From a prosthetic leg to a tin of spices: Discover items collected by Museum of Liverpool in 2024

The Museum of Liverpool continues its mission to celebrate and showcase the city’s rich culture, character, and heritage by adding a range of unique items to its permanent collection this year.

From a swimming prosthetic leg to a Mesolithic footprint, these acquisitions by Museum of Liverpool offer a fascinating glimpse into the city’s past and present, telling the diverse stories of its people and communities.

Where some more traditional museum items may not be chosen, other more obscure, even unassuming items will take up a permanent place in the collections. 

Items can be identified by the museum curators or are kindly offered to the museum by societies, organisations and members of the public. While not every item is accepted, curators carefully consider all items and decide which items would benefit the museum’s collection to represent the multitude of stories throughout the city’s long history.

Kay Jones, curator at Museum of Liverpool, is part of the team that decides on additions to the museum collection. She talks through some of her highlights from this year’s acquisitions, and their significance.

Kay said: “The wide-ranging collections reflect the changing history of the city and represent the diverse stories and experiences of Liverpool people. We continually look to add new material to represent contemporary issues and events affecting people in the city today.

“We consider what an object can reveal about the history of the city and what important personal stories it can tell to help us connect our communities, past and present.

“Without the support and contribution of the people of Liverpool our collections simply would not exist. Importantly, the collections are held in trust for the people of the city.” 

Here is a list of items that have been selected by the Museum of Liverpool for 2024.

A drinks list

Printed for the now demolished Legs of Man that stood next to Lime Street, a 1970s cocktail menu from the famous pub was collected as a celebration of Liverpool’s night life, not to mention for a look back at the price of a cocktail in the 70s. Local legend also has it that Liverpool legend Lily Savage was born outside the Legs of Man…

A prosthetic leg

This prosthetic leg was acquired from Amputees and Carers Support in Liverpool (ACSIL), generously donated by the charity’s chairperson Bobby Hodgson.  It is specifically designed for use when swimming, however Bobby remembers that the prosthetic leg was too heavy to swim with so he would often float on his back without wearing it instead. The item was acquired to increase the museum’s representation of Liverpool’s amputee community and their experiences.

A spice blend tin

Celebrating 40 years of one Liverpool’s staple shops, world food shop Matta’s released a special blend curry powder to celebrate the anniversary. Museum of Liverpool chose this item to represent Matta’s long history in the city, providing diverse food to a wide range of customers. Husband and wife Kirpal and Kanta Matta opened their shop on Bold Street on the 27 July 1984, after moving from its initial home in Toxteth (opened in 1965).

A Mesolithic footprint

Museum of Liverpool has a rich and diverse Archaeology collection with items from across Merseyside. Curators collected a plaster cast of a footprint taken from Formby Beach in the 90s by dog walker Gordon Roberts. The footprint dates back to Mesolithic people who lived in Merseyside over 8000 years ago and analysis suggests the footprint of someone with a visible limb difference. Prehistoric footprint casts are on display in the museum as part of a tactile display – part of their sensory gallery tour.

An accordion

The Toscano Brothers, known as ‘Cesare and Georgio’, were Carlo Mario Cesare Romiti and George Bell. George Bell was a cousin of Cesare Romiti’s wife, Annie. The Romiti’s were migrants from Livorno in Tuscany and chose to make Liverpool their home. They played their accordions around the country at various music halls. The accordion is engraved with ‘Toscano Bros Representatives’ and was made in Castelfidardo, a Province of Ancona, Italy. This was collected to increase representation in relation to Liverpool’s Italian community, to help showcase their significant contribution to the city.

A football programme

A programme from Jurgen Klopp’s final game as manager of Liverpool Football Club. ‘Danke Jurgen’ was a thank you to Jurgen Klopp. It was sold at Anfield on Sunday 19 May 2024 for the Premier League game Vs Wolves. The programme (which sold out) was a donation to our collections from Paul Sumpter, an LFC fan. The museum collects items relating to sport and in 2025 is looking at acquiring items to mark the end of Everton Football Club’s time at Goodison Park.

A photograph

Taken around 1908, a photograph of the Kingston Choral Union of Jamaica, renamed the Native Choir from Jamaica, was acquired by the museum to represent the city’s global connections. The photograph shows the choir standing outside St. George’s Hall The choir left Jamaica to travel to Bristol in January 1906, before travelling to Liverpool where they were to appear at the ‘colonial products’ exhibition for entrepreneur Alfred Lewis Jones. Liverpool jazz legend Gordon Stretton was also a member of the choir.

The list is just a small selection of items acquired by the Museum of Liverpool for their collections. Although not all items will go on display, all the items form part of the museum’s archives telling the story of Liverpool’s rich and diverse history.

Sandra Penketh, executive director of collections and research, said: “The Museum of Liverpool makes some incredible and interesting acquisitions for the collection. Sometimes obvious, sometimes quirky, every item acquired helps to tell the story of Liverpool, its region and its communities. It’s a very special skill to identify the right things to help tell the story of Liverpool for everyone and our curators do an amazing job thinking about this, not just for our visitors of today but for our visitors of the future as well.”

Other items collected this year includes Holly Johnson memorabilia collected to be a part of the museum’s latest exhibition The Holly Johnson Story, which is on display until summer 2025.

Museum of Liverpool has differing opening hours across the festive period:

• 24-26 December: closed
• 27-30 December: 10am-5pm
• 31 December – 1 January: 11am-4pm
• 2-5 January: 10am-5pm

The museum returns to its regular opening hours of 10am-4pm Tuesday to Sunday from 7 January 2025.

You can also explore highlights of their vast collections online at: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.

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