British Studies: Day 3

Today we visited Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum.  Greenwich, home of things such as the Prime Meridian, Admiral Nelson's office from the the Pirates of the Carribean , and the Cutty Sark- a very large naval ship.

At the Museum, we met Graham Thompson, a librarian to the Caird Library of nine years.  His specialization is for the drawing and prints collections of the library.  In the first part of the trip, we sat upstairs in a class-type room and discussed three specific sets.  The boxes, or "archive journey storage boxes" are large, green(sometimes), and tall.  The first was concerning the armada(both Spanish and British) as well as the Tudor dynasty.  The works were consisting of several hand-written notes, a journal, and several illustrations.  Graham told us that, normally, students would come in and work with the books- handling them is now acceptable, if not preferred- and transcribe one page.  The page, usually, is one that hold a list of crew members or those on board.  The book was belonged to a Tudor, a spy master whom was of Spain.  All of this is negotiable, but extremely interesting.  The second set was a book of naval documents, ship records as well as a medicinal surgeon's book.  This book contained a out of practice methods, like when a man was drowned they would apply tobacco to the tongue to revive him.  Obviously, this isn't done still.  The third box contained pirate tales and illustrations, including that of Blackbeard.

This is the Cutty Sark.  I bought my step dad a book about it.  I don't know much about it.

In the latter half, we toured the Caird Library.  While we waited in the doorway, Graham told us about the bust of James Caird that use to be there and how the library now had plans for capturing more patrons.  To do this, he told us, they would have to paint the stairwell and put up a display(perhaps signs as well) and, more or less, advertise what was available for viewing.  By enticing them, a library that is open six days a week with one late night, they could use the items, the manuscript scanner, the microfilm/fiche, attend a program, or use their display technology- a large-screen search engine.  Today's display was for that of a "ship plans collection," which was only a small part of the whole.

Cataloging, Graham tells us, is a "never ending pushing of a rock up a mountain."  With this way this special collection is organized, it makes sense.  While there are no purple gloves anymore, there are special cooling environments/rooms, rolling racks for storage, and one must remember "format, section in the archive, alphabet, and the number of the item."  From there, there is section 1(or official) section 2(local official(i.e. Devenport Document Cards)) to the lesser of the scale, with section 6 & 7 for single purchase, copy material.  Graham helps update and decide the collection.  His background is that of a naval based child whom majored in art history(focused on photography) only to come back and work with the prints collection of the Museum.  It was a lovely trip with a great tour guide.  I even bought a pocket watch necklace(for 14 pounds) to commemorate the hometown of longitude. 

In the late morning, we hiked(and boy do I mean hiked!) up to the Greenwich Observation Deck.  For the student discount(5 pounds) we got to see many clocks, compasses, and star gazing materials.  The best part of this was at the tail end, at which point it could have been missed, I wandered up some stairs.  I wasn't sure if I was suppose to, but it wasn't roped off nor was anyone guarding it...so then I got to see the 28ft Greenwich Observation telescope, which has seen things like spots on the moon and suns of planets.  Here I took some great photos by lying on the ground and looking up. 

Two places at once!  Cheers!

  I got to ride at the front of a double decker today- only do this once.  About the third time you watch the driver almost plow a car or biker in the wrong lane, or turn a corner too sharply, you forget why you did it in the first place.  Ride in the middle, you see just as much at a much more mild pace.  Like the sweet shoppe I intend to return to tomorrow by St. Paul's.

The reception was great.  The padre of King's College was a sweet man(whom told us the difference between a pastry and a pattsie) and blessed us, as is tradition here.  The food was different- good different- and the wine was divine.  The building is very impressive and, as you can tell by the stone walkways that are worn, very old.  As too seems The Thirsty Bear, a college-type pub with cheap half pints and a great booth for nine+ gals.

And with that, I bid you ado!  Onward to the Barbican tomorrow!  And the sweet shoppe.