Collections & Research

Accidents happen: we drop our favourite coffee cup in the kitchen and it shatters into a million pieces; parking the car, we misjudge the distance to that bollard and, oops, scratch the car; the faulty television overheats and catches fire. We usually try to protect ourselves against such accidents by assessing the risk, and mitigate against risk to help us avoid accidents. We install smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and emergency stairs to help us get out of a burning building should the worst happen.

Our immediate thought in the event of a disaster is, quite rightly, the preservation of life. But objects that mean something to us are often a victim of disasters, too. This may be the family photographs getting lost in a house fire. Or it could be an entire historic building, which is important to the local or even national history. The very recent fire at Clandon Park House in April 2015 illustrates how quickly an important part of British social and parliamentary history can be destroyed (the Onslow family, whose estates this was, provided three speakers to the House of Commons over the centuries).

What if heritage is destroyed not by accident, but entirely purposefully? In 2013, a construction company in Belize destroyed a Maya pyramid to turn it into gravel for road fill. The pyramid was 2,300 year old – millennia of heritage, memory and civilisation were destroyed, incredibly, because the ancient structure provided a cheap and easy source of building material.

At other times, heritage – monuments, buildings, statues, or even individual objects – are the target of anger. In post-communist Eastern Europe, statues of Stalin or Lenin are being removed as symbols of power of a by-gone era. Palmyra, the prosperous Assyrian city in today’s Syria, has temples 2,200 years old, was first destroyed by the Romans in 273 AD, by the Timurids in 1400, and is now threatened once again with becoming a casualty of war and ideologies.

Whether you agree with the symbols and ideologies of the people who came before you, our own being is born from previous historic events. Our music, stories, architecture, even our state of government would be nothing without the histories that led up to them. To make sense of our modern world we need to remember – remember positive events for the good they are, and negative events so we can avoid dark hours of history repeating themselves. Ultimately, the past informs our present.

In this project, funded by Cardiff University Engagement Seed Funding, we explore the effect of armed conflict on stone surfaces, emergency planning and heritage salvage, strategies for post-conflict remediation, and construction of memories of WWI or post-communist Eastern Europe.

Dr Lisa Mol (Early Career Lecturer, Cardiff University, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences) works on the impact of armed warfare on stone surfaces, which links to heritage conservation and long-term strategies for post-conflict remediation. Lisa asks people to shoot with guns at pieces of building stone to study what happens on impact.

Building on his recently published monograph on the construction of memory of the First World War, and on sites of memory in Eastern Europe, Dr Toby Thacker (Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Cardiff University, School of History, Archaeology and Religion) will cover the contested role of damaged historical sites in the construction of memory.

Dr Christian Baars (Senior Preventive Conservator, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales) is a member of the Welsh Government’s Emergency Planning Network Wales; he ensures the long-term preservation of museum collections, has experience working with the emergency services and will highlight the importance of preserving heritage for future generations while addressing the issues of looting and illicit trade in cultural objects.

If you are interested in this subject please follow our blog and come along to one of our events at National Museum Cardiff this summer.

On 7 July 2015, here at St Fagans, students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama will perform a series of 5 operatic arias inspired by the story of St Fagans Castle during the First World War, as part of MAKE AN ARIA.  

Unlike today, early twentieth century Wales was not considered a hotbed for operatic endeavour, musical Wales was associated with male voice choirs, brass bands and eisteddfodau.

One report on the subject of opera from 1910 even went so far as to say:

It has been frequently said that really good music is not appreciated by the people of Wales, for whom erotic musical comedy represents their highest tastes. Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser, 4 February 1910

Another newspaper reported a few years later:

The opera is of the theatre, and Wales still has its prejudice, I do think that Wales misses much by this attitude of aloofness…Wales has no further to go in choral singing. What we have to do now is to launch out, to widen our horizon. Cambrian Daily Leader, 11 April, 1913

However, on the global, cosmopolitan opera scene of the early decades of the century, there was one Welsh name on everyone’s lips, the mezzo-soprano, Madame Leila Megàne, known to her friends and family as Margaret Jones. Born in Bethesda in 1891, later to live in Pwllheli and Caernarfon, her roots were firmly planted in Wales.

She was trained in London and Paris before the First World War and later joined the company of the Grand Opera and toured extensively with them. For the Grand Opera’s production of Samson and Delilah in 1919 a new gown was commissioned for Leila. Before her death she gave the gown and its accessories to St Fagans National History Museum. As seen in the picture, the gown is a vivid orange with elaborate embroidery of purple, red, green and yellow.

The dress was made by Marie Muélle, arguably one of the best theatrical costumiers of the time. It was Muélle who made the iconic Ballets Russes costumes designed by the legendary artist Henri Matisse in 1920.

The New York Times reported in 1915:  

Muélle was known to every singer and every other stage favourite, too, who wants a distinctive Paris costume in which to create a new role. The New York Times, April 25, 1915.

Following the war, Leila returned to Pwllheli to perform at a special victory concert, much to the excitement and delight of the town. According to the newspapers of the time, the residents of Pwllheli were in such admiration of her that they queued eagerly for hours just to shake her hand.

Her professional career which captured the imagination of the world, was unfortunately short lived and soon after the First World War had ended she returned to Wales to live in comparative obscurity.

The bespoke Muélle gown however, remained very special to Leila throughout her life, and when she’d sing at concerts at local venues later in her life, she would always wear the dress whenever she sang arias from Samson and Delilah.

If Leila’s story has whet your appetite for opera, free tickets are now available for MAKE AN ARIA on 7 July 2015. Experimenting with opera and performance in the grounds of St Fagans Castle. An opportunity not to be missed. See What's On for further details.

Yn ei dyddiadur heddiw, cyfeiria @DyddiadurKate fod “Win yn mynd i’r Pentre i help Grace olchi gwithbannau.”

Gorchwyl tymhorol oedd golchi gwrthbannau (blancedi). Tasg gweddol hawdd i ni heddiw â pheiriant golchi wrth law, ond nid felly yng nghyfnod Kate. Yn anffodus, ni ddisgrifiwyd y dasg arbennig hon wrth i Kate drafod prosesau golchi gyda Minwel Tibbot, nôl ym 1970. Fodd bynnag, ceir cyfeiriadau lu yn yr archif sain at y dasg o olchi blancedi, cwrlidau a llenni.

Gan fod gofyn am gymaint o ddŵr i’w golchi, byddai nifer fawr o wragedd mewn ardaloedd gwledig yn golchi’r blancedi yn yr afon, fel yr hen Beti Bwt druan. A pham lai? Roedd hi dipyn haws mynd â’r offer a’r eitemau oedd angen eu golchi i’r afon, yn hytrach na chario bwcedi di-ri o ddŵr i’r tŷ. Wedi cynnau tân i gynhesu’r dŵr, byddai’r blancedi’n cael eu golchi dwywaith mewn dŵr cynnes, gan eu rhwbio’n ofalus gyda sebon golchi. Dodwyd y blancedi yn yr afon i gael gwared ar y sebon, yna’r cam nesaf oedd gwasgu’r dŵr. Roedd angen bôn braich dau berson i wneud hyn, y naill yn gafael ym mhob pen ac yn gwasgu yn groes i’w gilydd. Wedi’r gwasgu, ysgwyd y blancedi i adfer y gweadedd gwlanog a’i rwystro rhag ‘matio’ wrth sychu ar lwyni gerllaw.

Does ryfedd fod angen help ar Grace heddiw ‘ma!

Ar 18 Mehefin 1915, cynhaliwyd ‘Sassiwn Plant’ yn Llidiardau, ger y Bala. Er nad oedd hi’n bresennol, fe wnaeth Kate Rowlands nodyn o’r achlysur yn ei dyddiadur:

Anfon dipyn o bysgod adref. Sassiwn Plant Llidiardau. Emrys yn cael mynd yno. Anwen ag Ella yno yn y Sassiwn Plant. Diwrnod hynod o braf. Mary Lizzie Pandy yn cael tarawiad o appendicitis.

Ar wefan Papurau Newydd Cymru Arlein, mae modd dod o hyd i erthyglau di-ri am gyfarfodydd o’u math yng nghapeli’r ardal. Yn Sasiwn Plant Moel-y-garnedd a’r Parc yn Mehefin 1914 holwyd y plant yn ‘fedrus ac i bwrpas’ am y 6ed a’r 7fed bennod o’r Rhodd Mam. Gyda’r nos, rhanwyd gwobrau a thystysgrifau, a chyn gorffen ‘anrhegwyd bob un o’r plant a ‘bun’ cyn iddynt gychwyn adref.’ Trît derbyniol ar ddiwedd diwrnod hir ddywedwn i!

Mewn cyfweliad llafar â’r Amgueddfa yn 1969, cyfeiriodd Kate Rowlands at bwysigrwydd cael dillad newydd ar gyfer rhai o brif ddigwyddiadau blynyddol y capel. Dyma ddyfyniad o’r cyfweliad dan sylw, gyda chyfeiriad penodol at un Sasiwn Plant cofiadwy o'i phlentyndod:

Lynn Davies: Oedd hi’n arferiad cael dillad newydd ar gyfer achlysuron arbennig?

Kate Rowlands: Diar oedd! A chadw dillad fyddech chi’n gael at achlysuron felly. Cadw nhw’n ddillad gore ynde. Oedd hi’n oes y dillad gore yn siwr yn de. Fydde nhw ond yn dod allan ar gyfer rwbeth hynod o bwysig ynde… cwarfodydd yn y Bala a rwbeth felly yn de… gwyl yr ysgol sul, sassiwn plant a rwbeth felly ynde wch chi… Dw i’n cofio ni’n dod i fyny ryw sassiwn plant o Llantisilio a wedi cael popeth ynde, a het wen reit smart. A wedyn mewn wageni o nhw’n mynd … a mi ddoth hi’n law mawr. Pan o’n i’n mynd adre, het goch o’genai. O’dd y papure’r trimmings wedi colli lliw i gyd! Dyne fo, dodd honno dda i ddim byd wedyn ynde.

A ninnau bron ar ddiwedd hanner cyntaf @DyddiadurKate, gobeithio eich bod yn mwynhau'r cynnwys hyd yn hyn. Mae llawer mwy i ddod, y llon a'r lleddf, felly lledaenwch y gair a chadwch lygad ar y blog.

We would like to offer volunteers the opportunity to get involved in caring for the museum collections on open display in the historic houses. We have a huge number of objects, including items made from pottery, glass, textiles, paper, wood and leather, all of which need constant care and repair.

We plan to use traditional housekeeping techniques as well as modern conservation methods to help keep our collection looking good.  No previous experience is required, all training will be provided.

New facilities are also being created for our housekeeping volunteers, providing a comfortable area to work as well as relax.

If you are interested in joining us, please follow this link to the application form and we look forward to hearing from you.
This is a pilot project so even if the initial days we offer are not suitable, please still register your interest as more opportunities will arise in the future.