The working life of Museum of London

To mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II the Museum of London will be staging an exhibition in June 2012.

Celebrating the capital’s enthusiasm and affection, ‘At Home with the Queen‘, will feature Londoners photographed in their own homes with their cherished souvenirs of Queen Elizabeth II.

Here, exhibition curator, Julia Hoffbrand, updates us on the search for people and souvenirs to feature:

“Right. Just back from a very extended Christmas and New Year break. Mince pies and lie-ins behind me, I sit down, coffee in hand, to look at my inbox. Lots of enquiries, some general briefings for the Museum’s collections online resource, and some stray spam asking if I want strange things I’ve never heard of. And then on to the ‘At Home with the Queen’ inbox and post pigeon-hole.

Hurrah! Several new submissions have arrived whilst I’ve been away. They’re great! I print them out and put them with all the others received so far to review after the closing date for submissions on 31 January.

The exhibition’s beginning to look good.

I’m really pleased and excited by the range of Londoners who’ve sent in photos of themselves so far – a real mix of ages and backgrounds, some quite unexpected. Older people who remember the Coronation, people in their 20s and 30s who’ve inherited their grandparents’ commemoratives, and kids with books about the Queen which their parents read aloud to them before bed.

It’s fun working on an exhibition where Londoners themselves provide the content – you have no idea what’s going to arrive next and, barring the obscene and offensive, anything goes in this exhibition. It’s what Londoners make it – my role is to bring everything together and with the exhibition team create a display people want to visit and enjoy.

I’ve been really encouraged by the positive reactions I’ve had from people whenever I mention ‘At Home with the Queen’.  A brief chat at my local fish and chip shop where I put up a poster reveals that the owner once met the Queen when he was a kid and will hunt out his photo for the exhibition. A conversation at the library (and another poster later) uncovers a woman who has two Golden Jubilee shot glasses bought she says, at a petrol station on the way to Devon in 2002 (she says it’s a long story ….).

The next step for me is to start writing the design brief for ‘At Home with the Queen’. This outlines the exhibition’s content, structure and ‘feel’ for the designer to work from. After this, I’ll revisit our stores to choose a small selection of the Museum’s commemorative objects to display alongside Londoners’ photographs (I have had a quick look already and had these by my desk):

We’re hoping to also display some of the objects that appear in people’s photographs so I’ll need to speak to our design department to find out what display cases we can use …

A blog post from Jon in our conservation team on the work looking after and preparing our objects for display.

As this years’ intern within the applied arts section of the conservation department at the Museum of London I am very grateful to have been given the exciting opportunity of experiencing the build-up and installation of the Museum’s major new exhibition – Dickens and London.

In the months before installation began, conservators were busy ensuring all the objects and artefacts were suited to being placed on display. Within the new exhibition objects of a range of materials are installed including shop signs from Dickensian London, documents written in Dickens’ own hand and furniture from Dickens’ house.

This required the knowledge and expertise of our whole conservation team, particularly specialists in paper, textiles and the applied arts.

Within the Applied Arts section we work to conserve many artefacts of Victorian social history; however, as an admirer of Dickens it has been incredibly rewarding being able to work on objects with a particularly close connection to the man himself – such as this chair he was often photographed in.

Dickens’ chair is on open display within the new exhibition, so work was required to stabilise and secure the aged leather upholstery, predominantly around the back rest, where the degraded material had begun to laminate and fall away.

In addition to this, surface cleaning was conducted to remove dust.

Modern ethics within the field of conservation maintain that minimal intervention should be practiced when conserving artefacts – this means altering the original material and structure as little as possible, whilst ensuring the object is sturdy enough to be displayed or stored. We also aim to make every process and alteration reversible, so our changes could be ‘undone’ if needed in the future. For Dickens’ chair this meant adhering loose leather with a removable adhesive to consolidate the fragile material.

Historic leather can suffer acidic degradation due to reactions with sulphurous pollutants in the air. Testing the pH of the leather of Dickens’ chair revealed the leather had become particularly acidic – it was therefore thought appropriate to treat the leather with an aluminium compound – a process that effectively re-tans the leather – neutralising acidity and reversing some degradation processes.

Preventive conservation is also a key role of the museum’s conservators and collection care staff. With regards to this we have been carefully monitoring light levels (particularly important where objects such as Dickens’ handwritten manuscripts are displayed!), ensuring the environment within the gallery is suitable for the collections and that the cases are dust free – the latter involving several days spent cleaning the inside and outside of display cases!

It has been brilliant to see the culmination of many people’s knowledge, ideas and skills work together to create such an exciting and enchanting exhibition.

You can hear more about the conservation work for the exhibition as part of our free drop-in activities for families during February half term on Thursday 16 February between 11.30am to 1pm and again at 2pm to 3.30pm.

Having in previous months featured such titles as The Mystery of Edwin Drood and A Tale of Two Cities on our virtual book club in support of our new exhibition, Dickens and London. We are focusing this month on one of Dickens less renowned works – Barnaby Rudge.

It is early days in terms of my reading (and the sharing of my thoughts which can be found on our twitter and Facebook pages) but I have already been struck by how this work may have influenced a later addition to the Dickens canon, Great Expectations.

I have also had a look for Barnaby Rudge related content from our exhibition, and have found this from 1840 that details the execution of one Francois Benjamin Courvoisier:

(c) Museum of London

From its supporting caption I noted mention that Dickens witnessed three public executions in his lifetime including that of the Swiss valet Francois Benjamin Courvoisier convicted of murdering his master Lord Russell.

Dickens was horrified by the effect of the public spectacle on the crowd. Amongst the crowd gathered outside Newgate for the execution he noted there was ‘nothing but ribaldry, debauchery,levity, drunkenness and flaunting vice in fifty other shapes’. Such scenes were recreated in the novel Barnaby Rudge that he began the following year.

I plan to blog again once I have completed sharing my thoughts on the novel but until then it would be great to hear if you plan to read along with me!

Dickens and London is open until 10 June 2012.

Having finished reading ‘A Christams Carol’ our Programme Manager (Family Learning), Sue Neaves, is quite surprised at how festive she feels…

“There’s something about revisiting works you know well – or assume you do. I was surprised at whole episodes I’d forgotten. Also when I agreed to do this we were nowhere near Christmas, even if the shops were trying to persuade us otherwise. Suddenly I find myself eager to drum up appropriately festive feelings and CC has certainly helped with that.

What an amazing book it is. You can really let your imagination run riot with the ghosts and I loved the dark passages just as much as I expected to.  I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue, however familiar. Of course, there is a reason that certain stories are ubiquitous, and that reason is because people love them.

And yes, cringe, it does make you examine your own behaviour and make some stiff resloutions. Maybe I’ll keep one or two, who knows?

So banish cynicism, deck the halls, you’d better watch out, Santa Baby. God bless us, every one.”

You can read Sue’s first two blogs on her experience of reading A Christmas Carol for our Dickens Book Club here and here.

Dickens and London, a major exhibition from the Museum of London, is open until 10 June  2012.

As our Programme Manager (Family Learning), Sue Neaves, continues to share her thoughts on A Christmas Carol for our Dickens Book Club via social media, our blog pages allows for a more indepth discussion of a key character from the novel:

“I had to write this as I couldn’t possibly fit my thoughts about this Dickens character into the tiny allowance of Twitter.  Although Dickens is such a master that you can create intense drama out of a short tweet (see my ‘it’s the finger again’ tweet recently) and everyone knows what you’re talking about.

 This character is reinterpreted as a device in so many movies, plays and novels that many more people are familiar with him/her/it than have read Dickens. Previewing the offerings of television over this festive period I spotted at least half a dozen offerings making use of the same idea. How many can you name where people are given a glimpse of their future and a chance to change it?

With my other hat on, I write for the theatre and have done more than my fair share of Dickens adaptations. (Like actors can always fall back on panto at Christmas, writers can always rely on Dickens.) The casting and interpretation of Ghost CYTC has caused more arguments between directors, writer and actors than any other in my experience.

The pointing finger is crucial to the reader and even more important when you consider the need to view it from afar. To use a prosthetic or rely on the finger skills? Traditional costume of cloak and hood or something more contemporary or experimental? My favourite casting is when the director agrees to use a child. There is something even more chilling when all these horrors are being delivered by a very small, young person. I was thrilled to discover the novelist John Irving exploring this concept and if, like me, you are intrigued by the darkly comic aspects of Dickens it’s worth a look at his rendition of a performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in ‘A Prayer for Owen Meaney’. For my money, nothing comes closer to the true spirit of Dickens ar Christmas Time (except the original, of course).

How would you cast the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?”

Dickens and London, a major exhibition from the Museum of London, is open until 10 June  2012.

I know you have all been waiting for him so I won’t make you wait any longer. After a great deal of effort we have managed to secure an interview with perhaps the most busy man around Xmas (plus his helpers, our Victorian photographer and the mystic Gypsy lady) , of course its our Santa.

Welcome Santa, are you ready for this year?

Of course, I am looking forward to making all the children around the whole world have a special day and seeing the joy on their faces when they open their presents.

That’s great news to hear Santa. It must be tough going what with all of that exercise you are getting. Are you feeling fit enough to lift all those presents?

Don’t worry about me as my elves take good care of me. They have done their elf and safety.

Good to hear, so what can we expect to happen this year?

I am planning to do all my travelling at night so I will have some time to spend in my Grotto here at the Museum of London Docklands. That means I can meet lots of families and offer them some presents when they come to see me and hopefully have a photo with everyone involved so we can all remember this special occasion.

Anything you would like to say to everyone before you leave on your errands?

Yes, I wish everyone a merry, merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you soon.

If you want to meet our Santa then book a meeting with him on 0207 0019844 or on the day when you visit the Museum of London Docklands.

Santa’s Grotto is open daily until 23 December 2011.

If you are unable to visit Santa why not come along and meet Scrooge from 27 December 2011 to 1 January 2012!

You can also enjoy some festive family fun if you time your visit to Santa or Scrooge to coincide with our December events schedule. More details on our website here.

Its that time again. December is upon us and we have another fabulous Grotto about to start at the Museum of London Docklands . No need to take my word for it though, just take a look at this tantalising glimpse of the Grotto entrance.

Here is another picture too of what it looks like right in the heart of our Grotto

If you want to see more and meet our Santa then book a meeting with him on 0207 0019844 or on the day here at the Museum of London Docklands.

Santa’s Grotto is open daily from 10 December until 23 December 2011.

If you are unable to visit Santa why not come along and meet Scrooge from 27 December 2011 to 1 January 2012!

You can also enjoy some festive family fun if you time your visit to Santa or Scrooge to coincide with our December events schedule. More details on our website.

It’s official, we are now starting to feel rather festive as our Christmas trees are in place and decorated at both the Museum of London and the Museum of London Docklands.

Above is the tree for the Museum of London which is displayed in our foyer near to the entrance to the first of our galleries, London Before London.

Here is a look at the tree in place in the foyer of the Museum of London Docklands…

With Victorian Grotto’s created especially for Santa (although we hear that after Christmas a certain Scrooge will be in residence) due to open at both museums on Saturday and lots of festive fun for families planned throughout December we hope that a visit to either (or both) of our museums will add some Christmas cheer!

Sue Neaves, Programme Manager (Family Learning) is just about to start reading (or rather re-reading) A Christmas Carol for our Dickens Book Club. Here are Sue’s initial thoughts:
With its message of hope A Christmas Carol is an obvious Christmas choice quite apart from the setting.
Some people don’t like reading Dickens. They say it is complicated, full of exaggerated characters and unlikely coincidences; just like real life, then.
Please persevere. If you doubt that life is full of colourful characters and people behaving in extraordinary and ridiculous ways then you must come from a somewhat sheltered background. I think many of us find the world both more ghastly and more hilarious than that of fiction.
Another charge levelled against Dickens is his sentimentality. Well, what’s wrong with that? Dickens was not afraid to appeal to people’s emotions, rather than intellect, and used any means at his disposal. If he was writing today, he would doubtless recognise that his audience was different and use lots of horror and gore, but back then he knew what would work best with his readers. He was happy to bring a tear to the eye. Today this is uncool, but Dickens was not in the ‘cool’ business. Hurrah! I’ve never been a fan of cool (fortunately for me, some would say).
So what am I expecting to find? Things I most remember are dark episodes that never make it into the films and shows; if anything these were my favourites.
I’m looking forward to thrilling to the tireless rallying call to arms in support of those in need. You can’t read Dickens and feel easy about institutions set up for the ‘benefit’ of society – either then or now.
And I’m hoping that, as I’m older and wiser, I’ll be able to stomach Tiny Tim this time.
If CC makes you feel Christmas-y, don’t forget to visit our Victorian Santa’s grotto at Museum of London Docklands, which transforms into Scrooge’s Grotto after Christmas. “God bless us….” no, can’t quite do it yet.
You can follow Sue’s thoughts as she progresses through A Christmas Carol via our bespoke Twitter and Facebook pages and share your thoughts and opinions here too!Our Dickens Book Club is in support of our new exhibition, Dickens and London, opening 9 December 2011.

Now that our reading of The Mystery of Edwin Drood has come to an end Records Manager, Sarah Demb, shares her final thoughts and experiences on completing this unfinished work.

In truth, I find Dickens a difficult read, although I’m a voracious reader of maximalist fiction and devoted to fictional London, which informs my immigrant experience of the city almost as much as my daily life. But I had to force myself through this short novel (I highly recommend Dan Simmons’ ‘Drood’- his fictionalisation vision of events that could have inspired the writing of the book as Dickens and his friend, author Wilkie Collins, confound each other in nightly escapades and attempt to identify the mysterious Drood, who us far more menacing than the innocent victim in Dickens’ story).

Reader, I was only truly interested in two characters, those whose relationship seemed to have tension and spark, namely Edwin and Rosa, betrothed at the behest and bequests of their respective deceased fathers.

I wanted so much to like the entire book, but only Rosa’s character really drew me in, with her passionate energy and desire to be honest in her emotional dealings.

Did Dickens do this on purpose? Discuss…

True to his serialist origins, the central mystery of Edwin’s disappearance (although to me the real mystery is what Jasper is up to and why his opium supplier shows up in Cloisterham) doesn’t occur until over half way through the book, which I think might drag even if it wasn’t unfinished, although the undercurrent of menace that Jasper exudes kept me hanging on.

As we know, Dickens died before completing the book, so perhaps it all would have made more sense had he finished the novel.

You can read Sarah’s blog post as she began her reading of The Mystery of Edwin Drood here.

Dickens and London, a new exhibition from the Museum of London opens 9 December.