The working life of Museum of London

Rob Campbell, Project Manager at the Museum in Docklands, managed to find a few moments to update us on progress in the final week of installation for the exhibition, Jack the Ripper and the East End which opens on Thursday, May 15 :

As we enter the last week of the exhibition everyone has been filled with manic energy and fear. Malfunctioning DVDs, players, incorrect graphics, broken emails, difficult lenders, oversized stuffed dogs and scratched cases have all taken their toll on the team.

However, we have managed to overcome all of this and in the week that Olympic torch made it to the top of mount Everest we too near the summit! Nearly all of the objects are now installed (including all of the original Ripper letters from the TNA), all the captions are running hot off the presses and our electricians are tweaking lights and fixing emergency signs.

Hope to see you all when it opens and you can see what all this hard work has produced!

You can see more photos from the installation on Flickr.

On Wednesday night (7th May) myself, Clea Relly, Vicky Lee and Annette Day had the pleasure of drinking champagne and eating yummy food… as well as picking up a prize or two at the Museums and Heritage Awards, part of the Museum and Heritage Show at Earls Court. The Museum of London had been short-listed for three awards - Temporary or Touring Exhibition for Belonging, Education Initiative for HLF Inclusion Programme, and Marketing Campaign for London, Sugar & Slavery.

The HLF Inclusion Programme won the award for best Education Initiative, which was fantastic recognition for all the hard work of many museum colleagues, dedicated freelancers and the participants from the new audiences we have reached with these projects over the last three years.

The Inclusion Programme involved 13 three month projects over three years which worked intensively with small groups of adults at risk of exclusion to engage them with their heritage. The projects involved getting creative - art and poetry exhibitions, oral history and photography websites, films, performances, and many more. Importantly the projects provided the participants the opportunity to gain skills they could take into their futures , but they also helped us learn more about real Londoners lives.

We also received a highly commended certificate for London, Sugar & Slavery press and marketing campaign - so it was a successful night all round for the Museum!

Find out more at ‘Museums & Heritage Awards for Excellence 2008 Winners Announced‘.

Lucie Fitton, Inclusion Officer, Community & Audience Development

Hi, my name is Vicky Lee and I’m the Marketing Manager for Museum of London and Museum in Docklands. In essence it’s my job to raise awareness of both museums to get people to visit our amazing collections and attend our brilliant events.

I work across many projects here but for the last few months the new ‘Jack the Ripper and the East End’ exhibition at Museum in Docklands has been taking up most of time. I can safely say that I now know far more about Jack the Ripper than I ever wanted to… but in truth it’s a fascinating project and I’ve been having a lot of fun working on the marketing campaign, which properly kicks off next month.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve been working with an agency called Dotcog to develop an online viral campaign to tie in with our fantastic marketing visual (so far the origin of many excited noises from staff and soon to be seen on the front cover of BBC History magazine!), designed by Cog Design.

Back last year I was struggling to think of an idea for a viral that wasn’t tasteless (as opposed to some of the rather disturbing Jack the Ripper games I discovered while researching online) and yet still interesting enough for people to pass around to friends and ultimately to get them to visit the exhibition.

As with most successful virals the simplest ideas are usually the best and after talks of Victorian sleuth games and 3D maps of the labyrinth that was East London we plumped for ‘Ripper Ransoms’, which later became ‘Notorious Notes‘.

Anyway, at last the viral is live but you’ll have to check out ‘Notorious Notes‘ to see exactly how it works. What I can tell you is that the basic premise takes its inspiration from a note made up of cut-out newspaper letters sent to the Metropolitan Police in 1888 claiming responsibility for the murders (soon to be seen in the exhibition!), and that if you send it to three friends, you’ll get 20% off entry to the exhibition.

Please do have a play and let me know what you think!

Robert Campbell: Exhibition Project Manager
Job title: Exhibition Project Manager
Department: Museum in Docklands Directorate

What is your role as an Exhibition Project Manager?
I run exhibitions for the Museum in Docklands - this involves taking an idea for an exhibition and working with a large team of people to make it a reality.

I spend my time planning then monitoring the progress of the project and trying to make everyone work as a team.

It is very much about people management - getting people to deliver to a very tight schedule whilst not losing sight of the positive and fun outcome at the end - a new and enjoyable permanent gallery, website or temporary exhibition.

What were you doing before this?
I left university in 2003 and then worked as a ‘temp’ for a year with the Home Office. I went travelling round the world for 9 months. After that I worked as a ‘temp’ at the Independent Police Complaints Commission before working as PA to the Director of the Museum in Docklands from September 2005 - April 2007.

Why did you decide to be an Exhibition Project Manager at the Museum?
I always had a love of history and I didn’t want to stay at University and try for a PhD or masters. I thought that working in a museum would allow me to pursue my interest in the past alongside the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of working in the public sector - and I was right!

I started with the first job I could get – PA to the Director, and worked really hard until I was in a position to get the job I have now. I now work even harder…

Have you always wanted to do this and why?
I have not always wanted to work in a museum. I wanted to be a banker or a lawyer or work in the civil service. However, having worked at the Police Complaints Commission and the Home Office (and seen many of my University friends become unhappy Lawyers), I did not feel they were the right jobs for me.

Having worked in a museum now I never want to leave the sector!

What do you love about your job?
I love that I am busy all day every day with interesting, varied and challenging work that brings enjoyment and knowledge into people’s lives. I like the business of presenting the history of London to people. And I love the Museum building and the people who come with it.

What do you hate about your job?
I hate the inertia that sometimes paralyses good ideas due to a lack of funding or time.

What is the strangest or funniest thing that has ever happened to you in this job?
The strangest thing I have seen was on my first day when I was shown around the archives here at the Museum in Docklands. I imagined the shelves to be groaning under the weight of the minute books and records of long deceased dockers and dock companies. I was not disappointed, as this was what I found. However, I couldn’t help but notice that in amongst the boxes of documents there was one box labelled ‘Fossilised Cat with Fossilised Rat, FRAGILE’!

I did enquire as to when this artefact goes on permanent exhibition in the Museum.

What was your best day like?
My best day so far was being given the job of project managing a major temporary exhibition; Jack the Ripper and the East End Labyrinth. The exhibition is to open in May 2008 and it is very daunting to think about the number of different things I have to organize and accomplish before it can open.

However, I hope this day will be replaced as my best when the new London, Sugar and Slavery Gallery open at the Museum. This project, relating London’s role in Trans-Atlantic Slavery, its abolition and its legacy on the capital, is the only permanent gallery of its kind. The project means so much to so many people and will serve as a permanent marker to this forgotten aspect of British history.

Where are you going in the future?
I would eventually like to run a Museum! (Possibly in Hawaii).

[This post was originally published on the Museum of London group intranet]

Jon Cotton, Senior Curator (Prehistory) in the Early London History and Collections department of the Museum of London, talks about the Weather Permitting display at the Museum of London. You can see Weather Permitting at the Museum of London until Sunday 15 June 2008.

‘When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ Dr Samuel Johnson.

Why Weather Permitting at the Museum of London?
Try switching on your TV or radio or opening a newspaper without coming across the words ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’. The Museum is well placed to cast an historical eye on this topical question, although in putting the display together we deliberately made no attempt to present a thorough-going scientific analysis of climate change (we’re not meteorologists after all – or politicians for that matter). Instead our aim was to offer a well-grounded historical commentary on London’s weather, delivered with a light touch that focussed on the quirky and the downright strange. The display took the best part of six months to research, design and mount, and its successful delivery involved a wide range of people right across the Museum and beyond.

Display or Exhibition?
We’ve been careful to describe the show as a display, NOT an exhibition. The reason is simple: the space available within the Museum is currently limited. We do not want to raise more expectations than we can realistically deliver in the space. That said, we hope that there is plenty in Weather Permitting with which our visitors can engage.

What’s in the display then?
The display is split between the front foyer and the area outside the London before London gallery. Both are equally important. The front foyer incorporates various layers of information including a climate time-line that runs right to left back into the Ice Age, to highlight the cyclical nature of climate change. This is populated with individual weather events that aim for the ‘well I never’ response.

Contemporary quotes and quirky facts are supported by appropriate images and objects including costume in the large case to the left. A series of five free-standing displays in front of the time-line wall examine specific types of weather: HEAT; STORM; FLOOD; FOG; FREEZE.

Finally a listening-post contains a series of oral testimonies relating to various weather-related events such as the Westminster flood of 1928, the freezing winter of 1947 and so on.

The second main part of the display is in the London before London foyer around the corner. This provides a more contemplative space to show light-sensitive objects including a series of paintings that focus on how artists have recorded London’s weather in the past.

What’s been the response?
So far, reaction has been really positive: the first two weeks of the display coincided with school half term and the foyer was absolutely heaving. Families were spotted singing along to the weather songs and nursery rhymes, and enjoying the storytelling sessions. There’s been a down-side though – the interactives have taken a terrible battering. We’ve already gone through several thunderdrums and a range of fans while the weather lore disk will have to be redesigned to cope with the numbers wanting to use it. It looks as though we’ve been victims of our own success!

The press have picked up on the display too. Time Out have been particularly supportive, and even arranged a tie-in competition asking readers to name their all-time favourite top ten weather songs. (The winner got to hear some of his selections playing in the foyer too!)

My favourite bit of the display …?
I’m really fond of the pair of dainty silk shoes dating to c.1700 in the costume display case, and the painting of the cab horses in snow in the London before London foyer. (I also enjoyed drinking the contents of the bottle of English wine that forms part of the display – but that’s another story!) The whole team had a great time putting the music sound track together, and an appeal to other colleagues swiftly brought a deluge of replies. Everyone’s got their favourite song – for what it’s worth mine is When The Levee Breaks, a 1971 cover version by Led Zeppelin of a song originally written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy following the disasterous Mississippi floods of 1927. Given the floods we had in parts of London last summer, this has a very contemporary edge …

Well, fancy that …

• John Evelyn’s 1661 tract Fumifugium: or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoake of London Dissipated was one of the first to draw attention to environmental problems in the capital.
• An earthquake at five-thirty in the morning of March 8 1750 threw a servant girl in Charterhouse Square from her bed, causing her to break her arm. Dogs howled ‘in uncommon tones’ and fish were seen to jump ‘half a yard above the water’.
• While watching late night TV Ron Langton was startled to find fish falling on the roof of his house in East Ham during a thunderstorm on May 26 1984. Other residents in nearby Canning Town experienced similar fish showers the same evening.

There are more photos from the development of the display and the final installation on Flickr.

Emma Ramsey recently volunteered for work experience at the Museum of London, and this is her account of her week:

“When I first decided to undertake work experience at the Museum of London, I was simply hoping to learn more about the Roman invasion of Britain and other periods of early history. So I was pleasantly surprised to come away, not only with more historical knowledge, but also with a good idea of what goes on in a museum behind the exhibitions and displays.

On Monday I began by sorting the entries for the London’s Burning exhibition poem activity, and typing up the audio recording of the Great Fire of London study day (held on 6 October 2007). I never really knew a great deal about the Great Fire before, but having listened to the recording of the study day for a good part of the week I feel as though I would have a good chance at Mastermind with ‘London in 1666′ as my chosen subject! Or at least, I was able to reply to an email sent in by someone asking what caused the fire at the end of the week.

On Tuesday afternoon I visited the Guildhall amphitheatre on a guided tour with the Roman curator Jenny Hall. This, coupled with my time spent in the Conservation lab on Thursday and Friday, taught me a lot about the methods of preservation used for wood and leather.

I also had the opportunity to see the Transit room on Thursday, where I got a sneak preview of some of the ‘Jack the Ripper’ items to go on display at the Museum in Docklands in May. [A note for readers: the Transit Store is a temporary storage room for objects either about to be installed in an exhibition/gallery or that have just been taken off display and are about to be sent back to their permanent stores.]

During the week I was also able to visit the costume department and sit in on a meeting about the events planned for National Archaeology Week. I also had the task of putting visitor comments from the Outside Edge exhibition at the Museum in Docklands into an Excel document in order to record its success. I always had plenty to do and it feels as though the week flew by. I would thoroughly recommend this work experience to anyone who is interested in history and how it is preserved as it really gave me a great insight into museum work and taught me skills that I would not learn at school. It was a thoroughly enriching experience, and I am grateful to the Museum for giving me the opportunity.”

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions. These are just some of the different jobs that are needed to create Outside Edge at the Museum in Docklands.

Curator
Ajamu was the external curator of the exhibition so he chose the objects, wrote the storyline, wrote the exhibition text (object captions, panels etc) and was involved at every stage to approve the designs that the Museum’s designers created. He also came up with the programme for the exhibition’s study day and helped promote the exhibition through his many contacts.

Designers
Once the storyline and the objects were finalised, the designs were produced. The Museum’s head of design, Leigh Cain, developed the design concept for the display, the layout and even decided where each object should go in each showcase. Once this was done, Jayne Davis, one of our graphic designers, worked on the look of the exhibition – what the graphics would look like, the colours that would be used and how Ajamu’s text would appear on each caption and panel.

Once the designs had been approved, the designers had to talk to the Museum’s technicians to work out how exactly the display would be built and how the objects would be mounted.

Registrars and conservators
All the objects for the display were borrowed from people outside the Museum so our registrar, Nickos Gogolos, had to arrange this – sending out loan agreements to all the lenders, making sure all the objects were insured, arranging the collection of all the objects from their owners and keeping all the documentation updated so we had accurate records of everything we borrowed.

As the objects were mainly 2D paper items (posters, flyers and magazines) Eugenie Karen, our paper conservator, was responsible for checking the condition of each item as it came in and mounting each item on special board in preparation for display. Eugenie also discussed the mounting of objects with the technicians and designers so that items could be displayed in the most attractive way possible while ensuring they would not get damaged.

Technicians and electricians
Technicians Cliff Thomas and Hilmi Nevzat built the display. They made plinths on which the showcases would stand, put up temporary walls on which to hang all the posters, graphic panels and other wall-mounted objects, made mounts for all the objects, framed all the posters and another hundred tasks besides. It’s a very important job and requires a great deal of skill and accuracy.

Andy Murray and Seniye Niazi were the electricians for the display. They put in all the lighting, wired up the gallery so the sound track for the display would play, installed a plasma screen and fitted up a listening post where visitors could listen to examples of reggae music.

Learning
Carol Seigel, our adult learning officer at Museum in Docklands, had the task of organising the Outside Edge study day, along with the curator, Ajamu. Ajamu chose all the speakers and wrote the programme for the day and Carol had to make sure that everything ran smoothly on the actual day.

Press and marketing
This team are vital for making sure that the public are aware of museum events and exhibitions. Stacey Witter, press officer, contacted newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations to promote the exhibition. We received good coverage on radio, in newspapers and magazine and in listings. Alison Parry, marketing officer, worked with Jayne Davis, the graphic designer, to produce a flyer advertising the exhibition and the study day, an email invitation for the opening launch and an exhibition web page on the Museum in Docklands website: www.museumindocklands.org.uk/outsideedge.

Special events
This team were responsible for organising the opening party, which was part of the programme of Late Openings for the Museum in Docklands, as it fell on the first Thursday of the month. Melanie Pay and Donald Mullis discussed the event with Ajamu to find out what he wanted to happen during the evening. The event was a great success – there were speeches, a DJ and a bar and over 240 people attended.

Visitor services team
The front of house staff at Museum in Docklands also had an input. They were consulted on how the exhibition should be installed as they had to close off various areas of the Museum to allow the technicians and electricians to work and so the objects could be installed in a secure area away from the public. They also were kept informed about the content of the exhibition so they could be prepared to answer visitors’ questions and make sure the exhibition operated smoothly on a daily basis.

Head of Public Programmes
Darryl McIntyre, Head of Public Programmes for the Museum of London Group (of which Museum in Docklands is a part) is ultimately in charge of all exhibitions, events and other public programmes at the Museum. He initiated the project with Ajamu and had final say on the exhibition content and how it was displayed. All the text was read and approved by him and all the proofs had to be given to him to edit for style, spelling and grammar.

Project manager
My job was to coordinate the work of everyone involved in the exhibition and make sure that everything ran according to timetable and within budget. I also helped to edit the text, checked proofs of all the graphics, sourced the film footage that played on the plasma screen and liaised with the film editor, organised the content of the listening post, helped to install the objects and even some emergency painting of the display. A lot of my time was spent writing documents (design brief, film brief etc.), emailing people, making phone calls and having meetings with various members of the project team.

By project manager Meriel Jeater (curator, Department of Early London History and Collections)

Outside Edge: a journey through black British lesbian and gay history explores the history of the black LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community in Britain, with a focus on London. It publicly commemorates people and events important to the black LGBT community, celebrates its achievements and highlights the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The exhibition documents the emergence of the black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrates its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, as well as celebrating the black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

So why is a curator in the Department of Early London History project managing a display about life in modern London?
At the Museum of London our jobs can become quite flexible and members of staff often get the opportunity to become involved in projects that, on the surface, have little to do with their everyday jobs. It’s all part of staff development and gives us a chance to learn new skills, work with different people across the organisation and externally, and gain experience.

The Museum was contacted back in March 2007 by an organisation called the rukus! Federation, who wanted to put on an exhibition at the Museum in Docklands about the history of the black LGBT community, a story that is not well known and rarely covered by museums and similar institutions. Together with the Museum of London’s Head of Public Programmes (Darryl McIntyre), Ajamu, the co-founder of rukus!, wrote a proposal and a business case for the exhibition, which was approved by the Museum’s exhibitions committee. Once the concept of the exhibition had been given the green light, they needed someone at the Museum to organise the exhibition and a project team to produce it.

I was chosen as project manager and worked closely with Ajamu and the museum project team over seven months to put the exhibition together.

What goes into an exhibition like this?
A project team of many people across different departments in the Museum work together on exhibitions.

In my next post I’ll talk about some of the different ways people across the museum were involved in the project.

Below are some images of objects from the exhibition. Click to view larger versions hosted on Flickr.

The last few weeks, since returning after the Christmas holidays, have been busy and full of very different activities! Last Wednesday I went to the new Ebbsfleet International Eurostar station in Kent to help set up a display of artefacts that were discovered during the archaeological excavations that had taken place along the route of the railway. There is now an exhibition in the station, so if you are going to Ebbsfleet to catch a train keep an eye out for the display.

Then on Thursday, I went to Wandsworth. The museum there, Wandsworth Museum, has been closed and has to move out of the building where is has been for about the last eleven years. It’s a really sad situation for the staff involved as at the moment they are unsure of what is going to happen to the museum in the future. The Museum of London had loaned a number of objects to the Wandsworth Museum and so my job was to go there and remove the objects from the displays and package them for transportation back to the Museum of London. Wandsworth was a fantastic Museum and we all felt very sad doing this work.

On Saturday I took a group of students from University College London around some of the Roman sites in the City of London. My job includes occasional weekend work and usually it is this sort of thing – a tour or an activity in the galleries. It was a very enjoyable day, starting at the Roman City wall near the Tower of London and ending at the Museum of London in the late afternoon to look at the display of Roman metal vessels recently recovered by PCA Archaeology during an excavation in the City.

In between those days, I have been working on returning objects to our stores, updating object data on our computerised cataloguing system and answering queries, amongst other things.

Plans for 2008

Both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands have great plans for 2008. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s coming up this year…

Don’t forget late at both Museum of London and Museum in Docklands on the first Thursday of every month. When twilight descends unexpected events occur…giving people the chance to enjoy live performances, tours and music alongside relaxing with a drink at the bar! Check our Events page for updates.

MUSEUM OF LONDON

Weather Permitting: London’s changing climate

15 February - 20 April 2008

The state of the weather is in the forefront of the mind of the public, as Dr Johnson informs us, ‘when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.’ Museum of London launches its first display focusing on centuries of the capital’s climate change and weather reports.

The Big Smoke

1 July - 21 September 2008

One year on from the smoking ban, a display looking at the history of smoking in London. Using objects and images from the Museum of London’s collections the display will chart the history of smoking from the first introduction of tobacco to London, to the present day, following changes in attitude over the centuries. The display will also showcase different opinions on the current smoking ban and show its effects on London businesses and Londoners.

Caught in time – photo display to coincide with publication of book

2 October - 23 November 2008

A photographic display documenting a diverse range of old-style shops in London, taken during the 1970s and 1980s , and more recent photographs showing what happened to the shop sites after they closed. The high-quality, large scale photographs will be accompanied by recordings of interviews with the former shop owners and proprietors.

The hugely exciting £20.5 million redevelopment project to transform the lower galleries is underway and the noisy work about to commence. The upper galleries, London Before London, Roman London and Medieval London remain open throughout the refurbishment and a full programme of fantastic adult and family events continue.

MUSEUM IN DOCKLANDS

Outside Edge: A journey through Black British lesbian and gay history

7 February - 4 April 2008

This challenging display will publicly commemorate people and events important to the Black LGBT community. It will celebrate its achievements and highlight the issues it has faced in the past and still faces today. The display will document the emergence of the Black LGBT community from the 1970s and demonstrate its contribution to campaigns for fair representation and against homophobia, while also celebrating the vibrant Black LGBT cultural, club and music scene.

Jack the Ripper and the East End

15 May - 2 November 2008

Museum in Docklands is returning to the scene of London’s most infamous crimes, with its major new exhibition, Jack the Ripper and the East End. The exhibition will open a new path by looking at the human stories behind the penny-dreadful accounts. Bringing together the surviving original documents for the first time, including police files, photographs, and letters from the public, it will map the world which witnessed the murders and was transformed by them.

Museum in Docklands turns 5 this year and will be celebrating in the summer!