Discovering the Landscape: World Landscape Architecture Month (#WLAM2016)

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April is World Landscape Architecture Month (#WLAM2016): an international celebration of landscape architecture.

Read on to find out more about #WLAM2016 and how you can get involved.

Celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month at the University of Reading's London Road campus, Clock Tower Memorial Garden

Celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month at the University of Reading’s London Road campus, Clock Tower Memorial Garden

Established by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the purpose of World Landscape Architecture Month is to celebrate landscape architecture in our public spaces.

The aim is to highlight how the open, public spaces we inhabit every day are shaped by landscape architecture and the impact this has on how we feel about (and use) these spaces.

WLAM is truly international – people are invited to take part in a social media campaign, by sharing images of designed spaces using the hashtag #WLAM2016. Entries have been received from all over the world via twitter, instagram and Facebook.

ASLA have even created a card which you can print out to feature in your landscape photos.  You can download the card here.

Here in the UK the Landscape Institute is encouraging participation.  Just post or tweet using #WLAM2016.

A Scottish contribution to #WLAM2016 - posted to twitter by Landscape Institute Scotland (@LI_Scotland).

A Scottish contribution to #WLAM2016 – posted to twitter by Landscape Institute Scotland (@LI_Scotland).

A picture of Central Park, New York for #WLAM2016

A picture of Central Park, New York for #WLAM2016

Though we may be the Museum of English Rural Life, as many landscape architects work on projects around the world, our Landscape Institute collections have an international edge.  James Corner, who designed  New York’s much loved High Line and the South Park Plaza of London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, delivered a lecture here last year.

Landscape architects that we hold collections for, such as Geoffrey Jellicoe, Peter Shepheard and Brenda Colvin, completed projects in the UK and abroad.  You can find our more about our Landscape Institute collections here.

Take part in and follow #WLAM2016 to celebrate World Landscape Architecture Month.

Claire Wooldridge: Project Librarian (Landscape Institute) 

The ‘Lost Modernist’: Michael O’Connell

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Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

We’re asking you to help us decide which of our two wall hangings to display in the new Museum. Both were displayed at the 1951 Festival of Britain as part of a wider series exploring the British countryside, and have not been on public display for over 60 years.

The two wall hangings which will be displayed in the new MERL (© O'Connell estate).

The two wall hangings which will be displayed in the new MERL (© O’Connell estate).

They were designed and made by the artist Michael O’Connell (1898-1976). Described as the ‘Lost Modernist’, he was a textile artist whose style and colour typify the 1950s and 1960s. At the time he was considered stylishly bold, brash and modern, but his work is still relatively unknown.

Michael O'Connell while in Australia.

Michael O’Connell while in Australia.

Artistically, O’Connell found his feet in Melbourne, Australia, where he honed his craft skills by building his own house in 1923, something he was forced into after his previous home (a tent) was condemned by a health inspector. His romantic lifestyle on the outskirts of Melbourne society, often journeying into the Australian bush to paint and draw, was a far cry from his upbringing in Dalton, Cumbria. His previous aim was to study Agriculture, but his artistic talents were never in question: when held as a prisoner of war in the First World War, one of his guards complimented his work and encouraged him to pursue a career in it.

It was also in Australia where O’Connell hit upon various pioneering methods of dying fabric with his wife, Ella Moody, both of whom were prominent in the Australian Arts & Craft Society. They returned to England in 1937 and developed a close working relationship with Heal’s of London, who proved instrumental after the Second World War in supplying fabric for the Festival of Britain wall hangings.

Michael O'Connell overseeing work on the Festival of Britain wall hanging.

Michael O’Connell overseeing work on the Festival of Britain wall hanging.

O’Connell’s commission required wall hangings to decorate the Country Pavilion at the Festival of Britain, held in May-September 1951. For the hangings themselves, O’Connell had to reflect the versatility and variety of farming in Great Britain, and so he took a tour of the nation, translating what he saw and experienced into his art. The result are seven hangings covering most of Great Britain, representing the distinctive character of our regions and providing an artistic snapshot of the state of British farming in the early 1950s.

After the Festival of Britain the popularity of Michael’s work increased and he received commissions to create murals for public buildings, restaurants, factory canteens and showrooms. His work was exhibited in New York, Melbourne and London. In the 1960s, he began to travel widely and to teach his techniques in art schools. He also worked with architects, producing murals for universities and churches.

In 1970, a devastating fire destroyed his workshop, most of his notebooks and records, and badly damaged his adjoining house. With the help of students and friends the property was rebuilt, but in the following years his eyesight began to fail. In 1976, he was found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

The V&A Museum also holds multiple pieces by O'Connell.

The V&A Museum also holds multiple pieces by O’Connell.

His work lives on in museum collections in Australia and the UK. While the MERL holds the Festival of Britain wall hangings, the V&A museum also has a large collection of his early work.

Have you voted on which wall hanging to display yet?

Chalk or cheese? Choosing a wall hanging

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Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

Here at the MERL we have a problem. We need to decide which of our two enormous, beautifully decorated wall hangings to display, and we’d like your help.

combined1 - Copy

Please note: The text ‘Cheshire’ and ‘Kent’ is superimposed digitally and does not appear on the original wall hangings.

The wall hangings are two of seven which were originally displayed at the 1951 Festival of Britain, and were made by the ‘lost modernist’, Michael O’Connell. Both are a snapshot of a rapidly vanishing way of life in post-war England. One depicts Cheshire, and the other depicts Kent. They have been in our stores for 65 years, and only seen by a few researchers on request.

The wall hanging will be displayed in a bespoke case measuring 7×3.7 metres in our new extension. The choice of which to display first is not one to be taken lightly, as it will be displayed for five years before being replaced with the other.

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The chosen wall hanging will be the centrepiece of the new museum. These hangings encapsulate the messages we want to share with the public: that the English countryside is beautiful, varied and personal.

To stand in front of one of O’Connell’s wall hangings is to be dwarfed. You may first take a moment to admire the craftsmanship and artistic skill that went into such a massive undertaking. The background of each hanging is a convenient deep green, the common colour of the English countryside. You then take in the detail – perhaps some of the larger buildings, a cow or a field. With closer scrutiny you will notice the woman feeding her chickens, the juxtaposition of heavy horses and tractors, or the cheeses stacked in an old barn.

Each wall hanging is packed with detail and snapshots of rural life.

Each wall hanging is packed with detail and snapshots of rural life.

Nothing is an accident. O’Connell travelled the length and breadth of Britain, immersing himself in each region’s traditions, architecture, crops, animals and people to produce these hangings.

Each one is a special tribute to the different ways of rural life in Britain, and we honestly cannot choose between the two which have been conserved and are ready to be displayed. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring each hanging, the man who made them, and the Festival of Britain. As you learn more about each one, we will ask you to vote for the one you would most like to see displayed and, when we reopen later this year, you will be able to see the selected county.

CHALK OR CHEESE

Chalk or cheese, Cheshire or Kent, which will it be? Follow our the #VoteCheshire and #VoteKent campaigns on twitter and you can even join us at a special Museums at Night event on 11th May to help you decide how to vote.

An Interview with: Nitisha (Part 2: Conservation)

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Following last week’s interview with Nitisha about her work in the Special Collections archives, this week Whitney talks to her about her first role in conservation here at MERL.

Nitisha working in the conservation department at MERL

 

1. What made you get involved with conservation?

I started volunteering with Fred the Conservator here in the Conservation studio because I wanted to explore conservation. I had never heard about this field before because my background is in Law.

I started by volunteering and then when the HLF funded redevelopment project started, I was hired on a short-term contract to work alongside Kate Gill, a specialist Textile Conservator, on the two Michael O’Connell’s wall hangings to help conserve them for the new re-display. Later my contract was then extended to work alongside Fred on the collections for the re-display.  This was possible because of the considerable volunteering hands-on / practical experience I had by then.

2. What does conservation entail?

It’s basically taking care of the heritage and specifically here in the museum looking after the collections and the objects. So it’s very hands on, very practical work. For example if you have a mug and the handle is broken you have to repair it but at the same time not change it. There is a difference between restoration and conservation.

3. What aspects of conservation interest you the most?

I really like working with the objects and being able to make a difference with my hands. It’s really rewarding when you can make a difference to something that would just otherwise rot away, but instead you are able to preserve it and make it accessible to the public and future generations.

4. You highlighted the difference between restoration and conservation earlier. How would you describe the difference to someone that doesn’t have much idea about it?

With conservation you try to repair the object but maintain its totality whereas with restoration you would perhaps change it to make it look better and improve its aesthetic appearance.

5. What things helped you become more comfortable in being able to handle objects?

I worked alongside Fred the Conservator and started to understand why certain things can and cannot be done. I also did a Chemistry for Conservatory course because I wanted to understand the science and the reasoning behind it.

6. What other significant details are important when working with objects?

You need to understand what the need is for the repairs that are going to be carried out, the material of the object, how it was made and its purpose. Is it for a private client or a museum piece? If it’s for a private client the client may not want you to change the look or they may want you to change it so it looks brand new. But from an ethical point of view conservation is preferred rather than restoration because you are not changing the object only preserving what is there and giving it a longer life.

Whitney: So it seems that it’s all about the intended purpose surrounding why you are handling a particular object.

Nitisha: Yes exactly, because objects have historical value and may not necessarily have monetary value. Although they can also have both. We also have to question whether it’s the only one we have left in the world.

6. What advice do you have for the next generation of individuals that will go on to work in museums, heritage sectors or fields that encourage the preservation of culture and history?

Don’t limit yourself to thinking that you are not capable of doing something. Give yourself all the chances and take up opportunities. Try volunteering, be open to suggestions and have a good relationship with the professionals. If you understand what you want then it becomes easier for other people to guide you. I currently find myself at a stage where I’m still exploring. Though I don’t know what the final destination will be I’m just enjoying the journey.

Explore Your Archive: People Stories – Eve Balfour

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The last of our People Stories, written by The Abbey School students, looks at the life of Lady Eve Balfour, co-founder of the Soil Association

Lady Evelyn Balfour was born on the 16th July 1898. After studying agriculture at Reading University she went on to write The Living Soil and then co-founded The Soil Association in 1945. She was also a main person behind the organic farming movement,  which provided more jobs for women compared to the only 5% of women working in chemical farming. Born almost exactly 100 years after Lady Eve, we are both female, feminist and consumers of organic food, you can see how Lady Eve Balfour appealed directly to both of us, and why we are thrilled to be able to delve more into the life and the legacy behind one of the most influential people and women for agriculture in the early 1900’s.

Eve

Eve Balfour was born into a large and influential family (Fun Fact: Her Uncle Arthur was appointed as Chief Secretary of Ireland by his uncle Robert which is where the phrase ‘Bob’s your uncle’ originates). As a child she travelled between two estates with two different types of soil, one of which was bright red, which may have been the start of fascination with farming and soil. Eve’s family were keen to educate their children well, and one of the many things she was taught as a child is how to make and support a convincing argument. She was also seen as very determined as well as amusing (Fun Fact: One Christmas as a young girl Eve burst into the servants Christmas Dinner to sing them a song). At 12 years old Eve decided she wanted to become a farmer and was educated accordingly and accepted into the Agriculture College in Reading,despite her and her entire family’s awful spelling (Fun Fact: Eve’s brother, and heir to the Balfour estate Arthur Robert Lytton was probably dyslexic, he wanted to go into the Navy but despite passing the medical he failed the entrance exam by spelling his own name wrong (Robart)). Eve thoroughly enjoyed university and even spent a year on a farm. She planned to open a farm with her sister, Mary. In 1919 Eve aged 21 finally bought her own farm in Haughley, Sussex with her inheritance.

The reason why Lady Eve Balfour is important is because after she spent a year in farm, she took part in an experiment called the Haughley experiment where she proved the link between the quality of soil and our health. Before there had been scientists such as McCarrison who had made the link between health and diet and other scientists such as Harrison made a link between the quality of food and the quality of soil. The results were published around February 1940 and were highly respected by important institutes. After this she was able to set up the Soil Association in 1945 and has in this way affected farming significantly today. Although her discovery may seem very boring and pointless, it meant that farmers knew how to improve the quality of their produce and has improved the health of many people since then. Even though few people may know about her she has truly impacted all of our lives today.

 

Resources

Michael Brander, Eve Balfour: The Founder of the Soil Association and the Voice of the Organic Movement (The Gleneil Press, 2003), p.11

Sophie Poklewski koziell, Two women of the soil

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/eve_balfour.shtml 06/07/15

Evelyn Balfour, The Haughley Experiment, p.7

MERL at Tractor World Show

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Written by Caroline Gould, Deputy University Archivist

Jonathan Cave, Anthony Brennan and Adam Lines pictured with the earliest MG crawler on display and the trophy for the best in show.

Jonathan Cox, Anthony Brennan and Adam Lines pictured with the earliest MG crawler on display and the trophy for the best in show.

MERL was invited to the Spring Tractor World Show which took place weekend by the group creating the 80th anniversary display of Ransomes MG crawlers and implements. The display, formed of around 35 Ransomes, won best in show!

MERL was keen to attend to promote the archives that are held at the Museum.

Our stand included two Ransomes films:  A 1951 promotional film of the MG5 in use throughout the year and a second film entitled Speed the Plough (A day at the Plough Works) dated 1952. The films created a phenomenal amount of interest. The Museum holds at least 100 Ransomes films in its collection. We also took examples of trade literature, drawings, photographs and catalogues from some of the other collections we hold at the museum including: David Brown, International Harvester, Massey Ferguson, and Charles Burrell. We had many conversations about other related collections of steam manufactures held in the Museum archives: John Fowler of Leeds, Wallis and Steevens, Clayton and Shuttleworth, and Marshall Sons and Co.

The MERL stand

The MERL stand

We spoke to over 230 people over the two days and were thrilled to meet so many people who had contacted us in the past for information and were keen to visit the museum when it reopens in October 2016.  Keep checking the website for further details.

Fantastic MG Cakes

Fantastic MG Cakes

The Tractor World Show was held at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire,  27-28 February 2016. The stands also included a display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Ferguson T 20 tractor and Zetor tractors.

Many thanks to Jen Glanville, Caroline Benson, Jonathan and Patricia Brown, Felicity McWilliams and Adam Lines for attending the show and for Anne who made the MG crawler cakes!

 

Reading Readers – Hilary Matthews

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This month, University of Reading PhD student Hilary Matthews tells us about her research into livestock portraiture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

As a Reading University PhD student, I am looking at how the paintings and prints of livestock in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century functioned within the society that produced them. My research is centred on the Museum of English Rural Life’s own collection of livestock paintings and I make a weekly 4 ½ hour round trip from my Essex home to work on the museum’s associated archives and agricultural books and ephemera in the Reading Room.

Hilary with Jacqueline Winston-Silk, Art Collections Officer, in our art store (Photo by Martha Fleming).

Hilary with Jacqueline Winston-Silk, Art Collections Officer, in our art store (Photo by Martha Fleming).

When I explain to people what I am researching the first question is invariably what do the paintings look like and secondly why were they depicted like this?  To answer the first I always tell people to close their eyes and visualise portraits of cattle, pigs and sheep with huge bodies, tiny heads and short legs. It’s amazing that when I say this almost everyone goes “oh yes I know what they look like”.  The second question, why painters depicted them like this, (although some did depict them more naturally), lies at the heart of my research.

The desire to satisfy the food demands of the rapidly growing urban population made farmers and landowners continually seek to breed animals that would satisfy this demand. My research reveals that in doing this the lines of the strong class system of the period were continually stretched and reshaped as landowners, often without the skill and knowledge to breed the best quality livestock themselves, had to rely on the poorer, but better, livestock breeders to provide them with the best stock. This stretching of the class boundaries does not seem to have applied when patrons commissioned artists to paint their animals though. To immortalise their livestock, the aristocracy seem to have engaged society artists whilst the lowly farmers employed jobbing sign painters. However, as I am discovering in the Museum of English Rural Life’s archives, this was not always the case.

A Shorthorned Heifer, Seven Years old (The Heifer that travelled) by Thomas Weaver (1811), and print engraved by William Ward - Object No. 64/102

A Shorthorned Heifer, Seven Years old (The Heifer that travelled) by Thomas Weaver (1811), and print engraved by William Ward – Object No. 64/102

Apart from recently studying art history, I have also studied agriculture and for many years, I have bred, exhibited and judged pedigree livestock. I try to incorporate all these aspects into my research and so, for instance, in trying to understand a painting like Thomas Weaver’s, The White Heifer that Travelled, (below), I have tried not only to appraise this work as an art historian but to look at it scientifically too. A heifer is a young cow that has never calved but even allowing for artistic licence this heifer was obviously huge. Although she could have been born as a freemartin, (a freemartin is a female calf from a set of mixed twins and is invariable infertile), by trawling through the Museum of English Rural Life archives I have learned that she may have been speyed.  Around the late 1790s, farmers experimented on female cattle by surgically removing what they quaintly called the ‘lusts’. This stopped female cattle coming into season and allowed them to fatten much quicker. This sort of information helps me to understand the paintings far better – you could almost say that it puts meat onto the bones of my research.  However, in this instance I don’t think this particular heifer requires any more meat on its bones!

Find out more about animal portraiture and our collection in this blog post from October 2015 by Art Collections Officer, Jacqueline Winston-Silk.

#ReadingReaders

Discovering the Landscape #23: New Towns, Landscape and Gordon Patterson

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Guest post written by Penny Beckett, Chair of FOLAR

MERL is to host FOLAR’s third AGM and Study Session: New Towns, Landscape and Gordon Patterson – Celebrating mid 20C Design on Saturday 19 March 2016.  MERL staff will mount an exhibition of related New Town material selected from the Landscape Institute’s archive and from other collections held at MERL, including the CPRE and Land Settlement archives.

The theme of the afternoon study session (and exhibition), is to shed light on various aspects of twentieth century New Town design and planning and explore how the ideas generated last century can help inform the designs of such new settlements in the 21st Century.

Click here for more info & to book.

Boys fishing on the lake at Stevenage Town Gardens. Copyright HALS.

Boys fishing on the lake at Stevenage Town Gardens. Copyright HALS.

FOLAR has an impressive line up of speakers:

 

Elain Harwood: Housing, Traffic and Landscape – detailed urban planning in the New Towns.

Senior architectural advisor at Heritage England (HE), Elain is responsible for post war research and listing programme and has been an active member of the Twentieth Century Society for many years.  Her most recent book Space, Hope & Brutalism; English Architecture 1945-1975, was published by Yale University Press in 2015, and she is currently working on a book for HE about English New Towns.  

Radburn planning at Brontë Paths, Stevenage, 1962. Image Elain Harwood

Radburn planning at Brontë Paths, Stevenage, 1962. Image: Elain Harwood

Tom Turner: Landscape planning for London and the New Towns in the 1940s (talk and video).

A landscape architect and garden historian, for many years Tom taught at the University of Greenwich.  He is a firm believer in the need for open and vigorous debate on all aspects of landscape architecture and garden design.  In 1998 he launched www.gardenvisit.com and in 2015, with Robert Holden, he launched the website of the Landscape Architects Association to promote the profession’s capabilities.  Tom’s presentation will include a short film, drawing on his books, Landscape planning, 1987, and City as landscape, 1996, and making a recommendation for a landscape urbanism approach to the design of new towns in the 21st century.

London’s Green Belt and proposed location of New Towns. Image: Tom Turner

London’s Green Belt and proposed location of New Towns. Image: Tom Turner

Oliver Rock: Landscape without Boundaries.

Rock is a landscape architect with HTA Landscape Design practice.  In 2011, the practice won the Landscape Institute’s Heritage & Conservation Award for their restoration of Stevenage Town Gardens.  

View of Lake, Stevenage Town Gardens, c. 1960. Copyright HALS.

View of Lake, Stevenage Town Gardens, c. 1960. Copyright HALS.

These gardens were originally designed (1959-61) by Gordon Patterson.  As the award citation puts it, HTA’s design ‘captures some of the optimism and civic spirit of the original (design) while ensuring the gardens remain relevant today’. Oliver will also be talking about the practice’s current restoration of Hemel Water Gardens, a scheme originally designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe.  

Restored lake, Stevenage Town Gardens, 2011. Copyright Tim Crocker.

Restored lake, Stevenage Town Gardens, 2011. Copyright Tim Crocker.

FOLAR hopes that Gordon Patterson, for many years the landscape architect for Stevenage New Town will be able to join us. His archive is one of the latest additions to the Landscape Institute’s collections at MERL.

From the Land Settlement Association Archives at MERL. CR_3LSA_PH1_A_15_1

From the Land Settlement Association Archives at MERL. (CR_3LSA_PH1_A_15_1)

Lastly, Caroline Gould, the University’s deputy archivist will be talking about the New Town related material from other special collections held at MERL, including the CPRE and Land Settlement archives.

For further details and to book for the FOLAR study session and exhibition email: info@folar.uk or click here.  Tickets for the FOLAR study session and exhibition: £10.  Bookings are limited so please book early.

How we went viral: a good story, good luck and good friends

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Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

It all started with a story that, five or ten years ago, would have remained within the four walls of the museum and gone no further: our assistant curator found a dead mouse in a Victorian mouse trap.

mouse5

The trap was behind a glass case in our store; it was not baited and it was not on display. And out of the thousands of tasty objects the mouse could have chosen to call both home and dinner, it zoned in on one of the few objects designed to kill it.

As a humane trap, the mouse is meant to be found and then released. Tragically, our mouse would have died a lonely death. Since we check our collection for pests regularly, and don’t expect our traps to be achieving their original purpose, this mouse was simply unlucky to get trapped in a time-frame between check-ups.

We thought the story was interesting and posted about it on our blog and Tumblr. Fast forward five days and it has become global, viral news.

See our other blog post for more information about the trap and an update on what we’re doing with the mouse.

Interest in our Tumblr spiked, and then rapidly returned to normal levels.

And we’re not exaggerating.

Since the original blog post, we have been interviewed by the BBC and the Canadian public radio broadcaster CBC. After featuring on BuzzFeed the story of our mouse rippled throughout the internet, ending up on The Daily Mail website, ABC, The Huffington Post, I F***ing Love Science and more. We trended on Tumblr, where our post has over 3,000 notes, and have been chosen as a feature of their History Spotlight category. We made the front page of Reddit, and our imgur gallery has been viewed 374,552 times. Our blog has had 67,521 views since the original post, more than the past two years put together.

Not bad for our debut on BuzzFeed.

Not bad for our BuzzFeed debut.

We thought everything had died down by Sunday, but then news started trickling in that we were trending on Facebook across the world. And not only that, but that we were trending higher than the SuperBowl, North Korea and…Beyonce:

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Suffice to say, we've never had it so good on Facebook.

Suffice to say, we’ve never had it so good on Facebook.

So what was the viral timeline of events? It all started with our original blog post, which was also cross-posted to Tumblr, and from there:

Our mouse made the 'front page of the internet', better known as Reddit.

Our mouse made the ‘front page of the internet’, better known as Reddit.

Needless to say, there does not seem to be one recipe for going viral. What seems essential, however, is recognising when you have a good story, writing it well and having nice pictures.

From there it took getting our story in front of the right person – in this case Buzzfeed’s Hayley Campbell – and then watching the dominoes of ‘clickbait’ websites fall. We also nudged the story along, soliciting a retweet from a ‘power user’ of Twitter and Tumblr, Neil Gaiman, as well as posting updates and providing different angles on the story, such as our image gallery on Reddit.

We were lucky that we had been building our expertise and capacity in social media for some years, meaning we could hit the ground running when it became obvious the story was a hit. Our online network of museum professionals and journalists was essential to its success; without Nick Booth alerting Hayley Campbell to the story, it may not have kicked off in the first place.

However, before we publish blogs from now on, we’ll definitely be asking ourselves: ‘Would we be happy if this went viral?’ In hindsight, we were glad to have explained the ethical and practical issues involved with having a dead mouse in a museum object, as well as why and how it may have happened. Trust is very important to a museum, and if this story had gone viral without us considering the deeper issues we may have suffered immense damage to our reputation. There are many other stories about the important work we do as a Museum which we’d preferred to have gone viral, but nevertheless we hope those who saw the story have learnt a bit more about conservation, the continuing relevance of museum objects and how even the smallest of tragedies can captivate the world.

The mouse is currently being prepared by our Conservator.

The mouse is currently being prepared by our Conservator.

How a mouse died in our Victorian mouse trap

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Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer.

If you’ve been on the internet for the past few days then you may have heard about the mouse which died in our Victorian mousetrap.

mouse4

We are very pleased and a little surprised to have gone viral, and since our original blog post have some updates on our rodent friend. For one thing, we think that the mouse is a she. Our conservator believes that she was trying to build a nest and while nibbling the label on the trap, the string attaching it to the object fell inside. Chasing the string, the mouse found itself trapped.

The trap works with a see-saw mechanism.

The trap works with a see-saw mechanism.

David Drummond, who donated his collection of traps to the Museum, provides this diagram of the trap in his 2008 book, 'British Mouse Traps and their makers', 2008.

David Drummond, who donated his collection of traps to the Museum, provides this diagram of the trap in his 2008 book, ‘British Mouse Traps and their makers’, 2008.

The trap itself operates by a see-saw mechanism in its middle, which allows a mouse to enter the trap but then finds the door has swung shut on it. The owner of the humane trap would then release the mouse afterward. As we don’t expect these traps to be working as mousetraps we don’t tend to check them regularly, hence the fact that the mouse sadly perished in this instance.

Colin Pullinger outside his factory. ©David Drummond: 2008.

Colin Pullinger outside his factory. ©David Drummond: 2008.

Its inventor Colin Pullinger operated what he called the ‘Inventive Factory’, which is where he designed his first commercial success, the Perpetual Mouse Trap. During his most productive period in the 1880s his staff of around 40 men and boys churned out 960 traps a week.

Pullinger’s presence in his hometown of Selsey is denoted by a blue plaque, but now his reputation has experienced a new boost, with many people online praising the effectiveness of his trap in the modern age.

The mouse somehow managed to get inside one of our glass-fronted cabinets.

The mouse somehow managed to get inside one of our glass-fronted cabinets.

In our previous post we were undecided on what to do with the mouse, but we have now decided to preserve it. The mouse was giving off quite a stink, which suggests that her death was fairly recent, and so was fumigated by our Conservator.

For now, her body rests in a small, tissue-paper tray surrounded by silica gel in a sealed plastic box. The silica gel will dry out the mouse and make it safe for display in our new galleries. The Museum is about to begin constructing our new exhibitions, and it’s safe to say that this mouse will be front and centre.

The empty space in the rear right of the cabinet is where the trap was formerly stored.

The empty space in the rear right of the cabinet is where the trap was formerly stored.

And for those who have smelled a rat, we can categorically deny that we planted the mouse in the trap in order to gain this publicity. Not only does it go against every rule in Conservation and museum ethics, we don’t think any of our staff are Machiavellian enough to have pulled it off.

For an insight into why this mouse trap went viral, check back tomorrow for another blog post.

The mouse is currently being prepared by our Conservator.

The mouse is currently being prepared by our Conservator.