Mary's shoes

Today I have been a participant in a workshop run by local artist Serena Patridge and called 'Mary's shoes'. It was run to link in with the current exhibition in the Pannett Art Gallery, exploring the lives and art work of the Weatherill family, who were 19th Century Whitby artists.  Serena makes beautiful and intricate pieces of work with imagined histories and she demonstrated how to construct tiny shoes in paper and card. 

We all then made our own versions using the pretty papers and trimmings Serena had provided.

This is one of a series of events organised by the Pannett Art Gallery to link into the current exhibition.  There will be childrens Drama Workshops on 18th, 23rd, 25th, 30th August and 1st September (all starting at 1.30pm) and suitable for children between 8 and 11 years.  They will explore the lives of the people in the Weatherill paintings.  To book a place please telephone 01947602051.  There will also be a drop in day on Friday 26th August suitable for all ages exploring the lives and work of Whitby Women during the 1800-1900s and looking in particular at Ganseys and rag rugs.

Young consultants

On the 10th August we had a visit from a group of young people as consultants for the Precious Cargo project. I helped our Curator of World Cultures to introduce them to some of our Rich collection of objects. They are now going to do some background research for us. They were very excited at being able to take objects out of the display cases for a closer look. It was a fantastic morning as they were full of questions and enthusiasm, so it was a lovely thing to be a part of.


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Location:Whitby Museum

Work experience

Last week we had a work experience student helping out in the museum for a few days.  She did get to help behind the scenes doing all sorts of jobs like moving some beaded purses out of their storage, photographing them and helping to put them into the new store.  On Friday she helped to move some Bronze Age pots from their usual display into another case temporarily, for safety while some changes are made to the lighting in the main hall of the museum.  Here she is putting the label into the case, having carried the objects and carefully placed them in their temporary home.

Yesterday's celebration and student work

As part of the celebration of the re-opening of the Explorers wing of the museum we have a small display of student work on show.  This work was made by a group of young people in Year 10 at Whitby Community College.

It has been inspired by some of the objects from the Pacific that we have on display. These beautiful masks and shields were on temporary display in library yesterday together with many sketches and drawings.  I will add some pictures of the sketches and drawings to the blog later.

The pieces on the plinths (the first picture) will remain on display for a couple of weeks in the Explorers wing of the museum.

Grand re-opening

Today was the grand re-opening of the Explorers wing in the museum. Dr Sophie Forgan, Director of the Captain Cook Museum gave a short talk about the lives of objects. She used a small piece of Kauri gum as an illustration of the different journeys and stories that a modest object can tell.

The refurbishment has been a brilliant team effort and it was lovely to have so many people together this afternoon to share and celebrate our achievements.







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Re-opening of the Explorers wing

It has been a busy few weeks for the team of volunteers at Whitby Museum.  As one of the group of museums involved in a project called 'Precious Cargo' we have been working to make some of our objects from different world cultures more accessible to the visitors.

Some of the objects have now been displayed in new cases and others have been moved so that they are more easily seen.  This brightly coloured object is a bird shaped rattle from the Nootka Sound region of the North Americas.

The wonderful Maori Tiki has been raised up into position between the two new cabinets alongside the Waka Taua (Maori War Canoe models).  Tomorrow is the official re-opening and I must thank all the enthusiastic team of volunteers who have given their time to this including in particular Fiona Barnard, Holly Hyams, Rebekah Parkinson and Joan Edwards  Without the time and energy given by the volunteers none of this would be possible so well done to the whole team!  There is still plenty to get our teeth into though and we are planning a number of related events as well as working on refining the displays over the coming months.  

Stories of the World

Our project at Whitby Museum is really beginning to take shape.  The two new cabinets are in place and we have begun to assemble the new display in one of the original cabinets.  All this extra space means that we are able to show objects that have been in storage for some time.

Here are some of the objects from Nootka Sound.  They include some wonderful examples are basketry including the hat (top left) that has patterns woven into the brim one of which is a striking Whale motif.    The basket (bottom left) is made of birch bark and the two large ladles from sheep horn.  There is still quite a bit of work to do including making some labels for these objects so that visitors can tell what they are.  Nootka Sound was one of the places visited by Captain James Cook, although these objects date from much later.

Work is still going on in other areas of the display including  more work on one of the model Maori War Canoes.  Here you can see Rebekah has re-attached a piece that had been broken off some years ago.  She has been working very carefully and, as is usual in a museum situation, everything has to be reversible at a later date if better methods become available.  It is fascinating to watch someone so skilful at work!

More work on the displays

The new cabinets are in place and we have begun work on the re-display of the objects as part of our Precious Cargo and Stories of the World project.  These two new cabinets house two large model Maori War Canoes (left hand cabinet) and objects including some intricately carved ceremonial adzes.

Lime Spatulas

Today I haven't got quite as much done as I had hoped but I have unpacked these carved wooden spatulas and put them back on display. They are from the region of Papua New Guinea and are beautiful examples of carved work. So many of the objects in this part of the museum include really expressive faces as part of the decoration.

The new cabinets arrive

Today Chris Hunter has delivered the new cabinets. This is the beginning of their journey from truck into the museum. Chris had been in and measured the spaces between the displays at the back of the museum and there was just enough room to get the new cabinets in without moving anything.








Here they are at the end of a very busy and successful day. You can see that the canoes are now in their new resting place and we began to put some of the objects into the other case, but still have quite a bit to do. Happy day!

Beginning the new displays

I have had two enjoyable days working with Joan and beginning to unpack objects and put them back on display.


Here is the first part of the display (apologies for the reflections, I should have taken the photos while the doors were still open).



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Beginning to put it all back

The Cook & Scoresby wing of Whitby Museum has now been repainted and we can begin to put things back on display.  Fiona has been working really hard to re-display the collection that relates to the two Captains Scoresby, father and son.  The Scoresby collection is a mixture of objects from the regions around the Arctic where they were engaged in whaling.  Captain Scoresby Junior was also a scientist and so there are many artefacts he constructed as part of his investigations into magnetism and other experiments.  There are a few Inuit items and some very beautiful carved tusks now returned to display.

This is the view into the other end of the room and you can see we still have a lot of work to do.  The two new display cabinets will be located against the wall at the far end of the room, hopefully with the Maori Tiki figure between them.  The figure standing in the corner of the room in the above photo is of Captain Cook and usually stands on top of the hexagonal cabinet, but we took him down while we re-positioned the cabinet, so one of the next jobs is to put him back.  Today we have begun to think in more detail about where things will go and how they will be supported within the cabinets, to give visitors the best possible view.

Here are the two new cabinets under construction in Chris Hunter's workshop.  I took this photo a week ago and work is making quite rapid progress.  I love the corner detail which Chris has copied to match two of the existing cabinets.  The opportunity to work with such a skill craftsman has been brilliant.  He really listens to what is needed and comes up with ideas and solutions to help.

A bit of a mystery?

Do you know anything about this figure?  What was its function?  It has been on display in the Scoresby collection since at least 1990, but perhaps since 1823.  It is described in the catalogue as being made of skin, wetted and stretched over wood, probably North American.  It is labeled as the figure from a model kayak.

We were alerted to the figure’s strangeness by a visiting Alaskan researcher who commented that she had never seen anything like it and suggested we seek expert advice.  We have contacted various museums with Arctic collections but so far to no avail.  The Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center and the New Bedford Whaling Museum have seen nothing similar.

The figure is 40 cm (18 inches) tall and the oval base is approx 15 x 12 cm.  It feels surprisingly heavy, at around 3 to 4 lb.   Close examination shows several pieces of metal, including a nail sticking out near the top of the head.  The arms are jointed at the shoulders and may be attached with metal.  It looks as if the skin is attached with small tacks and there is no trace of stitching.  The skin over the top of the head is blackish.  The oval incision on the chest is deliberate and goes right through the skin in places. In several places there are marks of ?hessian on the skin, as if the figure was wrapped in cloth while the skin was wet.

Our figure is odd because wood is scarce in Polar regions, so a heavy wooden object is unusual and perhaps significant.  Arctic peoples moved frequently so their possessions were light and portable.  Kayaks and larger boats were made from sealskin.   The materials, workmanship and appearance are not European looking and are probably circumpolar if not Inuit.

The Museum would love to hear from you if you have any information about our strange figure, or if you have seen anything similar.

(This article was written by Fiona Barnard)

Another view

I have spent a bit more time today carefully cleaning one of the Maori model canoes. Here is a picture of another of the carved figures. In my blog post yesterday I said that I thought most of the carved figures were male but today I have changed my view and think there are a mixture of male and female figures depicted. I am still fascinated by the amount and variety of patterns carved so intricately all over the canoe. I still have a lot of cleaning to do and am working quite slowly, a small section at a time.


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The model Maori canoes

The Maoris of New Zealand built impressive war canoes (waka) up to about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide. A war canoe is said to have carried a party of over 70 warriors, and sometimes over 100.  They featured decorative carving along the sides, a soaring decorative stern piece, and lashed-on gunwale strakes. Occasionally the bow and stern were carved separately and lashed onto the open ends of the main hull, but more often, bow and stern were integral with the hull. 


Whitby Museum has two amazing models of Maori War Canoes.  For a number of years they have been displayed on top of one of the cabinets so when we moved them into storage while the room is decorated I was able to get a much closer look at them and for the first time see into them.  Over the next couple of weeks I am intended to gently remove some of the accumulated dust ready for them to be re-displayed.  

This is the handle end of one of the paddles that was inside the smaller model.  This figure (female I think) is wrapped around the end of the handle and carved in quite a lot of detail.  It is tiny (I realise that I should have measured it to give some idea of the scale).  The whole length of the paddle is carved but I was fascinated by this little bit, partly because most of the other carved figures on the model are clearly male.

This is two figures sitting back to back and absolutely covered in patterns.

And this third picture is of a section of one of the cross braces (were they seats for the rowers?)  I love the patters across its surface.  This one has two male figures lying on their backs, one at each end - you can just see the feet of one of them on the left edge of the photograph.  These two figures have a bit of damage.  Each of the cross braces on this model has different patterns.

While I was trying to find a bit more information I found an interesting photo-essay by Associate Professor Tony Whincup on the following link
http://www.spasifikmag.com/freetravelarticle_tewaphotoessay/
Although he is describing a form of outrigger canoe (a completely different thing to the model war canoe I have been looking at) it was fascinating to see how the bindings are made as we have many objects with this style of binding in the museum collection.  He describes and shows the making of a traditional canoe of Kiribati, using local resources and although the canoe is very much part of the male domain he says the "women play a vital role of making sennit string. After several months of soaking the coconut husk in the lagoon, women tease the fibres from it. Rolling the fine strands on their thighs, skein after skein of string is made. This string is used in every aspect of the canoe's construction. With it the planks of the hull are stitched together, the outrigger is lashed on and all spars are held firmly in place."

The model Maori canoes

The Maoris of New Zealand built impressive war canoes (waka) up to about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide. A war canoe is said to have carried a party of over 70 warriors, and sometimes over 100. They featured decorative carving along the sides, a soaring decorative stern piece, and lashed-on gunwale strakes. Occasionally the bow and stern were carved separately and lashed onto the open ends of the main hull, but more often, bow and stern were integral with the hull.


There is an interesting photo-essay by Associate Professor Tony Whincup on the following link
http://www.spasifikmag.com/freetravelarticle_tewaphotoessay/
He describes and shows the making of a traditional canoe of Kiribati, using local resources and although the canoe is very much part of the male domain he says the "women play a vital role of making sennit string. After several months of soaking the coconut husk in the lagoon, women tease the fibres from it. Rolling the fine strands on their thighs, skein after skein of string is made. This string is used in every aspect of the canoe's construction. With it the planks of the hull are stitched together, the outrigger is lashed on and all spars are held firmly in place."


Although he is describing a form of outrigger canoe (a completely different thing to the model war canoe I have been looking at) it was fascinating to see how the bindings are made as we have many objects with this style of binding in the museum collection.

Taking objects off display

Today we have been taking some objects off display temporarily and carefully packing them, storing them while the room is repainted. One of today's objects was this beautiful Maori cloak. I have never seen it close up before as it was at the back of the cabinet. It is a fascinating thing, beautifully made and I am excited about the prospect of displaying this so that it is easier for visitors to see and appreciate it when we re-display it in February.





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Precious Cargo - Stories of the World in Yorkshire

This week we are beginning to pack artefacts currently on display in the Cook and Scoresby wing of the museum.  This in in preparation for the repainting of the room later in January.  Although it seems like a huge number of cases to empty all at the same time it will give us a good opportunity to assess the condition of some of the objects, clean and conserve where necessary before the new displays are installed in February.

This is just one of the cases we need to empty, just so you get some idea of how much work we will be doing over the coming weeks.  I am really looking forward to the challenge although I have some reservations - like how to get those canoes safely down and into temporary storage prior to cleaning?