News in brief

Treasures of British history make first trip to the north of England

RARELY seen treasures from a major London museum collection are to go on show for the first time in the north of England. Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain will open at the Sunderland Museum & Art Gallery on July 11 after successful stops at Stoke-on-Trent and Salisbury.

Guest curated by the historian David Starkey, Making History celebrates the contribution of the Society of Antiquaries to our appreciation of the past. Among the items on display is the engraving by William Shaftoe (left) of the Corbridge Lanx, or tray, discovered in 1735 by a nine-year-old-girl in the bank of the River Tyne, near Corbridge, a Roman garrison town; dating from the fourth century AD, the tray depicts Apollo, Diana and several other Roman deities, and the lanx itself has recently been purchased by the British Museum.

Also on display will be an 11th-century copy of Magna Carta, a Tudor portrait of Henry VIII and an inventory of his possessions at the time of his death and the Roll Chronicle, a lavishly illustrated scroll dating from the mid-15th century that charts the descent of Henry VI from Adam and Eve.

As well as artefacts of national interest, the local exhibits include the Benwell altar, which was among the first discoveries to have been recorded and preserved from Hadrian’s Wall in the eighteenth century, and site notebooks and finds from excavations at the Anglo-Saxon double Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, the UK’s nomination for World Heritage Site status in 2010.

The touring exhibition is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund who awarded £305,500 and has evolved from the exhibition created to celebrate 300 years of the Society of Antiquaries, shown to wide acclaim at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2007. It is supported by a fully illustrated website, which contains more detailed information on all the exhibits.

Dates and venues

11 July 2009 to 4 October 2009: Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens

16 October 2009 to 3 January 2010: The Collection, in Lincoln

Left: King Brutus from the Roll Chronicle, mid-fifteenth century, illumination on vellum (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 2 July 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 2 July 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society:

Peter Rowley-Conwy MA PhD Professor of Archaeology, Dept of Archaeology, Durham University (a historian of archaeology and author of From Genesis to Prehistory; research into animal domestication and the Mesolithic of Europe).
Pamela Catriona Lowther BA Honorary Visiting Fellow, University of Leicester (contributed to bringing major archaeological projects in the north-east of England to publication, including those of Jarrow and Wearmouth).
Allan Marshall Brodie MA Architectural Historian, Senior Investigator in English Heritage (specialist in the architectural history of prisons, courts and seaside resorts; research interests in the military defences on the Isles of Scilly and Dover Castle).
Linda Ehrsam Voigts MA PhD Curators’ Professor Emerita of English, University of Missouri at Kansas City (specialist in medieval science and medicine; published electronically with a collaborator Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English).
Nicola Jane Milner BA PhD Lecturer, Dept of Archaeology, University of York (specialist in Mesolithic archaeology of Europe with particular interest in palaeodiet, death and burial, settlement and mobility).
Wayne Douglas Cocroft BA Senior Archaeological Investigator, English Heritage Survey and Investigation Team (specialist in modern military sites; has conducted a national study of the explosives industry; co-author of a study of Cold War buildings for nuclear confrontation).
Clare Hornsby BA PhD Paul Mellon Fellow, British School at Rome (architectural historian, expert in Grand Tour studies, garden history and the history of collecting; publications include Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth Century Rome).
Fiona Elizabeth Susan Roe MLitt Freelance specialist in prehistoric stone artefacts (has undertaken extensive research on Bronze Age battle axes and assemblages of Iron Age stone objects; interests include the use of stone in milling).
Tamar Lewitt BA PhD Director, Special Academic Projects, Trinity College, Melbourne University (leading scholar in interpreting Late Antiquity and especially the economy of the period).
Kate Wilson BA Inspector of Ancient Monuments, English Heritage North East Region (specialises in conservation of ruins, architectural reconstructions, especially for Roman buildings, eg Segontium, Birdoswald and Bewcastle).
Richard Falkiner Auctioneer, agent and adviser in antiquities and numismatics (scholar-dealer; has written on the Sevso treasure and Bolton forgeries; panellist for Treasure Act valuations).
Derek Charles Seeley BA MA Senior Contracts Manager, Museum of London Archaeology (detailed knowledge of archaeology of Roman and medieval London; has published on Winchester Palace, Southwark).
Elaine Margaret Treharne BA PhD Professor of Medieval Literature, Florida State University (leading scholar of vernacular manuscripts; has published widely on early medieval books, especially English texts and codicology, 1050–1200).
Kim Shelton MA PhD Assistant Professor, Dept of Classics, University of California, Berkeley (leading archaeologist specialising in Aegean prehistory; extensive fieldwork and excavation at Mycenae).
Diana Beatrix Tyson BA PhD Honorary Research Fellow, University College London (has held academic posts in Geneva, London and Ohio and has published extensively in medieval French and English history, literature and language).
David Joseph Field PhD Archaeological investigator, English Heritage (has worked and published on the archaeology of Surrey; specialist in the Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary landscapes and monuments of southern England).
Beth Ann Williamson MA MA PhD Senior Lecturer in History of Art, University of Bristol (art historian, specialising in medieval iconography and devotional imagery; publications include Christian Art: a very short introduction).
Pamela Sambrook BA PhD Independent scholar (consultant and academic researcher on the English country house, especially domestic offices; has published widely in the field and has interests in the history of food).
Peter Thomas James Rumley MA MA DPhil Archaeological consultant (has worked at Ightham Mote, Sissinghurst Castle and other historic properties in south-east England; has published on the conservation of medieval metalwork, historic building conservation and art history).
David Bowsher BA MA Archaeologist (has worked in archaeology in Britain and abroad for more than twenty years and is the principal author of monographs on the Eastern Cemeteries of Roman London, the Saxon city of Lundenwic and the medieval and later London Guildhall).
Jonathan Basil Keates MA Musicologist and historical biographer (books include biographies of Handel, Purcell and Stendhal; currently working on a historical study of Worcestershire between 1815 and 1914; journalist and literary critic).
Tatiana (Tania) String MA PhD Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Bristol (specialist in Tudor art and architecture; has published extensively on sixteenth century English art).
Marcus Graham Bull BA PhD Professor of Medieval History, University of Bristol (specialist in medieval France, especially belief and the crusades in their social, cultural and political contexts).
John Ernest Latham BA Archaeologist for the National Trust in Wales (wide experience in producing surveys and research reports; conservation advice on management of archaeological sites National Trust properties in Wales; contributor to many archaeological publications).
Mario Buhagiar BA MA MPhil PhD Head of the Department of History of Art, University of Malta (expert on the art, archaeology and buildings of Malta, specialising in the medieval period; founder of History of Art department at the University of Malta).

More about 'Making History': 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain

Left: George Cruikshank, The Antiquarian Society, 1812, coloured engraving (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

Guest curated by celebrated historian David Starkey, CBE, FSA, and based on the widely acclaimed exhibition shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2007, the Society's 'Making History' exhibition explores the development of our sense of the past, from antiquarianism to the rise of professional archaeology. As David Starkey says: ‘This exhibition shows how history is made and why it matters’.

The exhibition also celebrates the tercentenary of the Society of Antiquaries of London. It has been adapted, with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, from the exhibition Making History: Antiquaries in Britain 1707-2007 shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in the autumn of 2007 to widespread media acclaim: Michael Prodger in the Sunday Telegraph called it ‘a delightful and rather brave show’, while Michael Glover in the Independent told his readers to ‘Visit. Marvel.’

Right: Attributed to Thomas Underwood, Drawing of the Ribchester helmet, 1798, watercolour on paper (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

The touring exhibition Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain explores the making of the national heritage over three hundred years since the establishment of the first body concerned with the study of the past and its preservation. The foundation in a London tavern in 1707 of the Society of Antiquaries marked a defining moment in the public consciousness of the importance of antiquity in a rapidly industrializing Britain. Making History examines the contribution of the Society and antiquaries around the country to the formation of our current appreciation of the past. Through objects, monuments and the biographies of leading antiquaries, it reveals how new discoveries, technologies and interpretations have transformed that understanding, from our time when it was based largely on myth and Christian belief, and how they continue to change our perceptions today.

Originally formed at a time before the foundation of the national museums and galleries in the mid nineteenth century, the antiquities, historic books, drawings, manuscripts and paintings of the Society of Antiquaries of London form a timeline for the creation of British history. By linking the collections of the Society of Antiquaries with those of the host museum, the exhibition illustrates milestones in the discovery, recording, preservation, interpretation and communication of our past around England, from the South West to the Midlands and the North.