Category: 19th Century

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Digital Heritage and the Wayback Machine

360 degree Image of the Herb Garret (4th December 2000) at the Old Operating Theatre Museum. Click on the VR label to go full screen, and use the mouse to navigate.

Digital Heritage Is a subject I had a very early interest in.  My, very minor claim to fame, is that I set up the Museum of London’s and the Victoria and Albert’s first computer systems. I then co-authored one of the earliest hyperlinked digital histories (on the history of London), and set up the first web sites for various museums and organisations such as the Old Operating Theatre Museum, Brunel Engine House, Garden History Museum, Royal Bethlem Museum etc..

But that was a long time ago so long that most of the Museums have changed their names! Despite the desire to do so, I have not had the time to keep up with developments.

So, I’m going to spend a little time investigating online heritage sites, and at the same time, maybe, look back at my part in the history of digital heritage.

Firstly, the principles of the study. Early on I came to the conclusion that the Internet should allow access to Museums for all those people who could not afford, or did not have the time, to visit in person. So, I’m looking for online/virtual visits that have something about them almost as good as a physical visit. Secondly, I’m looking for online exhibitions that provide an enjoyable experience that works in a similar way to a real exhibition. This means for me that the technology does not get in the way, and is not too complex to access and use. I also have an interested in digital guided walking tours.

I must admit that 40 years after I began to see the potential in digital I rarely see virtual visits or exhibitions that I want to spend time with. When I use websites for data and information, which I do all the time. I search, I find, I read but I don’t often linger for pleasure and. I rarely go back.

Yes we have Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and the Metaverse, but they don’t really impact positively on my experience of heritage, history and museums. This might well be because I haven’t looked very hard, or spent much time on the subject in recent years, or because I don’t enjoy digital experiences that much, But, I’m going to have a good look around to see what is on offer, and I hope you will join me.

My starting point is the Old Operating Theatre Museum web site. I was in charge of the Museum for 30 years from the mid 80s onwards. In the early days of my management of the Museum I set up a very early web site designed to give those who could not visit a real idea of the Museum. This was achieved by the usual set of information pages but also with 360 degree annotated panoramic photos of the museum spaces linked together. This gave a simple and informative tour of the museum. which was easy to use, did not take long to see and did not depend on complicated technology on the part of the user. Later we added an online database of the collection to give access to the collection.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine – which is an amazing internet archive, no the internet archive, which archives old web sites, I have been able to retrieve a version of the site, dated to 2000AD so you can have a look at it. As you will see below it is very wordy but I think a really nice design by Highway 57 and Chris Sansom, who is also a composer, and now heading up an innovative jazz band called ‘Perfect Stranger’ .

Unfortunately, good though the Wayback Machine might be it does not have the technology to show the 360degree panoramas. So to get an idea of how they worked please have a look at the image at the top of the page, and imagine the addition of ‘hotspots’ which you could click to see further information or click through to the next panoramic view. Please note this is the second iteration of the site and so far I have been unable to find my original self-designed site.

Early web site of The Old Operating Theatre Museum - www.thegarret.org.uk in 2000, retrieved from the Wayback Machine
The Old Operating Theatre Museum – www.thegarret.org.uk in 2000, retrieved from the Wayback Machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20001204183100/http://www.thegarret.org

So, I think the interactive tour of the museum gave a pretty good, simple and enjoyable tour of the Museum. I should say that the Old Operating Theatre Museum is one of the most amazing Museums. It is in the roof space of a Church and was a store for herbal medicines, and an operating theatre/emergency room for female surgical patients used before anaesthesia and antiseptic surgery.

Its now 23 years later. The website has been completely redesigned since I left, and it opens with a very good video that gives an excellent introduction to the museum. Click on the link to have a look at the video on the home page @ https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

Inside the website is a huge amount of information, some very good videos, there is a ‘virtual tour’ which does not work on my browser for some reason, interactive games and a clickable image to explore the Old Operating Theatre itself. Its use of media is much, much better than in the 2000s, and the information is composed now into interesting stories rather than dry information. So a pretty good job of putting the Museum’s stories to the public in an engaging way. I would say however, that perhaps it was a little easier to find out the basic information about the Museum, the Operating Theatre, and the Herb Garret before than it now is. But you can ignore that as my vanity.

I have chosen one of the stories to include here and this is an object that I bought at an auction for the Museum. I remember the excitement well, and the great interest in the medicines that were included in the medical chest.

https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/featured-object-domestic-medicine-chest%ef%bf%bc/

Featured Object: Domestic Medicine Chest

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Jane Austen Walks

I have set up my year of Jane Austen walks.

Jane Austen’s London Walks

Georgian female engraving


Sat 2.30 pm Green Park underground station, London (north exit, on the corner)

on the following dates in 2023: 2 April. 11 June. 9 September. 12 November.

And a Special Christmas version on 23 December 2023

An exploration of Mayfair, the centre of the London section of Sense & Sensibility and where Jane came to visit her brother

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Jane Austen devotee in possession of the good fortune of a couple of free hours today must be in want of this walk.”

People associate Jane Austen and her characters with a rural setting. But London is central to both Jane Austen’s real life and her literary life. So, this tour will explore Jane’s connections with London and give the background to Sense and Sensibility, a good part of which is based in this very area. We begin with the place Jane’s coach would arrive from Hampshire, and then walk the streets haunted by Willougby; past shops visited by the Palmers, the Ferrars; visit the location of Jane Austen’s brother’s bank and see the publisher of Jane’s Books. The area around Old Bond Street was the home of the Regency elite and many buildings and a surprising number of the shops remain as they were in Jane Austen’s day.

This is a London Walk Guided Walk lead by Kevin Flude

To Book:

Christmas With Jane Austen Virtual London Tour

12th Night


Saturday 23 December 2023 7.30pm

We look at how Jane Austen spent Christmas and at Georgian Christmas traditions and amusements.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Jane Austen devotee in possession of the good fortune of a couple of free hours must be in want of this virtual walk.”

This is a special walk, which looks at the traditions of Christmas during the Regency period and how Jane Austen might have celebrated it. It will give some background to Jane Austen’s life and her knowledge of London. We used her novels and her letters to find out what she might have done at Christmas, but also at how Christmas was kept in this period, and the range of ‘Curiosities, Amusements, Exhibitions, Public Establishments, and Remarkable Objects in and near London available to enjoy.

This is a London Walks Guided Walk by Kevin Flude, Museum Curator and Lecturer.

Review: ‘Thanks, again, Kevin. These talks are magnificent!’

To Book:

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Googling yourself to find your book is no 4 in a list of ‘Top Ten History Books’ of 2015!

Now here is the sort of thing you find out about yourself only if you

a. google yourself
b. go down to page 8

And there I find that thebookbag had my book as no 4 in its top ten history books of 2015, with Mary Beard at no 2.

And this is their review:

‘Divorced, Beheaded, Died…: The History of Britain’s Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude

4.5star.jpg

History lives. Proof of that sweeping statement can be had in this book, and in the fact that while it only reached the grand old age of six, it has had the dust brushed off it and has been reprinted – and while the present royal incumbent it ends its main narrative with has not changed, other things have. This has quietly been updated to include the reburial of Richard III in Leicester, and seems to have been re-released at a perfectly apposite time, as only the week before I write these words the Queen has surpassed all those who came before her as our longest serving ruler. Such details may be trivia to some – especially those of us of a more royalist bent – and important facts to others. The perfect balance of that coupling – trivia and detail – is what makes this book so worthwhile.’

135,000 copies to date in 7 editions and formats. I did suggest a new updated edition to add a section on King Charles III but they said ‘they had no plans.’

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/Top_Ten_History_Books_2015

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The Great Museum of London Reunion! (and closure)

The Great Museum of London Reunion

The Museum of London is reverting to its ‘original name’ the London Museum and moving to Smithfield. The problem is that they have decided to close the old Museum while they build the new one, which I think, sucks. To my mind a Museum’s job is to present its collection to the public: some of the objects are unique and need to be seen. To hide them all for four years because of convenience and cost savings is, I think, an abrogation of its duty. Of course, the Museum also runs the Museum of London in Docklands which is some compensation but all the same – four whole years!

So, today, it closes its doors. Then in the evening it hosts, what I imagine will be a ravening hoard of archaeologists and museum staff, for the greatest of all reunions. I’m very excited. I will be looking out for 2 wives, several ex-girlfriends and loads of old friends and colleagues many of whom I have not met for a very long time. I split up with Julie, my first wife, in our first few months as archaeologists at the Museum and a few years later met Poppy, the mother of our children, who worked as a Conservator at the Museum.

As I was a trade union representative while at the Museum, and co-edited the scurrilous archaeological ‘fanzine’ called ‘Radio Carbon’ I was, therefore, more often than most archaeologists to be found at the Museum. There I got to know quite a few of the Museum staff. So its going to be a blast. The original invitation was for a 2 hour event, which was then increased to 3 hours, and yesterday it was increased to 4 hours with live showing of England’s world cup game.

Radio Carbon (the author is to the left with finger up his nose)

Photos: Left: Kevin Flude in the Museum’s Library, One of my few claims to fame is that I introduced computers to the Museum of London (and the V&A)

Centre: Archaeologists at the GPO site (near St Pauls) the author in the front row with glasses surrounded by so many friends!

Right: Dig Party held at Trig Lane with home made fairground attractions and cocktails such as the Portaloo Flush (as I remember it vodka dyed blue with added raisins.) The author is in the foreground to the left. (photo Derek Gadd)

The original museum for London was called the Guildhall Museum, founded in 1826 and the repository for treasures found in the ‘City of London and suburbs’, and founded by the City Corporation. The foundation of the London County Council changed the balance of power in the metropolis and in 1912, the ‘suburbs’ struck out on their own and the London Museum was founded as a museum of the whole of London. It was encouraged by the Royal Family, particularly Queen Mary, and found a home in the Royal Palace of Kensington.

the London Museum (I think!)

In 1965 an Act of Parliament merged the two museums from which emerged the Museum of London which was purpose built, and it was to be funded one third each by the Government, the City and the Greater London Council. This was changed when Mrs Thatcher abolished the London Council and the funding was swapped to 50% City and 50% the Government.

The Museum of London
The Museum of London at night (photo K Flude)

In the interim before the new museum was built, the Guildhall Museum set up a temporary display at the Royal Exchange, and then moved into a building on the new Barbican High Walk. (thanks John Clark for information on the information on the merger.) The new museum was opened in December 1976, in a brand new building designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya. Instead of rooms with multiple exits, it was designed to allow only one route through – from the Prehistoric, through to the Romans, and then through a dark tunnel to the Dark Ages, and medieval, then downstairs down a ramp with a ceiling that echoed the Crystal Palace into Modern London. Its ethos was always to tell the story of London rather than highlight the ‘treasures’ and had people friendly, narrative driven displays of great clarity.

It will be much missed.

Roman Gallery, Museum of London
Roman Gallery, Museum of London. Mosaic to the left was excavated with the help of the author.

Aftermath

The Great Reunion was very noisy with competing sound systems and was very jolly. So great to see so many old faces (and still recognise them!) and sorry to miss so many who could not, for one reason or another, attend.

Steph, Paul, Louise, Julie
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SLAVE TRADER ROBERT MILLIGAN TO BE ‘CONTEXTUALISED’ INSIDE MUSEUM

Robert Milligan before removal

Robert Milligan once reigned supreme outside the Museum of London in Docklands as a representative of the West Indies merchants who proudly set up the West Indies docks. Now he has been removed from his prestigious position and acquired by the Museum of London. Their Docklands Museum can be seen behind the statue in this sketch. According to a statement by the Museums Association he will be ‘fully contextualised’ in the museum. The docks were set up to to maximise profits from the slave driven sugar plantations in the West Indies. Milligan was the Deputy Chairman of the project.

The museum has an excellent display on the slave trade.

Sorry for gap in posts as I’m recovering from surgery following an accident whereby a taxi driver opened his door and knocked me off my push bike so typing one handed and dealing with images is quite difficult at present. Please adopt the ‘Dutch Reach’ when opening car doors and be careful.

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A VIRTUAL TOUR THROUGH THE WHOLE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN. NO. 2 CONWY

Conwy Estuary from the Castle, looking towards Deganwy to the North

Monday 7th March 2022 7.00 pm

See the gateway to Snowdonia and its magnificent Medieval Castle, Town and Bridges

Borrowing my title from Daniel Defoe’s early chorography, my first circuit is from Chester to Edinburgh. Now on our second stop we are taking a virtual tour of the gateway to North Wales – the delightful town of Conwy.

For a small town Conwy has everything – an absolutely magnificent Medieval Castle, a City Wall that is still intact around the entire Circuit. Some of the great feats of bridge and tunnel engineering, and a pocket sized town containing historic buildings, nice pubs, and the ‘smallest house in Great Britain.’

It is not only picturesque but was a settlement of enormous strategic importance in the invasions by the Romans and the English. And to finish the tour we will take a small excursion into Snowdonia to see what it guarded

To Book:

Podcast