Posts by venue: Collections & Objects

The Neptune Shell Shop bracelet and the response to the shell crisis of 1915 – Part 1

A few weeks back I accepted a donation of a gold bracelet into TWAM’s collection. I am told that as a piece of jewellery it is unremarkable, but I think it is lovely. As TWAM’s maritime historian it is an… Read more

First World War Stories: Bringing the Unknown Warrior home

    The shipyard of R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn built many fine ships, perhaps none as admired as HMS Kelly. However, during the First World War the firm built a torpedo boat destroyer, which also has a… Read more

Did your ancestors own shares?

I’m pleased to report that work is progressing well on the ‘Workshop of the World’ project to catalogue our Vickers Armstrong archives collection. I’ve recently been working on the Executive records of Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth and Company Ltd, which… Read more

Ebola and Plague in Newcastle in 1636

We’ve all become aware of the recent awful effects of the Ebola virus in West Africa and its impact on the people of that area.  A range of responses have been put in place to try and help those affected and… Read more

Washington’s changing landscape

I was recently looking through photographs from our Washington Development Corporation collection to find images for a new Flickr set.  The thing that really struck me was how dramatically the Washington landscape changed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Fifty years ago, when Washington… Read more