British Studies: Day 10

We had another sunny morning today.  I am not complaining, in fact I am laughing because Maine has all the rain at the moment.  I bought sunscreen last week and have been okay since.  It makes iced coffee, cider, and fresh fruit all the more enjoyable.

The Royal Geological Society is to be considered one of the highlights of the trip.  While our discussion took place in one room(their main library), the gentleman who talked to us today was so knowledgeable it was unreal.  He brought us on a travel expedition from South America to the Antarctic as he went around the table to the objects and pictures placed there.  Expeditions, until the 19th century, were mainly about traveling.  In the early days of their foundation, the Royal Geo. Society created a journal that contained much of the discoveries made.  Founded in 1830, their collections hold some 2 million items- 1 million of which is comprised of maps, some part are picture collections.  They are considered to be the largest in Europe of British history exploration and have an atlas as old as 1490.  They also have lantern slides from lectures.  Of their book library, there are 25,000 items; 150,000 are books and 100,000 "other".  They have an archives section(100,000) with "meters of boxes" covering the history of society.   Their Everest Collection, which contains trip plans and various papers, is from a 1904 expedition.  Their collection of objects total some 1500 items, and periodical collections with 1500 items digitized from requests fulfilled.  They have 2000 item for India alone.  Our tour guide is their principal librarian, whom is in charge of duties such as cataloging, artifact care, artifact loans, giving talks, and reading room aspects.  As far as loans go, the items are chipped and when loans to museums or library exhibits there are discussions had about how to treat the items.  For example, Edinburgh just borrowed an item that they wanted to freeze to kill pests but the RGS decided that would damage their item and it was not to be done.  Climate control and storage are just as important here as previous visits.  The collection comes from donations and the founders of the RGS.  Other parts of the collection come from great grandchildren and family members of those on expedition for the RGS.  Nowadays, the RGS is short on shelf space.  They maximize their space, organizing not by classification scheme but shelf number.  Their concern is storage, preservation, and accessibility.  They use MARC21 and the catalogue is readily available online.  Technically they use two, with one more detailed in another location.  They have a team of 8, one head director, one library manager, and the 6 of the reading room.

  The second half of our visit, our tour guide gave us an awesome story-by-story encounter of the items on the table.  I have many of them jotted in notes, but it is one of those "you have to be there " talks, but my favourite story was a combination of the voyages sent out and the hat/hood of Ed. Shakleton that was gifted to a close friend and later came back to the society.  That and the nifty mini sextant that was not only or a pocket but also had ivory toggles so your skin wouldn't stick to it.

By after noon, K, LH, K2, & myself went to Camden town.  My goal here was to see The World's End pub and have a pint.  This was easy to do since it was right at the subway resurface.  I also bought a tank-top- or what they called a vest.  It's a little punkier than I am use to but its wonderful.  I had Chinese food and walked through the "stables", eying many a shop and seeing all sorts of sights. It's a spunky town and I wouldn't be opposed to returning if there is time in the final week(next week is Scotland).

UPDATE:  I finally met Daniel Radcliffe tonight and had the opportunity to tell him he is building a great body of work(as an actor).  As well as to laugh about his height- some people out back said they were short and he said he knew what it was like, to never apologize for it.  He is a sweet heart really.  I also have photo proof with JL, whom was my crowd-attendee!


 Anyways, it's off to bed for this one!  While tomorrow might be slower, I have to carefully pack for a week's long voyage and pack things to be left behind.  Wish me luck!

British Studies: Day 7

Today's morning begun in the most fabulous way- almost smashing into none other than Kenneth Branagh.  On my way out of Waterloo station, having just solo bought an Oyster ticket, I was weaving in and out of people to return to the courtyard.  Since I couldn't shout out or anyhting, I did several double takes and am 90% certain it was him.  So there's that.

By afternoon, our group went to the Guinness World Book of Record's largest archive library, the "Pompeii of the North"- the Museum of London's Library.  Here, a fellow named Dan Nesbitt(of LARC) gave us a tour around and sneak peek into many historical lives.  Constantly growing, this site began ten years ago, placed in a steel tubing facility.  With 120 staff members and 40 volunteers, there are guidelines to follow, cataloging to be done, and public accessibility is a priority.  This facility has won not only a world record but various volunteer awards that have inspired similar volunteer programs.  Their primary work concerns are leadership, learning, curating, and research.  In the facility, there are people in charge of organizing the materials(section by section), washing and drying items(there are even drying racks) as well as the most important bit- identification.  A large part of their collection began because of a man named Mortimer Wheeler, a famous archaeologist whom later created a show (so says Dan) called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.  We were a privileged bunch today, seeing their facility behind the scenes with some of 99% in donated items.  They have roller racks, controlled environments, and many many kinds of items.  A Buckingham Palace telephone(used as a background for the creator of Skype), a Royal Opera House urinal, leather from Shakespeare's time, a "Psycho"(a magician's circle item that can be seen in Big with Tom Hanks, used for "fortune telling.") and much more.  They have an x-ray machine and store their metal items separate from their cloth and tile as well as these grouped parts.  Shelves are organized according to 3 letters(street) and 2 number code(year).  Some have a context number which makes more meaning in context.  The pr-historic flints are their oldest item, but Adam(another staff person) showed us some awesome animal bones that the year was undecided.  It had soil samples, pollen seeds, dietary information, printed records of site digs, and even rules for human skeletons collections.  Graham showed us the drying room and some other items, shears & a Tudor spoon at the highlight.  The cannon ball of Shakespeare's Globe was perhaps the neatest item- the guess is that it was used(they have five from his theatres) as a behind the stage prop for making thunder when needed.  Shakespeare himself may have been a cannon roller!  The storage boxes are standardized and the bags inside are clear for viewing, labeled, and padded accordingly.  There is some small interaction with radiation and a small chance of a squashing hazard- there are many people using the roller racks at a time, so be careful!  The archive even has a catastrophe plan.  The point of this place is that everything is kept because people a) like to see it and b) archaeologists desire totality, or that with an unknown future it might be nice to have.  To whether or not to  keep the archive is something that doesn't need deciding now.  In the end, I asked two questions.  1) No they do not have any dinosaur remains, those belong to paleontologists.  2) There were rubber rucks in the last room(with vases and such) and those are not an inside joke but rather a challenge for sweets for the kids' groups. 

Not sure if I am suppose to show this, but there is the pink duck I found!!

Then the highlight of the evening- JD, LH, C, & A and myself scored 27 pounds tickets for five balcony seats to see The Cripple Innishman.  It was 2 1/2 hours of amazing.  West End has yet to let me down.  It was a dark comedy set in Ireland and had many more characters than Daniel Radcliffe.  Yes, he was in it.  The syke was beautifully used, painting watercolour skies over different scenes.  The stage was "in the round"- picture a t-bone that curves at each angle.  It used several scenes: a store, two bedrooms(at two times), an outdoor park, and a boatdock.  The music and acting were also good, but(like when I saw Evita here 7 years ago) the things the do with the stage are amazing.  And yes Daniel Radcliffe is handsome in person and yes he is small in person, but he played a strong character in a play of 9 people.  I bought a programme for 4 pounds and and looking forward to reading the article he has in it, talking about his work with the stage.  I don't think I will be forgetting the stone sets or jokes about cows anytime soon! 

I adore thee!

Off to Stratford tomorrow, ta!