Whitehurst wall clock, 1850

We have just had our Whitehurst clock back from conservation and it is now up on the wall in the Boyd Dawkins Study.  This clock has always been a bit of a mystery to us and has spent most of its recent past in bits in a box in the store.  It was donated to the museum in the 1960s alongside its wooden case.

We took the clock to restorer Michael Czajkowski  who took one look at it and told us that the clock was never intended to be cased.  It is a free hanging utilitarian clock made by Whitehurst III in about 1850.   These clocks are often called ‘hoop and spur’ clocks and were produced as reliable cheap clocks against the backdrop of rising competition from France and America.  Ours is an 8 day version but 30 hour versions were also made – I’m glad we have the 8 day version as winding the 30 hour one wouldn’t be very practical….

Michael, Ros & the Whitehurst clock

Although produced as a cheap clock it still would have been a valuable possession and Michael suggests the case was probably made by the original owner, to protect the swinging pendulum from children and/or cats. The case which is in the country style was made from pine wood but stained to resemble a more expensive hardwood.

We’ve decided to hang the clock as it was designed but the story of the case adds an interesting insight into the original owner’s life and concerns.

Ros hanging the clock in the Boyd Dawkins Study

The Award winning Enlightenment! project

This year the Enlightenment! project has picked up two awards. In May we won the Leadership Award at the East Midlands Heritage Awards, and earlier this month we won the Judge’s Special Award at the Derbyshire Heritage Awards at Barrow Hill Roundhouse.

Joy Hales said on behalf of the Derbyshire Heritage Awards Judges:

“This year we felt there was one outstanding project that could have fitted into all the award categories but its scope and realisation placed it beyond them all and has accomplished something of national significance. A partnership project between Buxton, Derby and Belper – Derbyshire should feel proud to have people with this scale of ambition to enhance the county’s collections through strategic acquisition in what we all know are difficult times. They had the vision to develop partnerships both within and outside the sector that will leave something of lasting significance. It is a real honour to present this to the Enlightenment team as a glowing testimony to an outstanding project”.

Stephanie Hitchcock (Strutt’s North Mill), Martha Lawrence and Ros Westwood (both Buxton Museum) with their awards for the Enlightenment! project

Choirs at Castleton…Déjà-vu

I had some déjà-vu moments reading the letters and travel journals at the Beinecke Library.  A lot of the early tourists to the area visited the same places and they used very similar phrases and words to describe their experiences.  These three excerpts describe Peak Cavern and illustrate the point:

 

‘From this place [Roger Rains House] you continue to the Chancel where calmly proceeding on your way, you are suddenly aroused by a choir of [?] chanting in a niche above you, and elevated about 77 feet…… here then we stopped, the airs were slow and solemn, which were sung, everything tuned the mind to meditation, nature appeared in awful majesty before us, in short, we could  fancy ourselves transported to some other World’. (Letter written by unknown author, to an unknown recipient and copied into a common place book, possibly written in the summer of 1770)

 ‘From this you continue to the channel, where calmly proceeding you are suddenly arrows’d by a choir of voices, chanting in a niche or gallery 60 foot elevated, sounds which the vaulted roof re’erted sweetly to the ear, near this orchestra of nature, in a recess 80 feet above the spot, where such a sublime scene almost [revels?] you, are placed a number of lights, the purpose of such an illumination adds grandeur to the effect of the whole, the vaulted roof appears bent and broken, and the spar in many parts glistening with the reflection from the lights add to the magnificent beauty of the channel…..we return’d with slow and solemn pace till we arriv’d at the Channel, where our senses were again charr’d by a fine and melodious air, it was the 104 psalm, never shall I forget the sensation and glow of devotion my heart felt at this moment’. (Excerpt from an unknown Peckham women’s travel journey, 1807)

 ‘When you have reached about half way, you are surprised by singing and on looking up you discover an open part of the Cavern 60 feet above you, where stand 3 or 4 of the very old women whom you see at your entrance with candles in each hand and others stuck about the place, singing God save the King, the 104^th psalm, or anything else they like, the novelty of the scenes is rather reviving’ (Mary Kerr, ‘Notes on visits to various Country Houses’ 1808)

 

There are differences, for example we have the choir at 77 feet, 80 feet and 60 feet respectively, but on the whole they are very similar.  While Mary Kerr is very matter of fact in her account, the other two tourists are far more emotional in their description.  They both mention the awe-inspiring power of nature and their spiritual response to the scene.   It would be interesting to compare these descriptions with published accounts of the cave and see if there is much overlap in the language and sentiment used .  Could it be that the tourists were – maybe even subconsciously – reiterating from texts they had read about the cave? This might explain the similarities in their choice of words and phrases, or it might just be a coincidence….   How similar would three visitors’ descriptions and emotional experiences of the cave be today?

Enlightenment, Science and Culture conference

 Interested in Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Wright and William Strutt? Curious about Joseph Pickford, Anna Seward and Rousseau?

 There are still a few places left for the ‘Enlightenment, Science and Culture in the East Midlands c1700-1900’ conference, organised by Derby University.  Check out the programme here – East Midland Enlightenment Conference Programme 22 June 2013.

It should be a really interesting day with lots of great speakers, including some of my Enlightenment colleagues!  Join the fun and book your place through the Derby University website.

Jane Countess of Harrington by Joshua Reynolds

It seems that Derbyshire links are popping up wherever I look.  Opposite YCBA there is the fantastic and newly refurbed Yale Art Gallery.  Amongst their many pictures ( including work by Stubbs, Picasso, Mondrian, Monet, Lictchenstein etc) I came across this lovely Joshua Reynolds .  On closer inspection it turns out that the sitter is Jane Countess of Harrington and her sons.  What’s the Derbyshire link? The Earls of Harrington’s owned Elvaston Castle near Derby, and Jane’s husband Charles Stanhope is buried there – anyone know where Jane was buried?

There are at least two more Reynolds portraits of Jane Harrington, one is at the Huntington Library, California (my favourite of the trio) and the other at Harewood House, Leeds. 

Elvaston Castle seems to have been ignored by 18th and early 19th century visitors to Derbyshire. While other houses are visited or at least referred to, I have come across no reference to Elvaston in either unpublished journals or the published guides.  Quite a few tourists entered the County by going from Nottingham to Derby, so they would have only been a stones throw away from the Castle. 

The Cotton Works and Bridge at Cromford by William Day

In my last post I mentioned how few depictions I had found of the Derwent Valley Mills, both in travel diaries and in amateur sketchbooks.  This isn’t to say that the mills were completely ignored by artists, as Joseph Wright’s oil of Cromford Mill shows.  William Day also sketched the mills on his 1789 tour of the County.  Derby Museum holds this lovely watercolour.

I have been tracking down the  Day watercolours from 1789 that aren’t in public collections.  Here is The Cotton Works and Bridge at Cromford, Derbyshire which went through Sotheby’s auction house in 1975 – sadly this black and white scan is the best I have found.  It has an unusual composition which shows Cromford Mill on the right and Cromford Bridge on the left, seen through Scarthin Rock.

Descriptions of Matlock and Cumberland Cave, 1807 – 1808

I have been looking at some early 19th century unpublished travel diaries which feature Derbyshire. Derby, Matlock and Castleton have featured heavily, as have Chatsworth, Haddon and Hardwicke Hall. What has been surprising (in the ones I have looked at) is the omission of Dovedale.

Also noticeable is the absence of descriptions of the Derwent Valley Mills. It is implausible that these visitors didn’t see the mills, especially as some of them visited Willersley Castle – almost opposite Cromford Mill. It appears that while these tourists were happy to visit the urban Silk Mill and porcelain manufactuing in Derby, they were not interested in seeing industry in a more rustic setting. Their descriptions of the Derwent Valley are full of the sublime and awe-inspiring power of nature and Arkwright’s modern mills obviously didn’t fit with the search for the picturesque.

 

‘Smedley’s Cavern we visited, who after 17 years labour, and perseverance open’d a communication with this awful abyss, and now acts as a guide to display its beauties.  This cave contains immense treasures of spas minerals and fossils, which he manufactures into very beautiful ornaments of various descriptions….. we purchased many articles for our friends, and sent them to London by the waggon’.

Diary of an unknown woman, 1807

 

The entrance into Matlock from the South is through a Rock, which has been blasted with gunpowder for half a mile for the purpose of opening a carriage road, on the left is a row of houses for the accommodation of Company, behind which are high barren rocks, in the front are gardens, and beyond those run the River Derwent, on this side of which is a charming shady walk formed through a wood, on the other side rises almost perpendicular stupendous rocks which are 123 yards high, 10 more than the summit of St Pauls…… at the other end of the Town is a cavern called Cumberland Cave, this is a work of art.  Smedley’s of Matlock having worked at it for 17 years in order to clear a passage, it is a vast and awful place, worth exploring’.

Diary of Mary Kerr, 1808

Uncovering gems in the Beinecke Library

I’ve spent the last two days in the amazing Beinecke Library, Yale’s rare book and manuscript library.  I have been having a look at the collections that relate to Derbyshire and am currently transcribing parts of a travel diary written by an unknown lady on her 1807 tour of the North.  She visits the delights of Derbyshire along with her enigmatic travel companions Mr Pinchback and Eliza.  I’ll get some excerpts up in the next couple of days.

In the meantime here is a diary belonging to the Rev. Nathanial Boothouse, rector for Carsington near Ashbourne. I only took a cursory glance and the writing was pretty small and difficult to read, however I did notice various interesting names including a Mr Toplis.  It includes weather data for every day and lots of details of dinners – roast pork seems to be a favourite! Derbyshire Record Office have various manuscripts relating to Nathanial, including correspondence with Sir Philip Gell. It could make for an interesting read for someone – but not me, I’ve got too much to do!

Visiting artists to Derbyshire

Hopefully one of the most useful outcomes of my time here will be the information I have collected on visiting artists to Derbyshire.  I have been going through the photo archive and old exhibition catalogues to get a better understanding of which artists visited the County and what they produced.  Below is a screen shot of the work in progress –

It has flagged up some interesting information.  For example in Trevor Brighton’s fantastic book ‘The Discovery of the Peak’ he discusses the evidence for Thomas Girtin visiting the County.   The only drawing that he knew of was in the V&A’s collection and was only attributed to Girtin.  I have found a reference to a view of Bolsover Castle by Girtin, which passed through an auction house in the 1980s.  This picture is probably now in a private collection so we would struggle to authenticate it, but it does give a stronger claim that Girtin visited Derbyshire.

The Barnum Museum, Bridgeport

The Barnum Museum

Yesterday Lucy and I broke free from the library and made a pilgrimage to the P.T Barnum Museum in Bridgeport.  My interest in Barnum stems from the feejee mermaid that he exhibited at his American Museum in New York in 1842.  Ever the P.R whizz, Barnum released posters and stories to the press and created such a buzz around the mermaid that visitor figures to his museum tripled.

While we didn’t quite triple our visitor numbers when we had the Merman exhibition  at Buxton Museum, we did, like Barnum whip up quite a lot of publicity.

Alongside the mermaid, Buxton Museum holds the collections from ‘The House of Wonders’ Museum, a Barnum-esque attraction opened in 1926 by Randolph Douglas.  The collections includes models and miniature objects, a large collections of locks and keys and objects linked to Douglas’ friend Houdini.

Tom Thumb’s carriages

All the staff at P.T Barnum’s Museum were fantastic and took the time to show us around.  Highlights for me included seeing Tom Thumb’s clothing and carriages, Barnum’s rabbit skin top hat, and a dress belonging to Lavinia Warren, Tom Thumb’s wife.   What I found even more remarkable was the story of what the museum had faced over the last 3 years and the enthusiasm and dedication of the staff.   In 2010 the Museum was hit by a freak tornado which damaged the building and collections.  Since then it has suffered an earthquake, a hurricane and record snowfalls which have all put added pressure on the fabric of the already unstable building.

Open storage in the ‘Recovery in Action’ exhibition

Due to all this the museum has been closed since 2010 but has just opened an exhibition ‘Recovery in Action’ which gives people an insight into the work that has been going on behind the scenes.  They have big redevelopment plans and are busy fundraising, you can find out more on their website.

The Museum has  also been continually collecting Barnum material and they’re currently trying to raise $1650 to buy an early Barnum letter.  You can find out more and donate here.

I’d like to say a huge thanks to Kathy and the staff for giving us such a memorable afternoon!

The poster girl for Buxton Museum

Oh.. and they have a reconstruction of Barnum’s mermaid ….. she’s hairy and scary and not a patch on ours!