Lord Robert Runcie, Bishop of St Albans 1970-1980, with his gargoyle at St Albans Abbey, 1979.
Earlier in the month I posted about the visit we recieved from the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Reverend Alan Smith, and you can now see photographic evidence of this online. If you've ever wondered what the photo studio at Verulamium Museum looks like, or what the face of the image library (and the face behind this blog post!) looks like, then wonder no more!
- Read the story online (this link will open in a new window)
Normally I would try to avoid starting the Christmas celebrations until at least the start of December, but this year has been an exception since we were asked to decorate a tree for the Festival of the Trees at St Albans Town Hall. This event is being organised by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, who can be found just round the corner of Verulamium Museum.
- Visit the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust website (this link will open in a new window)
Preparations started at the end of last week when all available staff joined in with the cutting, sticking and laminating of tree decorations. We used images of some of the objects from our collections to make decorations, including giant Roman and Iron Age gold coins for baubles!
An Iron Age coin transformed into a Christmas bauble
Since no Christmas tree would be complete without the angel on top, we decided to make our own slightly unconventional one by dressing up our Verulamium Venus so she was fit for a Christmas party! Unfortunately by the time she made it to the top of the tree she'd lost a sequin or two, but still looked pretty eye-catching.
The Verulamium Venus moonlighting as a Christmas angel!
We spent a lovely morning decorating our tree and are pretty proud with the result!
The finished tree in all its glory!
The Festival of Trees is open to the public on the 5th and 6th of December if you fancy seeing our tree and the many others decorated by other community groups.
- For more details, you can visit the Festival of Trees website (this link will open in a new window).
- You can also see these photos and others on our Facebook fan page (this link will open in a new window).
On Wednesday the new Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Reverend Alan Smith, visited Verulamium Museum and got to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes (and in some cases right underneath the galleries!) to keep a busy museum running. When he came to see the museum image library, we thought we should show him some of our oldest images of the abbey, like this one from the 1600s.
The North Prospect of Ye Sometymes Conuentuall Church of St Alban. Drawn and engraved by Daniel King, late 1600s.
On a more lighthearted note, we thought he might like to see this picture of Robert Runcie when he was bishop of St Albans, pictured with his gargoyle - not many people are lucky enough to be immortalised in this way!
Lord Robert Runcie, Bishop of St Albans 1970-1980, with his gargoyle at St Albans Abbey, 1979.
It is always nice to show visitors around the museum, and it is good to be reminded how exciting it is to work in a museum. There's nothing like seeing your work place through fresh eyes! Hopefully our gueses enjoyed their visit as much as we did.
Iraq - A New Face . Number 5 in a series of 15 portraits of Kurdish/Iraqi people by Ben Hodson & Ian Rowlands.
Just a reminder that there is going to be a photography workshop going on this Saturday 7th November at the Museum of St Albans. It will be led by Ben Hodson and Ian Rowlands, the photographers who curated our current temporary exhibition Iraq - The Forgotten Story . Many of their photographs appear in the exhibition and on Saturday they will be sharing their knowledge and experience of photographing other cultures. This workshop is for photographers of all abilities - you don't have to be a professional with a fancy camera! Come along and pick up some tips on improving your photographs.
Iraq - A New Face . Number 10 in a series of 15 portraits of Kurdish/Iraqi people by Ben Hodson & Ian Rowlands.
The workshop will run from 11:00am - 4:00pm and is a bargain at £4.00 for the day, or £3.50 for Friends of St Albans Museums. For more details or to book your place pop in to the Museum of St Albans on Hatfield Road or call on (01727) 819340.
You can also find details about this event on Facebook
