Discovery Museum is already a major family attraction

Preparing for a new permanent gallery involves a lot of work from historical research, to sourcing images and film footage, working with individuals and community groups, choosing material from the museum and archive collections and liaising across the museum with lots of different teams. We want to keep people up to date with the project so will be blogging and tweeting every month about the latest behind the scenes developments. If you have any questions about the project we would love to hear them.

So what’s it all about?

Drawing entitled Newcastle upon Tyne, by the artist George Balmer, 1835 (c)

The role played by Tyneside during the industrial growth of the 19th and 20th centuries is well documented. What is less well known is that by 1911 one third of the population were migrants or children of migrants, particularly from Ireland and Scotland.

Jobs in coal mining, shipbuilding and heavy engineering meant that the North East became a major centre of migration as people travelled from all over in search of a better way of life. This was a crucial period in the making of modern Tyneside. This project will explore the history of these people through personal, real-life stories and show how their culture and heritage have influenced the social and industrial development of Tyneside.

But the story does not end here; in the decade leading up to 2001 the North East has seen the second biggest rate of change in migration– 41% more people who were born abroad have made the region their home. This gallery will include the stories of these migrants too.  Juxtaposing contemporary stories with those of historical migrants will, it is hoped, lead to a new understanding that our cultural identity has always been open and changing.

Chinese Arch in Newcastle

Preliminary research into real life people has revealed some poignant stories that could feature in the gallery such as the story of Lena and Lewis Vineberg. Born in the 1850s in Russia they fled the country in the 1870s. In the 1881 census they are found on Russell Terrace in Newcastle. Lewis is recorded as a slipper maker and they have two small children. The family continued to grow. One of their sons, David, signed up to the Royal Air Corps in 1911. David married Annie Lukes and was a tailor in Newcastle. His tailor’s scissors are in the museum collection and the deed of name change document, David chose to change his name to the more English sounding ‘Vyner’, is in the Archives collection.

David Vyner in his tailor's shop in Newcastle

Don’t forget to come back to the blog to find out more about the stories that will feature in the gallery.

Bringing the items for me to see wasn’t straightforward as Mr Richardson and his wife live in Surrey. After our conversation about donating to the museum Mr Richardson decided to make his first visit to the North East for a holiday. While here he promised to call in to see me.

Mr Richardson had been searching for a home for his grandmother’s jewellery box and his grandfather’s medal, both connected to World War One. One of my first questions when people want  to donate something is, what is the connection to Tyneside? In this case Emily and George Armstrong Burns were both from Winlaton in Gateshead.

My second request is usually for more information about the story behind the objects. George Armstrong Burns, Mr Richardson’s grandfather, had this medal presented to him by the village of Winlaton as a token of gratitude for services rendered in the ‘European War 1914-1919’.

Winlaton 'Welcome Home' MedalReverse of medal

George Armstrong Burns

The jewellery box was given to Emily Burns, Mr Richardson’s grandmother, by the inmates of Groningen Internment Camp.

Jewellery box

It was given as a token of their gratitude for the parcels of basic provisions that she, and other young women of the village, had sent them.  Emily’s step-brother, John (Jack) Pattinson, was interned there in October 1914.

Jack Pattinson seated.

He was in the First Royal Naval Brigade which was deployed to assist the Belgian army. The Brigade were forced to retreat and rather than being taken prisoner by the Germans they crossed into Holland.  Holland was, during the War, designated as a neutral country therefore any military personnel entering the country had to be interned for the duration of the conflict.  You can find out more information here www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/englishcamp/

With a strong local connection and such engaging stories behind the objects I said that we would love to accept the donation of these objects into the collection, especially since we are planning to mark the centenary of the start of World War One in 2014 at the museum. I mentioned on the phone that it would be great if we could have some photos of Mr Richardson’s grandparents to accompany the medal and the box.

George and Emily

When we met today my expectations were exceeded. Not only did Mr Richardson bring in photographs but he also gave the museum a copy of a love letter that George had written to Emily in 1906.

Love letter from George to Emily in 1906

Reverse of love letter from George to Emily in 1906

George and Emily married in 1907 when Emily was 17. In the 1920s they moved to Yorkshire and in the 1930s they moved once again this time to Slough. Mr Richardson told me that he and his mother had lived with his grandparents for some time and that he can still remember them getting ready in their best dress on Sundays for their regular walk. Emily helping George with his collar pin and both singing to Chopin’s ‘So deep is the night’. ‘They were still in love at the end’ he told me.

Emily and George in the 1950s

I feel very grateful that Mr Richardson has chosen not only donate these two sentimentally valuable objects to the museum, but that he also shared with us his grandparent’s story – it really made my day.  In return he said he felt happy that his grandparent’s history had returned home to Tyneside.

Reverse of Welcome Home Medal

Advert

In the mid nineteenth century the fairgrounds and circuses were incredibly popular and they toured around the country stopping in towns and cities.

Photograph

Elephants

We don’t know who took the images or where the photographs were taken. I would love to find out more so thought that I would post a few to see if anyone can help.

Man surrounded by Lions!

Putting the tent up

Man with cub

The Victoria and Albert Museum has an interesting page all about the history of fairgrounds and circuses here http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/victorian-circus/. According to them Lord George Sanger, whose name appears in some of the photographs that we have ‘was the most successful circus entrepreneur of the 19th century. An eccentric millionaire notorious for being a smart dresser, Sanger was instantly recognisable by his shiny top hat and diamond tie pin.’

Photograph of Paine's Coliseum

These are just a few of the photographs. I hope you’ve found them as interesting as we did. I think they would make an amazing exhibition one day.

Watching the new series of the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ has taken on added significance in the history team office at Discovery Museum this year as we are mid family history project of our own. Reading the executive producer of WDYTYA’s blog about the creation of the series inspired me to take a moment to share our family history journey (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/08/who-do-you-think-you-are.shtml).

The idea for the project was suggested by avid ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ viewer, long time family history enthusiast and Assistant Keeper of History, Laura Brown. The idea was presented to senior managers at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums who gave it the go-ahead thanks to the popularity of family history amongst our audience combined with the amazing resources in the archives and museums that could be drawn upon.

James Bannister who drowned in the Howdon Ferry disaster of 1896

So in earnest, and with significant support from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, we began the project in April 2011. My role is to project manage ‘What’s Your Story?’. I bring together people from history, outreach, learning, communications, design and collections teams to work on the project. For ‘What’s Your Story?’ we are delivering a series of workshops to help people get started with their family histories, a community run website, a temporary touring exhibition, a learning programme for schools and families and an outreach programme.

‘What’s Your Story?’ is different to other projects that we’ve worked on because although we had ideas of general themes that we wanted to cover such as war, migration and secrets but there was no way of knowing what stories would be told in the end. The idea for the exhibition and website was that they would be made of stories that people would tell us.

Thomas McLeod, a case of mistaken identity in World War One

We did a few call outs in the press at the start of the project asking if anyone had a story they wanted to share with us. After that the phone rang off the hook! We had a brilliant response from the public. Lots of local people got in touch but we also had people from Canada and America contacting us with their stories of ancestors from the area. The people contacting us had already carried out their research. Often over years if not decades they had pieced together the stories of their ancestors.

This community-run village shop in Surrey is owned by a descendant of John Buddle

After three months we had 38 stories. Then came the hard part, we had to decide which we could feature in depth in the exhibition. We chose 11 main stories to feature in the exhibition, which will open in January 2012. These stories were chosen because they represent some broader aspect of regional history and because we can illustrate the story with objects and material from the story teller, the archives and museum collections.

The other 27 stories will all feature on the ‘What’s Your Story?’ website. The launch of the website, in September this year, will not be the end of the story collecting. The website has been designed to be easily updatable and a team of volunteers are running it so we hope to read many more stories that are added by people over the coming months.

American naturalisation paper for Frank Hunter, 1894

From ancestors who were interviewed as part of the 1842 Children’s Employment Commission about their work in the mine as a teenager, to Mayors of South Shields, generations of Tyne pilots, fortunes lost for reasons unknown, migrations to Canada and back in search of a better life and orphaned children this project has it all. With over 30 local stories of hope, tragedy, resilience, fallings out and hard work the family history team here at TWAM can’t wait to hear what you think of them and to read your story!

census 2011

I’ve started researching my family history in part because we are starting a new Family History project at the museum. Over the next few months we will be organising an events and activities programme to help people who want to begin their own family history research. Watch this space for more news of events.

archives' stores at Discovery Museum

We are also looking for people who have already done some research and think they have an interesting story to tell. In November, 2011, we will be opening a temporary exhibition in Discovery Museum about Family History and would like to feature the stories of local people. So if you have found an interesting ancestor or would like to share your story please get in touch.

Sarah said ‘We have recently collected a piece of concrete rubble taken from the demolition site of the Gateshead multi storey car park.  The car park was a significant part of Gateshead’s skyline for over 40 years.  By preserving this piece of concrete it will help us to tell the story of the history of Gateshead. 

car park rubble

 The car park had a prominent role in the 1971 film ‘Get Carter’ starring Michael Caine and is often referred to by locals as the ‘Get Carter’ car park.  We have collected some photos of it during demolition and recently we received a painting of the high level bridge with the familiar silhouette of the car park in the background. 

Car park demolition

We were advised that it was too dangerous to go on site during the demolition works so they took a skip-full of rubble off site for us to choose from.  I had to scramble through a pile of rubble to find a suitable piece!  I wanted a piece which showed steel reinforcement.  It had to be stable and unlikely to crumble and it couldn’t be too heavy to lift or too big to fit into a display case.   

Gateshead car park

Since collecting the rubble smaller pieces of concrete have become available to members of the public to buy in a souvenir tin.  It would certainly be a talking point to have this sat on your mantelpiece!

Gateshead car park

Once all the cases were in place and the astro turf laid we started the task of laying out all of the objects. We have to ensure that  each object is fully supported in the way that it is displayed so as not to cause ‘stress’ on the object. Almost all of the objects are being loaned to the museum specially for this exhibition.

Louise preparing an NUFC scarf to go in a case

Katie dressing a case

The lights and temperature in the gallery are controlled so that the objects are displayed in the best conditions for them. For example, if the lights were too bright they could fade things like the programmes or fabrics of the shirts.

After all the objects are in cases we put the labels in and hang the graphics on the walls.

Graphics and labels

A work in progress

We did some promotional interviews during the install too about the exhibition for Real Radio, the inflight magazine for Jet2 and the ITV film crew came to film a piece for the local news.

By Saturday the exhibition opened to the public and we have already had lots of interesting comments about what NUFC means to people, the legends of NUFC and about issues in football today. It’s great to see people contributing their thoughts to the exhibition.  

Comments left by the public in the gallery

We have some fabulous objects from Hughie Gallacher’s 1926/27 Championship shirt to Kevin Keegan’s boots from his last match as a player at NUFC. It’s interesting to see the way that football has changed since the 1880s. I’ve enjoyed working on the exhibition and I hope people will enjoy having a look around it.

We had a great response from the local press who came in and photographed some of the objects – click here to read the Evening Chronicle’s article about the exhibition.

This week I have been working with our conservation team to frame some pieces and to put player’s football shirts on mannequins. All of the materials that we use are conservation standard, which means that they don’t contain anything that can harm the objects.

Alan Shearer’s spare FA Cup final shirt, 1998

Andy Cole's and David Kelly's shirts

 The previous exhibition (‘William Armstrong. A spark of Inspiration’) has been taken out of the gallery and the painters have been in. The gallery is looking empty at the moment but by 29th January it will be full of fabulous football memorabilia!

The gallery is empty ready for installing the next exhibition

NUFC badge

The next exhibition that I am curating at Discovery Museum is all about Newcastle United. I’m working with Mick Edmondson who owns The Backpage, a sporting memorabilia shop in Newcastle. He is a massive Newcastle fan and has an amazing collection of Newcastle United material.

Apparently there was going to be a Newcastle United ice-cream! Unfortunately it was never launched.

Hughie Gallacher’s Championship shirt, 1926-27

Football is a serious business in the North East and I hope the exhibition will show the highs and the lows of NUFC over the years.

The exhibition will be opening on the 29th January 2011.

I didn’t know anything about slipper tables until this week when I got an email from a postgraduate student in Dublin. She is researching the largely undocumented shoemaking craze which swept through fashionable society in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Noreen had found small hobby toolkits but had never heard of a slipper table until she got in touch with us. She was excited to that there is a piece of furniture was dedicated to the hobby because it suggests that it was more than a passing fad for the owner.

I ventured up a ladder in the store to look in the drawers of the table and have taken lots of photographs of the tools and sent them on to Noreen.  

The wooden last

The tools from the drawer

My curiosity was piqued and I asked Noreen to tell me more. She sent me this information. ‘Shoemaking became popular as a pastime among women of all classes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This was partly due to the simplification of footwear – namely the disappearance of heels in neoclassical fashion. Toolkits were made to meet the demand for DIY shoemaking and some contained beautifully made tools. The activity was derided by some for being unfeminine and an unsuitable diversion for a well bred lady.’

Noreen is now investigating the names stamped into the wooden shoe lasts and thanks to the photographs she has a better understanding of how the tools were used.

Maker's stamp

For my part I loved seeing the names written in ink on the wooden lasts and I am hoping Noreen will keep me updated with information she finds out about the shoemaking craze.

the wooden last with ink writing on