Doors open day at National Museum of Costume

By Laura McQueen, Visitor Services Assistant

On Sunday 25 September the National Museum of Costume held its annual Doors Open Day event. Overall the day went very well, with many activities for everyone. By the end of the day, around 700 people had visited the house, with210 stopping for refreshments in the tearoom.

As usual we had an “around the house quiz”. This year, with a Second World War theme to tie in with our Land Girls and Lumber Jills exhibition, we decided to give the children a “suitcase” to pack as if they were getting ready to be evacuated. This involved them drawing or writing down in the “suitcase” the various items to be found around the house. These items included: a jumper, plimsolls, toothbrush, underwear, gas mask etc. After they had finished they handed it back to get checked then they were given an evacuee label as a prize – now the children were ready to be evacuated to other country houses for safety!

Lumber Jills enjoying a tea break.

Outside the weather held up until the very end of the day so our “mini farm” managed to stay dry. On our farm we had chickens courtesy of Carse Farm; Floralyn, an Ayrshire cow from Halmyre Farm; and a Clydesdale horse, Skye, from Barfil Farm in full harness regalia. These animals could be found on the kinds of farms that Land Girls were sent to during the Second World War.

Skye the Clydesdale horse on the mini farm.

Floralyn the Ayrshire cow on the mini farm.

Crowds gathered around the marquee for two performances of It’s a Land Girls Life – a new work devised by local musician and songwriter Ali Burns. This was created especially for the National Museum of Costume to complement our current exhibition Land Girls and Lumber Jills. The Feral Choir performed a set of readings and songs dresses as Land Girls, farmers and farmer’s wives. Liz Kettle and David Foreman read from official wartime documents illustrating the official government perspective and Anne Armitage read experts’ oral histories collected by Elaine Edwards, Curator of the exhibition, and Ali Burns. The songs were a mixture of contemporary wartime melodies and new works by Ali, with piano accompaniment by Darcy DeSilva. The whole performance took the audience on a rousing and moving journey which ended with a précis of Gordon Brown’s speech to Land Girls at Downing Street in 2008, when they were awarded their medals. At both performances we were joined by several Land Girls, who sang to many of the songs. The choir felt it a real privilege to be singing to real Land Girls and that they had each made such an effort to attend.

The Feral Choir come in singing,

From left to right: Ali Burns, composer and choir leader, Liz Kettle and Anne Armitage, readers, May Crosbie and Margaret Pringle, former Land Girls.

Liz Kettle.

Ann Armitage.

Ali said:

“This was a totally new experience for me – to research history and be able to talk to some of the Land Girls themselves and hear their stories in their own words – totally unforgettable. I was deeply moved that some of the women I interviewed came to see the performance and came up to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed it.”

We also had our usual craft activities, which included making paper planes and churning cream to make butter! These both proved a hit with the visitors, and the workroom was full of little pots of butter by the end of the day!

Thanks go to all contributors to our wonderful day. Staff are now recovering from the hectic day and are already in preparation for our Halloween event later in October.

 

Home Front Family Day at National Museum of Costume

By Janet Slade, Visitor Services, National Museum of Costume

Well, how lucky were we at Costume with the weather for our Home Front Family Day on July 24^th?  The hottest day of the summer here so far, after weeks and weeks of rain!

As usual we had a Round-the-House quiz (Home Front theme) for children, with appropriate badges as a reward, and all the staff looked the part, dressed in typical 1940s & Women’s Voluntary Service clothing including a Land Girl and an ARP Warden.

Our Air Raid Warden has his photo taken 1940s-style.

Outside, the local Aviation Museum provided an aircraft cockpit which visitors could sit in, and the Home Front Living History Group, Roof Over Britain, brought an impressive array of vintage army vehicles which were arranged on the front lawn for everyone to admire.

Members of the Roof Over Britain home front living history group.

Highlights of the day, however, were no doubt the two performances given by Lucy Adlington, of a Land Girl preparing for her wedding.  Her informative and lively presentation, given in the shade of our newly constructed willow gazebo, attracted a full house at both sittings and was enthusiastically received.

Lucy Adlington entertains the 'troops' on the Home Front.

 

Bird boxes and big buses

By Tracey Connelly, Visitor Services Assistant

Things have been very busy at the National Museum of Costume lately with some exciting new additions to our gardens, and a visit from a special group of people.

We had a recent visit from Chris Waddell from the Learning and Programmes Team, and with some expert ladder-holding from our own Visitor Services Assistant Pen, he has placed some bird-nesting boxes around our gardens. We are keen to encourage our visitors to take note of all the different breeds of birds that we have in our gardens, so hopefully the boxes will help them to do this.  Our Garden Trail takes visitors around our grounds and points out all the different kinds of trees that we have. We are hoping that very soon we’ll have lots of new inhabitants in our nesting boxes, which will make our Garden Trail even more fun! We also have a ‘Bird Spotting Checklist’ in each of our Explorer Packs, so families can explore our grounds as well as learning all about the trees and wildlife that live in and on them!

The new birdbox in the grounds of the National Museum of Costume.

As well as having our new bird-nesting boxes installed, we have also been kept busy welcoming bus tours to National Museum of Costume. One very special group visited last Thursday – all the way from the 1940s! Both museum staff and visitors dressed up in war-time clothing and travelled from Dumfries to the museum on the big red bus! They came as part of an event day, organised in partnership with the Robert Burns Film Theatre in town. After visiting our ‘Land Girls and Lumber Jills’ exhibition and having High Tea in our Tea Room, they went back to the Film Theatre to watch the film Land Girls. Everyone had a great time and we’re already thinking about our theme and costumes for the next event that we have!

The big red bus drops our visitors off at the Museum.

Visitors dressed up 1940s-style.

The staff in 1940s outfits.

 

My first week at National Museum of Costume

By Tracey Scott, Visitor Services Assistant

As a new member of staff at the National Museum of Costume I am busy learning about many aspects of Shambellie House and National Museums Scotland. Before becoming a member of staff I regularly visited Shambellie House, paying many a visit to the Victorian Tearoom. It’s exciting to now be behind the scenes and experience the buzz and rushing about getting things ready in time for opening.

During our week’s induction before opening on April 1^st we met the Exhibitions team who were busy installing the Land Girls and Lumber Jills exhibition and also changing the look of many of the rooms. We heard some fascinating talks from Maureen Barrie from the Exhibitions team and Rose Watban, Senior Curator of  Applied Art & Design, on the inspirations for the new look and the popularity of costume jewellery. Elaine Edwards, Senior Curator at the National Museum of Rural Life, spoke about the changing fashions of the post-war era and we got our first glimpse of the beautiful clothes and jewellery on display, some of which include the French Chic and British Couture fashions.

Lumber Jills at Glendoick, Perthshire, 1943.

The first couple of weeks have been hectic but good fun. I have met the in-house cat and yes, it has been moved – to the library, where it looks very cosy. Children who visit are very good at finding the cat.

We have had quite a few Land Girls and one Lumber Jill visiting so far. It is very interesting to hear their stories and all about the experiences they had. Feedback so far on the exhibition rooms is excellent and very much enjoyed by all ages.