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Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask
Rather than focusing on the risk to the Bayeux Tapestry in its forthcoming loan to the British Museum, David Musgrove argues that we should be talking about how the massive media interest in the exhibition will surely be a huge reward for the venerable embroidery – and guarantee its long-term survival
It’s not often that a medieval embroidery gets broadcast across the huge electronic billboards at Piccadilly Circus. But that’s what happened on the morning of 26 February, as the British Museum made its first big splash to announce details of its forthcoming blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition (tickets go on sale 1 July). I was there to enjoy the experience, and it was a delight to see an artefact that I’ve spent a long time thinking about getting the full film-star treatment (I’m co-author of The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry). The exhibition is not without controversy. Questions have been raised by French campaigners and one celebrated English artist (David Hockney) on how fit the Bayeux Tapestry is to travel, and whether it’s right to subject this venerable artefact to the rigours of a trip from Normandy to London. These are reasonable concerns, but they miss the point. Yes, there is risk, but what about the reward? What does the Tapestry gain from being transported and displayed in such a high-profile way? I’d argue that, rather than putting the Tapestry at mortal danger of destruction, the loan guarantees its long-term survival and will be a boon for the tourist business in Bayeux to boot. What other medieval artwork or contemporary documentary source could hope to receive the wall-to-wall media exposure that the Tapestry is currently receiving? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/20260226090016-92f3207-rotated-e1772119755759.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A busy city street with pedestrians and vehicles passes beneath a large digital billboard mounted on the side of a modern building. The billboard displays an advertisement for the British Museum, featuring a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, with figures in period clothing and the words “REX,” “HAROLD,” and “The British Museum – From Egypt to…”. Surrounding buildings include shops with street‑level storefronts, and a white truck and van are visible in the foreground" title="The Bayeux Tapestry is broadcast across Piccadilly Circus, 26 February 2026. It has received the “full film-star treatment”, says David Musgrove (Image by David Musgrove)" /> When the exhibition opens in London in the autumn, there surely won’t be many people who haven’t heard of the Tapestry, the story it tells and the many mysteries it still contains. The queues will be round the block to see it. And when it returns to its newly revamped museum back in Bayeux in 2027, in time for the millennial commemorations of the birth of William the Conqueror, the press interest will be just as high: people will be keen to see how it will be displayed in its new permanent home. This is priceless PR, and it will keep a steady flood of visitors heading to Normandy for years to come, paying the museum entrance fee and spending their tourist money in the town and region. That is the long-term reward for the risk of the loan. Surviving against the odds The Bayeux Tapestry is likely around 950 years old (we don’t actually know when it was made, but most experts would agree that it was shortly after the event it depicts, the Norman Conquest of 1066). It was designed to be displayed, and probably to be moved around. Whether it was made for secular great halls or to be hung around the naves of churches, it was meant for show. The artefact offers a specific, partial and male-heavy telling of the Conquest story, positioning the Norman invasion as a straight clash between two worthy military men – England’s Harold and Normandy’s William – and excluding other important figures from the narrative (women generally, Norway’s Hardrada, Harold’s brother Tostig and Edgar Ætheling, the closest blood relative to the old king Edward the Confessor). I imagine that the designers would be delighted to see that, almost a thousand years on, the Tapestry is being displayed once more to such fanfare and is still able to get its message across. Read more | The strange story of the Nazi obsession with this legendary artefact still isn't over Given the Tapestry’s age, it’s not surprising that it’s a fragile artefact. It’s been through some tough times, having nearly been chopped up in the frenzied years of the French Revolution, wound and unwound for visitors on a rolling mechanism in the 19th century, soldered into a cylindrical zinc case during the Franco-Prussian War, and manhandled by the Nazis in the 1940s. These various depredations explain why it seems to be lacking its final panel, fraying into oblivion as the defeated Anglo-Saxon troops flee the field after William’s great victory at the battle of Hastings. It’s been patched up over the years, and wears some of this repair work pretty obviously. It’s fair to say that the 19th-century restoration it underwent wasn’t always particularly sensitively done. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/Coll.ections-Musee-Tapisserie-de-Bayeux-Fonds-documentaire-H.-Jeschke-Cliche-Rolf-Alber-FT-746.44-JESPHO09-a34a40a-e1772122650745.jpg" width="613" height="429" alt="A group of high‑ranking German military officers from the World War II era stand around a large table studying the Bayeux Tapestry. They wear dark uniforms with insignia and medals, and several lean in closely as if discussing strategy. The room is formal and dimly lit, with the tapestry dominating the centre of the scene." title="Coll.ections Musée Tapisserie de Bayeux - Fonds documentaire H. Jeschke -Cliché Rolf Alber - FT 746.44 JES_PHO09" /> So yes, the Tapestry demands careful attention and handling, and yes, we need to be mindful of potholes on the roads from Bayeux to Bloomsbury. But as Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, has pointed out, the business of moving priceless and fragile historical artefacts around the world is precisely what museums do on a regular basis. French and British experts are working together to ensure that the move and redisplay in London is carried out to the highest standards. Lessons from the Ladies of Leek To see what impact the loan exhibition will have, we need only look a little to the west of London and consider the story of its fabulous full-size 19th-century replica, housed today in Reading Museum. It was made by the Ladies of the Leek Embroidery Society 140 years ago, under the strenuous stewardship of Mrs Elizabeth Wardle. Almost immediately after they’d completed their work, Mrs Wardle and the stitching Ladies of Leek allowed their labour of love to go on tour, around the UK, and as far afield as Germany and the US. At a time when international travel was more challenging than today, the replica gave crowds on both sides of the Atlantic a first-hand view of this celebrated medieval artwork. Read more | Michael Wood on women's contributions to the Bayeux Tapestry Five times in the 20th century, requests were made from the UK for a loan of the original Bayeux Tapestry: in 1931, 1953, 1966, 1972 and 1980. All these attempts to secure a loan came to nought. In 1953, staff at the V&A were so confident that the Tapestry was coming that they prepared an introductory guidebook, and, as I reported in a recent article for HistoryExtra, in 1980 officials even considered whether a trip to Bayeux by the Queen Mother might have helped seal a deal. In 1966, negotiations faltered because it wasn’t clear to the British delegates whether they should be talking to the French state or the municipality of Bayeux to make progress. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/GettyImages-2236196240-7778166-e1772120361828.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A person in a white protective suit and blue gloves adjusts a large historic tapestry that hangs from a metal rail system in a controlled conservation workspace. The tapestry shows intricate woven patterns and text, and the individual is carefully supporting its surface with both hands, highlighting the delicate, detailed work of preserving cultural artefacts" title="A worker prepares the Bayeux Tapestry for transfer to the British Museum, September 2025. There were five attempts at securing a loan of this kind in the 20th century, all of which failed (Image by Getty Images)" /> In that year, the 900th anniversary of the battle of Hastings, though the original did not cross the Channel, the Reading replica sated the interest in Britain for a Bayeux Tapestry tour. It was sent on an extensive exhibition circuit around the UK from 1965 to 1967. From Aberdeen to Bournemouth, via Gateshead, Anglesey, Doncaster, Hereford and many other stops between, the replica was on show to anyone who wanted to have a look at this recreation of the medieval marvel. It was this sort of exposure that helped to cement the Tapestry’s place in our national consciousness as the archetypal artwork of the Middle Ages. Read more | The Bayeux Tapestry: a political football for 900 years From Tutmania to Tapmania If the Reading replica’s extensive touring schedule through the 19th and 20th centuries has helped to drive awareness of the Bayeux Tapestry, that is nothing to what the loan of the original 11th-century embroidery will do when it comes to London this year. Interest will be stratospheric. As Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye, noted in a parliamentary debate on the Tapestry on 25 February, “The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum will be the exhibition of a generation”. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/K08G5Y-3103f6b-e1772120781998.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing mounted soldiers in chainmail riding horses and holding spears, arranged in a dynamic battle scene. Decorative animals and motifs run along the top and bottom borders, and a line of Latin text appears above the riders." title="A section of Reading Museum’s replica Bayeux Tapestry. This facsimile toured the UK after requests for the original to be loaned were rejected (Image by Alamy)" /> She’s right, based on the recent polling carried out on behalf of the British Museum that says that 71 per cent of parents want their child to learn more about the story of the Tapestry whilst it is in the UK. Those children will, in time, want to share the memory of this experience with their offspring, and so the Tapestry will indeed get a generational boost from this. According to the British Museum’s chair of trustees, George Osborne, 7.5 million visitors are expected to flock to see the Tapestry. This loan will do for early medieval history what the mighty Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum in 1972 did for Egyptology. Tutmania blossomed then, and Tapmania will bloom among us this year. The ongoing visitor flow to Bayeux will mean that it will be amply financially supported for decades to come. That’s the reward to balance the risk, and that’s why the forthcoming loan to the British Museum is something we should celebrate and be immensely excited about.
"Museums are magical places": Kavita Puri on a new initiative encouraging close encounters with history
Kavita Puri on a groundbreaking museum initiative by the V&A
Museums are magical places. They are the keepers of so many histories and stories from near and far. However, there’s a large part of every museum that most people never see. Behind the scenes lies another world: one of conservation, upkeep, research and the moving around of collections, perhaps for an exhibition or to loan to another museum. But what if you could walk around those areas in which objects are stored and restored? What if you could hold the object that you wanted to study or observe up close? That’s now possible in the new V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. This huge space spanning four levels is home to some 250,000 objects and 350,000 books from the museum’s collection. Its 1,000 archives document a diverse array of subjects, including the Glastonbury Festival and the world of theatre and performance. Read more | Michael Wood on the future of the Parthenon Sculptures Dotted throughout the building are 100 mini-displays on topics ranging from resistance movements to the artistry of east London, charting how and why items are collected and preserved, and outlining the latest scholarship on their stories. They also explore the ways in which archives and collections are part of creative expression and understanding, and how we describe and contextualise the past. The workings of museum practice are made transparent here. As a trustee of the V&A, I have been watching this remarkable and ambitious project unfold across recent years. I’ve admired the extraordinary care taken in all aspects of the process, from the moving and installation of objects to consideration of how the visitor experience can be enhanced. The first object moved into the V&A East Storehouse was a very large installation. It’s a significant example of brutalism: a two-storey section of a maisonette from Robin Hood Gardens. This housing estate in Poplar, east London, was completed in 1972 and demolished from 2017 as part of the redevelopment of the area. Now viewable from different angles and heights, the maisonette is sure to provoke further debate about urbanism and the interplay between people and architecture. The last object to be brought to the site, meanwhile, was an 11-metre-wide backdrop by Pablo Picasso for the 1924 Ballets Russes production Le Train Bleu. It’s rarely been seen before because of its huge size (and the fact that it weighs 350kg!), but a special gallery has been built in the Storehouse to exhibit large textiles and stage exhibits such as this magnificent example. Read more | Kavita Puri's hidden histories: "Samba schools used the carnival to foreground overlooked histories" There are many other significant objects displayed here that will catch your breath. You can stand under the vast, late 15th-century Torrijos Ceiling, taken from the Palacio de Altamira near Toledo in Spain, and gaze up in wonder at its carved and gilded designs that nod to Islamic artistic tradition. And you can admire the marble arches of the Agra Colonnade, built in India in the mid-17th century, during the Mughal period. Possibly the Storehouse’s most pioneering innovation, though, is its Order an Object service. Anyone can book a one-to-one encounter with an item from the collection, whether it’s an ancient Egyptian shoe, a costume by performance artist Leigh Bowery, a Japanese tea ceremony set, or a print by the pioneering designer Althea McNish. This concept is a world first. To be able to experience the materiality of an object – to touch or see it close up, previously possible only for museum practitioners – is a game changer. It will shift the relationship between the audience and the collection, and it’s hoped that it will also inspire creativity and encourage new questions. With the museum practice opened up for all to see, to witness, even to hold, this offers an entirely new way to be part of the magic. This column was first published in the July 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine
Virtual museum and monument tours: how to explore the wonders of history from your home
Many museums have opened up their doors to the wonders of virtual reality, letting you ‘walk around’ and admire exhibitions from the comfort of your own home. Emma Slattery Williams of BBC History Revealed shares just a few of the museums, artefacts and historical spaces that you can explore from afar…
The Vatican Where? Vatican City What? A virtual reality tour You don’t need to be in Rome to visit the smallest sovereign state in the world. The Vatican has created a series of virtual tours that let you loose inside the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church – the home of the Pope and one of the most important churches in Christianity, St Peter’s Basilica.The Vatican City traces its history back to the fourth century, when a church was built over the tomb of St Peter – one of Jesus’s 12 apostles and widely regarded as the founder of the Catholic Church. In the 16th century, a new church replaced the 1,200-year-old one, and it’s still standing today. This is the current St Peter’s Basilica – and the tomb of St Peter is believed to be directly under the high altar. The basilica is a renowned piece of Renaissance architecture. A range of 360° virtual tours will transport you around some of the grand rooms and chapels within the Vatican, allowing you to admire the exquisite paintings and sculptures of one of the largest art collections in the world. You can also take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel; one of the highlights of a trip to the Vatican, the chapel is perhaps most famous for its impressive ceiling mural, painted by Michelangelo. It’s also where the papal conclave (the election of a new pope) typically takes place. The Vatican boasts many museums within its complexes, too, and it has opened up a number of these collections to virtual visitors. One that you can peruse through your phone is the Pio Clementino Museum. Named after the two popes who supervised its creation, Clement XIV and Pius VI, it houses ancient Greek and Roman sculptures as well as the finely-carved sarcophagus of St Helena – the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who was famously the first Roman ruler to adopt the Christian faith. Petra Where? Petra, Jordan What? A virtual reality trek and tour The ancient city of Petra in Jordan is one of the world’s most valuable archaeological sites. Known as the ‘Rose City’, every dwelling, tomb and temple was painstakingly carved directly into the sandstone cliffs – with the rockface’s vibrant colour giving many of the buildings a distinctive rose-pink lustre. Settled by the Nabataeans in the 3rd century BC, the city flourished until at least the 6th century AD. There’s evidence of a Crusader outpost in the vicinity in the 12th century, but after that the ruins were lost to the Western world until their rediscovery in the 19th century. Since then they have attracted worldwide attention – particularly from Hollywood directors. The city has often been used as a filming location, perhaps most famously as a backdrop for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: the eastern entrance to Petra inspired the film’s invented Canyon of the Crescent Moon. Google has created a virtual tour of the mysterious city that allows you to clamber among the cliffs and experience this ancient wonder first-hand. Trekking through the city, you can explore a number of locations, accompanied by an audio track that’s brimming with fascinating facts about Petra. Palace of Versailles Where? Versailles, France What? A virtual reality tour The marvellous imagination of King Louis XIV transformed what was once a small hunting lodge into an extravagant palace that became the home of the French court. The Sun King wanted to create a royal residence that would be the envy of the world, and it seems he succeeded: his successors continued to add to the palace until revolution rocked the country in 1789, and the palace today is a sprawl of 2,300 rooms, each more elegant than the last. A virtual tour (offered by Google) takes you into some of the palace’s grandest rooms – including the Hall of Mirrors, where the walkway’s glittering chandeliers and opulent gold furnishings are dizzyingly reflected in the myriad of mirrors that line the walls. The hall was also the site where the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, thereby ending World War I. Some of the palace’s past and present exhibitions can also be explored online. The Anne Frank House Where? Amsterdam, the Netherlands What? A virtual reality tour In 1942, Otto Frank and his family went into hiding in a secret annex above Otto’s offices. The family had moved to the Netherlands from their native Germany in the summer of 1933, after the Nazi Party’s rise to power. The Nazis occupied the Netherlands in 1940, and two years later Otto decided to take his wife and two daughters into hiding. They moved, suddenly and secretly, into an annex within his office, where they were soon joined by another Jewish family, the Pels, and a family friend, dentist Fritz Pfeffer. The Franks remained here for 761 days. This virtual tour lets you experience what it was like in the cluster of rooms hidden behind a bookcase. It was here, secluded from the outside world save for the small cadre of helpers in office beyond, that young Anne Frank would chronicle her and family’s lives in her diary. If you have a virtual reality headset, you can also navigate the annex in VR. Anne’s last diary entry was on 1 August 1944. Three days later, the Nazis raided the annex; the Franks, the Pels and Pfeffer were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Otto was the only one to survive, freed from Auschwitz when the Soviets liberated it in 1945. Anne and her sister Margot ended up in Bergen-Belsen, where they both died of typhus – aged 15 and 19 respectively – just a few months before it was liberated. Otto returned to Amsterdam, where he discovered that Anne’s diary had been found and saved by one of their former helpers. It was published as The Diary of a Young Girl in 1947, and since been reprinted in 60 languages. How was Anne Frank's diary edited by her father? The Colosseum Where? Rome, Italy What? A virtual reality tour Imagine the roar of the crowd as a gladiator stands victorious in the Colosseum’s pit, blood-stained sword in hand, having just bested their foe in deadly combat. From grand mock battles to one-on-one bouts and grisly executions, the Colosseum was the heart of life in ancient Rome and could hold around 50,000 spectators. Since 2010, visitors to the arena have been able to navigate the underground tunnels known as the hypogeum, where the animals and warriors who awaited their turn in the arena were kept. Who were gladiators in ancient Rome? Now, with the help of Google, you can explore the Colosseum’s labyrinthine walkways and virtually stand in the grand amphitheatre that was once home to Rome’s greatest – and bloodiest – entertainment. How do you think you would have fared? The British Museum Where? London, UK What? Walkthrough and Collection explorer The British Museum houses some of the most famous artefacts from across the world (and across time) – and now you can stroll through the museum online. As well as virtually roaming the museum’s galleries, you can also look in depth at their collections. From the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles to Hoa Hakananai’a – the moai statue from Easter Island – there are priceless objects from a wealth of civilisations waiting to be explored. The best historical audiobooks to listen to right now The National Computing Museum Where? Milton Keynes, UK What? A virtual tour It seems only right that the location for the National Computing Museum is in the grounds of Bletchley Park, the centre of Allied codebreaking during World War II and the site of the development of the world’s first computer. Most of the museum’s exhibits can be explored via a virtual tour, including the world’s oldest working computer, the Harwell Dekatron. The museum also holds a replica of the device used to crack Germany’s Enigma code. Museo Nacional de Anthropologia Where? Mexico City, Mexico What? A virtual tour Mexico’s national museum, located in Mexico City, has some of the country’s most important pre-Columbian artefacts, including the Aztec Calendar stone, known as the Stone of the Sun, giant head sculptures from the Olmec civilisation and treasures from the Mayan city of Chichen Itza. Another highlight of the museum is the supposed headdress of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma – a man who, it’s said, drank 50 cups of hot chocolate a day to enhance his ‘prowess’. Get up close to some of these amazing finds with the museum’s 360° virtual tour. The National Museum of Natural History Where? Washington, DC, USA What? A virtual tour Run by the Smithsonian Institution, this venerable edifice is one of the most visited natural history museums in the world. Go online to take a walk through the exhibits, which range from the dinosaurs that used to roam America (including a 11.6m-long Tyrannosaurus rex), the world-famous (and quite unusually blue) Hope Diamond and a fossilised Neanderthal. The Tyrannosaurus rex on display was found in 1988. It’s unusual in that more than 80 per cent of its skeleton was uncovered. The Louvre Where? Paris, France What? A virtual tour Standing in the ground of the former royal palace of the same name, the Louvre Musuem is the largest art museum in the world. In just a few clicks of a mouse, you could be admiring the opulent Grand Salon in the apartments of Napoleon III before casting your gaze on the sculptures of the Ancient Greeks. In addition to its most famous resident – Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’– the Louvre houses one of the world’s largest Egyptian collections, a combination of objects from the French royal collection, as well as from Napoleon’s Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign in 1798. This latter campaign led to the discovery of thousands of artefacts and gave birth to Europe’s fascination with Egypt and the rise of Egyptology. We update this page regularly, so keep checking back for new recommendations of virtual tours. Last updated 21 April 2020 This content first appeared in BBC History Revealed magazine
Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: 10 things we learned
To coincide with the British Library’s Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition – a feast of Anglo-Saxon art and treasures – an international conference was held earlier this month to showcase the very latest research on manuscripts from the period. Dr Colleen Curran shares 10 revelations, from the material used to create the huge Codex Amiatinus Bible to the surprisingly close ties between Anglo-Saxon England and the continent…
It's one of the finest exhibits at the British Library. Aimed at both specialists and non-specialists, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms – curated by Clare Breay alongside Jo Story and Alison Hudson – takes viewers on a familiar historical journey that includes memorable kings like Alfred and Edgar, and features locations with recognisable names. Alongside all this, the exhibition presents the period's manuscript and book culture to provide a narrative that explores the extensive networks of influence at home and abroad that gave rise – and fall – to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Read more: "An absolute gem": Anglo-Saxons at the British Library What did the Anglo-Saxons ever do for us? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2018/10/Alfred-Jewel-9209687.jpg" width="799" height="799" alt="The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)" title="The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)" /> To explore the historical, literary, art historical, and cross-cultural contexts that gave rise to these Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, the exhibition organisers arranged a two-day conference – Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms – in mid-December, followed by a one-day Early Career Researchers symposium, to highlight the current scholarship on some of the manuscripts present in the exhibit. Here’s some of what we learned… The Codex Amiatinus was written on predominantly parchment made from goats, not calves For decades, scholars believed that the Codex Amiatinus – one of three huge Latin bibles produced at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the north-east of England in the early eighth century – was written on calf skin, hence why the parchment is so fine in certain places in the book. Jiří Vnouček of the University of York revealed, however, that the book is predominantly written on parchment made from goats. The parchment is thin in certain places because the skin was peeled into two pieces to be more efficient (there are more than 500 sheets of parchment in the Codex Amiatinus). Modern technology can help to recreate burned or damaged manuscripts This innovation is thanks to Christina Duffy, an imaging scientist at the British Library, and her multi-spectral images [an imaging technique that produces images in different spectral ranges. It can reveal can reveal information in a document that cannot be seen by the human eye]. View oEmbed on the source website As a result, Jon Wilcox (University of Iowa) and Alison Hudson of the British Library (among others) were able to read previously illegible manuscripts. Wilcox was able to analyse one of Wulfstan's lost sermons from the early 11th century, which were on sheets that were recycled as binding fragments and were later dyed blue by a reagent in an attempt to enhance the faded text. Hudson presented the now charred Æthelweard's Chronicle, which was imaged along with other burned Anglo-Saxon manuscripts – some of which had not been read since 1731. View oEmbed on the source website We heard what chants with two-part singing technique might have sounded like at 10th-century Winchester Susan Rankin, a professor of medieval music at the University of Cambridge, introduced us to a 10th-century manuscript that provides evidence of how monks at Winchester learned to sing in two parts. She also talked about the earliest techniques for singing in two parts, and showed how it was done at Winchester with assistance from two of her doctoral students, Chloe and Adam, who performed this polyphonic chant. Anglo-Saxon England was extremely well-connected with the continent Lawrence Nees, a professor of medieval art at the University of Delaware, demonstrated how scribes with different backgrounds and styles – Insular and Continental – came together as teams to produce some unwieldy codices, and left marks of their individual training on the composite tomes, particularly through similar illuminations. Becky Lawton of the University of Leicester discussed the papal letters that were received in early Anglo-Saxon England. These letters would have been written on papyrus and would have needed to be read aloud by the messenger, because the script was difficult to read and not everyone was literate. Very few survive, perhaps because papyrus does not fare well in damp, cold climates. Listen | Claire Breay explores the cultural highlights of the Anglo Saxons Anglo-Saxon manuscripts moved – both at home and abroad Francesca Tinti (University of the Basque Country) demonstrated the connection between travelling ecclesiastics and literacy, as well as the production of medieval books on the road. A canon prescribes that priests travelling to their annual diocesan synod [church council] needed to bring their liturgical vestments and books. The priests needed to also bring ink (blaec) and parchment (bocfel, literally meaning bookskin) so as to be able to write down the ordinances emanating from the synod itself. They would probably refer to the resulting written parchment also as a boc (or book). Jo Story, a professor of early medieval history at the University of Leicester, illuminated how close the continent really was – tidal charts suggest that it was easier to get to Quentovic (in modern day France) than Lundenwic (Anglo-Saxon London) from Canterbury. Books could move easily between Anglo-Saxon England and Europe, and approximately 80 per cent of surviving manuscripts in Insular script made before c850 are found in repositories outside Britain and Ireland (about 45 per cent survive in Germany alone). Objects from Anglo-Saxon England are indicative of far-reaching trade Louise Garner of Durham University revealed findings from Team Pigment (based at Durham and Northumbria Universities) that suggest some Canterbury-made manuscripts used lapus lazuli, which indicates there was trade between Anglo-Saxon England and what is now Afghanistan. Other pigments were easier to obtain, including the incredibly toxic orpiment (yellow), and others were more local, such as indigo or verdigris. Read more: The astonishing Æthelstan 10 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Anglo-Saxons Who was King Alfred the Great? Old English was far more prolific and survived for much longer than we might think Helen Gittos of the University of Oxford explicated how some liturgical rituals – like the trial by ordeal, confession, and marriage – would have involved the use of the vernacular, Old English, rather than only Latin. Stanford University’s Elaine Treharne described how Old English writing did not die with the Norman Conquest. Instead, English continued to be produced throughout the 12th century, as indicated by the Letter of Eadwine of New Minster to Ælfsige, Bishop of Winchester – an English visionary text probably adapted in the 12th century from earlier stories, and surviving in two versions. Anglo-Saxon England and its literature were connected to the classical past Andy Orchard of the University of Oxford demonstrated that the Beowulf poet employs sophisticated patterns of unique compounds throughout the poem to create a highly developed and complex poetical structure that strongly suggests literary-formulaic rather than oral-formulaic production. He also showed how Anglo-Latin poets, notably Alcuin and Bede, employed very similar techniques and themes, so highlighting the value of comparing the twin traditions together. Robert Gallagher of the University of Oxford established that, in addition to being connected with the classical past, later Anglo-Saxon England was also creating new Latin poetry. During the reign of King Aethelstan (924–939) we specifically see the composition of Latin poetry at the cosmopolitan royal court, most of which praised the king. The medieval people who owned books interacted with them in various different ways Teresa Webber of the University of Cambridge explained how books could be experienced visually as symbolic objects and aurally when their contents were read aloud. In religious communities, in addition to the Gospel and Epistle readings intoned by the deacon and subdeacon at Mass, lectors [readers] intoned readings each day from the Bible, the commentaries and homilies of the Church Fathers, and saints' lives in the office of Matins and during mealtimes in the refectory. Instruction in this 'public reading' formed part of the grammar teaching received by children being brought up as monks and clerics, who would participate as lectors from a young age. Christine Voth of the University of Göttingen presented on a 10th-century medical manuscript to which medical professionals continuously added new remedies. These remedies use vocabulary that is consistent in translation of medical terms from Latin, which indicates that this was highly specialised knowledge. Read more: Edmund Ironside: Anglo-Saxon warrior king (exclusive to The Library) Alfred the Great's rebel nephew Scribes in Anglo-Saxon England could – and did – change their script, which was indicative of wider cultural shifts Richard Gameson of the University of Durham demonstrated how monks at Wearmouth-Jarrow changed between uncial, a continental script made up of capitals, and insular minuscule, a regional script consisting of upper and lowercase letters – even in the same manuscript. This change was structured and intended to distinguish between biblical text (uncial) and biblical commentary (Insular minuscule). Additionally, the change in script demonstrates an openness to meld continental and insular features. Julia Crick of Kings College London explained how points of continuity with the scribal past existed in 11th-century England, even after the Norman Conquest. We tend to think of the Norman Conquest as decimating all facets of English culture, but Crick showed how Norman and English scribes worked side by side and learned various scribal elements from each other. Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms runs at the British Library until 19 February 2019. Dr Colleen Curran works for the Consolidated Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry at the University of Oxford. You can find her on Twitter @cmcurran21.
Kathleen Doyle and Tuija Ainonen discuss a project that has made hundreds of medieval manuscripts available to view online
Kathleen Doyle and Tuija Ainonen discuss a major Anglo-French project that has made hundreds of medieval manuscripts available for the public to view online.
An exhibition featuring China’s famous Terracotta Warriors has gone on display in the UK. Here, we take a closer look at some of the artefacts on show...
A new exhibition featuring artefacts from one of the world’s greatest archaeological excavations has gone on display at Liverpool’s World Museum. China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors opened to the public earlier this week, showcasing a group of 10 Terracotta Warriors plus material from museums and institutes from across Shaanxi Province, China. Created to guard the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of a united China, the spectacular warriors offer an insight into life in the country more than 2,000 years ago. The vast army was discovered by chance in 1974, and consists of 8,000 life-sized pottery figures, around 700 terracotta horses and 130 terracotta chariots. China’s First Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors is open at Liverpool’s World Museum from 9 February until 28 October 2018
No Man’s Land: Women photographers in the First World War
A new exhibition exploring female perspectives on the First World War has opened at Impressions Gallery in Bradford, featuring images taken by women working on the frontline, as well as contemporary artists directly inspired by the conflict. We talked to Dr Pippa Oldfield, curator of the exhibition, to find out more… Please note this article contains images of a sensitive nature
Irene ‘Winkie’ Gartside-Spaight in no man’s land. Photograph by Mairi Chisholm, c1916. (The National Library of Scotland) Q. What was the inspiration for the exhibition? A. We wanted to commemorate the centenary of the First World War at Impressions Gallery, but take a different angle. We decided to look at women’s experiences of the First World War through their photography. There has been quite a lot of focus recently on women’s roles in the first world war, but their contribution to war photography seems to have been ignored in favour of photos made by men. As a curator, what I was interested in doing was finding out what kind of pictures women took and how their use of photography would express their own experiences and perspective. That was the question that kicked off the project. Q. What do these photographs tell us about women’s experiences? A. Women couldn’t join the armed forces as soldiers during the First World War, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get involved in other ways. While many women worked on the home front, others volunteered for overseas positions. The women in our exhibition – Mairi Chisholm, Florence Farmborough and Olive Edis – were all working overseas during the war and taking photographs coming from different angles. Mairi Chisolm is a particularly interesting case study. She was this intrepid ambulance driver who volunteered to join the Flying Ambulance Corps when she was 18-years-old. She then went with her friend Elsie Knocker to set up a first aid post in Belgium just yards away from the trenches, and she used a snapshot camera to take photographs of the kind of things she was seeing and experiencing. Some of her images are horrific – particularly those depicting dead soldiers and no man’s land – but they also depict plenty of fun moments too. There are quite a few photographs that she took that show Elsie joking around with the Belgian soldiers. Her images show how people can make the best of difficult and traumatic circumstances. They’re very warm and human – quite different to the official war photography that was released at that time. So compared to someone like Horace Nicholls [appointed Home Front Official Photographer during the First World War], whose images of women’s war work on the home front are very orderly and composed, Mairi’s photographs are incredibly personal and spontaneous. They are almost reminiscent of the type of images people take on their mobile phones today. Elsie Knocker. Photograph by Mairi Chisholm. (National Library of Scotland) Q. What can you tell us about photography in general at the time? A. At the time of the First World War, snapshot cameras were still a very recent invention. They were cheap and portable, so you didn’t have to be a professional photographer to take pictures. It was a really big watershed moment in the history of war photography because it meant that ordinary people could capture their experiences. Kodak even marketed one particular snapshot camera – the Vest Pocket Kodak – as a soldier’s camera that could be taken to the front line and used to make a memento of the war. Despite being advertised for soldiers, snapshot cameras were actually banned at the beginning of the war by Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War. You have to remember that at this point in time newspapers were not permitted to show dead bodies, and the government didn’t want photos depicting the true horrors of war from reaching the general public. The ban was also in place to try to control incidents such as the publication of snapshots from the Christmas truce of December 1914 [an unofficial ceasefire that took place on the western front]. These images, showing troops ‘fraternising’ with the enemy, went against the nationalistic ethos of the day. Q. How much would a snapshot camera cost? A. When first introduced in the UK in 1912, they cost £1.10 (about £70 in today’s money). They weren’t super cheap, but they were certainly accessible to a lot of people. By 1915 at least 28,000 cameras had been sold in the UK alone. A lot of the women who volunteered to go to the western front were upper or middle-class, so they could generally afford a camera. Q. Tell us about Olive Edis, who features in the exhibition. She has been described as the UK’s first official female war photographer– is this true? A. I would say that she is the UK’s first official female photographer who was sent to a war zone. That’s because there was also the military photographer Christina Broom, who was official photographer to the Household Division, but she was based in the UK during the war and didn’t go abroad. Olive Edis was sent to Northern France and Flanders. She was not the first female war photographer to be officially commissioned in the world though – there are claims for other women in Spain, Mexico and the USA. Commandant Johnson and two other women of the General Service Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Motor Convoy outside Nissen Huts, Abbeville, France, 1919. Photograph by Olive Edis. (IWM Q8036) Q. How significant were Olive’s achievements? A. It was a massive step forward for women. There weren’t that many professional photographers at the western front anyway – we’re talking less than 10 – so the fact that one of them was a woman was quite remarkable. What’s interesting about Olive is that she was a portrait photographer, so she would traditionally work in a studio. That was the kind of photography that women were ‘allowed’ to do at the time. Being commissioned to photograph war, which was traditionally seen as a masculine field, was really quite unusual. Olive was quite revolutionary in that sense. Miss Minns, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), matron of a hospital on the quay at Le Havre, France, 1919. Photograph by Olive Edis. (IWM Q8051) Q. Did women capture images or moments that perhaps wouldn’t have been noticed by a man? Is there a gender aspect to these photographs? A. When I first began my PhD research into women and war photography, I did wonder whether men and women take different pictures. There is an assumption that women would shy away from taking pictures of the grislier details of war, but you can see from the photographs in our exhibition that this not the case. So I would say that the answer is no, but I think it’s also a bit more complicated than that. A dead Russian soldier, photographed on the road to Monasterzhiska (Ukraine). Photograph by Florence Farmborough, 1916. (IWM Q98431) In my opinion, there is nothing intrinsically different between men and women that makes them want to photograph different things. Where you do see differences in their work, this tends to be informed by access and the constraints or limitations imposed on gender roles. For example, if women are more likely to be working in nursing during the war, then naturally you might find more photos of that type of work. But it doesn’t mean that women are intrinsically more interested in photographing nursing than men. One interesting thing to consider is whether women behave differently with female photographers. Olive Edis was commissioned by the Women’s Work Sub-Committee because they thought that she would get a different response than a male photographer. They believed that she would be more accepted by the women she was commissioned to photograph and could therefore get more intimate pictures. In this sense, the photographs that men and women take can perhaps be influenced by power dynamics and relationships. Q. You mentioned that women’s contribution to war photography seems to have been overlooked in favour of photos made by men. Why is this? A. The contribution of women to war photography is generally overlooked and underrated. There have been hundreds and hundreds of female photographers who have been ignored, so there’s still a lot of work to do to get them into the history books. Part of the reason for this is that war has always been gendered as a masculine activity. In terms of photography and visual media, it just follows on from that. So war photography is something people associate with a daring photo-journalist out on the front line risking his life alongside the soldiers – someone like Robert Capa, for example, who made iconic pictures of the Spanish Civil War and the D-Day landings. Of course, this is something that has been difficult for women to emulate. Women have often been forbidden from being at the front lines, and historically their photographs have been received differently, perhaps considered not ‘authentic’, simply because they have not been made by a man. That’s something I hope this exhibition will demystify – the authentic experience of women who have experienced war. Their images are equally powerful and arresting. Russian Cossack troops in winter uniforms outside their accommodation huts. Photograph by Florence Farmborough. (IWM Q98429) Q. The exhibition includes works by modern-day photographers. What is the reason for this and what is the role of art in remembering events such as the First World War? A. The exhibition commemorates the centenary, and I wanted to reflect some of the ways in which women are photographing war, a hundred years after the conflict. There are lots of ways art helps us respond to the world. Art can move us and it can make us feel empathy. Certainly, I had quite an emotional response to some of the images produced by our contemporary photographers. Shot at Dawn by Chloe Dewe Mathews, for example, is a really interesting body of work that explores a secret chapter of history – the stories of the men, some of whom were probably suffering from PTSD, who were executed by firing squad for desertion. What Chloe did was travel to the places in Northern France and Flanders where these men were executed and photographed the site at the same time of day and in the same season. Nothing is explicitly shown in the landscape, but what is really powerful about the images is that they let your imagination fill in the blanks. That’s a good example of how photography can be used to elicit an emotional response, spark our imagination and activate memories. Private Joseph Byers and Private Andrew Evans. Time of deaths unknown. 6 February 1915. Private George E. Collins. Time of death 7:30am. 15 February 1915. Six Farm, Loker, West-Vlaanderen. From 'Shot at Dawn', 2014. (Chloe Dewe Matthews) Private Henry Hughes. Time of death 5.50am. 10 April 1918. Klijtebeek stream, Dikkebus, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen. From 'Shot at Dawn', 2014. (Chloe Dewe Matthews) Q. Tell us about some of the other images that moved you… A. I find some of the works by Mairi Chisolm really extraordinary because they show her humour and sense of mischief. There is this picture of two men on a see-saw – just yards away from no man’s land – that totally changed my view on what the First World War looked like. It’s so unexpected to see this moment of real warmth and humour taking place in such horrendous circumstances. Elsie Knocker with the see-saw at Pervyse. Photograph by Mairi Chisholm. (National Library of Scotland) Florence Farmborough, on the other hand, captured some horrifyingly brutal images while photographing on the eastern front. There is this one image that I find incredibly sad – it’s a picture of a little Romanian boy and his arm has been blasted off by shrapnel. He’s sitting on the knee of a nurse and his face is just so desolate. It’s an image that really gets to you. Gheorghi, a two-year-old who had lost his right arm, being tended to by a Red Cross nurse following fighting at Seret on the Romanian Front, 1917. Photo by Florence Farmborough. (IWM Q097851). Q. What are you hoping that the audience takes away from this exhibition? A. I hope the exhibition helps to broaden people’s understanding of what the war was really like and how it affected people. I hope that it helps to move people away from the idea that experiences of war are by nature a masculine experience. And although the subject matter of war is of course often upsetting, I also want people to take something positive from the women featured in the exhibition. I hope visitors will look back at them from the 21st century and see how pioneering they were and the risks that they took. I think their stories are really inspiring and I think people will go away from this exhibition feeling inspired too. Dr. Pippa Oldfield is Head of Programme at Impressions Gallery in Bradford and curator of No Man’s Land: Women’s Photography and the First World War. The exhibition will run at the gallery until the 30th December before beginning a tour of UK venues in 2018 and 2019, including Bristol Cathedral, The Turnpike in Leigh, and Bishop Auckland Town Hall. The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund for Historical Photographic Research. For more information about women's experiences during the First World War, BBC One's new six-part series Women at War: 100 Years of Service is currently airing. The first four episodes are on BBC iPlayer now.
Some 200 pairs of shoes go on show at the V&A, London, this June in an exhibition that considers the cultural significance and transformative capacity of footwear throughout history
‘Parakeet’ shoes by Caroline Groves, 21st century © Photography by Dan Lowe French evening shoe of beaded silk and leather, Roger Vivier for Christian Dior, 1958-60 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Ancient Egyptian sandal, gilded and incised leather and papyrus, c30 BC–AD 300 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Red ballet shoes made for Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) in The Red Shoes, 1948 © Photograph reproduced with the kind permission of Northampton Museums and Art Gallery Wedding toe-knob paduka from India, silver and gold over wood, 1800s © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Gilded and marbled leather men's shoes, 1925 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Chopines, punched kid leather over carved pine, Venice, Italy, c1600s © Victoria and Albert Museum, London Shoes: Pleasure and Pain is on show at the V&A Museum, London, from 13 June–31 January 2016. For more information, and to book tickets, visit the museum website