A History of the World
Background
A History of the World bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld is a unique partnership between the BBC and museums across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It uses objects with both local and global resonances to tell a history of the world and, in many instances, personal recollections of events that helped shape our world.
Museums across Northern Ireland we asked to put objects forward that they felt told a significant story that was of interest nationally and internationally. We were lucky to have one of our museum objects selected for the shortlist along with objects from the Museum of Free Derry and St Columb’s Cathedral. The mast head of the Minnehaha was chosen because of the global resonance that it had as an object connected to global trade and industry as well as being a fine example of the rich shipping heritage that we have in the city. It also celebrates our links with Atlantic trade.
The objects chosen for the initial list from Derry are as follows:
Figurehead of Minnehaha
Harbour Museum, Derry
The Minnehaha is named after the heroine of Longfellow's epic poem "The Song of Hiawatha". The McCorkell Line operated from 1778, mainly carrying passengers from Ireland, Scotland and England to the Americas. For twelve years the Minnehaha carried passengers to New York, where she was known as "the Green Yacht from Derry". She was also a Baltimore grain carrier and a timber drogher until she was sold in 1895. The Minnehaha was one of the few ships to trade in New York to the Federal side during the American Civil War.
This impressive ship was practically the last great locally owned vessel to be involved in Transatlantic shipping before the advent of steam power, which eventually caused the McCorkell Line to close in 1896. The significance of this trade and migration is global and still resonates today in the links between Ireland and North America.
Mortar from the siege of Derry
St Columb’s Cathedral, Londonderry
This shell was fired into the city by the Jacobite forces during the siege of 1689. It landed in the churchyard on the 10th July and contained a letter giving terms of surrender. The citizens’ reply was "No Surrender". The siege continued for a total of 105 days, with the city being relieved by the Williamite ships on the 12th August 1689.
Civil Rights banner
The Museum of Free Derry
The banner was carried on a number of civil rights marches in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was last carried on the anti-internment march on 30 January 1972 that became Bloody Sunday when the Parachute regiment killed 14 marchers and wounded many others. The banner was dropped in the derelict house at Free Derry Corner as the marchers fled the gunfire, where it was found by a local boy, Hugh Doherty, the following day. He kept it in his attic for the next thirty years before donating it to the Museum of Free Derry. The civil rights marchers were not alone in their form of protest. Their demands for change had echoes of other marches taking place in other parts of the world at the time, including protests by French students and those opposing the Vietnam War.
The Promise Chalice
St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry
A silver gift chalice and paten sent to Londonderry by the Honourable The Irish Society in 1613. The Chalice is inscribed with the coat of arms of the City of London and the words "Ecelesiae Dei in Civitae Derriensi, Donum Londinensium" (To the Church of God in the City of Derry, the gift of the Londonders.) The paten is inscribed with the coat of arms of the City of London. The chalice and paten were used in the old church, which was used by the planters from 1613 to 1633 when St Columb's Cathedral was completed. It is still used in services of The Holy Communion.
Project Development
Following the launch on Monday 18 January 2010, the public, museums, heritage bodies, community groups and any other organisation can add their own items to the site and contribute to an ever-expanding digital museum. It's the single biggest multi-media project that the BBC has ever undertaken. The aim is to bring history to life and tell the world’s stories through objects.
A host of television and radio programmes on A History of the World will be broadcast over the next year. These include 25 short films about the first objects from Northern Ireland to feature on A History of the World website. The Gerry Anderson programme on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle will lead the search for the public’s objects, culminating in a ‘bus run’ for listeners.The Saturday morning programme Your Place and Mine will feature lesser-known objects, bringing to public attention some of the hidden stories of Northern Ireland and its place in the world.
Get involved in this project with your Local Museum
Seven hundred objects from across Great Britain and Northern Ireland have been chosen for A History of the World website but they represent just an initial selection. Now the BBC Northern Ireland team want to hear from members of the public to make history and add their own objects onto the site.
This also presents a great opportunity for Derry City Council’s Heritage & Museum Service to raise its profile locally, nationally and internationally. It encourages the public to participate and celebrate their own local heritage and the impact this has had. It adds greater value to role of museums within the communities they represent and highlights the reasons why we should enjoy the rich heritage that we have in this region.
To find out more about this exciting project and to add your own object go to
www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld
Contact
Heritage and Museum Service
Harbour Museum
Harbour Square
Derry BT48 6AF
Telephone: 028 71377331
Fax: 028 71377633
E-mail: museums@derrycity.gov.uk