The Devilfish is in the detail – by Jo Anderson, Assistant Keeper of Archaeology

Archaeology   Art   Collections & Objects   Great North Museum: Hancock
Posted by administrator on May 24, 2019     Permalink     Leave a comment

Ornamental bags have always been important to the native peoples of North America.  Not only did they serve a practical purpose of containing important everyday items such as tobacco or fire making equipment, their beautiful designs meant that they were often regarded as a part of an individual’s ceremonial regalia.

These bags could come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and here at the GNM Hancock we’re fortunate enough to have several examples.  One of them in particular has caught my attention – an Octopus shot pouch from Alaska.

NEWHM : G025 Octopus shot pouch

As well as looking rather stunning, they have an intriguing history as they weren’t designed with octopuses in mind at all.  It’s thought that they were first developed by the Metis people who lived around the Lake Winnipeg area in Manitoba.  They were based on traditional animal skin bags that the Ojibwa people made, called “Many Legs Bags” because the legs and tail of the animal were left attached to the main body of the bag.  The Metis established a bag with tabbed ends to reflect this.  This style of pouch was popular with both the Metis and Cree people, and over the course of the 19th century, the style travelled westward.  By 1870, this tabbed bag had reached the northwest coast, and it’s here that it earned the new moniker with its introduction to the Tlingit people.

On seeing this new style of bag, the Tlingit noted its similarity to the “devilfish” or octopus that they hunted.  They became known as Octopus bags to the Tlingit and as the name travelled back eastwards the new label remained.

Map showing origins of the Octopus bag and its gradual dispersion to the northwest coast

The octopus is an animal that features prominently among many northwest coast cultures.  It was a crest figure among some First Nations and it also had close links to shamanism.  It was also an animal that symbolised transformation due to its ability to change shape and colour.  Devilfish featured in many myths and stories of the northwest coast, especially Tlingit tales of a monstrous devilfish who could devour canoes and whole villages.  It’s not entirely clear why octopuses were called “devilfish”.  It could be a reference to the mythological beast, or it could simply be that their appearance was considered terrifying to other animals and humans.

Either way, it makes us look at our shot pouch in a different light.

What’s also interesting with our Octopus bag is the detail – or perhaps the lack of detail involved.  Octopus pouches, along with other styles of bag, would normally be embellished with exquisite beadwork, often showing floral motifs, like the ones below .

Credit: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Credit: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

As we can see, our bag has none of these floral decorations.  If anything, the maker has done more to highlight its similarities with an actual sea creature by giving it decorative “eyes”.  When examined closely, the bag shows little evidence of it ever being used- it could be that this particular Octopus pouch was made and sold as a souvenir to a European visitor or trader rather than used as any form of dancing or ceremonial regalia.

While the likes of cotton and beads were popular items to trade for, our bag also shows something extra that its maker has acquired.  On close inspection we can see that the “eyes” on the bag are made up of two different types of military buttons. 

The button on the left shows an eagle over an upright anchor.  This is a button used in the US Navy from before the Civil War, made between the 1830s-1850s.  The button on the right is harder to identify.  It appears to show a floral image similar to a Tudor rose. This is a specific English emblem, and it was used on high-ranking uniform buttons in the Royal Navy in the second half of the 18th century.  Both of these details make unique additions and points of interest to our curious Octopus bag.

It’s quirks like this that make our objects so fascinating to study.   As curators, we can closely examine an artefact in minutiae to help reveal its hidden stories.  Yet sometimes, it’s the lack of detail that can be just as telling.

This research is made possible through a Headley Fellowship with Art Fund

A Gift of Knowledge: discovering our Native American collections – by Jo Anderson, Assistant Keeper of Archaeology, GNM

Archaeology   Art   Collections & Objects   Great North Museum: Hancock
Posted by administrator on April 25, 2019     Permalink     Leave a comment

If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come.

So claim the Arapaho, a group of native Americans who live in the central United States.

I can completely agree with this.  As Assistant Keeper of Archaeology at the Great North Museum: Hancock, I’ve had the pleasure of curating diverse collections  encompassing British archaeology, Egyptology and World Cultures.  For the next six months, however, I’ll be concentrating purely on our wonderful World Cultures collections, where I’ll be researching the material culture of the native peoples of North America.  Thanks to the Headley Fellowship with Art Fund who are generously funding my project, I will be able to examine and assess every object within this collection to uncover their hidden stories and histories.  I will be allowed time “to wonder”.

My initial investigations have been focused on some spectacular argillite carvings made by the Haida people.  The Haida live on Haida Gwaii, an island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.

 

Location of Haida Gwaii, the Pacific northwest

 

The type of material used for these carvings, argillite, is a unique type of rock that is only found in one place on Haida Gwaii.  Carvings such as these are known as crest poles.  They’re actually miniature versions of the large cedar wood poles the Haida would carve, sometimes referred to as “totem poles”.

Argillite crest pole, NEWHM : G009

Crest pole at Haida Gwaii. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the practice of carving these huge wooden structures died out in the late 19th century, many carvers took to using argillite to make smaller versions which made excellent souvenirs for tourists interested in Haida culture.  These were often sold to European traders, which is why many of these poles can be found in museum collections.  The crests carved into the poles show both animals and supernatural beings from the Haida past and their myths, and they combine together to tell stories.

We can often determine which animal or being is represented on a pole.

Argillite crest pole, NEWHM : G031

Argillite crest pole, NEWHM : G031

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This crest pole shows a Wolf with two cubs and a frog.  It’s much harder to try and work out what story is being told by the carving though, as many of the Haida’s stories have been lost over time.  It’s been said that it is best to imagine these carvings reflecting flickering firelight on an evening, or reflecting the light of a bright sunrise, as it is at these times the argillite will come alive to tell us its story.

If you’d like to investigate one of these crest poles for yourself, take a look in our World Cultures Gallery where there’s one on display.  There are three animals on that crest pole, but I’ll let you guess what they might be…

 

 

https://www.artfund.org/news/2019/03/07/headley-fellowships-announced

 

 

 

This research is made possible through a Headley Fellowship with Art Fund.

 

Live Well: supporting older people in accessing their local museums – by Ben Jones Assistant Outreach Officer (Live Well)

Collections & Objects   Education   Exhibitions   Health & wellbeing   Live Well   Older people
Posted by administrator on April 16, 2019     Permalink     Leave a comment

Live Well is a three-year programme of cultural events, creative and museum activities and opportunities, skill and knowledge sharing for Tyneside people over 50 years of age and the organisations and community groups that work with them. Taking place between 2016 and 2019, it is a partnership between Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) and National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) and supported by the Big Lottery Fund. It sits under The Platinum Programme, TWAM’s Outreach programme of inspiring activities and experiences for people over 55. Myself and my colleague Ruth Sheldon (and Sophie Mitchell currently on maternity leave) run ‘Live Well’ and we will be posting a number of blogs over the next few months, showing you what we have been up to over the three years.

The aim of the Live Well programme is to understand the health and wellbeing benefits of creative activities and visiting museums and gallery for people over 50 who don’t usually go to museums or galleries. This can be for a number of different reasons, such as people with early stage dementia and the people who care for them, social isolated people and/or have been recently widowed, people with mental and or physical issues, people with learning disabilities or people who maybe just don’t think museums and galleries are for them. There are two parts to the programme over the three year period. The first part of the project took place from September 2016 to August 2018. It involved working with organisations, community groups and older people on six themed sessions, chosen by the group, doing creative activities and at least one visit to a museum or gallery. We worked with a wide range of groups, from large well known organisations such as Age UK, smaller organisations such as Live at Home or Your Voice Counts to local community organisations such as Gateshead Clubhouse.

AGE UK Gateshead Culture Club having a guided tour of the Hatton Gallery December 2017

 

Live at Home Chopwell group visiting the Hoppings exhibition, Discovery Museum

 

Sessions included local and social history, art, food, Roman history, Tai Chi, fashion, home life through ages and natural history, amongst others. These sessions were led by TWAM staff and artists and included using TWAM’s object handling collection, Box of Delights.

 

Southwood Retirement Housing visiting Laing Art Gallery April 2018

 

The creative sessions included painting, printmaking, digital art, animation, photography, batik, ceramics, murals, sound art, digital art and future wearables, as well as activities such as cooking, walking and, in one case, designing a board game. We made sure the project was flexible and that it fitted into the needs and interests of the group. Participants’ ages ranged from 50 to 100, with many varied and different life experiences, and in some cases we were learning from them. Many, if not most, were retired, yet still have a lot to offer through lived experience, knowledge and skills that are still of use and relevance today.

Group visit to the Shipley Art Gallery October 2017

 

Older Peoples Association working with artist Lalya Gaye making future wearables October 2017

TWAM’s mission is ‘to help people determine their place in the world and define their identities, so enhancing their self-respect and their respect for others’ and this was important as to how we approached the delivery of the project. The purpose of Live Well was to improve how museums and being creative can help people’s health and wellbeing, and to understand the barriers that currently stopped participants engaging with museum activities. To see how museums and galleries can help people with their health, we used the Five Ways to Wellbeing (Keep Learning, Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Give) to record how participants engaged with the project and with other people in their group. We focused on providing a range of positive new learning opportunities that instilled individual’s confidence in their existing and new found abilities and to understand their place in the world. We wanted to provide opportunities for individuals to progress, learn and improve overall quality of life through being creative and being engaged with local museum collections.

Group visiting the Discovery Museum

For the final year of Live Well, we are disseminating and sharing our experience of the project through offering six free informal training sessions aimed at people and volunteers across Tyneside who work with older people. We will be showing them how to run their own Live Well and creative sessions and giving advice and tips on how to bring large groups to our venues. We are also holding a series of social events for workers to come together at a TWAM venue and support each other in developing creative sessions and consider best practice. At the same time, we are working closely with six museums and archives across Tyne and Wear, Co Durham and Northumberland to develop and deliver two Live Well sessions in their venues and to support them in creating an older people programme. These six venues are Bowes Railway Museum, Cragside, Durham County Records, Durham Oriental Museum, Souter Lighthouse and Leas, and Washington Old Hall.

Finally, we will be holding the Live Well Symposium on 12 June 2019 at Discovery Museum in Newcastle during Creativity and Wellbeing Week asking the question What would a long term strategy look like for museums working with social care and health specialists when dealing with loneliness and isolation in an aging population? This will bring together people who work in the creative sector, as well as those who work in the health sector to see how we can work more closely together.

Over the next few months, Ruth and myself will be posting more blogs about what has happened during Live Well and sharing future plans for the project.

 

The Family La Bonche Circus Collection, Part 3: Playing the Fool – a guest blog by Alexandria Brown

Arbeia South Shields' Roman Fort
Posted by administrator on April 9, 2019     Permalink     Leave a comment

This final post on the Family La Bonche Circus Collection focuses on Steve Cousins – fool, street performer, and one time ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ contestant – who happens to be husband to Madame La Bonche, donator of the La Bonche collection to Discovery Museum.  In a previous post titled ‘Tools of the Trade’, it was noted that La Bonche collection consists of items gathered from contemporary circus performers and artists throughout the region.  Several of these items, which include a bundle of hair and a human-sized trick balloon, once belonged to contemporary fool Steve Cousins.  To delve into the stories of these rather wacky items, I’d like to explore how they relate to their former owner through the concept of ‘the fool’ as a character and entertainer.

The Look

An important aspect of any performance is to have the right look for the act. Iconic depictions of the fool vary from a zany and aloof jester-like character to a poor and ragged hobo-like character.  In the case of Steve Cousins, his main persona (he has a few i.e. Dental Dan, Steve Mischief, and The Balloonatic) consists of bright colours, big hair, and a friendly demeanour – more similar to that of the jester.  And so, one of the more unusual items in the La Bonche collection is a bundle of Steve’s bouncy spiral locks.  As hair is quite a personal thing and one of Steves’ more recognisable features, perhaps this item will give future inquirers insight into the persona of a world-travelling, self-described fool.  Why else would this bundle have been considered and cut for donation?

Steve Cousins’ hair. TWCMS : 2014.70

 

Steve Cousins, contemporary fool and street performer

The Act

Apart from the look, a performer must capture and engage their audience through an associated act.  The most famous act of the family-friendly persona of Steve Cousins would be that of ‘The Balloonatic’.  This act consists of a man in spandex that inserts himself in a comical manner into a large inflated balloon and moves about.  Its lasting appeal is due to its simplicity.  As intended, the act looks quite ridiculous and requires no culturally specific knowledge to be humorous.  Steve has performed the Balloonatic in 17 countries on four continents.  No doubt it has been so successful due to its slapstick visual comedy which is easily accessible to both children and adults.  In fact, in 2008 Mr. Cousins was featured on Britain’s Got Talent to perform The Balloonatic.  He was initially buzzed out by the judges, but given a second chance to perform in another round.  For those interested, Simon Cowell most definitely smiled and laughed – a true testament to the power of ‘the fool’.  You can watch his performance here

Although Steve has performed in various coloured balloons, red is the most frequently used.  A now-retired performance balloon has been added to our collections.  For a long time, it has been debatable as to whether these are custom made or purchased from a speciality supplier – I’ve certainly never seen a balloon this large at a party store – but it has been established that they are custom made.

Performance balloon. TWCMS : 2014.83

 

 

The Balloonatic

 

For additional information, videos and photos, feel free to check out The Balloonatic website: www.theballoonatic.net/

Delve into the drama of the big top and explore the incredible stories behind the spectacle in Circus! Show of Shows (until 2 June 2019), Discovery Museum

The Art of Nature Part 2: Edward Lear – A guest blog by Immy Mobley

Art   Books   Great North Museum: Hancock
Posted by administrator on April 8, 2019     Permalink     Comments (1)

Hello, my name is Immy and I am researching the use of art in natural history illustration during my placement at the Great North Museum: Hancock Library. The Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) has a wonderful collection of books about the natural world that is located in the library. Many of these have beautiful illustrations with examples dating back to the 16th century.

My first blog concentrated on the use of lithography in natural history illustration. For my second blog I have focussed on the natural history illustrations of Edward Lear.

Edward Lear 1812 – 1888

Edward Lear was a prolific painter of natural history subjects in the 1830s, for which he earned universal praise for the accuracy, originality, and elegant style of his depictions of birds and other wildlife. During his brief yet intense focus on natural history, his ability to capture the life of his subjects would ensure him a lasting place among the great natural history painters of all time.

David Attenborough said ‘Other animal painters may have other ambitions – to convey the character and temperament of a particular living creature at a particular time. To excel in both skills is rare. And the ability to combine both aims in one picture is even rarer. Edward Lear was able to do so, and with such success that he may fairly be accounted one of the greatest of all animal history painters.’

The NHSN library has two of Lear’s most famous and popular publications: “Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots” published in 1832 and “Gleanings of the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall” published in 1846, both of which I was mesmerized by.

Lear’s Illustrations of Parrots

After discovering his passion for wildlife from an extremely early age, Lear was quick to realise that the Zoological Society of London would not only provide him with a source of appealing subjects for his pencil and brush, but also the opportunity to secure illustration commissions from the naturalists and wealthy patrons associated with the society. He was especially besotted by the parrots, and decided to paint as many as he could. In June 1830, at only the age of 18, he formally applied for, and received, permission from the society’s council to make drawings of all the parrots in its collection for the purpose of creating a book on the subject. Lear ended up creating 42 hand coloured plates that would comprise “Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots: The Greater Part of Them Species Hitherto Unfigured”, which was issued in parts between 1830 and 1832. It was the first English natural history book to focus on a single family of birds, and allowed Lear to become the artist of choice for many leading ornithological publishers in Britain during the 1830s.

He sketched the parrots from life, adding detailed notes in order to capture them and then re-drew them in reverse on the lithographic stones from which the prints were taken, and then coloured by hand. He measured wingspan, length and legs while the zookeeper held the bird still. He then chose their most defining poses, the tilt of the heads, and details of their colour and texture with great accuracy. This was done at a time when natural history drawings were traditionally made in profile from stuffed specimens. I think that a great example of capturing the birds life-like pose, in particular the ruffling of the feathers and the glistening eyes, is the Blue and Yellow Macaw.

Blue and Yellow Macaw

He made his pictures large enough to have an impact, but did not aspire for them to be life size, as the lithographic stone would have been too heavy to move for the larger species. He would first make a sketch with pencilled colour notes, and later draw or complete it with watercolour washes, tracing his pencilled notes in ink.

Lear’s Sketch of Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

It could be said that the subject matter of Lear’s parrot book may have contributed largely to its success, as of all birds, parrots are among the most appealing to humans. I certainly enjoy the bold, bright colours, and the thought that a bird could possibly communicate with us by talking our own language. Maybe it was his inexperience, lack of academic training, and his naivety in the field of scientific illustration which freed him from the confines of existing traditions, allowing him to add life and movement to his work. Nevertheless, this did mean that his book lacked scientific information. Lear was aided when attempting to identify the birds he painted, but this was sometimes inaccurate as there was still so little known about the birds he was depicting. After many hours of observation, he became highly knowledgeable, leading him to discover several new species, including a large all blue Brazilian parrot, named after himself (Anodorhynchus leari).

Knowsley Menagerie

Lear’s parrot book caught the attention of who would be his single most significant investor, who at the time was looking for an artist to assist him with his plans to publish an illustrated book on his rare collection of birds and animals. Located at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool, the thirteenth Earl of Derby was president of the Zoological Society, and therefore aware of goings on in the scientific world. A mutual interest in parrots is almost certainly what brought the wealthy patron and the talented artist into contact with each other. It was on his behalf during six or seven years in the 1830s, that Lear created many of the finest natural history paintings of his career. The Earl established a private menagerie and aviary, which at the time of his death, would be described as the most complete and important private zoological collection in the world, providing Lear with unlimited subjects and the opportunity to secure and expand his reputation as a natural history painter. Not only did this relationship help Lear stabilize his previously fragile economic condition, but it also boosted his confidence as an artist and as a person.

Once again, in the “Gleanings of the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall”, which was published in 1846 including a number of Lear’s bird and mammal portraits, several of the species depicted were new to science. This allowed the book to achieve a lasting place in scientific literature, and for it to rank alongside Lear’s Parrots as one of the rarest and most desirable colour plate books of the nineteenth century.

Red Macauco

The illustrations from Knowsley Hall menagerie are not as rich in colour or as spectacular as his paintings of the parrots. Each animal, however, is depicted with a convincing lifelikeness and an undeniable accuracy. I am astounded by how talented and dedicated Lear was at an incredibly young age, and the sheer number of lithographs he managed to create and publish in such a short period of time.

As much as he enjoyed his time at Knowsley Hall and the financial security, by 1836 Lear felt a growing desire to move beyond the increasingly repetitive routine of delineating caged birds and mammals. At the age of just 25, his ongoing health problems began to worsen, and the English winters became too much for him to endure. His declining eyesight meant that he could no longer meticulously draw the details he once could, and consequently his career as a zoological illustrator was to end.

Later Life

The Earl’s generosity enabled Lear to move to the warmer climate of Rome and turn to landscape painting, creating oils and watercolours of the beautiful places he travelled to. He published two books of lithographs from his landscape paintings called “Views in Rome” (1841) and “Illustrated Excursions in Italy” (1846). Though Lear is also remembered for his zoological studies and his landscape painting, his Book of Nonsense series made him a household name and would achieve for him the sort of literature immortality that few others share. He revolutionized children’s literature, and continued to create limericks and drawings along his travels.

The Great North Museum: Hancock Library is free to use and is open to everyone. As well as the copies of Lear’s “Parrots” and “Gleanings” it also has other examples of this artists work, and a number of books about his life and achievements.

Further information about the library can be found at https://greatnorthmuseum.org.uk/collections/library-and-archives

Read part one
Read part three