David Ward: Maritime Museum Review

Child Immigration Exhibition

The Maritime Museum in Liverpool was simply a marvel to explore. The place was brimming with history which was exhibited in engaging ways which inspired the senses as well emotions which also gave me ideas on both design and possible ways to exhibit work. The building was huge and was split up into several different exhibitions.

The first out of the two that I managed to explore a was the exhibition on Child Immigration. During the early 20th century, children were immigrated to other countries because of poverty, war and other circumstances. They were led to believe that they were in for a better future which could have been the case considering their lives in Britain, but what came apparent was a life of hard labour.

The first thing that I noticed were the heart touching quotes that were all over the walls. They were poignant messages that added another layer to this whole emotional subject whilst you looked around all the exhibits on show.

Most of the pieces of history came with very personal descriptions and acted like back story to the items. I loved how the leaflets that you picked up along the way had an old vintage design to them, they didn't feel out of place to the various objects you were looking at. Everything from the vintage style colours (Browns & Light Blues) to the brown paper they were printed on felt right. This is down to the thought that has gone into the theme by the exhibitors or the graphics designers.

Another thing that I noticed throughout the exhibition was the way you could interact with some of the exhibits. The three images below are the two that stood out to me, the first is a large interactive map which shows the course the children took on their travels to Australia or Canada. You could turn the screens placed on the map to see footage of the various ports of call which I found interesting. The second was about weight, the rope and bucket had around 10Kg of weight in it to show you what these children were lifting at the age of just 5. You could actually lift it up safely and interact with it to gain a hands on impression which yet again added yet another layer to the exhibit.

Overall the exhibition gave me more ideas from within half an hour than a whole two hours in the Tate. I suppose this is down to it appealing to Tourists. The information was there in plain English and didn't feel like I was trying to crack a puzzle so for that reason I enjoyed it more

Titanic & Liverpool "The Untold Story" Exhibition

Moving on upstairs I discovered the Titanic & Liverpool "The Untold Story" section of the Museum which was the best part of the day visit to Liverpool for ideas for my book research. The exhibition was a story of Liverpool's links with the Titanic combined with personal stories of various passengers.

You started by picking up a leaflet which can find in my sketch book, which told you the name of the person and their back story such as their job for example. As you continued their story unfolded through visuals, audios and films combined with all sorts of other aspects of that treacherous night. In the end you discover their fate which led to my person losing his life. The whole thing had more of an emotional impact because you felt connected some how.

There was various other pieces of the Titanic's history which were yet again told through interaction, audio and even smells, you could even try on a life jacket and dress up figures.