Liverpool Museums podcast will re:present city's rich history

National Museums Liverpool has launched a new podcast which will take a look at the stories behind some of the items and themes covered in its huge historical collection.

Re: PRESENT is being hosted by Crosby-born broadcaster Jane Garvey and will shine a light on different displays and objects from the museums’ different sites.

The opening episode features the story of seafarers Michael Rudder and Dominic Brown, who were featured in the Hello, Sailor! exhibition at the Merseyside Maritime Museum. The couple, who met on board a ship in the 1970s and are still together 45 years later, compare being cooped up together at sea to being in lockdown.

Alayo Akinkugbe, founder of the Instagram account @ABlackHistoryOfArt, will join art historian and collector Dr Michael Barclay to share thoughts on the artist Glynn Philpott, whose lover Vivian Forbes took his own life the day after Philpott’s funeral.

And Merseyside Maritime Museum head Ian Murphy (pictured below) will talk about the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7 1915. There will also be the chance to hear a love poem written by an engineer who died in the sinking.

Garvey, whose great-grandfather was among the 1,198 who died in the wartime attack on the Cunard liner, says: “I'm really proud to be playing a part in bringing just some of the material in Liverpool's museums and galleries to life. This isn't stuffy or dry, it's real people telling their own stories and living through history.”

Maritime Museum head Ian Murphy

David Watson, NML Executive Director of Audiences and Media, adds: “The series will take historical stories from our collections and give them a new lease of life by presenting them with a modern twist via a range of diverse voices from the past and present. We hope to continue to inspire our visitors while we are closed during lockdown but also bring our collections to new audiences.

“Digital storytelling has become more important than ever and will continue to be so. Stories are the essence behind people’s love of museums.

“We have the broadest range of stories to tell and this podcast series is an opportunity to reflect on just some of the incredible stories from our collections, programmes and communities.”

Future episodes will include stories on Liverpool 8 Against Apartheid, the MV Derbyshire disaster and transatlantic slavery.

The Re:PRESENT podcast is available on the National Museums Liverpool website HERE