Ectoplasm, spirit trumpets and paintings from Pompeii: 600 years of Curious Objects
Research
Ectoplasm, spirit trumpets and paintings from Pompeii: 600 years of Curious Objects
Curious Objects - teaser trailer
Why does one of the world’s great research libraries have ‘ectoplasm’, a spirit trumpet and beard hair posted to Charles Darwin among its eight million books, manuscripts and digital collections?
We’ve opened cupboards and found wall paintings from Pompeii.
Jill Whitelock
The answers lie in the second major exhibition of Cambridge University Library’s 600th anniversary – Curious Objects – which puts on display a collection of curiosities that has been centuries in the making.
Opening to the public on November 3, and following on from the hugely successful Lines of Thought, the exhibits on display in Curious Objects cover all corners of the globe and every era of human history, from the Stone Age to the Space Age.
Research for the exhibition has turned up new and rediscovered finds – including the oldest objects in the Library, two black-topped redware pots from Predynastic Egypt, and the oldest written artefact, a Sumerian clay tablet from around 2200 BCE.
As one of only six Legal Deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland, Cambridge University Library has been entitled to a copy of every UK publication since 1710. But it also predates the era of most modern museums and collections, meaning that over the centuries, it has been a depository for all manner of objects, all of which have a part to play in telling the story of one of the world’s greatest libraries.
Among the curious objects going on display are:
‘Ectoplasm’ captured during a séance by Helen Duncan (circa 1950) – the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735
Stone Age tools from Northern Nigeria
A Predynastic Egyptian drinking vessel
Fragments of wall paintings from Pompeii (circa 20 BCE-79 CE)
A pocket globe (1775) tracing Captain Cook’s first voyage
Beard and scalp hair posted to Charles Darwin – as a counterargument to claims Darwin made in Descent of Man
A Soyuz space badge, cigarettes and food packaging from the Cold War-era Soviet Union
“Shabby and beautiful, quirky and controversial, all the objects on display in our new exhibition provoke our curiosity and prompt questions about the nature of libraries – past present and future,” said Professor Christopher Young, Acting University Librarian.
Asante gold weights Brass, Ghana.
Beard and scalp hair enclosed in a letter to Charles Darwin London, [before 25 April 1871] Shortly after the publication of Charles Darwin’s Descent of man, Frank Chance, a physician and Hebrew scholar, wrote to Darwin holding himself up as an exception to Darwin’s statement: ‘when in man the beard differs in colour from the hair of the head, as is often the case, it is, I believe, invariably of a lighter tint, being often reddish’. Chance’s beard was darker than his scalp hair and he enclosed these samples to prove it. He also included a meticulous self-description of his body hair and ideas about how he might have inherited it from the maternal and paternal sides of his family. Darwin annotated the letter with a summary and incorporated Chance’s observation into the second edition of Descent as a rare exception to the rule.
Ectoplasm ca 1950 Ectoplasm is a substance believed to exude from a medium during a séance. It can materialise in different forms, being sometimes vaporous, sometimes viscous, sometimes a mass of fine threads and sometimes a cloth-like substance. It supposedly disintegrates when exposed to light or human touch. This example was captured during a séance given by the medium Helen Duncan and is part of the archive of the Society for Psychical Research. Duncan is noteworthy as one of the last people to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. In 1941 a recently deceased sailor materialised at one of her séances prior to the official release of information confirming the sinking of his ship. Alerted to what was seen as a security breach during a time of war, the authorities arrested Duncan. She was tried at the Old Bailey and sentenced to nine months in prison. In photographing the ectoplasm we have tried to recreate the atmosphere of some of the images of ectoplasm in the archive.
Sumerian clay tablet Zabala, southern Iraq, ca 2200 BCE This single clay tablet is marked with lines of text in cuneiform script and is the oldest example of writing in the Library. Written in Sumerian, it records a transaction involving jars of pig fat by two men, one named Balli. The tablet formed part of a larger collection in Zabala and was illegally excavated in the early twentieth century. Later, via the antiquities market, it came into the possession of the Cambridge scholar Sir Stephen Gaselee, who donated it to the Library in 1921. It was translated the following year by Thomas Fish, a Cambridge research student. Subsequently lost to view, it was never published and was rediscovered in a box of medals during research for this exhibition.
Boxwood écorché figure and ivory skeleton. England, not later than 1591. The London surgeon John Banister presented this anatomical figure and skeleton to the University in 1591. They were presumably used in teaching at a time when the availability of bodies for dissection was strictly limited. The box is covered in blind-tooled leather with gilt decoration and a printed gift label is attached to the lid under horn with ten ornamental nails. Banister was admitted to the Barber-Surgeons’ Company in London in 1572, enabling him to practise surgery in London. In 1593 the College of Physicians licensed him to practise both surgery and medicine. A painting of him at Glasgow University Library shows him delivering a ‘visceral lecture’ for the Barber-Surgeons standing next to a skeleton, a body in the process of dissection and an opened anatomical textbook.
Paper dolls from the wooden theatre on display in Curious Objects
Fragments of wall paintings Pompeii, ca 20 BCE–79 CE These fragments in the ‘Third’ or ‘Fourth Style’ of Pompeiian wall painting depict a shaggy-fleeced goat, a deer and Pegasus. They were found during research for the exhibition in the cabinet of ‘Oriental’ manuscripts and curiosities presented by George Lewis in 1727, and are among several later additions to the cabinet (see also 11). On the back of the frame is an inscription in a nineteenth-century hand reading ‘Containing Three Original Antique Paintings from the Walls of Pompeii, near Naples. Near 2000 years old’. A small paper label on the Pegasus records their sale as Lot 61 on the second day of an unidentified auction. Nothing further is yet known about their provenance. We hope to have them analysed to find out more about the pigments and the plaster backing.
Soviet bookmarks from the Catherine Cooke collection
A correct globe with the new discoveries A correct globe with ye new constelations of Dr Halley &c London, ca 1775 This pocket terrestrial globe is just seven centimetres in diameter and has a protective case covered with sharkskin and lined with a celestial chart. Pocket globes were first produced in England by Joseph Moxon (1627–1691), and they remained in vogue as a gentleman’s toy well into the nineteenth century. Commonly—as here—they showed the latest terrestrial and celestial discoveries. This globe shows the track of Lieutenant James Cook’s First Voyage from 1768 to 1771 in the Endeavour and the depiction of New Zealand reflects the discoveries Cook made. It was presented to the Royal Colonial Institute (now the Royal Commonwealth Society) in 1953 by Olive M. Thompson.
Spirit trumpet Cardboard, Manchester, 1920s In a ‘trumpet séance’ a spirit trumpet, such as this one, is placed on a table. The medium and those attending the séance take their seats. Once all light is extinguished the trumpet, made visible by luminous rings placed around it, proceeds to rise from the table and float around the room emitting ‘spirit voices’ and, if occasion demands, exuding ectoplasm. Spirit trumpets could be made of metal, but this example, ‘The “Two Worlds” “ideal” luminous trumpet for the development of “voice phenomena” and mediumship’, is made of cardboard. It is part of the archive of the Society for Psychical Research held on deposit at the Library. It was manufactured in the 1920s by The Two Worlds Publishing Co. Ltd. of Manchester, who also made other apparatus for communicating with spirits, including ‘The “Two Worlds” specially magnetised magic crystal’.
Tobacco stopper Mulberry wood?, England, second half of eighteenth century? In the 1750s the Reverend Francis Gastrell cut down the mulberry tree supposedly planted by Shakespeare at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, having grown tired of tourists asking to see it. The second half of the eighteenth century saw a brisk trade in souvenir objects claimed to be made of wood from Shakespeare’s tree. Tobacco stoppers such as this were common and were used for pressing down tobacco in a pipe. It is one of many objects later added to the cabinet of ‘Oriental’ manuscripts and curiosities presented by George Lewis in 1727. Its provenance is unknown. In 1817 the Library was given a piece of mulberry wood from Shakespeare’s tree, but this was a different item and was later donated to the Stratford Memorial Museum (now the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust).
Children's merry-go-round from the collections at Cambridge University Library
Soiuz–Apollo space badge USSR, 1975 This Soviet lapel pin commemorates one of the most symbolic technological achievements of the twentieth century. After decades of intensive rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States for Space Age supremacy, the two superpowers arranged a meeting in space of the Soviet Soiuz (or Soyuz) spacecraft and the US Apollo (Apollon in Russian). As the two missions’ commanders shook hands after the two craft docked, an important stage in East–West détente was achieved and the Space Race essentially came to an end. The badge shows the Soviet and US flags above their respective spacecraft and their names. It is part of the collection of books, journals and ephemeral material on Soviet architecture and design assembled by Dr Catherine Cooke (1942–2004).
“Over 600 years, Cambridge University Library has revealed the story of the world around us and the universe beyond - not only through its printed and manuscript treasures, but through this unique and wonderful ‘cabinet of curiosities’ that opens a window onto the nature of collecting.”
As well as the objects listed above, because of its Legal Deposit status, the University Library also has a significant collection of children’s toys, board games and models – often supplied with children’s books and magazines – which continue to arrive at the Library every week.
Cambridge University Library is home to the archive of the Society for Psychical Research, on deposit since 1989 and including the ‘ectoplasm’ and spirit trumpet among a number of artefacts. The Library also holds the collections of the Royal Commonwealth Society, a treasure-trove of information on the Commonwealth and Britain's former colonial territories, containing some forty objects in addition to more than 300,000 printed items, about 800 archival collections and over 120,000 photographs.
“Our curiosity has been rewarded with some exciting finds,” said Dr Jill Whitelock, Head of Special Collections and Lead Curator. “We’ve opened cupboards and found wall paintings from Pompeii, opened a box of medals and found an ancient clay tablet carefully wrapped in tissue paper. It’s wonderful to think that after 600 years there’s still so much to explore in the Library. We hope visitors to the exhibition will enjoy discovering our curious objects too – where else can you see ‘ectoplasm’ alongside Egyptian artefacts?”
Curious Objects runs from November 3, 2016-March 21, 2017. Admission is free.
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