Royal Museums Greenwich

Barbara Tomlinson

Profile

Curator of Antiquities

Barbara TomlinsonI look after a number of small ethnographic, social history and decorative art collections, in particular — flags, medals, polar equipment, sailors’ crafts and ceramics. This involves finding out more about them and producing catalogue entries, lectures, publications and answering public enquiries. I also maintain an online collection — the Maritime Memorials website. My role involves working with other departments such as Registration and Exhibitions, giving advice on loans, acquisitions and displays.

My favourite part of my job

I enjoy being able to research the human stories behind many of our items and to be able to relate them to wider cultural, social and historical trends. Finding out what things are, where they came from or who they belonged to, is also very satisfying.

My recommended books and links

Books

Online

At the Museum

The Caird Library holds the three volumes of Prince Louis Alexander of Battenburg’s rare and very useful work on Naval Medals.

Academic profile

Curator of Antiquities

Biography

  • BA Hons History (external), University of London
  • Worked for six years at the Science Museum as Museum Assistant — mainly in the  Department of Physics. Joined the National Maritime Museum in 1979, working initially in the Pictures Department, then moved to Antiquities Department as a Research Assistant the following year.

Collections responsible for

  • Antiquities – miscellaneous: food, smoking, customs and superstitions, toys and games
  • Antiquities-models
  • Ceramics
  • Coins and commemorative medals
  • Ethnography
  • Figureheads and ship carving
  • Flags
  • Heraldry
  • Jewellery
  • Objets d’art
  • Orders and medals
  • Polar relics and equipment
  • Relics
  • Seal casts
  • Sailors’ craftwork
  • Ships badges
  • Memorial Index

Areas of research and interest

  • Commemorative art. In particular, I have been researching maritime-related public sculpture, church monuments and stained glass for the Maritime Memorials website, lectures and publications and possibly a book.
  • Maritime Flags — new photography for the Collections Online website is planned for next year to cover surviving rare flags from all over the world.

Current NMM projects

The Museum’s collection of around 220 Naval General Service Medals will eventually go online. I am currently researching the recipients and the actions in which they took part.

I will be involved in preparation for the North-West Passage exhibition planned for 2009.

Previous NMM projects

  • Setting up of the Maritime Memorials website.
  • Work for the NMM websites Port Cities, the Search Station entry on the North-West Passage.
  • Collections online — Commemorative medals, Flags, Jewellery, Ceramics, Sailors’ Craftwork, Franklin Relics, contributed to the Nelson section
  • Arctic Gallery, opened 1990

Selected publications

  • 'Battle Reliefs on English Church Monuments', Mariner’s Mirror, Volume 81, No 3, August 1995.
  • 'Chinese Flags in the Collections of the National Maritime Museum', Flag Bulletin, Vol XXX, No 2, pp.55-70, 1991.
  • 'Yachting flags of the British Isles: emulating the Navy', Report of the 15th International Congress of Vexillology, 1993.
  • 'The Battle Sanctified: Some Memorials and Relics, The Glorious First of June 1794: A Naval Battle and its Aftermath, edited Michael Duffy and Roger Morriss (Exeter: Exeter UP; in association with NMM, 2001).
  • 'Church Monuments and the Navy in the Age of Sail', NADFAS Church Recorders News & Views, 2004, p.8.
  • 'The Virtual Battle: Flags in Georgian Marine Paintings', Proceedings of the XX International Congress of Vexillology, Stockholm.
  • Various entries in exhibition catalogue, Nelson & Napoléon, ed. Margarette Lincoln, NMM, 2005.
  • 'A Lamb to the Slaughter', F@nmm, 2007.
  • 'The Explorers of the North-West Passage: Claims and Commemoration', Journal of the Church Monuments Society, Vol XXII, 2007, pp.111-132.
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