Photo of the Week # 2

I had some company in the Victorian Library this week in the form of the head gardeners cat, whilst very affectionate when awake I did quickly learn that he is as much of a morning person as I am and did not not take kindly to me trying to move hime from my chair. But did I let myself be beaten by a cat? Umm yes I had to go and get another chair...!

This weeks work at Cotehele - May 30th 2012

This is my Third week of Volunteer Placement at Cotehele...

This week I have been continuing to act as a room guide, managing the Victorian Library. During todays session I have been cleaning and restoring parts of our mechanical hand exhibition. The mechanical hand is a replica from one of the suits of armour found in the great hall at Cotehele. The replica hand on display in the library was comissioned by one of our past volunteers in memory of her husband who had also been a volunteer at Cotehele and who had a keen interest in military history. The mechanical hand replica is an extremely popular peice and a demonstration of the moving fingers and wrist joints is often requested by visitors.

"The knights of the medieval days were anxious to replace limb loss with a prosthesis, not only to improve function but also to conceal their deformity and thus their weakness. It is only natural that prosthetic fabrication became a func- tion of the armorers of the day, who were skilled in the use of metal and wood.

In 1550 Pare designed an artificial hand called "le petit Lorrain" that had a fixed thumb but spring-loaded movable fingers. He also devised an above-knee prosthesis with a knee joint that could be released by a thong running to the hip. An upper-limb prosthesis using the trunk and shoulder-girdle muscles as a source of power for flexion and extension of the fingers was designed in 1818 by a German dentist, Peter Ballif. An above-elbow arm, using Ballif's principle to flex the elbow, was proposed by a Dutch sculptor in 1844."

 *http://www.acpoc.org/library/1976_05_015.asp

Also...

 

This week I have been taking a closer look at some of the 18th century books we currently hold in the Victorian library, many of them are beautifully bound and embossed with gold leaf similarly inside they are decorated in the most intricate designs. I have included a few arty images of the books for your enjoyment as I certainly enjoyed looking at them

I have also been given the dates this week for my promgramme of volunteering over the next 6 months. This will include;

* Look Sharp Exhibitions - Demonstrations and talks on the 18th Century swords and knives currently on display in the great hall

* Heritage Open Days - Talking to the Public about how Cotehele is run and maintained in terms of preservation and restoration

* Behind the Scenes events - Taking tours of visitors around areas of the house not usually open to the public, including the attic

* CSI Fridays - Leading torchlit tours around the house and educating visitors on the agents of deterioration and how we preserve and restore historical pieces.

* Haunted Cotehele - Tours of the house at night by torchlight, telling ghost stories and potted histories of each room



All of these events will be great additions to my CV and if anyone would like to book a place then please let me know :)

Photo of the Week

The Tamar Bridge 

 

 

Construction of the Tamar Bridge began in July 1959, this Image is dated from that year. Before its construction, the lowest road crossing of the River Tamar was Gunnislake New Bridge at the village of Gunnislake. The Tamar bridge runs parallel to Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge, sometimes referred to as the Brunel Bridge ;seen here on the left of the image, which opened in 1859.

 In the 1950s (and for centuries before this) road users wishing to drive from Saltash to Plymouth had two main choices. They could take a long detour north either to Gunnislake New Bridge (a one-lane medieval bridge), or even further north to the land-link between Devon and Cornwall. Or they could cross the river by ferry. For centuries there was a ferry link between the two counties just downstream from the current bridge, but the ferries did not have sufficient capacity to transport large numbers of vehicles as traffic volumes increased.After failing to secure government funding for a new road bridge, Plymouth City Council and Cornwall County Council applied for permission to operate a toll bridge for which they received Royal Assent in 1957.

The Tamar Bridge was the first major suspension bridge to be constructed in the UK after the Second World War. It was also the longest suspension bridge in the UK at that time. Its central span measures 335 m (1100 ft).The bridge was constructed by Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company, and building work began in July 1959. It had a concrete deck, and was capable of carrying lorries up to 38 tonnes. The construction cost over GBP1.5 million, and the bridge opened to traffic in October 1961. H.M. Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother officially opened the bridge on 26 April 1962.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamar_Bridge

SWiB

The SWiB Archive on the Barbican: http://www.southwestimagebank.com/

This weeks work at SwiB - May 28th 2012

SWiB... The South West Image Bank

Today I have been scanning and editing the final stages of the Roy Westlake "Iconic Images of Plymouth" photographs some of which include the sub catergory "The Plymouth Telephone Exchange" I have included some of these Images on this weeks blog for those of you who are interested in this particular area to look at. These are 1940's images of the Plymouth Telephone exchange:

"On Wednesday May 17th 1933 the Postmaster-General, Sir Kingsley Wood MP, laid the foundation stone of the new automatic telephone exchange in an unusual ceremony. 

The stone was one of three to be laid that day, all by remote control from the General Post Office in Westwell Street.  When Sir Kingsley pressed a button at 4.40pm, the stone at Norley Place, along with those at the new exchanges in Exeter and Torquay, fell a half an inch into place.  There was apparently no-one watching this historic event in Plymouth and men working at the site barely noticed the foundation stone fall.  The ceremony was carried out in the presence of Plymouth's Head Postmaster, Mr D Laws.

The big change-over came on Saturday July 6th 1935.  At 1.55pm all callers were asked to defer making their calls for about fifteen minutes.  When all the lines at the manual exchange were clear, just after 2pm, a signal was sent to the switch room and 160 Post Office workers pulled strings attached to pegs inserted in the switches at the rate of 200 per second to re-connect the 7,400 subscribers. 

By 2.06pm the exchange was in operation again.  Immediately the change-over had been completed, officers at each exchange rang every subscriber, starting with doctors, nursing homes and hospitals, to tell them that the new system was in operation.  It was now possible to dial your own call right through as far as Torquay.

The Plymouth Automatic Telephone Exchange was formally opened by Lady Nancy Astor on Monday July 29th 1935."

* http://www.plymouthdata.info/Telephone-11-Plymouth%20Exchange.htm



Having now completed the 30 subcategories of this Collection I will be moving onto a new project next week so lookout for next weeks post on that one!

This weeks work at Cotehele - May 22nd 2012

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this weeks session at Cotehele due to Illness. Please look out for next weeks post where I will be fingers crossed fit, healthy and raring to go again :)

This weeks work at SwiB - May 21st 2012

SWiB

This week at SWiB I have been continuing to scan, edit and upload my Roy Westlake "Iconic Images of Plymouth" photographs onto the database. Unfortunately I only managed to sucessfully scan a measyly 5 segments of the collection onto the system this week due to an ongoing battle with the scanner and image editing software.

Due to these problems I have now set the finish date for the project back one week and hope to complete the Roy Westlake collection in next weeks session.

These are some of the 
Images I have been uploading 
today. These images of 
Buckland Abbey are from 
the RW-22-22 subcategory 
of the Roy Westlake collection, 
the coloured image is a 
1960's Image whilst the Black and 
White Images dates 
from the 1940's

On another note I am extremely happy and excited to say that I have been offered the post of Acting Archivist for SWiB for a three month period between September and December this year. In my capacity as Acting Archivist I will be expected  to serve as the point of contact for existing volunteers; to serve as a point  of contact for  members of the public; toprocess search and copyorder enquiries; to admininster the ongoing care of all of the SWiB collections; and  to continue the environmental 

monitoring of the archive storage room.
 

This is obviously an amazing opportunity and will make an outstanding addition to my
CV as I enter the final year of my Degree, not to mention interesting Blog material!

Photo of the Week

Me with 'Roger' the 18th Century Black Rhino which previously hung in pride of place in the Great Hall but has now be demoted to hanging about in the Library with me

This weeks work at Cotehele - May 16th 2012

This is my second week of Volunteer placement at Cotehele managing the Victorian Library.


This week I have continued to act as a room guide and am slowly but surely getting to grips with the various articles in the room, although I did have a minor wobble over a set of Victorian bottle jacks (devices used to rotate meat over an open fire thus ensuring its equal cooking) but as ever was able to scramble together an explanation using the room guidebook or the Bible as I have affectionately termed it! Indeed why these devices were in the Library at all is somewhat of a mystery I would argue that they would probably be more at home in the Cotehele kitchen but decided to keep this observation to myself...

Example of a Bottle Jack

When not entertaining visitors with my nervous explanations of articles I have been working on a 'Collection management' Project which predominantly deontes -Cleaning.
I have been carefully cleaning the model ship pictures below using cotton buds and metal polish and whilst being very tiring tedious work the cleaning and preservation of pieces is extremely important in mainting them.

Following discussion with the House team as of next week I should be starting my own projects around the house, whether that be in collections management, restoration or Data entry. All National Trust porperties are now expected to have digitalised thier collections - that is to say that all artifacts have to be photographed and entered onto a database for the public to view online. Given my experience at SWiB the photographic archive the House team have asked whether I would like to help with this project and I am very hapy to be involved :)


In the meantime here are some photographs I have taken today of the Victorian Library which I am currently managing, apologies for the poor quality of some of the images but natural light is kept to a minimum within the property to limit the damage to tapestries and paintings.

 

The Victorian Library with my desk in the far left corner

The Victorian Dresser
Photography was a relatively new idea for the Victorians and they liked nothing more then to arrange thier worldly belongings on chests such as this to photograph as these images illustrated the families wealth and status.

In this section of the Library we encourage visitors to create and photograph thier own displays using articles from the room.

This image shows part of the 'Animal Exhibition'
To the right we can see the stuffed Rhino and Sheeps heads

Left: The Canadian Pipe Organ
This organ was already in the House when the National Trust took over in 1947 but dates back to the 1800's it moves between the Library and great hall depending upon the time of year and visitors are encouraged to play a few tunes on it.

Having attempted this myself I can tell you that it takes a lot of work on the foot pump before a sound is heard!

And finally below we have the two views of the 'Dungeon Door' both from inside and outside. The 'Dungeon' as it is listed on the 1862 Map has been used in the past as a strongroom - a sort of giant safe in the event of invasion and as a photographic darkroom for the late William Fox Talbot, Lady Caroline Edgecumbe's half brother during the 1900s. We do supply hard hats for our visitors but I am yet to discover whether this is an actual safety measure of someones idea of a joke...

Finally I would like to end with an interesting Image I have found of Cotehele House prior to the 1862 remodelling of the East Wing - Enjoy!

This weeks work at SwiB - May 14th 2012

Following last weeks first blog entry I have now decided to do two seperate regular entries each week, one for SWiB and another for Cothele - This is because there is just too much to write about each one and having been particularly snap happy with the camera phone this week there is simply not enough room for all the things I want to say unless I do them seperately! So... Here goes!

 

 

SWiB

This week at SWiB I have been continuing to scan, edit and upload my Roy Westlake "Iconic Images of Plymouth" photographs onto the database. This week I managed to sucessfully scan another 10 segments of the collection onto the system and am well on track to conclude my scanning activities for this collection in next weeks session.

Last week I talked about how when scanning images you need to adjust certain settings depending upon the type of negative film you are using and therefore I have decided to provide a screenshot of the process:

Firstly we select which negatives we would like to use from each segment or subcategory, usually there are many duplicates so we use the lightbox to choose anything between 2 and 10 images to upload. We then place each negatived onto the scanner using the film holder to secure them in place. We then preview the images, marquee the ones we would like to use (shown in the left hand box)  and then scan them in having selected the right settings from the the left hand Epson Scan menu.We then use photoshop to crop and edit the images although personally I dont like to edit them too much as I feel it detracts from their original provenance and lets face it beauty!

Here I am scanning!



Below are some images of the Black and White negatives I was scanning using the light box, its amazing how clear the images become when viewing them in this way and the colour negatives particularly so. You can see that when held against a dark surface such as the wooden desk it is particularly difficult to pick out duplicates whereas when using the lightbox, people and even text is clearly visable making the selection process easier for uploading.

These negatives are early 1950s images of Spooners Department store in Plymouth, these images are of the newly opened store following the total destruction of the previous store in 1941 during the Blitz on Plymouth. 




http://plymouthlocalhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/spooners.html






 

















Having completed each subcategory they are returned to the labelled and numbered Roy Westlake 22 Envelopes which I sorted and categorised in the previous session. Once I have finished scanning the selected images from each envelope I then note on the front how many I have done so that this information can then be loaded onto the database, it is important to note how many of the images in each subcategory have been uploaded as members of the public searching the database may request the rest of the images in that collection to also be uploaded (duplicates or not!)

The subcategories, only 10 more to go!




Next week I plan to scan the rest of the Images

Scanning black and white negatives for the Roy Westlake collection

Hard at work at the SWiB Archive this morning, write up of todays activities to follow along with more pictures :)





*RW-22

This weeks work: May 7th 2012

This week I have had to condense my volunteer activities into two full days in order to accomodate te bank holiday. Usually I would be at SWiB all day on a Monday and Cotehele all day on Wednesday and Friday but this week I have been at SWiB all day Tuesday and Cotehele all day Wednesday.

SWiB

This week at SWiB I have been continuing with my Roy Westlake collection, the first collection I have been asked to do for SWiB now that I have passed my 2 months of data entry! Last week I began the task of seperating each segment of the chosen collection "Iconic Images of Plymouth" or "RW-22" for those of you at SWiB, having created the sub-categories I then began the long task of scanning selected colour, positive and negative film from each category onto the database, editing colour and cropping as I went. Unfortunately technology was not on my side and having had to restart my computer about 5 times I only managed to scan 10 of the 30 subcatergories onto the database, I have planned to continue the scanning over the next two sessions in light of these problems.

A small sample of other images from the Roy Westlake collection are available to view on the SWiB facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Plymouth-Barbican-Trust-South-West-Image-Bank/86487998660#!/media/set/?set=a.86491223660.82253.86487998660&type=3





Cotehele

This week has been my first week volunteering at Cotehele House, managing the Victorian Library. In dire contrast to last weeks sunshine when my interview took place I had to hop most of the way round to the stewards quarters this week due to the puddles and streams running over the cobbles within the central courtyard. However I was very warmly recieved upon entering the quarters, despite being the youngest volunteer by about forty years! Tea, Coffee and even biscuits were offered as we all sat to hear the breiefing of the days activities - turns out that the Victorian library is a highly coveted position being the only room with a working radiator!

Once settled in the room I set to work reading the various booklets explaining collections within the room (I did not want to get caught umming and ahhhhing when the soggy but inquisative members of the public arrived!) The library is home to our temporary displays of items donated by the public and whilst the items do not come from the house themselves they do tell us a lot about the time in which the Edgcumbe family lived at the house - the Victorian period. The current collections within the library include: The Striplin Collection - An array of commemorative china celebratuing the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria on the throne, the Animal magic collecton (Currently to be found in the old dungeon) which includes a shark backbone, a turtles shell, various ceramic animal related items and most interestingly a stuffed Rhino head...

I enjoyed my first day immensly and sent myself home with the detailed room booklet in the hope of learning it off by heart (???) All of my fellow volunteers made me feel very welcome and I look forward to next weeks session albeit with the hope for slightly drier weather!

So what is it all about?

This space is going to be used to document my final year of my History degree, my Volunteer Placements and General Interests... I am planning to use this space to showcase the work I am doing and to allow people to view the exhibitions, articles and documents I will be putting together throughout the next year.




My current volunteer placements include:




The South West Image Bank (SWiB)


https://www.facebook.com/lizsmith3191?ref=ts#!/pages/Plymouth-Barbican-Trust-South-West-Image-Bank/86487998660



http://www.southwestimagebank.com/

And National Trust Property; Cotehele House, Cornwall



http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cotehele/