Museum of London Park Exhibit

One of the most influential moments of this course was the visit to the Museum of London where my group was assigned the park simulation exhibit. This room was set up to look like an old Victorian Park with costumes, music, and entertainers in various corners of the immersive park. I found this depiction and immersive experience incredibly realistic and thought provoking. I was able to really put myself in the place of these parks thought to be “the lungs of London for their health giving qualities.” It was in parks like the one I sat in at the museum where people were able to access their lost rural past and nearly escape into a fun evening. The fun music and posh dress also highlighted and contributed support to the belief that the parks were a truly fun and transformative opportunity.

In addition, themes of prostitution are incredibly prevalent in the Victorian era and were discussed not only in our course readings, ““Cremorne Gardens,” Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects, 2nd edition 1870,” but were also prominent in the display at the Museum of London. In the park exhibit, women that were shown in the short holographic clips alone were known to be prostitutes currently working or looking for men.  The women alone in the parks in combination with the loud music and background noise emphasized the same mood about how the public opinions drown out the voices of lower class woman who may have eventually been drawn to prostitution because they had essentially no other option.

In the reading, ““Cremorne Gardens,” Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects, 2nd edition 1870,” Acton describes a park scene very similar to what I experienced at the museum; he describes a scene where some of the most beautiful public gardens in London are scenes of prostitution entertainment. Acton also describes other “pleasure gardens” but draws differences due to the frequenters being particularly low class. These pleasure parks, as seen in the Museum of London and read about in class, provided Londoners with an escape and a chance to enjoy evenings with friends and family while simultaneously creating static and noise that masked the behind the scenes acts of prostitution throughout the evening and into the nights.

Josh Klein Blog Post 1

Out of the visits we have taken in class thus far, my favorite has been the trip we took to the Natural History Museum where we explored the dinosaur exhibit. What was interesting to me was how there was an exhibit full of fossils accompanied by images of what each species of dinosaur would look like. That is particularly interesting to me because in reality, no one actually knows what dinosaurs actually looked like because no one was alive to see them. While we can estimate and take our best guesses as to the color that they were or the general body shape the dinosaurs had, no one knows for sure. That is why the live model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex stood out to me so much. Even though they knew the general bone structure of the T-Rex, the color of its skin and the movements it was making were just a best guess of how it actually looked and moved. I along with others in my group and museum visitors stood there for minutes watching in fascination as the electronic T-Rex moved and roared. 

As a kid I was obsessed with dinosaurs and would spend hours upon hours reading book after book all about dinosaurs. Yet even after all of this time, and even after reflection upon my obsession with dinosaurs, it never occurred to me that what I accepted as factual in terms of what my favorite dinosaurs looked like, was just guesswork. Our class discussion made this only more apparent to me as people have been drawing dinosaurs and prehistoric animals for hundreds of years which has ultimately helped shape how we envision them today. An example of this is in Henry De La Beche’s 1830 painting titled Duria Antiquior. In this painting, he depicts what appears to be prehistoric sea creatures and birds. He envisions them to have very large eyes and long jagged teeth. While some of this is based off of scientific findings such as the teeth that scientists have found of various species, the rest is his imagination. This painting has been reproduced by many individuals which further drives home the fact that people are fascinated with dinosaurs and beyond that, the imaginative nature of life beyond human comprehension.  

It is this same fascination that has driven people like Gideon Mantell to study rock layers as a way to date fossils and piece together history. It was also what drove Richard Owen, who coined the term dinosaur, to establish the Natural History Museum so that others could come and be fascinated by what he found fascinating. While at the museum we were tasked with thinking about how the exhibit relates to our major. In my discussion, I spoke about how peoples interest in dinosaurs has created an entire field dedicated to studying them, countless numbers of museums and exhibits where people can go to learn about them, and numerous Hollywood movies including the Jurassic Park series that has generated billions of dollars from people’s interest in the subject. Overall I really enjoyed this site visit because it was both a trip down memory lane as it reminded me of my early obsession with dinosaurs, and pushed me to think further about human fascination and analyze our desire to understand the world beyond our short stint of existence.  

Past and Present

        Over the course of our visit to Tate Britain, we were tasked with analyzing certain pieces of art by having one person describe the piece while the other blindly draws based on what they hear. My partner and I were assigned to Augustus Leopold series of pieces Egg, Past and Present.  
    My role was describing the piece to my partner which was a challenge. We had discussed the piece in class earlier which helped me illustrate the overall structure of the picture. However, looking closer made me notice aspects i had not picked up the first time. I decided to describe the painting going from left to right which is how I will analyze it here. At first glance at the little girl playing with her sister you can tell she is in a state of shock. Her expression reminded me of a line form Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market. "Laura turned cold as stone, to find her sister that cried alone". This line directly explains what has occurred in the picture. The little girl is Laura, she has just seen something unimaginable and becomes still. Her mother lay, "Crying alone" on the floor, as if she has taken one of the worst beatings of her life. "She say not one word in her hearts sore ache, but peering through the dimness naught discerning" (Goblin Market). The little girls expression suggests that she has lost a great deal of her innocence being exposed to such terror, especially in such an immediate and intimate setting. The piece is covered with the color red, a color which suggests anger, danger and passion. The encapsulating red is a descriptor of the setting and the suggested preceding plot. Each of the three virtues of red had been exhibited and the expression on each characters face can display the purpose each one had. The father stands before all in front of the red suggesting his great power with his demanding fist. He has just committed an act of passion which provoked great danger. Even though he stands by his act, his expression still makes him look hopeless and upset. As the mother lays, she sets the tone for the picture as hopeless not just for her but for all of those involved. They are no longer a complete family. This will live with each one of them and influence their lives from their on out. This picture is essentially "the beginning.


Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, 1858

Of the visits we've taken thus far the most intriguing to me was the Natural History Museum. I was surprised such an enormous but yet elegant building was here in Kensington and I hadn't seen it before. Once inside, I was immediately drawn to the dinosaur exhibit due to its pure size and aesthetic. It was interesting to read about the different displays, it never occurred to me people during the Victorian times were so interested in studying dinosaur fossils, but it was the best way for them to gauge changes throughout time. I started thinking about what our purpose and use of dinosaurs is. W.J.T. Mitchell says it best in her short excerpt about dinosaurs, "What we do not yet understand is the cultural function of the dinosaur, a children's toy, a corporate logo, a voracious monster, a civic monument...". She continues to go into further discussion how in todays world we see amazing image, data, fossil, and other dinosaur related collections all over the world, but rarely if ever do we see an attempt to understand the underlying meaning of the collections and the basis for their fascination. Here is where I believe the Natural History Museum did a phenomenal job through defining the Victorians actual use and reasoning behind their fascination of dinosaur fossils. Victorians had a practical use for dinosaur fossils during their period of life, but i personally cant think of any in particular for todays day and age. Which makes me question why dinosaurs are still of such fascination, and Stephen Jay Gold says it best in my opinion, "I know no better response; big, fierce, extinct - in other words, alluringly scary, but sufficiently safe". This couldn't be more true, and perhaps explains why dinosaurs are still found on display in museums across the world. I am glad we took the visit to the Natural Art Museum along with reading WJT Mitchells excerpt because it sparked a whole new though process I would have never experienced otherwise.

Monstrosity in “The Darkest London”: Cross Bones Graveyard

The East End walking tour presented some of the monstrous areas in London where poverty struck throughout the 1800s. The residents of the West End viewed the East End as a foreign concept. They lived in two different worlds- those in the West were respectably wealthy, upper/middle-class individuals. Those in the East were said to have lived in “the darkest London” where 25% of its population lived below substance level and 10% couldn’t afford enough food- causing there to be over 30,000 homeless children. Houses were rotting from the inside out, while human waste and vermin filled the streets, creating an outlandish scent. This concept is similar to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde reading. The two personas portrayed by a single individual was only known by insiders (his friends) relative to the city of London. As one may have known the city during this time period as having the most wealth, a thriving business sector and top-rated education, they were missing the other half of the city that was essentially buried by insiders, so that their external image wouldn’t be damaged.

Due to these poor conditions, many women were forced to turn to prostitution. This took place in various parks around London and on corners in the East End. The parks acted as an escape for city-goers during daylight, but once nightfall arose the women came out to make just enough money for the upcoming week. Until the mid 1800s women who sold sex as their career were buried in the Cross Bones Graveyard, which was placed in the middle of the East End, the unruliest area in London. These single women were looked at as “monsters” by West End individuals and this is how they were re-payed, by being buried in this graveyard. It is also interesting that the graveyard looks similar to parks where many prostitutes worked, allowing them to live out the rest of their days in a smaller version of the parks they once stood in. This is the reason that women were looked down upon in the Victorian period, as they had to fight to gain power in a city that they were once so belittled in for sex.

As London started to mend its two faces and unite as one, the East End area continued developing  toward being known for the Borough market, trendy restaurants, and modern office buildings. In the late 1900s, part of the Cross Bones Graveyard was destroyed in order to add on to the Jubilee Line, referencing that at one time London was abandoning valuable history for their own modern gains, but caused them to discover the volume of bodies buried in the graveyard. Now, the outcasts buried in there will be able enjoy valuable green space in a garden since the Southwark Community Council Bank donated 100,000 pounds to its development and maintenance. Cross Bones Graveyard will remain preserved for many more years with a plaque honoring those buried there and ribbons, feathers, and beads crowding its entrance in commemoration of the East End’s seedier past and the women who endured it.

Christina Rosetti's 'song' "When I am dead, my dearest" relates to the painting in Tate Britain Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The poem talks about how when she dies she asks her significant other to not play sad songs for her, place flowers, or plant a tree by her grave. She also talks about how its ok if he does remember her but also okay if he forgets about her. In the second stanza she talks about how it would not be a big deal for her if her loved one did not remember her because she will be dreaming and not be able to see shadows, feel the rain, or hear the nightingale. Christina Rossetti also says in the last two lines how she might not even remember him after her death. The painting by Dante Rosetti is of his wife Elizabeth Siddal and shows his grief towards her death. This painting has a very dream like quality. This painting shows Elizabeth Siddal right before her death as she is transforming into a "sudden spiritual transfiguration" (Rosetti, in a letter of 1873). The angel represents love while the dove, which is a symbol of the holy spirit, represents death. The dove also has an opium poppy in its beak which also expresses death. The sundial in the painting shows us that her death was just a matter of time. I really enjoyed this painting especially because of the fact that its the scene right before her death. She has a glowing aura around her head and gives a transcendental feeling to the painting.

By Madison Foster

"Dinomania" at the Natural History Museum

“Dinomania” at the Natural History Museum

The Victorian view of dinosaurs was characterized by a fascination with the ancient existence, vicious nature, and sudden extinction of the animals. In H.N. Hutchinson's Extinct Monsters, the author refers to them as "wonderful animals of bygone times", and believes they should be more widely appreciated. In modern exhibits like the Natural History Museum, extensive displays of skeletons and fossils have satisfied Hutchinson's desires, but have also become criticized by modern academics. W.J.T. Mitchell's The Last Dinosaur Book questions why society, and children especially, fall to an outmoded craze for dinosaurs known as "dinomania.”

The dinosaur display at the Natural History Museum is a crowded exhibit of bones, fossils, and animatronic dinosaurs that seeks to captivate its visitors with what W.J.T. Mitchell calls "spectacles of gigantic violence." The visitor is guided through a labyrinth of displays in which they can experience the history of these animals while overhead their delicate skeletons hover like “animal deities erected for human worship.” Most directly relating to Mitchell’s criticism, however, is the large animatronic T. Rex that sits separately from the rest of the exhibit. The presence of dividing walls, warning signs, and a small exit door before the entrance to the display confirms Mitchell’s suspicion that many children are afraid of dinosaurs despite common perceptions. This powerful, horrifying, and violent representation of the dinosaur fascinated people like the Victorians and has led to ample representation of these creatures being used in everyday life. Portrayed in these ways, dinosaurs, according to Mitchell, should no longer be a critical component of childhood development.

https://twitter.com/nhm_london/status/1045961473548316672

References

W.J.T. Mitchell, The Last Dinosaur Book, 1998.

H.N. Hutchinson, Extinct Monsters, 1897.