York Museums Trust Blog

Collections Snapshot: Armadillo Work-Bag

We have some fantastically unusual objects in our Collections. Here is one of them:

Armadillo Work-Bag

Armadillo Work-Bag
(1920-1940)

In the York Castle Museum Costume & Textiles Collection - In Store

The Armadillo is a timid mammal found only in the Americas. They are not an endangered species, and souvenirs are still made from their shells.
This Armadillo work-bag would have been seen as a novelty when it was brought back to this country in the early twentieth century, however today we would be unlikely to welcome it as a gift!

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially after the expansion of the British Empire and improvements in transport, many unusual items from other countries found their way to Britain. Animals were very much to the fore, either as hunting trophies or as novelties like this bag.
The work-bag is a good example of the types of objects that sometimes used to find their way into museum collections, often because no-one knew what else to do with them!

It was great to meet a direct descendant of York Castle Museum’s founder Dr John Kirk when he visited last week.

Jeremy Hands, from Australia, is the great-great-grandson of Dr Kirk, who set up the museum in 1938. Dr Kirk donated many of his own collections of objects to the museum and our Victorian street Kirkgate is named after him (find out more about Dr Kirk’s life on our website).

Jeremy was in England to meet family and friends and to research his family tree and was keen to find out more about the life of his great-great-grandfather.

He came along to see the museum and was shown round by Denise Hamilton, our deputy senior guide,  then returned for a longer chat with assistant curator Michelle Petyt who was able to tell him lots about the Kirk family and the history of the museum.

He was really interested in what we had to tell him and even agreed to have his picture taken for the York Press! See the article here:

We’ve been fascinated by a set of Victorian cautionary tales we’ve found for our half-term story-reading sessions, writes Lynda Withers, education assistant.

Woe betide any child who failed to follow the rules; they were set for a series of horrible, and sometime fatal, consequences in these stories.

Forget the naughty step and sticker charts, these were scare tactics taken to the extreme.

The book was called Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffman and was first published in Germany in 1845.

We chose a few examples to read to children when they visit our Victorian schoolroom over the half-term holiday (along with some other stories from the time) but we had to reject some for being too horrific!

More details about our half-term activities are available on our website.

Here’s three examples of the Struwwelpeter stories from our copy of the book:

Wartime fashions are the focus of a new film we’ve made as part of a year-long project called Talking Textiles, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’ve been looking behind the scenes of York Castle Museum at highlights of our costume and textile collection with the expert help of ex-conservator Mary Brooks. She has been shedding new light on what we know about how these fashions were made and worn.

As part of the exercise we decided to make some short films giving a close-up of some of the delicate pieces of clothing in our stores. We’re really pleased with the first one which looks at utility clothing, made during the Second World War and in the post-war rationing period.

Take a look and see what you think: Wartime Fashions at York Castle Museum

Thanks to the Monument Trust and the Museums Association for the funding for this project.

Choosing a low-energy light bulb is about as frugal as we get these days when cutting costs on lighting our homes.

But back in the 1800s many homes were lit using only rushes picked from nearby rivers.

These “rush lights” were so common that an industry sprung up making special holders for them. We have examples of these at York Castle Museum and during the half-term week visitors will be able to see daily demonstrations of how rush lights were made in our Kitchen Studio.

It wasn’t very complicated – they were stripped, then dipped in melted meat fat, then clipped in their holders and lit.

They only lasted for about 15 minutes, and it was often the child of the family’s job to keep checking on the rush lights, replacing them and relighting them where necessary, while the adults of the family got on with jobs like sewing and mending.

Rush lights saw a surge in popularity when a new candle tax was introduced in 1709 and they were very popular in the North Yorkshire countryside around York. Families would pick large numbers of rushes in the summer and autumn so that they had enough to see them through the winter.

Ironically the very poor still had to shell out for candles for their homes as they couldn’t afford the meat that provided the rush light’s coating.

Find out more about our half-term events on our website.

Natalie Kingston strips a rush ready for coating

Coating the rush with melted fat

Emma Burbidge lights the finished rush light in its holder

If you like Christmas pudding, head over to York Castle Museum where they’re making them nearly every day until Christmas Eve!

Liz mixing the wartime recipe pudding

Liz Page, one of the guides doing demonstrations of three historic recipes, said she was enjoying it so much she intended to make one at home.

“I have always made my own cake but this year I’m thinking of making a Mrs Beeton puddingl!”

Each day (apart from three special event days on December 3, 11 and 12) visitors can see watch ingredients being weighed and mixed, smell the aromas of cinnamon, orange peel and brandy, and then – the best bit – have a taste of the finished pud.

Liz weighing out brown sugar for Mrs Beeton's recipe

Liz said the firm favourite with the public was the Mrs Beeton pudding from her recipe book of 1923, and second favourite was medieval Frumenty, which she had been surprised by as it was a bit different, more like a porridge consistency, but flavoured strongly with cinnamon. Last, but not least, was the Second World War rations recipe, using powdered egg.

“There’s been a really nice atmosphere and it’s going down really well with visitors – but it’s a traditional thing isn’t it, making a Christmas pudding. I’m really enjoying it!” said Liz.

There are recipes to take away or you can download two of them here by clicking on each of the images below:

The Christmas pudding making in the museum’s Kitchen Studio is part of the Christmas at the Castle month at the museum. Visit our website for more information.

I love making things and I’m always making things at home – so when I was asked to spend a whole day at work  making Victorian-style tree decorations I was more than happy! writes Lynda Withers, education assistant at York Castle Museum.

A group of us got together in the Castle Museum’s Costume Studio with a big supply of card, ribbon, glue, fabric, pens, pencils and more to make decorations for the Christmas tree which will go up in our Victorian Street, Kirkgate, from next week.

Lucy Knock, assistant curator of social history learning, making a Cornucopia

First of all was a supply of Cornucopias. These are really easy to make – cut out a quarter-circle piece of card (use a compass to help you – we had it measuring 12cm), then glue the straight edges to make a small cone. Then stick Christmassy images on the outside, add some ribbon to hang it from the tree, and, if you like, fill with nuts and sweets as the Victorians did.

We decorated them with typically Victorian images of flowers, robins – and cats. Cats were particularly fashionable on decorations and Christmas cards in the late 1800s.

Lynda working on a Candelabra

An original Victorian Candelabra decoration

Another easy one was little Candelabras – we have got real a Victorian example on show in the Studio as part of a small display of Christmas decorations which will be open throughout the Christmas period. To copy this design, we just used glittery pipe-cleaners and birthday cake candles – great fun!

We also made little drums, using cardboard tubes covered with fabric and netting, and used fabric pens to make flags from the countries in the British Empire, also popular decorations at the time.

Mary Cox, volunteer, helping to make a drum

Work in progress - the flag of Aden

Elijah Chin with his Cornucopia

Visitors wandering through the Studio, on their way round the museum, were curious about what we were up to and quite impressed with our handiwork. They enjoyed looking at the old decorations on display, including some from the 1950s and 60s that they remembered from their own childhoods.

One young visitor, Elijah Chin, even sat straight down to join in. He made his own Cornucopia while his family waited patiently for him to finish!

“I like making things!” he declared as he took his seat.

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

A selection of our completed Cornucopias

Christmas at the Castle runs from 25 November – 24 December at York Castle Museum. Find out more on our website.

Buying a quarter of sweets is a childhood experience that visitors love reminiscing about when they visit our Terry’s sweet shop in York Castle Museum, writes Gwendolen Whitaker, curator of history.

We’re hoping they’ll be able to re-live those nostalgic purchases when we start selling hand-made Victorian-recipe sweets next year.

Museum guide India Hood in our sweet shop

The move is part of a makeover we’ve given the shop over the last few months which has enabled us to try and make it as authentic as possible to the 1890s.

Visitors are amazed to discover the variety of sweets Terry’s were selling in this period – long before they became nationally famous for their chocolate products in the 1920s and 30s.

Popular choices which people still remember today were cachous, a variety of boiled sweets made in numerous flavours, as well as jujubes (jellies)  and sherbert.

A page from Terry's wholesale catalogue

But Terry’s were also producing a full range of pharmaceutical and hospital lozenges including a morphine variety, as well as a range of smokers’ cachous range – usually mints!

Our shop doesn’t go this far, but has a large selection of sweets which were made specially for the museum by Terry’s when the company was still operating in York. They don’t have flavourings in but were otherwise made to historic recipes. We’ve got them out on display in large jars behind the newly-lowered counter, where visitors can buy sugar mice.

Next year visitors will be able to buy a quarter of hand-made sweets, weighed out in old fashioned trading scales then poured into traditional paper cones to take home.

We’ve also tried to include more advertising material from Terry’s on the shop counter and in the window, including a great image which gave us a lot of inspiration for the  new look.

An original advert from the 1890s

It shows a happy young girl clutching her newly-bought cone of sweets outside Terry’s sweet shop, which was in St Helen’s Square  in the centre of York – and was discovered by my fellow curator Sherri Steel after a long search through our archive material from Terry’s.

The sign above our counter

Terry’s distinctive logo, which is still recognisable today, is emblazoned across the top and we were lucky that our maintenance technician Andrew Wilson also happens to be a trained sign writer, so he was able to recreate the 1890s design above our shop counter.

During the 1890s Terry’s shop served quite an upmarket clientele in York and was expanding with its new cafe and the advert shows the kind of image Terry’s wanted to portray as they branched out into a new cafe and expanded their range of confectionery.

Terry's shop in York

It’s been a team effort and we’re still adding to it, but we hope the new-look shop continues to be enjoyed by our visitors long into the 21st century!

STOP PRESS!

We’ve just confirmed that we’ll be selling hand-made chocolate Vanilla Creams in our sweet shop over the Christmas at the Castle 2010 period, inspired by an original Terry’s recipe!

For more about the history of Terry’s see our website.

The aroma of roasting coffee will be wafting down the galleries of York Castle Museum during our Georgian week as our staff and volunteers demonstrate the art of roasting green beans from scratch and brewing up some Regency-style concoctions.

Coffee expert Sadie Hopkins from York Coffee Emporium has been into the museum this week to pass on some tricks of the trade and talked us through how beans change from green, scent-less beans, through to the dark brown, rich-smelling beans we are much more familiar with, as they are roasted.

Sadie Hopkins shows how to roast green coffee beans in our Kitchen Studio

This is how beans were always roasted from scratch when coffee was first drunk in Ethiopia and the Yemen, but as consumption increased and became popular across Europe during the 1600s and 1700s, the process became more mechanised.

By the Georgian times, coffee was often roasted in containers hung over open fires, with  most Europeans buying their coffee ready-roasted by the original suppliers or by merchants.

These days coffee beans can travel thousands of miles from their origins in Columbia, Indonesia or Ethiopia, to be roasted, often in Europe, before being shipped elsewhere to be packaged and distributed.

At the other end of the scale, small businesses such as Sadie’s specialise in importing green beans, then roasting and packaging them to order all in one place.

The green beans before roasting

Starting to go brown...

A bit browner still...

Starting to look like coffee beans

Finished - the roasted beans

Lucy Knock, our assistant curator of social history learning, has been doing masses of research into the history of coffee and has found that coffee has been credited with some powerful effects over the years. 

The early Yemen coffee drinkers knew it kept them alert during religious practices, but in the 1600s many believed it could cause impotence, sterility and barrenness. In 1674, a group of London women tried to get coffee banned as they were worried about men drinking it in coffee houses!

By the Georgian period, the main function of coffee houses was to act as a centre for serious discussion, reading newspapers and doing business - and for simple gossip - and they were exclusively a male preserve.

Next week we will be letting some lucky visitors see how the beverage could have tasted in these coffee houses, and will be heating up freshly-ground beans with water in a large pan on an open fire. Come and taste it if you dare!

Find out much more in our Kitchen Studio over half term. For dates and times visit our website.

Our senior guide Denise Hamilton helps stir the beans!

It may only be October but work has already begun on Christmas at the Castle, when the museum will be celebrating the festive season in Victorian style.  One of our new attractions will be the chance to meet a Victorian Father Christmas – and he’ll be wearing green.

This card, showing Father Christmas dressed in green, dates from 1890-1910

We’ve got a great collection of Victorian Christmas cards and what they show is that the traditional red outfit we associate with Santa Claus didn’t start to appear consistently until around 1900. Before then, “Old Christmas”, an elderly male figure who dates back as far as the 17th century, appeared on cards in a variety of colours including red,  blue, white or green! (Coca Cola often claim the credit for the emergence of red, but the red outfits started to appear more often before their advertising campaigns began.)

Although the Victorians are credited with the introduction of many of our Christmas traditions, the custom of bringing greenery into the home has taken place for centuries, so we thought it would be appropriate to choose the colour green for our Victorian Father Christmas!

You can find out more about all the other things going on during Christmas at the Castle at our website’s events page.