On May 12th, project research administrator Abi Freeman and I made the journey from Bristol to Hull to install the Mariners Exhibition in its second location.
The exhibition is the final flagship event for the Mariners project. It will be displayed in three ports at the heart of our research: Bristol, Hull and Liverpool.
After our successful launch event in the Mount Without, Bristol on 7th May, we were excited to set up in our new location, Hull History Centre. Hull History Centre, located in the aptly named ‘Worship Street’, is an official project partner. The centre is a partnership between Hull City Council and the University of Hull, and amongst its impressive collections is a range of material relating to maritime history as well as religious organisations including the Mission to Seafarers. Hull History Centre archivist Claire Weatherall has been an invaluable part of the Mariners Project Advisory Board, and integral to organising this phase of the exhibition.
The exhibition is displayed in the generous and well-lit space of the centre’s glass arcade. Hull was experiencing unusually warm weather, and the arcade felt like a green house, with temperatures reading mid-30s as Abi and I unpacked and set up the exhibition panels. While the installation wasn’t easy work, it was all worth it when we saw the exhibition in the new space. The arcade is the first room visitors enter when they arrive at Hull History Centre, and we know that the exhibition will witness lots of footfall, providing opportunity for a range of guests to see it, in a large and accessible space.
The next day the Hull launch event took place. I delivered a talk providing an overview of the exhibition, describing the research and the work of our three commissioned artists.
In addition to work by three commissioned artists and panels on themes including gender and family, religion, race and ethnicity and the nature of seafaring, this iteration of the exhibition also contains a panel on Hull, providing an overview of the development of the port. It featured a fascinating biography of ‘The Seafaring Surgeon: Dr Hirjee Nowroji Anklesaria’ who worked to save men on Hull’s Gamecock fishing fleet when it was fired on by Russian warships in 1904. This was kindly provided by Claire from her knowledge of local archival sources. Claire also provided a range of archival items, including lantern slides, which were displayed in an exhibition case relating to ‘Uncovering seafarers’ lives in the photographs of the Mission to Seafarers’.
The exhibition will be in in Hull until the 26th of June, before its return to Bristol, where it will be displayed in St Stephen’s Church in July. From June to July, a smaller version of the exhibition will also be displayed in Liverpool Record Office.
I would like to thank Abi Freeman for all her hard work in the installation in Bristol and Hull, and Claire Weatherall, who has been so generous with her time and expertise.
