A Redcoat returns

The end (again, but this time for real)

2010-11-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

And with that last entry about the museums I work for I shall end this blog. Hope you have enjoyed the US and Kirklees, and thanks for following my adventures.

Bagshaw ...again

2010-10-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

As promised here are pictures of Bagshaw Museum's stunning interior. I want my house to look like this.

The Red House

2010-10-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Red House gets its name from the material it is made from. Most of the people’s houses in this part of Yorkshire are built from the dour local sandstone. The wealthy mill owning Taylor’s, who built the house in 1660, wanted to make a statement. And they did; Rather than use local stone they paid to have bricks imported for the house’s construction.
Today the house is decorated internally as it would have looked in the 1830s. This was the time when Charlotte Bronte was a frequent visitor to the house to see her childhood friend Mary Taylor. Mary herself is in many ways a lot more interesting than the rather insipid Charlotte: rather than join the matrimonial rat race that was most 19th century women’s only option, Mary preferred to stay single and travel the world. She also was one of the first women Alpinists in Switzerland and wrote books and articles championing women’s rights.

Bagshaw and Benedictine

2010-10-14T06:03:00.001-07:00

This amazing Gothic mansion, originally known as Woodlands, was
built in 1875-76 for local mill owner and businessman George Sheard and his wife Annie. At the time it reputedly cost £25,000 to build and decorate, which is understandable when you see the interoior.

The Victorian interiors are still largely preserved, on the ground floor at least, as they were in the house’s heyday. The only problem I have is that I am possessed by an irrersistable urge to drink absinthe, smoke cigars and twrilf the ends of my handle bar moustache when I walk around the inside, expecially in the Billiard Room.

The downstairs rooms’ exhibits look largely at the history of the area and there is alos a very useful education suite.

The upstairs rooms house ethnographic collections, espceilly ancient Egyptian, which is the mainstay of the museums edication programme. How the Victorians, with their taste for exploration and exocitscm, would have loved it.

Benedictine anyone?

Oakwell Hall

2010-10-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

If I was a Lord of Darkness looking to hold sway over a dark dominion in Northern England, I would do it from Oakwell Hall.

There is certainly no better place for an evil genius to run his empire from whilst taking the odd moment out to cackle insanely in its dark corridors. Not for nothing was this chosen as the setting for Wuthering Heights in the 2009 television adaptation. It even has a ghost, apparently.
Originally built by John Batt in 1583 the house was home to his family for around a hundred years. The family never really recovered from backing the wrong side in the English Civil War and eventually most of them emigrated to Virginia in the US. They were an interesting family (the owner in the 1580s, William Batt, was killed in a gambling duel in London) and also a mysterious one: there is no known portrait of any member of the Batt family.

In later years the Hall was used as an exclusive girls' school and served as inspiration for one of the main character’s houses in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Shirley.

Tolson Museum

2010-10-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

The Kirklees museum that is nearest to me, in fact about 1 minutes walk from my office, is Tolson museum in Huddersfield.

The Museum is a Victorian mansion(built 1860) that was given to the town in 1919 by the owner, Leigh Tolson, in memory of his two sons who were killed in World War One.

It is both a beautiful building and an eclectic museum. Where else can you see vintage cars, a Roman altar and a Victorian collection of stuffed birds all under one roof.

For me, one of the most interesting things about the house are the windows. When the house was built in the 19th Century there was a pronounced fear that the lower classes, "the great unwashed", might rise up against the more well to do sorts. To combat this all of the downstairs windows at Tolson have steel shutters that can be lowered from inside the building to encase the windows in a protective shield of armour plating.

Who was it who said that history is cyclical?

Dewsbury Museum

2010-09-29T06:26:00.001-07:00

Of all Kirklees sites, Dewsbury is the one where I have spent the most time. I have to admit to having a fondness for, not only the Museum, but the town itself. Dewsbury has a terrible reputation. I am not going to dwell on it here; if you want dirt a quick Google search will satisfy your needs.

But, damn it, this town has a rich history. True enough, a lot of this story is about as far as you could get from any kind of rose tinted historic idyll; Often the most popular historic sites are. As Harry Lime puts it in The Third Man:

... in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.

On to the Museum.

For most of last year Dewsbury museum, which is situated in crow Nest park, about a mile and half from the town center, was closed. this was so it could have a lift put in to allow disabled access to all floors, and have some much needed gallery refurbishment.

The refurbishment will actually be an ongoing process for a while yet but the Museum is now open with some great displays now available.

The ground floor has the new discovering Dewsbury exhibition. this looks at various aspects of the towns history, grouped under contrasting headings. This means we have a case looking at War and Peace, Work and Play, Life and Loss. You get the idea.

Also on this floor is the toys will be toys gallery. This looks at children's toys from the 19th century till, well, the Age of Transformers.

The next floor houses the excellent recreation of a wartime classroom. This is the centerpiece of the education programme here and is always in demand with local schools. It is a fantastic resource to use with schools as it really offers them a really striking contrast to the oh-so touchy feely classroom environments most of them learn in nowadays. The only way we could actually make it any more real is if we actually caned them.

A change of plan

2010-09-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

A day ago I said a fond farewell to you all, drew a line under my adventures and effectively ended this blog. I have been thinking about this and have had a change of heart.

One of my regrets whilst in the US was that I didn't take enough material relating to the Kirklees' sites; As I will be going around them in the next few weeks, catching up with events that occurred within my absence, I think there is the chance to also give my esteemed US colleagues an idea of the sites operated by Kirklees Museums and Galleries.

First off will be Dewsbury Museum, which I visited earlier today.

Farewell

2010-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Before I say anything else let me confess my tardiness in producing new and exciting entries for this blog in the last week. There are two reasons for this. Firstly I have spent much of the last week doing things which, whilst interesting to a museum person such as myself, might not make such riveting reading for "normal" people.

Secondly, as it has been my last week, I have been far too busy enjoying myself and cramming in as much American experience as possible. Historic site-wise I did take a trip out to Roger Williams NPS site which was fascinating and made me want to find out more about the man. You can see me learning all about it at the top of this. I also visited Slater Mill. This is widely regarded as one of the most important sites of the American industrial revolution. The mill exists because an English emigre called Slater revealed the closely guarded secrets of British mill technology to a pair of American entrepreneurs.

And that is about it. I have had an amazing time in America. I have learned a lot; More, I think, than I actually realise at the moment. Spending time abroad with another organisation tells you almost more about yourself than it tells you about them. It has certainly left me with a lot to think about.

Professional considertations aside , I have met some wonderful people and the whole experience has left me with a profound respect and admiration for the National Parks Service and the people who work for it. I have met so many NPS employees whose professionalism and dedication to their work as interpreters impressed me tremendously. And I have made some great friends too. I would like to say thank you to them all for allowing me to be a part of their world for a time.

All that remains to be said is that if you haven't looked at doing a Churchill Fellowship yourself yet then you should. It really is an incomparable opportunity to add a exciting chapter to your life.

The Big E

2010-09-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

I have just got back from The Big E. This started off many years ago as a primarily agricultural fair, in Springfield Massachusetts. It is essentially a big Expo for all the New England States.

As with much in America they don't do it by halves; It is a vast event with small scale reproductions of the state capitols for each of the states represented here. But these are no plywood reproductions, oh no. They have actually reproduced them in brick and concrete at, I am guessing, half size from the originals. These stay in situ all year round. During the Big E they hold stalls selling merchandise and produce from the state in question. And they have even got a village on site, created from historic buildings that had been moved to the Big E ground from other New England locations. This country never ceases to surprise me. I will miss it.

We were there representing the NPS and pictured above you can see me, receiving an education from the ever informative Chris, and both Chris and Jessica getting ready to meet the public.

Putting your money where your mouth is

2010-09-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

There is only so long you can sit on the side lines before even the most wallflower-ish of people feels they need to step in and prove their mettle.

And today I did.

After having watched nearly all of the Rangers here give a tour I thought the least I could do would be to show them that I had been paying attention by taking out a tour of my own along the Freedom Trail.

I had about twenty people and overall am quite proud of the way it went. Sure, I fluffed a few dates and got (the loyalist marine officer)"Pitcairn" mixed up with (the Revolutionary hero)"Preston", but nobody wandered off mid-tour and I didn't see any glazed looks.

I was accompanied on the Tour by Ranger Chris Gwinn, who not only offered invaluable moral support, but also took the above pictures to prove I did it.

Salem

2010-09-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday of this week I was lucky enough to visit the National Parks site at Salem.

As everyone knows Salem in synonymous with the notorious witch trials of the 17th Century. And there is no question that there has been some serious cashing in on this in recent years. So much so that those terrible six months have all but obscured, to the popular imagination at least, the towns other historic treasures.

For much of its history Salem was one of the most prosperous ports of New England with high end products, such as coffee and textiles, being imported from all over the world. The National Park Service site centres around the area that was once the bustling dock area of Salem and includes the Custom House (where Nathaniel Hawthorne once worked) and the ship Friendship. This was built in 1797 and is a fantastic thing to have a tour around. I have put a picture at the top of the below decks area as well as the view of the ship from the custom house.

The NPS are looking at allowing the public to be on the ship on the occasions when it sails so watch the NPS site for this. I know I certainly shall be!

I know that I have got many friends in the UK who will curse me (ha ha!) for not mentionening at least a bit more about witches. Just for them I have included a picture of the memorial to the 20 men and women killed as a result of the hysteria. Each of the "benches" bears the name of one victim.

Old South Meeting House

2010-09-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Amongst many of the things I did this week I visited Old South Meeting House on Washington Street( I also went on a costumed tour by a private company that made me want to cry but, despite feeling a little under par today, I am still in too good of a mood to talk about that).

Old South is where, in 1773, the crowd of Bostonians that took part in the Boston Tea Party left from. They left after attending a town meeting, about the tax on tea, which had initially started in Faneuil Hall but had had to move to Old South after several thousand people attended.

There are some displays in Old South now but really it is the place itself that is the star. During the British ocupation of Boston in 1776 a British cavalry unit converted the meeting house into a riding area and installed a bar, just to add insult to injury.

Edgar Allan Poe

2010-09-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am afraid this post is going to be a little more apocryphal than my usual high standards of research.

Over the weekend I was exploring the back bay area of Boston and found a Curious Shop. This shop was a strange mixture of vintage Objects d'Art, ancient artifacts like Roman coins and contemporary goth tat. I picked up a leaflet about the Edward Gorey House Museum and got into conversation with the owner.

She claimed that Poe had been born in the former theatre next door to the shop where his mother regularly performed. She then recounted the oft told tale about how watching his mother die every night on stage whilst playing the part of a doomed heroine bent the young Edgar's mind along the eldritch path it would follow.

How true this is I am not sure; a quick google has revealed naught conclusive. However, just along from the shop and theatre is Edgar Allan Poe Square so maybe she is correct in her assertions. The Curious Shop is to the left of the theatre facade in the picture above.

Georges Island

2010-09-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to attend a meeting of people from most of the local NPS sites on Georges Island. This is a half hour hop on the ferry away and the meeting was very interesting from a professional point of view. However, this is not the time or place to go into the meeting's details, you'll just have to wait for my report when I am back in Blighty.

What I will talk about is the fantastic visitor centre and Civil War fortress on the island. The vc is brand new and very well put together in terms of giving a clear narrative of the forts history. The displays are reinforced by a short film which is shown in the gallery and highlights how the numbers of personnel occupying the fort fluctuated in response to outside events.

And the best bit is that most of the fort, including various subterranean chambers, are open for self guided exploration. Being a boy I love that kind of thing. As the "Alien"-like picture of Dan,Jessica and myself above shows, it is an extremely atmospheric place to wander.

Guilty pleasures #2

2010-09-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Aside from the previously made admission about James Bond books I have another vintage themed sin to confess: my love of retro men's toiletry products. In some ways there is nothing to be ashamed of here and i feel i should certainly be applauded for championing the shaving brush and shaving soap as an alternative to shaving with blue coloured, chemical smelling gunk. However, I am not so sure that I shall meet with the same wide approbation for gleefully purchasing the above product.

Generations of men spent their courting days drenched in old Spice until the 1980s came along and brought about that notorious evil "choice". Well, it would appear that after years in the wilderness Old Spice are making a come back with a wider range of products. I don't think you can even get this shower gel/shampoo in the UK. Naturally I couldn't resit its manly charms. it even smells quite acceptable.

Now all I need are some very close fitting briefs, an open shirt and to lay off the chest waxing for a few weeks. Manly? Oh yes indeed!

Longfellow, Lowell and a diner

2010-09-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

Apart from the disappointment of a hurricane that proved to be a damp squib in Boston the rest of the weekend proved to be great.

It started with a trip to the house of henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Harvard. This is a beautiful property about five minutes walk from Harvard Square. The inside has been preserved pretty much as Longfellow (probably the first great American writer) knew it. There is even the dining table (pictured above) where he celebrated thanksgiving with a guest from England, Charles Dickens.

After this the weekend continued to be a charming affair with a trip to Lowell on Sunday. Lowell is a town that grew up around textile mills like many UK towns, such as Dewsbury. And, like Dewsbury, when this industry went into decline in the 20th Century it suffered from massive unemployment and urban decline. The whole area has now been rejuvenated by being turned into a whole national park celebrating what was once one of the power houses of the American industrial revolution. The fantastic tour involves more different means of conveyance than any other tour I have ever been on: as well as the oh so passé walking you also get to go on a boat, a tram and a Zeppelin.

Actually, the Zeppelin was just wishful thinking. Perhaps I might suggest it for Dewsbury.

As I have become accustomed to the interpreter who took the tour was extremely good and is pictured in full flow at the top of this article.

The other high point of the weekend was a stop, on the way to Lowell, to experience the institution that is the American Diner. I had eggs Benedict and endless coffee. Heaven.

The gathering storm

2010-09-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Earl has been expected in this neck of the woods for several days now and it is safe to say it has arrived. The pictures were taken with a 30 minute gap between them on the docks at Charlestown. And, looking out of the window now, there is a Stephen Kingesque fog reducing visability to around 200 metres. I can't deny being perversely excited about my first hurricane.

State Street

2010-09-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, and much to the credit of the Ranger who braved the blistering heat, the NPS ran one of its State Street tours. These are shorter than many of the others, lasting around 45 minutes, and looking at the architectural and economic history of State Street. This used to be the commercial spine of Boston in that the street was actually Long Wharf, the city's major unloading point for its prosperous import/ export economy.

In the 18th Century the shore line was much closer to what is now the centre of Boston; Probably only a hundred metres or so from the front of the Old State House. now it is about four times that. As the land around it has got filled in the former wharf has now become one of the city's major intersections.

One of the gems we got to hear about was the Old Custom House. This was built as a neo Classical structure, with a dome and doric portico, in 1849. In 1995 Marriott Hotels bought it and built a tower over the top of the dome, which still exists within the building.

For $3 you can go up to the observation deck. I didn't have chance on the tour as I had to be elsewhere but as soon as I get chance I shall get up there and put the pictures here.

The pictures at the top of this post show the building seen from below and then the inside of the, now concealed, dome.

Guilty pleasures #1

2010-09-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

I am an avid reader. I have to have a book permanently on the go or I feel like something is missing. I always like to have some piece of literature ready on hand in my work bag to get me through a commute or a sudden unexpected delay in life's flow. Not wanting to buy any books both because I am a cost conscious Northerner and I don't want to carry anything excess back to you UK I perused the communal collection in my lodgings.

Tucked away on the top shelf I have found raft of 1960s James Bond paperbacks. I have never read anything of my country's most famous spy before so thought I would. The writing is often pretty bad I have to say and after each of the four I have read I have said to myself "right that's it, no more of this vaguely misogynistic, racially stereotyped pulp, pseudo Dashiell Hammett trash". But then I find myself reaching for the next.

And the worst of it dear reader is that I am even starting to think to myself, when faced with a difficult dilemma, "What would Bond do?". Thankfully I haven't acted on this yet and so have avoided the charges of sexual harassment or murder that would inevitably follow.

JFK's birthplace

2010-09-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Today in the blazing heat of a New England summer (it was well in the 90s!) I went to Brookline to see where history was, quite literally, born.

The JFK Birthplace National Historic Site is situated in the very well to do area of Brookline, which is in the west of Boston. The house was bought by JFK's mother in advance of his birth largely because the area was much less developed then and she felt, quite rightly, that the children she was planning to have should have lots of open outdoor space to play out in. One of the most striking things about JFK's mother, Rose, is the way she groomed all her children for politics. She herself had been exposed early on to the political arena through her father who, at one time, was mayor of Boston. being a woman at that time she herself couldn't actively enter politics, so she decided to do it by proxy, though her children.

All of her children were given topics that they had to prepare to discuss at dinner times and even the very formal family dinners were designed to prepare them for a life of civic and state functions.

The interpretation, as ever, was done by one of the NPS's interpreters and was, again as ever, extremely good. The delivery was flawless and I had a good discussion afterwards with the interpreter in question about how she had prepared the talk; very useful and interesting indeed. I am certainly going to be taking a lot of new insights back to the UK.

Attack of the Giant Sloth!

2010-08-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

Today looked like being a day that would end in failure. My planned viists to the JFK birthplace Longfellow National Historic Site proved abortive (they were both closed until Wednesday)and so I found myself at a loose end in Harvard. Thankfully I was near to the excellent Peabdoy ethnographic and archaeological museum and the Natural History Museum. Both of these are, as you would expect of University Museums are of extremely high standard. As someone whose parents early on introduced him to the joys of 1950s b-movies you can imagine my delight at encountering the above 15ft high giant sloth in the Natural History Museum!

Minute Man

2010-08-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

In every great conflict someone, somewhere, has to fire the first shot. In the American Revolution this happened at what is now Minute Man National Park. In brief, a British column advanced from Boston to seize a rebel arms cache at Concord. En route they passed through Lexington where the first shots of the war were exchanged
between the British army and the Colonial militia, resulting in the deaths of two militia men.

After this the British proceeded on to Concord as planned. It all starts to go badly wrong for the British when they try and withdraw from the town and, at the North Bridge, now encounter a large number of armed militia, and "Minute Men". After the earlier events of the day the locals were in no mood for compromise. What happens next is a running battle all the way back to Boston with the British fighting a desperate rear guard action through a hornet's nest of armed militia.

Minute Man National Park encompasses a large tract of the route of this withdrawl and many of the sites and buildings associated with the events of that day. Whilst I was there I saw a presentation on the Minute Men, the rapid response troops of American resistance, and another on the British soldiers of the day. Both of the inerpreters did a fantastic job and clearly knew their subjects well (see pictures above: British soldier on the right, Minute Man on the left). I also saw a very effective multi media presentation about the battle, which explained the whole series of events in a very clear manner.

Boston Public Library II

2010-08-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some more images of the library, this time of the room containing Edwin Austin Alley's Holy Grail murals.

Boston Public Library

2010-08-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday of this week I had to do some research at the Boston Public Library (BPL). The research was to establish whether slaves had ever been sold at Fanueil Hall. After trawling through the BPL's fascinating collection of 18th Century newspapers the answer is an emphatic "no, they weren't".

However, the was more to the day than this. An unexpected surprise, aside from the historical records held therein, was the library itself. The Library was established in 1848 and was built in a Renaissance style, designed to be a temple of learning that was, as it says emblazoned above its entrance, "Free to all".

The art and architecture within the establishment are the most amazing examples of civic art and architecture I have ever seen, certainly in a library. I am not going to say much more other than ask you to feats your eyes upon John Singer Sargent's murals, done over the course of twenty years, depicting the triumph of Judaism and Christianity over heathen religions. I am also, after writing this, going to do a separate post showing the Edwin Austin Abbey room featuring his murals depicting the Holy Grail legend. And believe me these are just two of the gems featured in this palace of late nineteenth century enlightenment.

Dead souls

2010-08-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Boston has four historic burial grounds, and at the weekend I visited three of them. The three I visited are basically all off Tremont Street in the area surrounding Boston Common. Working from North to South along Tremont these are King's Chapel Burying Ground, Granary Burying Ground and Central Burying Ground.

Just to show my graveyard geekiness here, they are all very exciting as they exhibit an abundance of the sort of pre-Victorian iconography that you only very rarely see surviving in English cemeteries. And believe me I know; I once spent several glorious summer months surveying them.

The imagery I am talking about is that depicting skulls, skeletons, the sands of mortality trickling through an hour glass and other elements that stress the inevitability, and finality, of death. This type of thing starts to die out (in England at least) during the 18th Century. And then, with the coming of the Victorian age, we see the complete sentimentalisation of death with lots of cherubs, angels and sentimental homilies appearing on graves.

Aesthetics aside, these burial grounds are primarily notable for the people interred therein. King's Chapel contains the grave of John Winthrop, Boston's first governor and Granary Burying Ground contains the graves of revolutionary leaders Paul Revere, James Otis and Samuel Adams. Central Burying Ground contains the graves of the British soldiers killed in the battle of Bunker Hill.

All of them are fascinating sites and make you realise how much less sentimental about the realities of death people were 300 years ago.

Town Meeting

2010-08-23T04:33:00.000-07:00

As someone who works in, and enjoys visiting, museums and historic sites there are two concepts which send a cold shiver of fear down my spine: “live interpretation” and “audience participation”. But yesterday I took part in both and, far from wanting to flee the scene, I enjoyed every second of it.

Over the Summer period some of the Rangers of Boston NHP have been recreating a town meeting, of the sort that would have happened in the 1760s, to debate whether the people of Boston should continue to pay taxes to the British crown.

The debate was initiated by four rangers in costume ,but these soon gave way to members of the public who had volunteered to argue the different cases for and against. The public were working from short “scripts”, outlining the different views held at the time, which had been distributed to those wishing to take part at the beginning. Quite fittingly I was given a loyalist part. Almost from the outset there was steady competition to speak, with people putting their hands up to attract the moderator and so get the opportunity to deliver their piece.

It was a really entertaining way of getting people to think about the different arguments current at the time, and have a chance to ham it up a bit at the same time. Sadly my little camera was not up to the job of the indoor photography but I shall endeavour to get hold of some of the official NPS shots.

Maybe next time I am faced with “live interpretation” or “audience participation” I might not be so quick to flee.

Boston Common

2010-08-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

It is my two days off and so I am not going to say much as I have too many other things to do. All I will say is that Boston Common is beautiful and amongst one of the many gems of American invention is the item pictured above: All in one mini packs of polish, brush and cloth. Perfect for a travelling genteman.

Simon Schama...and then some.

2010-08-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started the day with a tour on the theme of John Brown. Most people in the UK wouldn't know anything about him other than that, according to the song, his body is “ a-mouldering in the grave”. In reality he was a firebrand opponent of the slavery movement who still divides opinion today. Our guide today was fantastic and a credit to the NPS. He had such passion for his subject that, despite the tour lasting over one and a half hours, nobody's attention wavered for a split second. It was like watching Simon Schama, but an upgraded fuel injected version that went from 0 – 60 in about 3 seconds. Amazing.

After that I went to Spectacle Island. It had beaches, views of the city, was very hot and was created from waste soil being dumped in the harbour.

Then today I visited the Paul Revere House and took a turn around the Navy Yard. Paul Revere is famous for helping to give the alarm that the British were on the move out of Boston to advance on Concord and Lexington. This ultimately led to the first skirmishes of the Revolution.

I also visited the Old North Church where the lamps signalling the above were lit in the tower for the Rebels to see. Ironically the congregation of the church were largely loyalists and British officers, but the sexton had rebel sympathies.

Rather touchingly though, given the Church's role in the anti-British cause, the memorial pictured above was placed in the church and the body of the British Officer concerned is still buried in the crypt. I suppose that the death of a brave man is a tragedy no matter what side you are on. His son, mentioned in the memorial, went on to have Pitcairn Islands named after him.

Talk of the Town

2010-08-18T06:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started as a vilely humid day. Boston is a coastal town and the days often start by being misty with low cloud having rolled in off the sea. The effect can be oppressive enough without the high humidity levels at this time of year. Although the day was clear the humidity was still there and I was sweating before I was even half way though the five minute walk to the ferry.

Thank fully though it wasn't raining which meant that I could sit on the top deck of the craft, enjoying both the breeze and the Boston skyline. The harbour ferry is fantastic. For about £1.10 you cross the Charles River from Charlestown over to Boston. You can walk via one of several routes but there is something restful about crossing open water before entering the teeming metropolis.

By the afternoon the humidity had subsided into a less hostile warmth. I was glad of this as in the afternoon I accompanied one of the National Park Service rangers on a tour of the Freedom Trail (see above, pictured outside Faneuil Hall). This tour lasts about one and a half hours and takes in some of the key sites of the Revolution. Before I saw this I watched another talk inside the meeting chamber of Faneuil (pronounced “Fanyul”) Hall. I mentioned this site in my last post but now, as you can see above, I have provided a picture of the interior rather than just of Lucy Stone's bust (in the statuary sense, not the anatomical)

The Freedom Trail tour was very well delivered. Despite the noise of traffic and other urban distractions both the the material and the interpretation of it kept the interest of a very mixed group of around thirty people. The leg of it that went into Boston's North End was especially interesting, leading as it does through a maze of streets that make up Boston's own Little Italy; Definitely a place worthy of further exploration.

State House and Suffragettes

2010-08-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after a gorgeous ferry ride from my accommodation in Charlestown to Boston proper, I went to the NPS offices on State Street. After meeting the team, who are all a really nice bunch of people, I was given an introduction to Boston's history including a visit to Faneuil Hall and the Old State House (right).

Both of these sites were integral to the history of the revolution and later political movements in the Boston area. The main meeting room at Faneuil, for example, is where the founding fathers of the revolution spoke as well as in later times the suffragette Lucy Stone. And our very own Queen spoke from the balcony of the State House on her last visit to Boston!

The Eagle has landed

2010-08-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am now in Boston. The journey was fairly painless. However, I didn't manage to sleep at all on the plane and then, what with being in a strange environment, I got precious little rest after arrival either. Today I am busy orientating myself around the different Boston sites so am very busy.

One quick thought I will share with you is the shop in the accompanying picture. It was an amazing collection of reasonably priced and very classy merchandise.

The clock is ticking

2010-08-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

21.03 hrs on Saturday night. In a matter of hours I shall be getting a taxi which will ultimately lead me to Boston. I think I have packed everything and if I have forgotten anything it is too late now.

The Last of the Mohicans

2010-08-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

Only a few days to go until my flight to America. I keep thinking of innumerable things that I must remember to do, both personal and practical. To help give my mind at least some respite I am taking refuge in the pre-War of Independence world of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. From page one the narrative has drawn me into the forests of North America to such an extent that I am sat at work now eagerly awaiting the train journey home where I can indulge my imagination some more. And I am only forty six pages in.

Winston Churchill II

2010-07-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I found myself in the sweltering heat of summertime London standing confused, shell shocked but nonetheless relieved outside the US consulate. "Relieved" because the visa interview had gone very well and my imagined fears had proved to be just that - imagined.

After gathering myself at a local Starbucks with, I am ashamed to admit, a caramel Frappacino of all things, I headed off to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms (www.iwm.org.uk/cabinet ) in Westminster.

Unsurprisingly, given its wartime role as a "hidden" nerve centre of Britain's war effort the entrance is pretty unimposing, as can be seen above. However, once you get beneath ground level it is a whole different story. The place is a warren of meeting rooms, communications rooms, bathrooms for Churchill, his cabinet and the other staff who worked there and everything else you would need to run a country from a secure location.

The great thing about it is the lack of interpretation. This may seem strange coming from someone whose job is creating panels and labels and all the other paraphernalia of exhibitions but hear me out. All the rooms have been left/ recreated exactly as they were in Churchill's time. Having text panels and labels cluttering it all up would ruin the feeling that pervades the place: the feeling that the events that took place here weren't sixty years ago but maybe only days, hours or minutes before you stood there.

I'm secure in myself, I can admit it: I was quite moved.

Also in there is the Churchill Museum. This mainly only covers his wartime life (sadly) but is still a first class exhibition. Having said that it only covers a limited period nothing brings the reality of the man to life than seeing the actual coat that he wore during the so-called "Battle" of Sidney Street in 1911. Some of the footage as well, with commentary by experts, is fantastic. Especially the one about drinking habits!

Boston bound

2010-07-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

Like many people I have often committed the cardinal sin of comparing my own life to others and found it wanting; Other people's lives always seem so much more interesting than ones own humdrum existence. "Other people" are always travelling the world, meeting interesting people or, seemingly without effort, falling into amazing jobs.

Well no longer, let me tell you! Its time to drag myself out of the Slough of Mediocrity and head off to the US for an adventure of my own. And all thanks to Sir Winston S Churchill.

In just over four weeks I am going to Boston to spend six weeks working at Boston National Historical Park. The opportunity to do this is thanks to a fellowship I have been awarded by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (http://www.wcmt.org.uk/). This organisation was established in memory of Sir Winston to give grants to UK citizens to spend time abroad having experiences and learning skills that will aid them in their career in this country, and so benefit the wider UK society. They are a fantastic organisation and I am very grateful for this opportunity. Get yourself over to their website (http://www.wcmt.org.uk/) now and start applying for the chance of a lifetime.

Getting started

2010-06-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

This is the very first post (and in truth is more of a test really) on the Blog that will chart my time in America learning valuable lessons with Boston National Historical Park in the US.