Window Shopping on the Past – an upcoming exhibition

Henry James’s shop in Shrewsbury in the late 19th century

Shropshire Archives invite you to peer into the windows of our Victorian past at our exhibition, ’Window Shopping on the Past’, this autumn at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury. Glimpse the stunning displays of foods… and products which were for sale: everything from a tin bath to a pocket watch, a coracle or a round of cheese. You can also see the shopkeepers, their families and staff and the occasional curious onlooker who sneaks into shot.

This remarkable set of photographs was taken in 1888 by Joseph Lewis Della Porta. This exhibition is a selection of images printed from his original glass negatives, over one hundred of which survive, and are kept at Shropshire Archives. Della Porta’s photographs are some of the most engaging of our 45,000 strong photograph collection which is being catalogued as part of the Volunteering for Shropshire’s Heritage Project. The exhibition will run from late September to early December. Watch this space for more details!

Work Experience: a point of view

Alice on Work Experience Placement at Ludlow Museum Resource Centre in the summer of 2013

Alice has just completed 2 weeks work experience at the Resource Centre: here are some of her thoughts on her experience:

“In my two weeks work experience, I have taken part in a wide range of jobs at Ludlow Museum Resource Centre. These include setting up displays for the new exhibition ‘Every Object Tells a Story’ and researching the objects – one was a mummified cat found in the roof of a house in Ludlow; taking photos of minerals and cataloguing them, and making up museum boxes of interesting objects that will be sent to other places in Shropshire. My work experience has been a great two weeks, full of interesting opportunities and projects. Everyone has been very supportive, and my time here has been great fun”.

Tim’rous beastie

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie………..? Well, no. Not exactly.

This is a sea mouse from the Fluid Collection. It’s actually a kind of worm but it gets the name mouse because it looks akin to a drowned rat.

But look more closely and instead of fur you see clumps of bristles reminiscent of a dilapidated toothbrush. Keep looking and you notice an iridescent greenish hue to these spines.

The remarkable thing is that these spines contain hexagonal cylinders which act like optical fibres and give the creature the ability to change colour as a defence mechanism. The sea mouse grows its spines in a similar way to a silk worm producing silk. The sea mouse is an important subject for research by physicists in the field of photonic crystal technology. Amazing that such an apparently humble little creature could be at the heart of scientific developments of the future!

Why am I now so interested in this strange animal that I had never even heard of until a couple of weeks ago? After seeing the display in the entrance to the library I felt that volunteering to help with the museum could be something I would enjoy. A background in Primary Education meant I had no particular speciality to offer so I was flexible about what I could offer. Hence I landed up with the Fluid Collection and spent the first few weeks photographing such things as pond weed, slugs, leeches, brittle stars and – a sea mouse! I would come home and see what I could find out about the things I had seen. I am now helping to get the details onto the database and learning about accession numbers and scientific names.

I have learnt such a lot in a short time. Who knows what’s coming next?

Lorna Pound (volunteer at Ludlow Museum Resource Centre)