#discoverpreston

In 2012 an article named ‘Archaeological Archives and Museums’ brought to light that in the past four decades the discovery of archaeological artefacts has grown, and therefore the demand on museums to accept the material has likewise increased. As a result, this increase of material has come to threaten, “the entire system in terms of conservation, storage, and expense of on-going curation” (Museums and Galleries Commission 1992: 5). The speakers made a great point that collaboration with other organisations such as the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, Archaeology for All, English Heritage, ICON and many more is key.

However, combined with the latter there is another issue which is currently threatening the world of arts and heritage: financial cuts. In a study produced in 2012, out of 120 museums contacted, only 84 stated that they were able to accept artefacts without knowing the condition in which they were in, and 36 stated that lack of space was an issue. The study additionally highlighted the challenges that face curators at present, due to financial cuts many are now faced with further responsibilities, and with museums with no curators, there are now further challenges with caring for collections, conservation, and accepting further artefacts. It is also critical to highlight that the respondents used archaeological collections and archives in many different ways, including contributions to specific exhibitions and projects; a significant number of these would be impossible without specialist archaeological expertise. However, in all cases, the archaeological archives have been used to reach a wide and diverse range of audiences.

In light of such issues, myself and the Curator of History at the Harris Museum, James Arnold, organised a collections workshop for the staff of the museum. Beginning in the Discover Preston gallery, James guided us around, highlighting some of the challenges that he faces with displaying and caring for specific artefacts. 

For instance, maintaining the correct levels of light, temperature and humidity is key to caring for the collection successfully. Light in particular can cause problems for some of the artefacts displayed, such as organic material, textiles and paintings, and therefore window blinds have been installed on some of the windows to control light, as well UV film on the windows. More so, all of the display cases have been fitted with an environmental seal and the humidity is well controlled depending on what artefact is within the case, as it varies between specific materials such as metals and wood. The environmental seal in particular is vital as it ensures that external elements cannot affect the artefacts within the glass cases. Another issue which faces museums and the Harris in particular is that changing the display cases can be a challenge. The keynote speaker at the SMA conference, Mike Pitts, questioned museums’ policies of having permanent displays, stating “permanent displays should never be permanent” (Pitts, 2017) and that changing displays provides opportunities to tell different stories that the public haven’t been told before. While this is an excellent point, particularly since museums now possess so many varieties of artefacts that often do not go on display for years, on our tour of the history gallery James pointed out that to make changes within the galleries can be financially difficult, as well as practically, as so many of the above listed factors must be considered.

The second area which we visited was the mezzanine store which stores some of the Harris’ historic collection, such as books, artefacts, coins and modern archaeology. As mentioned previously, storage is an issue within museums and the Harris is no exception. One of the challenges which the curators face is deciding what is accepted into the collection when a donation is offered and what is not. Factors such as condition must be looked at and how much space the object will take up.  Moreover, maintaining the artefacts within the collection can be tricky; at the Harris in particular the artefacts that the museums holds are now being digitally catalogued, a task that takes great time, and which means that some of the older boxes containing artefacts still in use are not acid free and thus not conservation friendly. These are being replaced as quickly as possible.

Despite facing such issues, especially issues concerning the rotation of artefacts, new artefacts still get a chance to be displayed, such as the new women’s football exhibition or the Horrockses dresses which have recently been placed on display. Moreover, by creating duplicates of items which are at risk of environmental damage, the items can be replaced and therefore given a break from light or restored. For example, the Lamplighters’ Banner was conserved in 2016 by the People’s History Museum following degradation to the material after years in storage, and now it hangs in the Discover Preston gallery for visitors to view. 

She was a radical by anyone’s estimation – in her campaign to secure votes for women she served time in prison for arson, notably for setting fire to Lord Leverhulme’s holiday home at Rivington and planting incendiary bombs at the cotton exchange in Liverpool.  During her time in prison Edith went on hunger-strike and suffered force-feeding.   She was also falsely accused of tarring and feathering Preston's statue of the Earl of Derby and took the blame for this to protect the real culprit.

Edith was active in trying to improve the conditions of female workers and had a long battle with Alderman Woods who ran Woods’ Tobacco Factory.  There was no ventilation in the factory and workers suffered a range of respiratory diseases caused by the conditions.  Rigby’s persistence ensured that the conditions gradually improved.  You can see a picture of the Woods’ factory below and go and see it yourself on Avenham Street in the city centre where it still stands today.

(Photo by Hilary Machell)

Edith had married a local doctor and lived in some style in Winckley Square.  Although she had no children of her own she adopted a boy when he was aged 2.  Preston’s Edith Rigby House is named after her and is a residential home used by the Probation Service.  Women residents there have created a banner about Edith’s life which is currently on show in the Then, Now and Beyond  display in the Discover Preston gallery.  You can also find out more about Edith in the Women of Substance case which is opposite the Horrockses Yard Works model, also in Discover Preston.

Another Preston Wonder Woman was the artist Patti Mayor.  Patti studied at the Slade School of Art and on return to Preston chose to paint portraits of women, of which the Harris has about a dozen in its collection.  Particularly unusually, Patti painted young women at work and in their ordinary lives, and the painting on show in Discover Preston is called ‘The Half-timer’.  It’s an image of a rosy-cheeked girl of twelve, Annie Hill, who is just beginning her career in the mills (working ‘half-time’).  Patti also painted a mill-worker who was just a few years older, a work known as ‘Mill Girl with a Shawl’, and the contrast is striking as the years of mill work have taken their toll on the subject. You can see both paintings on the BBC Your Paintings website, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/patti-mayor

What is truly astonishing is that Patti decided to take the Annie Hill portrait out of its frame and take it to a WSPU march in London.  It is thought that up to 100 women took the train to London with her in 1908 to the ‘Women’s Sunday March’.  People in the south of England did not believe that young girls were working in the mills so the painting was held up by walkers on the march as evidence that this was happening. If women were working then there was less of an argument that they should not be given the vote, as working men had been given it based on their economic contribution.  Here's a photograph of Emma holding up a copy of 'The Half-timer' in the gallery:

The campaign for votes for women was largely halted by World War I as most of the members of the WSPU felt it was more important to support the war effort.  However, Edith Rigby remained militant in her desire to achieve votes for women throughout this period.  She did contribute to the war effort by joining the land army and growing vegetables.   It was during the war that many women rose to prominence; in 1914 it was a Women’s Committee led by its President Anna Marie Cartmell (wife of the Mayor, Harry Cartmell) that founded Preston Station Buffet which fed millions of soldiers from 1915 – 1919 as they passed through Preston station. The museum has recently worked in partnership with other organisations as part of the Preston Remembers project to install new interpretation at Preston Station waiting room where the buffet was based and you can find out more about it here:  http://www.prestonremembers.org.uk/explore/preston-stories/ Why not go along yourself and take a look!?

Avice Pimlett was another buffet volunteer and was Preston’s first female councillor.  She was elected in 1920, for the Conservative party, on a platform ‘for change’.  She felt too that women must have a say in issues that affected them, especially health, maternity policy and infant welfare.  As a Councillor, Avice was soon able to sit on the ‘Maternity Committee’ which controlled policy and provision for pregnant and nursing mothers and was able to influence its decisions for the benefit of women.  Soon Mabel Astley-Bell, wife of the 1922 Guild Mayor Henry Astley-Bell, was also elected as a councillor and she too joined the Maternity Committee.  Sadly, Mabel died in 1927.

By 1933, Avice had become Preston’s first female Mayor (and she was later elected its first female Alderman, an honorary position recognising long service as a Councillor).  This meant that in 1952 she was entitled to sign Preston Guild Rolls as the first woman to do so (the Preston Guild Rolls were not opened up to women in general until 1992!).  It might be noted that there still hasn’t been a female Guild Mayor to this day.  Avice served on the Infant Welfare Committee which set up welfare centres to tackle the appalling deprivation being suffered by Preston families.  There were many single-parent families struggling after World War I (including many led by male single parents) and the welfare centres taught parenting skills including infant feeding, nutrition, cookery, sewing and handicrafts.  They also gave out powdered milk to help ensure babies and young  children were adequately fed – the diet for working class people living in Preston would largely have consisted of bread, treacle and occasional soups – both malnutrition and tooth decay were common problems.  Fruit and vegetables were hard to come by and oranges would be given out to children as a treat at Easter (apparently oranges were rolled as well as eggs in Avenham Park!) and at Whitsun.  One of the major welfare centres was on Manchester Road (and you can find a postcard of it in the museum shop showing the image below of mothers with their poorly-clad babies - copyright Harris Museum & Art Gallery).  The centres even ran competitions and in one case four of the handicraft competition winners are fathers.  

The final Wonder Woman that Emma focused on was the first ever headmistress of the Park School, Alice Stoneman.  The Park School was set up in 1906 as part of an experiment to provide secondary education for girls.  Prior to the establishment of such pilot schools, girls were only able to attend primary schools as all secondary education through grammar schools was for boys only.  It was not at all clear whether girls could benefit from education past the age of 11 so the schools were set up to prove the worth of doing so!

A search was undertaken to find a headmistress for the new school (it was felt that it would be more suitable for it to be managed by a woman rather than a man) Alice was one of the famous ‘Steamboat Women’ who had studied for a degree in Britain but not been allowed to graduate and collect their degrees. This bizarre situation existed for many years – Alice had gone to Cambridge, completed all her essays and passed all her exams, but the British University system refused to award degrees to women.  Hence, she, and many like her, took the steamboat across the Irish Sea to have their degrees awarded by the University of Dublin.  The education provided at the school was modelled on the boys’ grammar system.  Girls were taught all of the same subjects as boys with the aim that they would take up careers in areas such as medicine and law.  You can hear some of the girls who attended the School talking about their experiences using the listening posts also in the Discover Preston gallery and you can see photos of the Park School, including Alice Stoneman, here: http://www.theparkschoolpreston.co.uk/#portfolio

All four of the women highlighted by Emma were influential and helped to improve the position of ordinary women in the town, and beyond.  Emma is continuing to research other Preston 'wonder women' so perhaps she will be ready to deliver another talk  on the subject at some point in the future!

The event was really well received and finished with an opportunity for questions which sparked a lively debate about modern parallels with the welfare issues discussed, particularly in terms of how women are supported (or otherwise) in a time of austerity and financial difficulty for many families.  On the day that Maria Miller, one of only four women in the current Cabinet, resigned, it seems that there is still a long way to go before women achieve true parity in society with men.

The next Discover Preston lunchtime talk is on Wednesday 14th May from 12.30 – 12.50pm and will concentrate on the Butchers’ Guild Banner which has been on display since the gallery opened and is due to be replaced by a different banner in June. The talk is free and there is no need to book.  We hope to see you there!