Tuesday, 05 May 2020
Main picture: 'Portrait of Robert Southey (1772-1843)' by John Opie (1761-1807), reproduced with kind permission of Keswick Museum.
The UK’s regional museums are vital to local economies and identities and to promoting education and well-being. The COVID-19 crisis has meant the challenges they face have increased significantly, especially through the temporary closure of their premises and the furloughing of many of their staff.
But with physical doors closed at one museum in Cumbria, the Keswick Museum, another ‘virtual’ door has opened thanks to researchers in the University of Nottingham’s School of English who are now expanding the museum’s presence online.
Just before the pandemic hit, Professor Lynda Pratt and Dr Charlotte May had begun work on an AHRC-funded project to promote the Museum’s important and under-used collections relating to the controversial nineteenth century Poet Laureate and historian Robert Southey (1774-1843).
© Keswick Museum
The Covid-19 lockdown has presented an opportunity to take this collaboration in a new and exciting direction. To maintain an active public presence, the Museum asked Charlotte to run a ‘Southey Residency’ on its Facebook and Twitter accounts, producing regular posts to showcase unique and interesting items from the Museum’s collections. The ‘Residency’ began on 1 April and to-date has generated over 50 posts and had thousands of views across Facebook and Twitter. Charlotte has also used the new role to reach out to other heritage organisations and extend the Museum’s networks.
Dr Charlotte May, School of English
Charlotte said: “The social media residency has provided us with a significant opportunity to share information on Robert Southey and his times with diverse online audiences. We have also made important new connections with other heritage organisations, including the Wordsworth Trust and Newstead Abbey, that hold collections relating to Southey's contemporaries, sharing resources and information to create sustainable networks for Keswick Museum and extend the project’s range.”
Keswick Museum
Becks Skinner, Keswick Museum
Keswick Museum’s Manager, Becks Skinner, said: “Projects always change from what we envisage in planning, but no one a few months ago would have thought Keswick Museum would be closed for months just as we were starting a project to engage people with Southey. Keswick Museum is going through one of its biggest challenges, but with the team at Nottingham we have been able to continue to spread the knowledge of Southey, engaging new audiences as well as providing a link to our volunteers at home. Working with the team has allowed our Museum to tap into expert knowledge and discover new aspects about our collection.”
Robert Southey's armchair in Keswick Museum
The Robert Southey project draws on a large-scale, open access research resource funded by an earlier AHRC award - The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. This provides invaluable and new insights into late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain and the letters’ accounts of how individuals and societies dealt with disease are particularly resonant in 2020. In this letter, Southey records the devastating impact of the 1803 influenza epidemic on his household: ‘We have had sickness at home meantime. this contagion has reached us – I was somewhat severely attacked – our servant – Tom – Edith & the child have all had their share – & we are all recovered or on the recovery. but it has seized an old Lady here whom for years I have loved as tho she had been of my own family – the mother of my friend Danvers – & she is hopelessly ill – there is no possibility of her recovery.’
You can find out more about the ‘Residency’ and follow the regular updates on Keswick Museum’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
Story credits
For more information please contact Dr Charlotte May in the School of English, via email charlotte.may@nottingham.ac.uk or Emma Rayner, Media Relations Manager for the Faculty of Arts on +44 (0)115 951 5793 or email emma.rayner@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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