How can personal experiences relate to the hidden histories of museum objects?
Wendy Gallagher and Sheila Roche are both relatives of Thomas Sowood who donated the Ijo wooden carving to the Manchester Museum. In this fascinating conversation they both discuss their personal relationship to the carving and reveal accurately how it came to be in the collection. Some insight is gained into the life of Thomas Sowood who owned a timber plantation in Sierra Leone during the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Throughout this conversation the story behind the Ijo figure and its alleged curse leaves a changing impression and more is learnt about the impact the carving has made on Sowood's family members.
What links Manchester, museum objects and slavery - meet the researchers?
Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery is an overarching theme for eight Museums and Galleries in Greater Manchester which aims to uncover the city's involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, as well as its key contribution to slavery's abolition.
This conversation is based on the research into the biographies of objects in the West African collections at the Manchester Museum. Emma and Jill discuss the important stories objects tell about collecting, trade and colonialism and examine how these objects got to Manchester. They also talk about their experiences and interest in museum work.
Emma Poulter was the principal researcher for the Revealing Histories project and is currently completing her PhD in museology at the University of Manchester and works part time as a museum consultant. Jill Malusky volunteered as a researcher on the project while reading for her MA in Social Anthropology. She is currently the Audience Development Officer and Hall Manager of the Merchant Adventure's hall in York.
To find out more about the Revealing Histories : Remembering Slavery project and related events taking place across the city see http://www.revealinghistories.org.uk
A group of children from the Excellence in Cities Programme, Manchester talk with some children from Kaleen Primary School and the National Museum of Australia. After watching a live performance of 'The Cabin Boy', a play based upon the journeys undertaken by the collector Charles Heape, they discuss the reasons we collect and quiz each other on objects from the Pacific.
How did the discovery of a battered, old wooden shovel in a Cheshire primary school lead to a major archaeological research project at Alderley Edge?
The fiction writer Alan Garner OBE recounts the story of how he rediscovered a shovel used for Bronze Age copper mining at his primary school in the 1950s. After having it dismissed as 'uninteresting and probably Tudor or Victorian' by experts at the British and Ashmolean Museums, he kept it safe for 40 years until John Prag (Keeper of Archaeology at The Manchester Museum) finally took him seriously.
In the 1990s Radiocarbon dating showed the shovel to be nearly 4,000 years old and it was the spur to a number of major archaeological and educational projects at Alderley Edge. With the help of John Prag and Stephen Mills, Alan goes on to use photographs, maps and stone hammer finds to discuss the significance of the shovel (first found by miners in 1875 on the Alderley Edge site) and how recent excavations have revealed insights into Bronze-Age mining techniques and tool making.
All the people involved in the following conversation at The Manchester Museum were from the north of Somalia. In the following clips they discuss some Somali objects that are not normally on display. The group felt that the information exchanged reflected a part of their history, and being able to make it available as an archive was of great significance. Zeinhab Mohamed said that 'exhibiting in this way will give people the opportunity to view different objects from all over the world, which may not be so easily done otherwise, and learn about Somali heritage'. The explanations they offer are their own point of view, and the objects remain open for interpretation.
Many of these videos have been produced as part of a project called Collective Conversations. The Museum works with communities, organisations and individuals to explore the meanings and understanding behind a range of museum oibjects and themes.
You can find images relating to our collection at our Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/themanchestermuseum
Many of these videos have been produced as part of a project called Collective Conversations. The Museum works with communities, organisations and individuals to explore the meanings and understanding behind a range of museum oibjects and themes.
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