Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews
I returned last week from a British Council funded trip to India. The purpose of the trip was to build links with Museums in India, and most specifically those working with the Sikh Community.
The first stop was Hyderabad, where I was asked to give a talk on Sikhism in Britain at the Salar Jung Museum. The Museum comprised the personal collection of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and is of a comparable size to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The collections were far reaching, including works by Constable and the Veiled Rebecca by Giovanni. During the rest of my time in Hyderabad, I was the guest of the Sikh community and was taken to 3 Gurdwaras, historic Sikh sites and even a Sikh wedding, by members of the Hyderabad History Society, the Sikh Heritage Foundation and the architect of two of the Gurdwaras.
After a free day, exploring the Hindu temples of Warangal, I moved on to Delhi to meet the Curator of the Crafts Museum in Delhi, where we discussed video links between schools and museums in the UK and India. The Museum was an outdoor one, with buildings and craft demonstrations brought from all over India. I was able to meet some colleagues from around the world as visiting at the same time were delegates from “Strategic Transformations, Museums in the 21st Century”, a major conference being held in Kolkotta.
I then moved by overnight train to Ludhiana in the Punjab, to meet the Curator of the Punjab Musuem of Rural Life, on the Punjab Agricultural University Campus. This museum was a fascinating record of a rapidly disappearing traditional rural lifestyle. Again we discussed possible future projects, for which this museum was ideal.
I then travelled to Amritsar, where the Golden Temple was every bit as beautiful and serene as I had expected it to be. I had a speaking engagement at the Guru Nanak Dev University, where I was made very welcome, and learnt about the new museum being planned on the Campus, as well as the work of the faculty in trying to locate Sikh artefacts worldwide, and the creations of a “master catalogue” as well as rescuing items from dubious or misguided conservation efforts (such as laminating 16th century documents!).
The final part of my trip was very kindly arranged by the university as well as the Guru Nank College in Chandigarh, and was a visit to Anandphur to see the stunning, purpose built Sikh “Virasat e Khalsa” heritage centre, as well as to a Nihang Sikh Gurdwara, where I got to meet the dignified and generous blue clad, warrior Sikhs.
Throughout the trip I was truly humbled by the incredible hospitality shown to me, which will stay with me forever. This trip has given me insights and contacts which will certainly be useful in future work with communities of North Hertfordshire and beyond.
Don’t forget to book your place on our Behind the Scenes tours! See how staff are preparing for the new North Hertfordshire Museum. Find out about the history of the buildings and the museums. Have a look at objects as they are cleaned and packed.
Tours are free, start at 10am and last approximately 40mins. Spaces are limited and tours must be booked in advance (tours without sufficient bookings may be rescheduled).
You can book onto a tour at Letchworth Museum or Hitchin Museum (or one of each!).
Hitchin Museum dates
Fridays
21 February,
28 March,
25 April
To book telephone: 01462 434476
or email: hitchin.museum@north-herts.gov.uk
Letchworth Museum dates
Tuesdays
11 March,
15 April
To book telephone: 01462 685647
One hundred years ago today, Barry Parker, one of the architects of Letchworth Garden City, wrote a letter giving a fascinating insight into the beginnings of Letchworth Museum and the people involved in setting it up.
The letter is about finding a site for a museum. Barry Parker had already written about this to Aneurin Williams, Chairman of First Garden City Ltd, and had also met him to discuss the matter further. The general agreement seems to be that the committee of the Naturalists’ Society should make a formal application to the directors of First Garden City Ltd, and once First Garden City Ltd have responded, the matter can be further discussed by the wider membership of the Naturalists Society.
A letter from Barry Parker
A W Brunt gives a good summary of the setting up and early years of the museum in his book “Pageant of Letchworth”. He wrote this while he held the Chair of the Naturalists’ Society, a post he had taken up in 1923 and continued to hold into the 1940s, so he would have experienced it all first hand.
There had been talk about having a museum as part of the new Garden City for several years. In 1906 the Letchworth Citizen mentioned that part of the original plan for Howard Hall had included a museum to show the archaeology that had been uncovered on the Garden City Estate. When the Garden City Naturalists’ Society was set up in 1908, it included amongst its aims ‘the formation of a museum’. Other members of the Naturalists’ Society included Barry Parker and W P Westell (who was to become the first museum curator), and the Secretary in 1914 was Rev E Everett, to whom this letter is addressed.
Though he had written to Mr Williams, Barry Parker notes that he “did not anticipate he would be able to give any such matters consideration until after his election”. In January of that year, Aneurin Williams was elected as the Liberal candidate for North West Durham. A month later, Barry Parker had managed to meet him to discuss the museum matter further, and so plans had been put in place at this point to progress the project.
Though 100 years seems a long time ago, the letters and newspapers from this time reveal familiar stories. Just as these men spent many years discussing and working towards the building of the Letchworth Museum, so the museum service and people of North Hertfordshire have long been talking about the plans for our new museum. It will be interesting to follow the progress of the plans from 100 years ago in future blogs, and note at the same time the progress being made in our own project as both move towards realisation.