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Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts



.When you live in the arctic, you know not to let anything go to waste.
The curious gut skin parka is a perfect example of this philosophy being made, as the name suggests, out of the cleaned guts of seals, walruses or whales. Surprisingly delicate in appearance despite their practical purpose; they are partially see-through and designed to be worn on top of other clothing. They could also be attached to the hatch of a kyack, which serves as a great waterproof protection for travelling arctic waters.

When european sailors travelled up and met the inuit people, they were amazed by the coats as they found that they were superior to the western oilskins in that they were more water resistant, trapped in more heat and were far lighter. The coats were highly prized and often bought for use by the western visitors.

Despite their rudimentary material, the preparation of a gutskin coat is labour intensive and complex, with the full process of creating a coat taking up to a month. The intestines are retrieved,washed and peeled inside out to be scraped. Once cleaned, they are inflated and tied at each end until completely dry, with any holes being patched. After around two days the intestines are cut and rolled into tight bundles ready for use, and the parka itself can be put together.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm a big Night at the Museum fan, so when the third film actually took place in the British Museum I knew it was a travesty that I hadn't been there yet.

Yes, all the exhibits were alive,I grant you, but they were so cool. The sheer variety on display was more than I'd ever thought about. It reminded me that the place existed, basically, and I had a hunger to get my backside down south and experience the real deal: arguably the biggest and best museum in the country.

And I was not disappointed.

The British museum itself is free, situated on Russel street, which is easily reached from the major stations via the tube or bus. For me, it was a 20 min ride on the Piccadilly line (westbound) from St Pancras station and a short walk. The museum itself is a large traditional building with Edwardian classical styling, but as soon as you walk through into the main hall you can see that this is no ordinary structure. The entrance hall is sweeping and beautiful in a loose circle, with the temporary exhibits occupying the upper floor of the central circle, and with all the other steady exhibits spread around it across five levels.



Luckily there are plenty of facilities and cafes (and gift shops!), so while nothing's cheap you can easily spend all day having a good explore. Personally we spent well over 6 hours there, until our howling feet and fatigue claimed us and we had to call it a day. Even then, there is plenty to come back for.

"Six Hours?! How Much is There to See, Really?"

A whole world. Despite the name, The British Museum really isn't just about the history of Britain, or even the British Empire, but exists as a capsule of the whole world's cultures. You can find treasures from the Ancient Near East, the Islamic World, Africa, Egypt, China, South & South East Asia, Japan, Korea, The Pacific and Australia, Mesoamerica, Central and South America, North America, Prehistoric Europe, The Greek World, The Roman Empire, Roman Britain, Medieval Europe, Renaissance and Later Europe, Modern Europe and America, as well as modern examples of art mixed in with each culture. Having almost all of the world's cultures in one place to seamlessly journey through is -to put it bluntly- a goddamned revelation.

This stunning mural of an Assyrian lion hunt went on for several ROOMS at full scale.

"But Colonialism!"

Yes, I know that the British Museum is at the centre of debates on colonialism in museums, and I have mixed feelings on the subject that I have already written about at length here:

http://preludesblogofwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/what-can-digital-heist-of-bust-of.html?m=1

But you can't argue against the sheer awe at walking around this whole world of art and history in a day and what this can teach you. Everything is beautifully curated and treated with great respect and value and by holding everything side by side, no one item is treated as being more important than another, or one culture as being 'superior' to another. The end effect is all so amazing that it makes you proud to be human.



"Ok, So What Are The Highlights?"
As well as the general feeling of awe and discovery that comes with experiencing so many cultural treasures side by side, the thing that stuck out most to me were the sheer sense of scale that the museum was able to accommodate. 
For example, there were plaques of the beautifully intricate Assyrian lion hunt, snaking through rooms in a  dramatic tableaux. There were panels from the flipping Patheon (!), in full scale, wrapping around the whole building. Huge Egyptian pharaohs stared down at you, and Assyrian gatekeepers smiled next to the storeys-high gates themselves. Noble totem poles stood as markers and full-floor mosaics decorated the stairwells. Reams upon reams of orange and black pottery, and intricate gold-work, fabulously detailed islamic tiles, ticking timepieces and curios nestled against one another in displays. I have never seen anything like it.

One of the many Pharaohs keeping an eye on us.

In addition to the scale, what really excited me was finally seeing in person so many of the treasures that I has viewed in countless picture books about history while I was growing up. It was like encountering a celebrity!

"Look! A real easter island figure!"
"oh my god it's the jade-mosaic aztec snake. I've never seen it in real life!"

"Oh Jesus that's THE Lindlow bog man!"
"HOLY BALLS THAT'S THE GODDAMNED ROSETTA STONE!!!"

In the end, It's just very hard to describe how the sheer wonder of the place hits you right in the gut. All you can do is to go see it for yourself.

A beautiful part of the African exhibit



Bonus feature: One very happy blogger.

When people think of courtly jesters, often what comes to mind are grinning performers with bells on their hats, quipping and gamboling for the rulers of the realm. But in Henry VIII's court, the newer 'natural' fools held a different and very special place in court.

 So what is a 'Natural Fool?'

Not a 'Natural Fool' at all...
A 'skilled fool' or 'jester' was a regular member of the royal courts from at least medieval times, typically a bold performer and/or actor who was shrewd enough to gauge the royal family's sense of humor without causing danger to themselves, and providing levity in the back-biting, claustrophobic and stressful environment of the courts . Often these performers were comedic and goofy, but they could also act as magicians, jugglers and more. The 'Natural Fool' however, which seems to have been adopted more commonly around the time of Henry VIII, was an altogether different figure of the court. This individual was an 'innocent' - a person with a particular disability (usually a learning disability) that was retained as a figure of levity and, at times, the source of many a humbling statement that none other would dare utter to those in power.


Why take on a 'Natural Fool'?
The 'Natural Fool' served as a figure of comic relief in many ways that the traditional jesters
William Sommers
did, but they also served a more Christian purpose. Due to their learning difficulties the king and his court appreciated what they saw as a natural frankness and innocence which would in turn encourage the royals to humility. While it is impossible to say how far these individuals were aware of the full spectrum of their words, there are examples where especially shrewd and cutting commentaries could be directed to the king as no one else dared to say. 
William Sommers, for example, was a 'Natural Fool' who was valued by the king and granted access to the monarch at all times, especially towards the later pained years of Henry VIII's life. In 1553 Thomas Wilson quoted William as commenting to Henry:

 "As please your grace...you have so many fraud-iters, so many conveyers, and so many deceivers to get up your money, that they get all to themselves."

 Wilson explains that William meant to say 'auditors, surveyors and receivers' and in this characteristic slip he criticised the king's organisation as no other would, amusing him while making him think starkly on the position of his accountants. Whether William genuinely confused his words or whether he chose them carefully is lost to history, unfortunately. The royals nevertheless viewed him and his kind as naturally closer to God, as if God himself spoke through them due to their 'innocence', and so it's likely that his words struck a very real chord.



 Were 'Natural Fools' Exploited?
From the 'All the Kings Fools' production
While to modern sensibilities the position of 'Natural Fool' is at best tone-deaf and insensitive and at worst exploitative, there is evidence that the position was very valued and that the 'Natural Fools' were themselves very well respected and afforded a status that was high above that of their neurotypical peers.

 On the one hand we cannot escape the dehumanising elements of the position of 'Natural Fool'. These people were placed in a position of being a source of amusement for the court and it is certainly a patronising role that is likely to have paid little attention to the person's own rights as an individual. Looking at William 'Patch' Sexton, who predated William Somer as the court 'Natural Fool', he was treated largely as one treats property. Cardinal Wolsey, out of favour with the king, gave Hampton Court palace to the king and Sexton was included in the gift. Unsettlingly, it is recorded that it took six tall yeomen to transport him into court when he was clearly distressed. whatever his problems on that day he was going, like it or not.
Yet one can argue that this isn't so out of keeping with the general hierarchy of the time, where lower serving classes were used for the benefit and amusement of the ruling classes, with little true autonomy of their own. 
One thing that can be said for the 'Natural Fools' is that they occupied a higher status than their 'skilled fool' counterparts, and certainly a far higher status than other contemporaries with learning difficulties could ever hope to enjoy. In many ways they were very much a treasured part of the royal family itself.The idealised picture 'the family of Henry VIII' was painted in 1545, showing the king (healthier than he was), his son and heir, the long dead Jane Seymour (the king's favourite wife and mother to Edward VI) and his two daughters (who had been recently restored to the succession). Also, flanking the royals, is Jane the fool and William Somer - the two 'Natural Fools'. Their inclusion is a significant display of their value within the royal household as, it's worth noting, the current living Queen Katherine Parr was not even included in this portrait.
Jane Fool on the left with William Sommers and his monkey on the right.

 Evidence of the 'Natural Fools'' esteemed position is evidenced by far more than just an interpretation of a painting. Jane the fool seems to have been especially treasured and largely passed about the tudor family, moving between Mary Tudor and Queen Katherine Parr. Katherine, with genuine warmth, seems to have noted that Jane was not properly occupied, and court records show that she ordered in several geese and a hen for her to look after and care for, which were subsequently trotted around the court. None of the natural fools ever had to wear traditional jester's clothing, and instead wore the rich clothing that matched in value and dignity to the queen's ladies - the wives and daughters of nobility. Jane, for example, had more clothes in greater numbers ordered for her than anyone else but the queen herself (though admittedly cut in the Dutch style rather than the more fashionable French.)  While under Lady Mary's care, Jane was also included in the annual St Valentines Day Lottery, which seems to indicate how the members of the court afforded her considerable equality. Here lots were drawn by all male courtiers for who among the ladies of the court should be their partners for dancing. a Mr Hete and a Mr Barnes were both rewarded in black satin for acting as 'Jane our fool's valentyne'. It is clear that Mary at least was actively caring and generous to her and Jane was well cared for in any illness.
All in all, the position of 'natural fools' shows a fascinating insight into the day-to-day running of the royal family, as well as how some of the disabled were given an opportunity to rise above their usual lot in life to perform valuable service in the courts. They were far more than simple jesters.


Source
- All the King's Fools .co.uk
-Suzannah lipscomb All the King's Fools
- The Anne Boleyn Files - Jane the Fool
- Fools and jesters of the English court by John Southworth (Ch 11 -
- Historic England - the king's fools: disability in the Tudor court

They say that 'looks aren't everything' but tell that to a man who returns from war without a face.

 Dennis 'Eyes Higher' Neale. Photograph: Lucinda Marland

"We were coming into land after completing a night mission." explains Dennis 'Eyes Higher' Neale; "Enemy planes had followed us back to base, so the runway lights were switched off. Our plane landed safely but the next one got it wrong and landed on top of ours; the propeller sliced through the aircraft and my face. It almost took away the whole of my face - my cheekbone and right eye socket were smashed. My nasal bone went through the roof of my mouth; both jaws were broken. I was in a coma for a month.
When I was well enough, Archie had me transferred to the hospital at East Grinstead, where he carried out nine operations over two years to rebuild my face."
The RAF was always one of the more devastating branches of the army, specially when it reached its height in World War 2. The complex machines - with their lifeblood of fuel and cargo of bombs, their spinning blades and dizzying heights - were death traps when a mission turned wrong. For the man lucky enough to survive disaster often the injuries were horrific.

 Sir Archibald Monroe established the 'Guinea Pig Club' primarily out of burn victims, choosing them to undertake revolutionary new procedures in plastic surgery and psychological care. Many of the treatments had not been tried before or were in their infancy: for example, Monroe pioneered the 'tubed pedacle' method of growing tubes of flesh on his patients faces that, once long enough, provided a vital resource of integrated skin that could be moulded into new noses and replacement skin for burns.
Tubed Pedicle procedure for Mr Foxley

 These men often had little to lose so gladly took on the roles of Monroe's 'Guinea Pigs': for many of them, they were either too ashamed to return to their families or had already been shunned by fearful lovers. Monroe and his staff created a community for them to fit into once again, and encouraged them to go out into the world. The town they resided in soon was known as 'the town that didn't stare'. monroe encouraged the men to stay in uniform rather than confining them to hospital gowns, turned a blind eye to some rowdiness and even the relationships some of the men developed with their nurses and fostered a thriving black humor in his patients. They were not mollycoddled and were respected and some men even went out in public to stay in the homes of kind village people who encouraged them to lead as normal a life as possible in their recovery. In the Guinea pig club the men were men, not simply patients.

 At its height in the 40s the guinea pig club had 649 patients, and the members still meet every year in remembrance of Archibald Monroe and what he did for his ragtag bunch of soldiers from around the world.
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Stay curious!

Sources


Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory. in the very least they're imaginative.

 This week i hand the reighns over to Stuart from The Collect Call of cthulhu for a guest post on one of the most intriguing 'secret' organisations of them all: the Majestic Twelve.
if you liked it, please make sure to head over to his blog and show him some support here.




The Shockingly Dull Truth Behind the Majestic Twelve...

Majestic 12 is one of those wonderful bits of conspiracy theory that just seems so right. It’s up there with Area 51, Roswell and the Men in Black as one of the cornerstones of in popular culture when we think of shadowy government conspiracies involving little grey men from half a galaxy away. A mysterious cabal of politicians, scientists and military officers dealing with aliens and recovered alien technology, exploiting it for nefarious purposes, and directing the course of mankind from their smoky, ill-lit conference room has become something of a cliché in ufology fiction, from the Conspiracy in The X-Files, the Majestic-12 of Delta Green, or a more benign example with the X-COM organisation of the games of the same name (or XCOM, if you want to be picky).
And like all things that seem so right when it comes to conspiracy theories, it’s absolute bollocks.
The story goes that President Harry S. Truman set up Majestic 12 (Or MJ12, or Majik-12) in the early Fifties, to facilitate the recovery and research of alien technology. The “12” comes from the alleged twelve members of the steering committee, all respected and notable in their fields. This all came about after the Roswell Incident, which as far as anyone can really tell, wasn’t an incident at all. The purpose of the committee was to cover up the Roswell Incident, study the recovered UFO, and work out how to deal with further interactions with extra-terrestrials. As the Roswell Incident was in fact just a Project Mogul weather balloon that had crashed (designed to study Soviet atomic weapon tests, so understandably the US government wouldn’t want to talk about it at the start of the Cold War) it does rather shoot a fatal hole in this, but just run with the idea it was actually a UFO full of aliens from Zeta Reticuli (I wonder if they visited LV426 on the way out) for the moment. Well, we could if there was anything else to go on. After that, the “facts” such as they are rather fall apart, and we’re flying blind and left to wade in the seething sea of conspiracy theorist bullshit.




The documents apparently were left to sit for the best part of forty years, only to be discovered in the Eighties by ufologists searching for matter related to the Roswell Incident (which, with the Soviet Union still a thing, the US government was still rather reluctant to admit to). However, it’s become clear beyond any reasonable doubt the Majestic 12 Papers were a forgery, with the FBI investigating the matter only to confirm it was fake. A US Air Force investigation also confirmed the documents were fake, and that no such committee was ever formed, and no “Operation Majestic 12” ever took place. Of course, all the US government investigations in the world can’t convince anyone if they assume the US government is in on it, hiding the truth from the public at large, but as near as anyone can tell, Majestic 12 never existed until the Eighties. Just who or why the papers were planted is something of a mystery, but it’s not too much of a stretch to assume it was the people who “found” it in the first place.
Jaime Shandera is the first of the three. A television producer in Los Angeles, he apparently received a package that contained some film that, when developed, showed a handful of pages from the Majestic 12 documents. Beyond this, there isn’t a huge amount about him online, so as the story moves onto how the full set of documents was found, it makes sense to move onto the other two people who “found” the Majestic 12 papers. Apparently Shandera, Stanton T. Friedman and Bill Moore later received mysterious messages that directed them to another document, the Cutler/Twining Memo. These have been held up to prove the legitimacy of the Majestic 12 papers, but much like the papers themselves, the Cutler/Twining Memo is regarded as a rather shabby fake. So who are the other two?
Stanton T Friedman
Stanton T. Friedman is a ufologist, but before that, he was a nuclear physicist who worked in research and development for a list of rather reputable companies. In the Seventies, he jacked that in to become an expert on UFOs and has made a rather nice career out of it, lecturing and consulting on the subject around the globe, even appearing before the United Nations in this capacity twice. He’s also rather defensive about the legitimacy of the Majestic 12 papers, and apparently gets little opposition at his lectures. Of course, I’d argue a lot of this is down to the fact outside of a handful of people who make it their business to debunk wooly thinking, most people don’t read up heavily on subjects they consider to be hogwash. In my own experience dealing with 9/11 “Truthers” I will happily concede they have the edge on me in regards to various aspects of minutiae, but that’s because I don’t spend my life trying to see the holes in the official story. People who aren’t spending their lives immersed in conspiracy theories, who probably find them to be utter bunkum, aren’t going to be able to point out the flaws because they don’t care enough to learn where they are. But I digress.
The third member of this jolly trio was the author Bill Moore, who beyond writing a book on the Roswell Incident, co-authored another on the so-called “Philadelphia Experiment”. In any case, both books were not exactly met with critical acclaim, as even to die-hard believers they were considered pretty awful books. Moore’s reputation isn’t exactly the best, as when the accusing fingers started being pointed about the authenticity of the Majestic 12 papers, they were mainly pointed at him.
A further document came to light in the mid-Nineties, claiming to be an “operations manual”, but it was swiftly debunked. Of course, this isn’t to tar all ufologists with the same brush. There are many out there who freely admit that the Majestic 12 myth is just that, a myth. But there are plenty who cling to the idea, and if you’re of a particularly paranoid frame of mind, you could argue the split caused in the ufology community caused by the reveal and apparent debunking of the papers is part of a shadowy plan to divide and conquer. Of course, that could be exactly what They want you to think. Wheels within wheels, man!
In the end, the Majestic 12 story is an example of a conspiracy theory that seems to have been given a huge amount of life by popular culture, despite the astonishing lack of any hard evidence. Less than two-dozen pages discovered in the mid-Eighties, repeatedly debunked from all angles, and yet it still has life. Like most conspiracy theories, it gives the impression all that is bad and wrong in the world is the fault of someone, that there is a driving intelligence behind everything evil, that there is some grand and malevolent plan. The truth, as near as we can tell, is that there really isn’t, which is probably a lot more terrifying. There was no Roswell UFO to pull apart to get an edge over the wily Soviets, no dead aliens to be dissected under the stern gaze of a very shaky camera, no live ones to be interrogated, and no mysterious committee of twelve overseeing it all for a shadowy purpose. Much like the Illuminati (another conspiracy theory about a mysterious, influential organisation, albeit with slightly more grounding in reality, if only because the Bavarian Illuminati actually existed) they make for great villains and antagonists in fiction, but that’s all they are.





Back in the day, painting a picture wasn't quite so simple as wandering down to the local Hobbycraft for a pack of paint. Sometimes you'd have to cross whole continents for just the right hue.

 The rarity of a colour could render it more valuable than gold, and sometimes particular pigments were found from the strangest of sources. Take for example the earthy brown of a thousands of years old mummy, the sepia tones of cuttlefish ink, the toxic yellow of cadmium or white of lead, or the vibrant red of countless crushed beetles.

 The association with colour and value often had more than  just aesthetic value. In many societies, the right to wear certain colours were constricted by class and social standing. For example in Roman times 'Tyrian purple' - a pigment lifted from the secretions of sea snails - was restricted for use of only the emperor alone. 'Prophyrogenitus' was the name of an emperor who gained his throne through dynasty rather than force and meant 'born to purple'.
In Early-Modern England Sumptury laws were common practice and held harsh punishments, especially in Elizabethan times when the new rising middle class merchants often almost bankrupted themselves in the expense of posing in rich colours in order to performatively elevate their own status. For men, the law forbade:
"Cloth of gold, silver, tinseled satin, silk, or cloth mixed or embroidered with any gold or silver: except all degrees above viscounts, and viscounts, barons, and other persons of like degree, in doublets, jerkins, linings of cloaks, gowns, and hose.
Woolen cloth made out of the realm, but in caps only; velvet, crimson, or scarlet; furs, black genets, lucernes; embroidery or tailor's work having gold or silver or pearl therein: except dukes, marquises, earls, and their children, viscounts, barons, and knights being companions of the Garter, or any person being of the Privy Council.

Velvet in gowns, coats, or other uttermost garments; fur of leopards; embroidery with any silk: except men of the degrees above mentioned, barons' sons, knights and gentlemen in ordinary office attendant upon her majesty's person, and such as have been employed in embassages to foreign princes."

 Deep blues, purples, crimson, gold and silver were all met with a critical eye, as their wear allowed people's position in society to be identified at a glance. If you were a common man or woman you were permitted to wear brown, beige, yellow, orange, russet, green, grey and a particular blue that was not deep indigo, but was instead the blue created by dying with traditional woad. You can find the full breadth of restrictions for Elizabethan men in a handy table here. 
The library of pigments of course form a fantastic historical record that both emcompases art and sociology and are vital to have as a reference for ageing and identifying historical paintings and their costly forgeries. In Harvard, there is a library dedicated to the preservation of these unique pigments, stored in rainbows of vials as a testament to the enduring value we put on creative expression.
What is your favourite colour? And, perhaps more interestingly, where does it come from?
[ Clearly I have expensive and rather royal tastes: my favourite pigments are always warm red-spectrum purples ;)  ]


Sources

-SophieandHerKind for the original post on tumblr that led me to the article.
I'm not big on military history, but you've got to admit that the innovation and design quality involved in kitting out the fighters and hunters of the past was pretty amazing.
With this in mind, I decided to go out on a noble quest to the Royal Armouries in Leeds to see some of these innovations in action.
The first thing to know about the Royal Armouries is that it's free entry, which is always brilliant to see, and open 10am to 5pm. There's easy public parking not far away at Clarence Dock for about £10 for all day and the museum is situated on the dockside and walking distance from the town centre. Often it has live demonstrations and particular workshops and talks that you can attend, as well as exhibitions that - like most museums- mix the cyclical with the permanent: on my visit the special attraction was a display of some the treasures of the Staffordshire Horde. In my case we were a little too early to see the live tournament fights etc, but if you're visiting and especially if you're bringing kids along it might be worth aiming for after 11 or 12 and going for the weekend slots when everything is a little busier.
So what's in the museum?

The main displays on offer were War, Oriental, Hunting, Tournament, Self Defense and the Staffordshire Hoard. But it would be a crime to review the museum without talking about THAT entrance hall...
The museum is arranged vertically over a few floors and linking them all is a wide spiral staircase that surrounds a stunning display of historical arms and armour. War has always been a game of numbers and this is clearly shown in the sheer amount of items arranged in a grimly beautiful piece of gleaming art, perfectly regimented like the armies that bore the equipment.
Impressive, to say the least.

The level of attention to detail, pomp and circumstance follows through the whole museum: there really are some very important artifacts on display that belonged to very famous figures in history and the museum knows just how to present them so you can appreciate their full view. The tournament section is perhaps the most star-studded, displaying armour from Henry VIII to the Holy Roman Emperor, as well as the Armouries' famous mask that appears on their logos. But the War section does a fantastic job of showing a timeline of quality items from wars throughout the ages, and manages to inspire a little of the awe and fear people must have felt when facing down these warriors due to their fantastic model displays. One, for example, sees a full-sized pair of armoured soldiers facing off against soldiers with lances. Another, in the oriental section, shows the largest example of animal armour in the world - a 17thc almost fully complete set of war elephant armour. And you'd better believe that they've mounted it on a fully-scaled model of an Indian elephant, complete with rider. Intimidating stuff.






   The museum is set perfectly to help visitors appreciate the level of skill and craftsmanship involved from practical pieces to the decorative gifts that were given to great leaders. One element that I found fascinating was when they deconstructed armour or turned it inside out so that you could see the clever construction of an armoured jerkin, for example, or the intricate embroidery on the inside of a helmet. Image was everything in war, but the hidden details had real value to them too.
Does the Royal Armouries museum glorify war?
Miniature commoners caught in the fray.
It's impossible not to be struck with awe and an appreciation for the beauty in these instruments of protection and death, but does this mean that the museum glorifies war in a way that's distasteful? For my part I would say no. It's important to appreciate the beauty of these items and the skill of their use, both for their own sake and also to enable us to get into the minds of our ancestors and how they responded to them. Tournaments, chivalry, bravery and pomp were all huge parts of how mainstream masculinity was (and is) constructed, and how nationalism and many symbols of each country's culture are expressed. The important thing is that even in the rooms where the idealism and romance of war is most expressed by the exhibits, the curators are careful to include important details that impress upon you the reality of war. Those large imposing figures aren't just picture-bait, but put you in the position of someone facing them in person - looking up into that killing machine on horseback. The insides of the armour show the realities of living inside of them. And even in tiny details - such as the miniature representation of a great battle - they take the time to show common people fleeing in terror.

 Finally the 'self defense' room, which pulls us into the modern age, acts as a sobering example of what war and violence means for us now. Here you can find testimonies of people affected by gun violence, different types of brutal common weapons throughout the twentieth century, and a display case swimming with examples of real weapons seized from every-day people by the police. Oddly, at the end of this exhibit there is also a display of the different swords from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, further emphasising the conflict between the fantasy and reality of violence and battles, even in the modern mindset today.
In the end I appreciate the blend of realities: the good and bad sides of these battles in our culture. And neither side is turned into melodrama.
So....should I visit?

 Absolutely! Not only is it free, but it has some seriously important and valuable artifacts, all beautifully presented. Definitely worth your time.

When you visit, keep your eyes peeled for these...
I wonder if king Henry noticed...
  • The craftsman's mistake on the patterning Henry VIII's duelling armour and his rushed-job attempt to fix it. (We've all been there, man!)
  • A very cool demon's-mask for a horse in the oriental section.
  • An unsettlingly anatomically correct realisation of a lady boar's nether region on one of the models. (That's..uh...good attention to detail there, buddy.)
  • Armadillo-scaled armour in the oriental section
  • Tiny, tiny full-plate armour for children.
  • The biggest codpiece I've ever seen.
  • A completely adorable chinese dog/demon face on a sword hilt.
  • The most badass elephant & hunters vs tiger model you're ever likely to see.

Note: If you haven't already noticed from the title, there's a fair bit of Victorian nipples on this blog post. I toyed with the idea of censoring the images but, frankly, I don't much agree with the weighting of female chests as inherently unacceptable and it seemed ethically off as soon as I opened up photoshop to do it.
That said, take note that the images here are NSFW, rightly or wrongly.

 ~*~

They say there's nothing new under the sun...

Heck, in a way, this post isn't entirely new; I in fact looked into piercings as the very first post on this humble blog. But you would be forgiven for thinking that some of the edgier elements of body modification are quite modern inventions, at least in the European-American 'west'. 

 Victorian nipple piercing is a controversial slice of history, namely because it's difficult to verify. As with any of the more curious elements of history, typically very little is written about them and, when it comes to controversy, most things are hidden (as with the 'he's at home') or entirely destroyed after the owner's retirement or death for the sake of decency.

 The story is that from the 1890s through to the 1900s there was a short lived fashion fad of Victorians piercing their nipples, with references to this fad appearing in several history books on body adornment. 
Some of the benefits of nipple piercings were for fashion's sake, with the practice originating in Paris, or were thought to maintain a pleasant bust shape and even improve their size. For many, as now, the boost of sexual confidence and titillation was also an important factor in their choice. However, in a time before antibiotics there were serious risks of infection and some doctors even associated nipple piercings and the resultant scabs with the development of cancer. Nevertheless, this didn't necessarily deter people and the practice was increasingly fashionable.

 But is there any evidence to back up the rumours?

 As mentioned, primary sources are hard to come by and certainly there does not seem to be enough to justify a very widespread fashion trend as some historians are excited to suggest. There are several detailed references to nipple rings specifically though, and you can find the most extensive description in Charles la Fave's brilliant three-part article on the BodyArtforms blog. This source was also highlighted in Anatomy and Destiny  by Stephen Kern. 
Here, they tracked down the Victorian magazine English Mechanic and the World of Science, which outlines the whole piercing experience of two sisters who were headed out to the "World's fair" in Paris in may 1889. They entered into a long correspondence with other readers of the magazine who openly and frankly discussed their own experiences with nipple piercings. But for a doctor's warnings of cancer and possible impairment of breastfeeding, the responses they received were overwhelmingly matter-of-fact and positive. There was no outrage or even stunned curiosity, and women who also wore piercings were happy to frankly tell them about their own successes with breastfeeding their children while wearing the piercings. They, as now, simply advised that they seek out someone experienced and skillful. The sisters decided to go ahead and when they went to Paris they immediately sought out the services of a Madame Beaumont to make an appointment.
“We found her occupying an elegantly-furnished apartment in a street leading from the Rue de Rivoli…Madame B’s business is to minister to the little wants and requirements of ladies, such as hair-dyeing, enamelling, corn doctoring, piercing their ears, and occasionally their nipples. She has quite an assortment of gold rings made expressly for this purpose, and she showed us that both herself and her daughter were at the time wearing them
…Madame B has invented an instrument for the purpose of insuring that the perforation is made in the proper direction through the nipple, and without any chance of failure. It is something like sugar tongs in form, but instead of spoons at the ends of the legs there is a pair of small tubes about 1 inch long, and in a straight line with each other, so that when the nipple is grasped between the inner ends of the tubes by means of a screw in the handle, a piercer can be passed through the whole without any chance of deviating from its proper course…
I partially undressed and seated myself on a couch by the side of Madame B, who passed her arm round my neck and held me steadily. Madame B then bathed my right breast for a few minutes with something which smelt like benzoline, and seemed almost to freeze it. She then adjusted the instrument to the niple, and screwed it up securely, and then, almost before I was aware of her insertion, she plunged the piercer through the tubes…
She then unscrewed and removed the tongs, leaving the piercer still sticking through the nipple, the point of the ring being then put into a hollow in the base of the piercer, the ring was passed through the nipple and closed…we spent the next few hours bathing our breasts with camphorated water, which Madame B had recommended us to use…after a time subsided we were able to dress and go about.“
Clearly Madame Beaumont was an experienced professional, working to keep the ladies sanitary and in comfort. Overall, it was a very positive experience for the two of them.
So was this truly a fashion trend?

It's unlikely that this was a widespread fad and is more likely to have been at least as niche as it's regarded now, though well understood in the right circles and very fashionable. In the end, the fact that it exists at all, and that many 'prim and proper' Victorians may have enjoyed it is really quite the eye opener. As we've often said around here, throughout history people are people and are just as creative and 'naughty' as we are nowadays.

 If you're interested in the wilder side of victorians and don't mind adult NSFW content, the tumblr blog 'Those Naughty Victorians' is a fantastic archive of Victorian porn that is sure to put a smile on your face. In fact, all the images I've used are from the blog


Sources