National recognition for Johnson Birthplace Museum

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum has been awarded Full Accreditation by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). The national scheme recognises Museums which operate to high professional standards in caring for their collections and providing excellent services for their visitors.

The Museum, previously held ‘Registered’ status. The Registration scheme was replaced in 2004 by the new and much more detailed Accreditation scheme. Staffordshire was one of the last areas that the new scheme was rolled out to, and the Birthplace applied in January this year. Many new developments have been made at the Museum while preparing for the award including a wider range of special events and activities for children and families, improved information for researchers, new ‘welcome’ leaflets for visitors and a scheme of outreach talks for groups. As well as the improvements for visitors a great deal of work has gone on behind the scenes, cataloguing and caring for the over 6000 items in the Museum’s collection and archive.

Joanne Wilson, Museums and Heritage Officer for Lichfield City Council, said: “We are delighted that the MLA has awarded the Birthplace Museum Full Accreditation. The staff and volunteers at the Museum have been working very hard towards this recognition for a number of years, and we are committed to continuing to improve our services to ensure that the Birthplace Museum remains a fantastic attraction that Lichfield can be very proud of”.

Birthplace appears in major BBC series
The Birthplace Museum was used as a location for David Dimbleby's fascinating new history series 'The Seven Ages of Britain', which explores the history of the nation through our art treasures. David consults a first edition on Johnson's Dictionary while sitting in our beautiful Birth Room. The Museum appeared in 'The Age of Money', which aired on Sunday 7th March at 9pm on BBC One. The epidsode can be seen on iplayer at: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qn2gv


The Birthplace helps to tell the story of the World
The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is one of ten Staffordshire Museums to have been chosen to join an exciting new national project which launches this week. ‘A History of the World’ is a unique partnership between the BBC, British Museum and 340 museums nationwide. Each regional museum has selected an object which has local, national and international significance. The Birthplace Museum has chosen a first edition of Johnson’s famous ‘Dictionary of the English Language’, published in 1755, as its star object.

Lichfield’s most famous son left his birth place in his twenties to find work as a writer in London. In 1746 he was approached by a group of printers and publishers with the project of writing the Dictionary. Johnson worked for nine years with a group of assistants at a house in Gough Square, London. Although it was written in London, Johnson’s early life in Lichfield played an important part in shaping the encyclopaedic memory that helped him to complete the task, as he spent his childhood reading the books in his Father’s shop on the Market Square. Johnson's was not the very first Dictionary, but it was the most concise and complete one produced up to the time, and the first to include examples of usages. It gives us a fascinating insight into the language and literature used in the Georgian period. Johnson's Dictionary became the standard authority on the English Language with a worldwide influence: it was shipped to America, Australia and New Zealand, and was translated into French and German.

Joanne Wilson from the Birthplace Museum said: “A History of the World is an incredibly exciting project and we are delighted to be involved. It is great to see Lichfield recognised nationally as both a centre of historical importance and a vibrant cultural attraction today, and we hope that many local people will join in our activities related to the project over the coming year”.

See the Dictionary on permanent display at the Museum, alongside information and interactive activities for children and adults alike.


Churchwarden pipes – only 100 left!
To mark the Tercentenary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, The Johnson Society has commission 300 specially crafted clay Church Warden pipes for presentation to everyone attending the Tercentenary Gala Supper as a memento of the occasion. The bowl of each pipe has been sculpted into a likeness of Samuel Johnson’s face. Each pipe comes in a presentation pack which is individually numbered.

The pipes cost £25 each and are for sale to all from the Birthplace Museum Bookshop and also online. Follow the link to our new online shop at the left of this page to see images and place an order, or call the Bookshop on 01543 264972 for more information.