Christmas at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum

.... and other recent press releases

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is decking the halls and mulling the wine in preparation for an evening of entertainment in ‘A Georgian Christmas’ on Saturday 10th December. Tickets are still available for the event which invites visitors to step back in time with traditional decorations, costume, storytelling and games from Samuel Johnson’s era.

Visitors can enjoy an array of drop-in activities, music and storytelling for all ages throughout the beautiful historic surroundings of the Grade I listed building. From ‘Grimm and Ghastly tales’ in the attic snug to an array of amazing automata, and hands-on card making sessions. There will be treasure hunts, competitions and prize draws to enter for adults and children. Everyone will find something to delight, from mulled wine and a mince pie to tips from a professional flower arranger on how to make stunning Christmas decorations, and the chance to make your own to take home.

Museums and Heritage Officer Joanne Wilson said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming visitors to our Georgian Christmas evening. It is always a popular event and the atmosphere is wonderful in the historic surroundings of the Birthplace”. Tickets for ‘A Georgian Christmas’ cost £5 for adults and £2.50 for children including a drink and mince pie upon arrival. To book your place call 01543 264 972, email sjmuseum@lichfield.gov.uk or call into the Museum on the corner of the Market Square from 11am – 3.30pm daily. The Museum is also open as usual throughout the holiday season closed only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. Family trails and activities and available daily, and standard admission is free of charge. For more information visit www.samueljohnsonbirthplace.org.uk, or twitter users can follow the museum @SamuelJohnsonBM.

Join Johnson's 302nd Birthday Party!

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is celebrating the birthday of Lichfield’s most famous son with a free slice of cake for all visitors and activities throughout the day on Saturday 17th September.

As part of Lichfield Heritage Weekend’s ‘Ye Olde Games’ theme, young visitors to the Museum can discover sports and hobbies from Johnson’s time in a trail around the house and ‘Brilliant Balloons’ activity. Air ballooning began in Johnson’s time and fascinated his friends in the 18th century. Find out more and make a model air-balloon fit for a party all throughout the day.

The Museum on Breadmarket Street will be open from 10.30am – 4.30pm and admission, as always, is free of charge. A slice of Birthday cake supplied by local bakery Hindleys will be available for all visitors, while stocks last! In addition all are invited to ensemble on the Market Square for 12 noon when the civic party and Johnson Society members will gather to watch to Mayor lay a wreath on the statue of Johnson, while King Edward’s Brass Band and the Cathedral Girl’s school choir perform. The ceremony will be followed by a performance by the popular ‘Intimate Theatre’, providing Johnsonian entertainment with a sporting theme!

The Johnson Society will also be marking Johnson’s Birthday with the traditional supper at Lichfield Guildhall in the evening, where current President Frank Skinner will hand over his badge to President elect Susie Dent, known for her work on the Oxford English Dictionary and appearances on Countdown’s ‘Dictionary Corner’.


A personal audience with ‘The Swan of Lichfield’ at the Johnson Birthplace

On Saturday 11th June visitors to the Johnson Birthplace will be able to meet the famous ‘Swan of Lichfield’, poetess Anna Seward in a special event held in honour of new exhibition ‘The Letters of Lichfield’. Miss Seward, played by actress Rachel Duncan, will be talking about her famous poetry, Lichfield life and gossip, and her rather opinionated views on Dr Johnson himself! Visitors will be transported back to 18th century Lichfield, with an evening private viewing of the Museum and new exhibition and a glass of wine included in the ticket price.

Joanne Wilson at the Birthplace Museum said: “Anna Seward was a fascinating person with a very strong character, and we are very much looking forward to seeing her brought back to life in the Birthplace”

The one act play, written and directed by David Titley, will be performed on a timed entry basis from 6.30pm. Tickets cost £5 each and are available to book over the phone on 01543 264 972, by email to sjmuseum@lichfield.gov.uk or in person at the Museum, Breadmarket Street, 10.30-4.30pm daily.


Jenny Uglow OBE becomes President of the Alliance of Literary Societies

The Alliance of Literary Societies is delighted to announce that Jenny Uglow OBE is to become its new President. She succeeds Aeronwy Thomas, daughter of Dylan Thomas.

Jenny Uglow is one of Britain’s leading biographers. Her outstanding biographies – of George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Henry Fielding, William Hogarth, and Thomas Bewick – cross boundaries of genre and time, making her the ideal leader of this diverse organization. The Lunar Men: The Friends who made the Future (2003), winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, exemplifies her ability to grapple with science, art and challenging personalities to produce a powerful portrait of a group of influential Midlands friends in the late 18th century. Her most recent book is A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration. She is the editorial director of Chatto & Windus.

Jenny Uglow commented: ‘I am delighted and honoured to be the President of the ALS, which is such a vibrant body, bringing together admirers of so many different writers – a tribute to our lasting passion for literature.’

The Alliance of Literary Societies is an umbrella organization representing 125 literary societies, ranging from Jane Austen to Emile Zola. The annual AGM in May is hosted each year by a member society. In May 2010 the Elizabeth Gaskell Society welcomed the ALS to Knutsford, for a programme of talks and visits to places related to the author.

The Johnson Society of Lichfield looks forward to welcoming members of the ALS and Jenny Uglow to this year’s AGM during the weekend of May 21-22. In addition to talks and tours and a reception at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, there will be the usual feast of talk about books and writers. Perhaps the ghosts of a few of the Lunar Men (and women) will be eavesdropping.

Alliance of Literary Societies website: www.allianceofliterarysocieties.org.uk

High fives for local writer: the 'In Our Hands' Story begins in Lichfield

Lichfield’s proud tradition of supporting and inspiring community and arts projects has received another welcome boost in the form of a new project, 'In Our Hands' by writer and storyteller, Stewart Derry.

'In Our Hands' is an exciting community arts project for Lichfield, the result of Stewart’s successful funding bid to Arts Council England and Staffordshire County Council’s Heritage & Arts Service.

'In Our Hands' is a large community story project exploring the lives, memories, hopes and aspirations of a diverse group of people in the city. Stewart is working in partnership with a number of groups and learning centres in North Lichfield to make this a truly memorable event.

“In Our Hands is a wonderful opportunity for celebrating our lives, memories and stories through the arts and also opening up that conversation with others,” said Stewart. “The response so far to the work and the project has been fantastic! The stories of these groups and people is a conversation through time; how the past still speaks to the present, how those memories and voices find their connections in you and me. They are stories of the ordinary and the remarkable, the unfolding human experience navigating the daily rhythm of life, loss, love and companionship. Each person’s story is in turn connected with a small hand held object that holds a certain meaning and resonance to the teller and the tale. So we have, for each person, a memory, an object and a story.

The project has also involved a series of special outreach events with The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, inspiring new stories and memories for a series of rarely displayed objects in the collection. These collective memories, stories and treasured objects will form part of a new and exciting exhibition at the museum. But that is only the beginning.
Lichfield’s story will be the first part in a long series of In Our Hands projects with different groups and communities across the world. “What better place to start than home,” said Stewart, “and to contribute to that rich history of arts and community involvement in my own back yard. The vision of the project is in the true spirit of the storyteller. Very soon I’m going to have to gather my maps and put on my travelling shoes. But for the moment I’m really enjoying being in the city of the spires. As far as the In Our Hands project goes, right now Lichfield is pretty much the centre of the world!”
The interactive In Our Hands exhibition will be at The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum: Saturday 2nd April – Monday 2nd May 2011.

For more information about Stewart and the project visit www.stewartderry.co.uk


NEWS FROM 2010

The Formation of Poetry Maquettes available
“The Formation of Poetry” by Peter Walker arbs arbsa, was the first new public artwork in Lichfield, Staffordshire for over 50 years. It was commissioned as a celebration of the life and work of Samuel Johnson, and pays reference to the longevity and value of his work as both lexicographer and poet, and how the influence of that work has fed into the the forming of language thereafter. The sculpture was created to celebrate Johnson’s Tercentenary.

A limited world wide edition of 12 copies of the ¼ scale model are now available. These highly collectable artworks – are individually fabricated bronze sculptures produced on a brass base. Each sculpture is individually edition marked. For more information contact info@sculptorandartist.com or contact Peter Walker directly on 07968 277610

Birthplace Museum receives national recognition
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.

NEWS FROM 2009
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 by post. Please contact the shop on 01543 264972 or email sjmuseum@lichfield.gov.uk for more information.