York Museums Trust Blog

Fiction in museums?  Surely not.  But they can be a source of inspiration – and we have a few recent examples to prove it. 

Last year Tracey Chevalier curated an exhibition at York Art Gallery and used it to stimulate all sorts of literary activity in a wide range of folk, including some of YMT’s own staff. 

In November Kate Atkinson wrote in The Guardian, talking about the Castle Museum:

“The museum was a place of miracles and wonders for me, where the rooms and streets of the past were brought to life in a way that was (and still is) thrilling. My imagination was undoubtedly nurtured by those visits; in fact I am sure that they helped to build the foundations of my becoming a writer.” (full story)

And the wider community of bloggers and online writers are following suit – here, for example, is a story for kids that uses the museum as a backdrop.  So if you want to get over your writer’s block perhaps you should get along to your local museum.

York Castle Prison is a really exciting new project that has been taking up a lot of our time.  We’ve just made our plans public (see this Yorkshire Post Article).

The idea is based on the fact that the Castle Museum building is an incredibly interesting historic monument in its own right.  This has been  a bit obscured in the past by the desire to display as much of the huge and wonderful museum collection as possible.

But, from July 17, the whole of the ground floor of the 18th century  Debtors’ Prison (pictured) will be given over to telling the story of the site.  And it is a truly revealing, and sometimes terribly moving, tale.

The project team has been lucky enough to have first sight of the material that the project researcher, Katherine, has discovered.  All sorts of unexpected facts about the building have come to light, but for me it’s the stories of the individual prisoners and prison staff that really have most impact.

To give just one example, there is the case of William Petyt, a poor weaver who was imprisoned in the Castle at the same time as his mother, Ann.  He went into the prison only for owing money, something most of us can empathise with, but he never came out.  Defending his mothers’ honour, William got into a nasty scrap with the jailer and was held in an underground dungeon for 11 days as a punishment, dying a few days later.  The jailer was accused but acquitted of murder; ironically his own circumstances later changed and he, himself, died as a debtor in the Castle Prison.

Gaming counters have been used in Europe for gambling since the early 1700s.  The practice originated in China and these ones were made there for the western market. 

The counters were often intricately carved and sets could be ordered with a customer’s initials or other special mark.  These personalised sets could contain 200 or more counters, and taking into account the return sea voyage, it could take two years from placing an  order to receiving the goods. 

The different shapes and sizes represented different monetary values.  In Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen refers to Lydia talking ‘…incessantly of fish lost and fish won.’

The first time I met Prince Philip he wished me a very Merry Christmas. It was a hot day in mid summer. Fast forward a few years and I see him in the flesh again, also in mid summer but much less hot and decidedly muddier. He was at the Yorkshire Show with his wife, The Queen. They had come to celebrate the show’s 150^th anniversary – a century and a half of showing agriculture at its best.  And, just like the Queen, York Museums Trust decided to mark this occasion as well, only without the blue hat. For three days a team of enthusiastic (very enthusiastic seeing as though we were up at 6am) staff members and volunteers manned a variety of activities, crafts and artefacts looking at the history of farming. More than 6,000 people came to learn things such as what the Roman’s brought to Yorkshire and how to squash a rat Victorian style. A map of where the women in the Land Army were based in Yorkshire created many nostalgic trips back to a time when they looked after land. Many city girls had never seen a cow before, but a lot stayed after the war, some as newly weds.  Gaby’s psychedelic horses caught the eye of passers by, and a life-sized milkable cow with milk bottle ears provided ample entertainment for children while their parents chewed the cud. For many the big draw was the incredible model of a steam engine and thresher. With its attention to detail and intricate design it was a labour of love for its creator. It was no surprise that it literally stopped people in their tracks, especially those who had worked on life sized versions in the past. And it was the object where most often roles were reversed, with the visitor very politely informing staff what did what.  Although I didn’t get to meet the Queen and Prince Philip, some of the Trust’s staff did. Amy, Lucy, dressed as a milk maid, Christine, dressed as a land girl and Jim dressed as a Monk/Obi Wan Kenobi, were all invited to meet her majesty, and very nice she was too apparently. But not a mention of festive tidings from Philip.

The good old NHS arrived in the Kitchen Studio in the Castle Museum on Friday and started dispensing a bit of history and some lovely Rock Cakes.  I managed a couple and they kept me in good health all the way home.

We also had Nurses in the Costume Studio demonstrating how to make a bed the proper way.  They even brought a proper hospital bed in for the day.

The paper dress had its origins in marketing and consumerism. The first ones were used as a cheap promotional gimmick by the Scott Paper Company in 1966. The response from the public was overwhelming; 500,000 paper dresses were exchanged for coupons saved from Scott products.

The hem on the dress was left deliberately left unfinished; since the paper doesn’t fray, the dress could be cut to the required length. A handy tip was to use the leftover fabric as a matching hair bow!

The fad for paper dresses did not last as paper garments had a short life. Once the novelty value had worn off paper garments were relegated back to their original purpose as protective clothing for use in hospitals and factories.

You can see film footage in The Sixties gallery at the Castle Museum that shows just how disposable these dresses could be.

Info. by – Jackie & Josie

YORCM : BA 1076

Things are really hotting up at the Castle this week and the museum is buzzing with activity as we get close to opening our exciting new exhibitions. Our major new exhibition, The Sixties, and our Studio activity spaces will be opening in time for Easter weekend, so everybody is running around making sure it will all be ready on time.

The Sixties is virtually complete and looking fantastic already. Huge brightly-coloured transparent mobiles are being installed hanging from the ceiling, psychedelic-colours are everywhere and our Curators are busy putting objects such as Dansette Record Players, Sindy Dolls and Beatles 45s in the cases. Some of the larger objects are beginning to arrive too. A pristine 1960s Lambretta scooter turned up today and a replica Mercury space capsule is also due. We are also eagerly awaiting a working jukebox so the sounds of the bands and singers of the time will be creating the right atmosphere.

The Kitchen Studio activity and demonstration space is almost finished and looks like a TV Chef’s studio. It has all the modern equipment needed as well as a reconstructed historic range so all aspects of food and domestic life can be demonstrated. A big plasma screen at the back shows closeups of the demonstrations so you can get really close to the action. The Studio will be open over Easter to allow visitors to learn how beautifully-decorated eggs called Pace Eggs were made.

The Military Studio is also taking shape now and will be armed and ready to show off some of our weapons and armour at Easter. You will be able to get up close to the objects and perhaps even handle them. You might even get to try on a real Tudor helmet!

There has been a huge effort by our staff and the designers over the winter period and it is all coming to fruition now. Easter week will be exhausting but fun!

One of the big bonuses of working in a museum is that you accidentally come across all sorts of interesting stuff and get to see it really close up.

This morning I was over at the Castle Museum in the new Sixties gallery and found Josie unwrapping an original Mary Quant mini-dress from the ‘Ginger’ range. Note the upside-down ‘i’ – very Sixties.

Willow pattern is probably the best known and most enduring example of English chinoiserie design.  It is generally accepted that Thomas Minton engraved the earliest version in the 18th century.

Willow pattern is wholly English in concept, but completely Chinese in inspiration.  It is not a direct copy from any Chinese design, but is a composite drawn from Chinese sources.  The early versions vary quite a lot, but by the first decade of the 19th century a standard pattern had emerged, and this is still being produced today.  It has even found its way back to China.

The willow pattern was produced by many potteries and proved to be very popular. Stories and legends then grew up around the design.  Although the stories varied, they usually centred on a pair of doomed lovers who are turned into birds by sympathetic gods. The first known printed version of the willow pattern legend was published in the magazine, The Family Friend, in 1849.

YORCM : 2007.446

Information by - Michelle

This is a large, four storey, wooden doll’s house. I t was made for Phyllis Dulce Warwick in about 1895 when she was 8 years old.  The rooms are furnished with the original objects.

The doll’s house is wired for electricity and still has original carbon filament bulbs (very few real houses would have been lit by electricity in 1895).

The most interesting and unusual piece of furniture is the miniature Ice Chest.  On top there is a hinged lid revealing the space where the block of ice would be stored, the interior is painted grey to represent the metal lining the full-sized chest would have.  On the shelf in the cold compartment there is a miniature cooked chicken.  Ice Chests as a form of cold storage became popular in the late 19th Century.

Information by - Sarah Maultby

 YORCM : 1972.51