reading and online that is either varnished on or, 'Exceptionally, resources and there is a great in later examples, incorporated pills were deal of expertise in specialist into the glass. Poison bottles are museums across the UK. The distinguished by being green, coated in silver UK Medical Collections Group or blue, ribbed glass. The shop or gold leaf is a helpful and active Subject rounds would have been kept on using the pill Specialist Network. There are high shelves behind the pharmacy also many publications on the counter, above rows of drawers silverer' history of medicine, the most where dry ingredients were stored. comprehensive (and weighty) is Roy Porter’s The Greatest Benefit The smaller bottles in this display to Mankind: A Medical History of contained prescribed medicines; Humanity from Antiquity to the these were bottles that the patient Present (Fontana Press, 1999).

shcg news June 2013 Page 20 Object Focus

approached with caution. Advice Society Museum’s website (www. regarding pharmaceutical rpharms.com/museum). More collections can be found on the information on Victorian pharmacy 'As a general Royal Pharmaceutical Society can be found in The Victorian Museum website (www.rpharms. Chemist and Druggist by WA rule instruments com/museum), Social History Jackson (Shire, 2005). with wooden or in Museums: A Handbook for Professionals, the HSE bone handles website (www.hse.gov.uk), 8.1 – Surgical instrument kit were no longer particularly on the control of produced from hazardous substances, and any Surgery was very limited before conservation service that you the developments of anaesthesia, the 1880s, have access to. effective pain relief and antisepsis. by which Early surgical equipment tends to be for amputations and relatively time steam simple procedures, for example sterilisation was removing bladder stones or cataract surgery, but sometimes routine.' the range of operations carried out can be surprising.

(L-R) Pill machine, pill silverer, pill pestle and mortar, pill rounder, pill tile, pill boxes Image courtesy of Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

7 – Pill making equipment

Pill machines were in use in Germany from around 1750. A pharmacist would prepare pills with a pestle and mortar using a mixture of the dry active ingredients and a binding ingredient such as glucose syrup. This stiff paste would be hand-rolled into an even length and placed along slots on the pill machine. By rolling using the slotted roller this length was divided into equal pieces. The pill rounder was rolled in a figure of eight motion over these pieces until they were spherical. The pills could then be dried and coated in talc or varnish. Exceptionally, pills were coated in silver or gold leaf using the pill silverer. The leaf would be placed in the silverer, the pills added and the lid placed on top. This would then be rotated by hand and the pills would be coated in silver or gold leaf.

There is a wealth of information General surgery kit by Baker, about 1865 on the history of pharmacy Image courtesy of Thackray Museum, Leeds on the Royal Pharmaceutical

shcg news June 2013 Page 21 Object Focus

Many instruments will carry 8.2 – Trephine a maker’s mark and can be identified, and sometimes dated, Trepanning is the therapeutic through trade catalogues. removal of a section of skull. It is Some trade catalogues have one of the earliest known surgical been digitised and are available practices. This later 19th century to download, so it is worth trephine is approximately ten cm searching online. Also helpful is tall. It would be rotated by hand to Antique Medical Instruments by drill out a section of bone. These Elisabeth Bennion (University of often appear in larger surgical California Press, 1992). instrument sets along with other specialist saws for work on the As a general rule instruments skull. with wooden or bone handles were no longer produced from 9 – Domestic medicine chest Domestic medicine chest the 1880s, by which time steam Image courtesy of Museum of the Royal sterilisation was routine. Pharmaceutical Society These chests are often mistaken for travelling kits, but were used domestically in a wealthy home, arms which could be set to ensure and the contents vary as they that each paper ‘wrap’ was the were often made to order. They same size. would typically contain a range of medicines and equipment and Various online resources for were used alongside a variety of material culture associated domestic medical advice books. with medicine and healthcare: Royal Pharmaceutical Society 10 – Powder folder Museum: www.rpharms.com/ museum This is another tool for a pharmacist to use in the Science Museum history of preparation of a prescription. medicine webpages: www. Dry, powdered medicines were sciencemuseum.org.uk/ prepared in bulk and then divided broughttolife into individual doses to be added to water when taken. Each dose Wellcome Library and was wrapped in a neatly folded Wellcome Images: www. piece of paper and then boxed. wellcome.ac.uk Trephine on display at the Museum These powder folders are usually UK Medical Collections of St Albans cast metal and have adjustable Image courtesy of St Albans Museums Group SSN: www. thackraymedicalmuseum. co.uk/library-resources/uk- medical-collections-group/ A website for all London medical museums: www. medicalmuseums.org

I would like to express my warmest thanks to Alan Humphries at the Thackray Museum and Catherine Newley at St Albans Museums, for their kind assistance in the preparation of this article.

The author is a freelance museum professional with a special interest in the uses of medical collections.

Elanor Cowland 19th century powder folder on display at the Museum of St Albans Image courtesy of Elanor Cowland [email protected]

shcg news June 2013 Page 22 Tea Break Seventeen Years On …

Image © Ralph Steadman Pen and Indian ink on paper by Ralph Steadman, c. 1968

Private Collection

In 1945 the Labour party 1936. His first published cartoon since become known as ‘Gonzo’ won a landslide victory appeared in the Manchester journalism. The exhibition in Evening Chronicle in July 1956. which Seventeen Years On… in the general election. From the early 1960s his work features explores the full range The Welfare State opened began appearing in magazines of Steadman’s work, including up opportunities of free such as Punch and Private Eye his earliest published cartoon secondary and third-level and became a key part of what from 1956, material from Private education to many for became known as ‘The Satire Eye, Punch, the Observer, the the first time. Boom’. Many of his cartoons New Statesman and Rolling addressed the social and Stone, as well as his illustrated Boys and girls from working and political changes which were books, Sigmund Freud, Alice lower-middle class backgrounds transforming British society in Wonderland and Through could now go to grammar school during the 1960s and early the Looking-Glass, I Leonardo, and ascend to the hallowed 1970s. The Big I Am and Animal Farm. halls of universities. Their There are atmospheric wine subsequent questioning of the He is famous for his long drawings produced for Oddbins status quo sometimes led to collaboration with the catalogues, humanitarian their estrangement from the writer Hunter S. Thompson, pictures, savage political family circle. most notably providing the cartoons and some of his illustrations for Fear and charming and funny illustrations Ralph Steadman was born in Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), for children’s books. Wallasey, Liverpool on 15 May and helping to create what has

shcg news June 2013 Page 23 Bulletin Board SHCG Committee 1 2012-13

8. CONFERENCE & SEMINAR ORGANISER: 1. CHAIR: CIARA CANNING 2 Michael Terwey Senior Curator (Community History) Head of Collections and Exhibitions Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service National Media Museum Museum Resource Centre Pictureville 14 Ryegate Road Bradford Colchester Essex 3 BD1 1NQ CO1 1YG Tel: 01274 203345 Tel: 01206 282935 Email: Email: [email protected] [email protected] 9. CONFERENCE & SEMINAR ORGANISER: 2. Chair Elect: JUDE HOLLAND MICHELLE Lees Interpretation Manager 4 Exhibitions Organiser ss Great Britain Trust National Media Museum Great Western Dockyard Pictureville Bristol Bradford BS1 6TY West Yorkshire Tel: 0117 9260680 (ext. 311) BD1 1NQ Email: [email protected] 5 Tel: 01274 203392 Email: [email protected] 10. SPONSORSHIP & DEVELOPMENT OFFICER : JENNY BROADBENT 3. Secretary: Museum Manager JENNY BROWN Rochdale Pioneers Museum Curator (Industrial and Social History) 31 Toad Lane 6 Aberdeen Maritime Museum Rochdale Shiprow Lancashire Aberdeen OL12 0NU Scotland Tel: 01706 524920 AB11 5BY Email: [email protected] Tel: 01224 337719 7 Email: [email protected] 11. Web editor & email list co-ordinator: 4. membership secretary: Cat Newley Laura Briggs Curator of Collections: Post Medieval to Freelance curator Contemporary 24 Nathan Drive Museum of St. Albans Salford Hatfield Road 8 M3 6BA St. Albans Email: [email protected] Hertfordshire AL1 3RR 5. treasurer: Tel: 01727 819580 JOE CARR Email: [email protected] 2 Manor Park 9 Horham 12. FirstBASE project CO-ORDINATOR: Suffolk Victoria Rogers IP21 5EE Museum Officer Email: [email protected] Cardiff Story Museum STEADman@77: A Ralph Old Library Steadman Retrospective 6. JOURNAL EDITOR: The Hayes HELEN McCONNELL Cardiff 10 1 May - 8 September 2013 at the Collections Officer, Public History CF10 1BH Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russell Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives Tel: 029 2087 3197 M Shed, Princes Wharf Email: [email protected] Street, London. The exhibition will Wapping Road tour to The Artworks in Halifax, Bristol 13. FirstBASE CO-ORDINATOR: September – November 2013, and BS1 4RN STEPH MASTORIS 11 thereafter to other venues around Tel: 0117 3526956 National Waterfront Museum Email: [email protected] Oystermouth Road the country. Swansea 7. NEWS EDITOR: Wales A catalogue is available ADAM BELL SA1 3RD through our online shop: www. Assistant Keeper, Social History Email: [email protected] 12 cartoonmuseumshop.org/ Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums South Shields Museum & Art Gallery GENERAL ENQUIRIES: Ocean Road [email protected] South Shields Tyne & Wear NE33 2JA 13 Anita O'Brien Tel: 0191 456 8740 Email: [email protected] Curator Cartoon Museum [email protected]

shcg news June 2013 Designed by Oojah Design, www.oojahdesign.co.uk Printed by Shiremoor Press Ltd., www.shiremoor-press.co.uk [email protected] www.shcg.org.uk