Inside the Museum of London

Each month Museum of London offers an insight into fascinating objects from its vast collection. This month discover more about one of over 2000 buttons recently donated to the Museum.

Pewter Button from the A. G. Pilson button collection 

This pewter button is part of a collection of 2444 buttons of all shapes and sizes ranging in date from late 14^th to the late 19^th century recovered from the banks of the Thames over a period of 40 years by Tony Pilson and other Mudlarkers.

Mudlarking originated during the industrial revolution when children and adults would search the foreshore when the tide was “out” for objects that could be sold as scrap as a way of making a living. Now, the Society of Thames Mudlarks has a special permit from the Port of London to search the Thames banks for historical artefacts.

Museum of London has had a relationship with the organisation for many years and many finds are reported and generously donated to the Museum. 

Mr Pilson recently decided that he wanted to leave his collection in the safe hands of the museum and our Senior Curator Post-Medieval Collections, Hazel Forsyth, was delighted with his extraordinary generosity which has resulted in the Museum now having the largest group of medieval and early modern buttons in the country.

The pewter button featured here is a late 16^th to early 17^th century cloak button which would have been used as a decorative fastener to an outer gown most likely worn by a gentleman of the time.

So what happens to all these buttons now…

As Hazel explains, “cataloguing has now commenced and our aim over the next few months is to number, measure and photographically record each piece.  Longer term, we hope to produce an online resource with a small exhibition, and since the button trade in London has received little academic attention we will be setting up various research projects to assess the diversity of the trade which offers a unique and intriguing insight into the nature of craft skill and the social and cultural life of Londoners”.

Yes, it’s that time of year again when we can sip mulled wine, listen to carols and stuff ourselves with mince pies! Of course, the most exciting way to do all that was at our annual Festive Christmas Fair last Thursday evening at Museum of London.
 
We had scores of stalls lined up for you to take your pick from, including the fabulous jewellery designer Yuki Mitsuyasu with a beautiful new range of necklaces, rings and bracelets all glittering in the festive glow of the Museum. As well as the craft stalls we had the seasonal sounds of live Klezmer music and Advent carols and even workshops where you could knit your own winter woolly scarf or make your own badge for a fantastically original stocking present.
                                                                                                                                                       

As with all our late events, the rest of the museum was open for people to explore including the new exhibition Homeless in the Capital that offers insights into the everyday lives of people who are or have been homeless in central London.

Check back here for details of future Lates which are taking a well earned Christmas break but will be back in February 2009, see you then!

Museum of London’s archaeological archive is the home of the Museum’s collection. The big warehouse in Hackney is the largest in Europe and 10km of shelving houses fascinating finds that have been unearthed in London. Clearly the archive is an incredibly important place but it faces a great threat…dust.

Dust, grime and dirt are all enemies at the archive and so it was decided that a big clean was needed to rid the space of its arch nemesis. The cleaning and clearing of the archives was scheduled for 16-20 June 2008. Staff, volunteers and members of the City of London Police rolled their sleeves up to give the archive its first deep clean since opening in 2002.

From Officers to Inspectors, all ranks were involved in the big clean over 2 days. How had the tables turned so that they were now the subjects of community service and why had they chosen the archive? These particular officers work for the City Police’s Specialist Crime Operations, where anonymity is of the utmost importance as there is a lot of covert work involved, and so this was the perfect opportunity to render a service to the London community whilst retaining discretion. Another officer added ‘The archives just fitted the bill and we wanted to see your coach!’ referring to the Lord Mayor’s Coach which is being temporarily housed at the archives whilst the redevelopment of the lower galleries of Museum of London is in progress.

From one genre of detective to another; Graham White from Southend-on-Sea, is a long-serving and dedicated volunteer at the archive with a qualification in Archaeology. Usually his job entails examining and documenting artefacts from previous digs which is of huge importance to the cataloguing system at the archive; yet, he is on the clean today and is very positive about the positive effects that it will inevitably have on the preservation of the artefacts of the building.

This optimism is shared by the two work experience students currently at the Archives. Sam Ridgeway, also from Southend-on-Sea, studies at Westcliff High School for boys and gained his work experience through Museum of London. Having already been involved with the archive for a week, the prospect of cleaning does not seem to have dampened his spirits – ‘well it certainly needed a clean!’ Dressed in their white boiler suits with dusters at hand, it seems that although unconventional work experience, this has not put off Nick Beaver who started as soon as the big clean did. Nick studies at Berkhamsted Collegiate School who helped him get in touch with the archive due to his interest in History and English. He doesn’t mind a bit of hard graft with the cleaning at all and is looking forward to a sneaky peek at exactly what goes on in the archives before returning home to Watford.

The clean up operation was a huge success with a horrifying amount of dust removed and the Museum’s collections preserved for a few more years to come. The yellow rubber gloves and masks have been put away until next time…

Check out our photos for a glimpse of the archive cleaning operation.

Museum in Docklands was about to open its first ever major exhibition and the press team felt that something special was needed to mark this momentous occasion. We knew what we wanted it to involve; Jack the Ripper and the East End, web 2.0 and the public – but how would we use those ingredients to create a magical mix?

Naturally, we would kindly ask members of the public to transform themselves into East End street urchins and pretend to sell newspapers, screaming the headlines at the top of their voices. The Jack the Ripper video was born. I was volunteered to take to the streets of London armed with a digital camera, tripod and props to find willing participants.

Day 1 was spent in Canary Wharf, not far from Museum in Docklands. It was a Friday lunchtime and the square was filled with people whom I presumed would be more than keen to don a flat cap, sandwich board and speak in a cockney accent. Oh how wrong I was. I approached countless people and suffered knockback after knockback until a very lovely chap decided that it was a Friday; he was in the mood for fun and would very much like to be on YouTube for all his mates to see! Inspired by what had just been recorded I fearlessly approached people to persuade them to take part and found some brilliant folk who were more than willing to be filmed. At times small crowds gathered whilst others appeared disinterested but the session had been a success and I left with fantastic footage.

There was a change of location for day 2 of filming, which took place in Covent Garden. Stood upon the cobbles, I once again encountered some rejection before finding video gold. A perfect blend of Londoners and tourists had once again impressed me with their ability to transform themselves into East End street newspaper sellers.

It was then back to the Museum to edit the footage and create the fantastic short films that would form a series online. I am forever grateful to those that took part and helped make the project such a success.

Check out our Facebook and YouTube pages over the coming weeks to see the finished videos. You can also see photographs from the Jack the Ripper exhibition on Flickr and the Museum in Docklands website. Enjoy!