Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

Haulbowline : the naval base & ships of Cork Harbour /Daire Brunicardi. "Cork harbour is recognised as one of the finest natural harbours in the world. It has been a naval base almost continuously for over 200 years, and druing that time it has always played a key part in Ireland's maritime affairs. In this fascinating book, Daire Brunicardi captures the way in which the harbour has helped to define Ireland's relationship with the sea. From the first development of Haulbowline Island and the construction of the Naval Dockyard, the author charts the activities of the Victorian navy in Irish waters, how during the First World War, Cork harbour became a pillar of the British defence against the German U-boats, why the first US flotillas took the harbour as their home and how, after Armistice, the British navy became based here throughout the Irish Civil War. What emerges is a thorough, engaging and insightful history of the heartland of Ireland's maritime interests."--Back cover 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 623.81(417.752)

After the lost Franklin expedition : Lady Franklin and John Rae /Peter Baxter. "The fate of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1847 is an enigma that has tantalised generations of historians, archaeologists and adventurers. The expedition was lost without a trace and all 129 men died in what is arguably the worst disaster in Britain's history of polar exploration. In the aftermath of the crew's disappearance, Lady Jane Franklin, Sir John's widow, maintained a crusade to secure her husband's reputation, imperiled alongside him and his crew in the frozen wastes of the Artic. Lady Franklin was an uncommon woman for her age, a socially and politically astute figure who ravaged anyone who she viewed as a threat to her husband's legacy. Meanwhile John Rae, an explorer and employee of the Hudson Bay Company, recovered deeply disturbing information from the Expedition. His shocking conclusions embroiled him in a bitter dispute with Lady Franklin which led to the ruin of his reputation and career. Against the background of Victorian society and the rise of the explorer celebrity, we learn of Lady Franklin's formidable grit to honour her husband's legacy; of John Rae being discredited and his eventual ruin, despite later being proven right. It is a fascinating assessment of the aftermath of the Franklin Expedition and its legacy."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(987)"1847/1859"

Water-colour painting in Britain Hardie, Martin 1967-1968 • FOLIO • 6 copies available. 75.035(42)

Tracing your ancestors through letters and personal writings: A guide for family historians "Could your ancestors write their own names or did they mark official documents with a cross? Why did great-grandfather write so cryptically on a postcard home during the First World War? Why did great-grandmother copy all the letters she wrote into letter-books? How unusual was it that great-uncle sat down and wrote a poem, or a memoir? Researching Family History Through Ancestors' Personal Writings looks at the kinds of (mainly unpublished) writing that could turn up amongst family papers from the Victorian period onwards - a time during which writing became crucial for holding families together and managing their collective affairs. With industrialisation, improved education, and far more geographical mobility, British people of all classes were writing for new purposes, with new implements, in new styles, using new modes of expression and new methods of communication (e.g. telegrams and postcards). Our ancestors had an itch for scribbling from the most basic marks (initials, signatures and graffiti on objects as varied as trees, rafters and window ledges), through more emotionally-charged kinds of writing such as letters and diaries, to more creative works such as poetry and even fiction. This book shows family historians how to get the most out of documents written by their ancestors and, therefore, how better to understand the people behind the words."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 929.3

SS Great Britain : Brunel's ship, her voyages, passengers and crew /Helen Doe "In SS Great Britain, Helen Doe provides a narrative account of this famous and historically important ship. Experimental and controversial, Great Britain led the way for iron shipbuilding and screw propulsion. The book charts the ship's brilliant design and construction, and the tribulations of her owners as they battled financial crises to turn Isambard Kingdom Brunel's vision into reality. Brunel was passionate about this ship and was devastated when a navigational error stranded her in Dundrum Bay, Ireland. She was rescued in a great feat of salvage and went on to a long life at sea, carrying passengers to New York, troops to the Crimea and India, and thousands of emigrants to Australia. Helen Doe highlights the contribution of the many individuals connected to the ship, ranging from crew members to passengers, at least one grand Victorian scandal, and the mysterious disappearance of her long-serving captain. In this way, the ship's life and times are recreated and the history of a technical marvel is given a human face. The ship was salvaged a second time, when she was rescued from the Falkland Islands and towed home across the Atlantic. She now sits in splendour in her original dock in Bristol and is one of the most visited attractions in Britain. This a compelling account of an iconic ship and of an important moment in industrial history."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 629.123GREAT BRITAIN

Warship 2008 / editor, John Jordan. 2008. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.821

Legacy of Violence : A History of the British Empire /Caroline Elkins. "A searing, landmark study of the British Empire that lays bare its pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century. Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly seven hundred million people, Britain's empire was the largest in human history. For many, it epitomized the nation's cultural superiority, but what legacy have we delivered to the world? Spanning more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals an evolutionary and racialized doctrine that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve British imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in Victorian calls for punishing indigenous peoples who resisted subjugation, and how over time this treatment became increasingly systematised. And she makes clear that when Britain could no longer maintain control over the violence it provoked and enacted, Britain retreated from its empire, destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices. Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence implicates all sides of the political divide regarding the creation, execution, and cover-up of imperial violence. By demonstrating how and why violence was the most salient factor underwriting both the empire and British imperial identity, Elkins explodes long-held myths and sheds a disturbing new light on empire's role in shaping the world today"--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 909.0971241082

The Deptford Royal Dockyard and Manor of Sayes Court, London : Excavations 2000-12 /Antony Francis "Deptford Royal Dockyard was established in the early 16th century and closed in 1869. Crucial to the maintenance of the nation's naval power, the dockyard grew from a single storehouse and wet and dry docks to a great complex including stores, slipways, mast docks and other structures supporting ancillary industries, such as sailmaking, timber- and ironworking. Shipbuilding was accompanied by constant repair and rebuilding as the dockyard worked to keep the navy at sea. In its time, the dockyard was visited by royalty and saw the launch of many famous ships. Most of the dockyard buildings were levelled in the 20th century, but important below-ground remains were investigated in 2000-12 in the largest-ever excavation of a naval dockyard. Integrating archaeological evidence with maps and written sources, this book traces the yard's development as it was developed and expanded to keep pace with advances in naval technology and the demands of empire, and throws light on life outside the yard for the workforce."--Provided by the publisher. 2017 • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 623.81(421.6)

Endless forms : Charles Darwin, natural science and the visual arts /edited by Diana Donald and Jane Munro. 2009. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 576.12:7

Wisdom and war : the Royal Naval College Greenwich 1873-1998 /Harry Dickinson. "Opened in 1873, in buildings constructed by Charles II to house retired sailors, the Royal Naval College was founded with the aim of providing officers with 'the highest possible scientific instruction in all branches of study bearing upon their profession'. For more than 125 years it taught officers ranging in rank from Sub Lieutenants to Vice Admiral, providing the technical instruction that equipped a corps of naval architects to build some of the most advanced warships in the world and in later years, trained the Royal Navy's nuclear engineers. Despite the College's undoubted contribution, towards both the education of Royal Navy personnel, and technical research more broadly, this is the first book to address the history of the institution from its Victorian roots to its closure in the aftermath of the cold war. Taking a chronological approach, the book traces the history of the college from its establishment in 1873, a period during which technical training for a steam-powered navy was increasingly vital. It then shows how, during the First World War, academic staff at the College made a vital contribution to the development of naval weapons systems, and its medical school initiated a vaccine production programme that later produced major improvements in the public health of the nation. In the Second World War, damaged by enemy action that set London's docklands ablaze, the College provided the first taste of naval life for more than 27,000 men and women called from civilian life to serve on shore and at sea. Later chapters conclude with an exploration of the College's post-war role, focusing particularly on the establishment in 1959 of the Department of Nuclear Science and Technology (DNST) who ran a nuclear reactor on site until the college was closed in 1998. Both as a history of the Royal Naval College itself, and as an exploration of the Navy's attitude toward research and education, this book provides a fascinating insight into what is arguably one of Britain's most significant educational establishments."--Back cover. 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.231.4(421.6)"1873/1998"

Ruskin, Turner, and the pre-Raphaelites / Robert Hewison, Ian Warrell, and Stephen Wildman. "John Ruskin was the first critic to make his reputation by championing contemporary art: first by defending Turner, in his book Modern Painters, and then by giving his decisive support to the avant-garde, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He bacame one of the defining voices of the nineteenth century, engaging not only in the discussion of art and architecture, but in the social issues of his age. Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, which marks the centenary of Ruskin's death, recovers his role as a contemporary critic by bringing together many of the masterpieces that he wrote about, and exploring his personal links with some of the greatest painters of the Victorian period. He was also an artist in his own right, and Ruskin's finest drawings are used to demonstrate the arguments of a critic for whom 'All great art is praise.' Also featured are many works that were in Ruskin's own art collection"--Provided by the publisher. 2000. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 7RUSKIN

Drawing in silver and gold : Leonardo to Jasper Johns /Stacey Sell, Hugo Chapman ; with Kimberly Schenck, John Oliver Hand, Giulia Bartrum, An Van Camp, Bruce Weber, Joanna Russell, Judith Rayner, Jenny Bescoby. From the Middle Ages to the present, master draftsmen have used the technique of metalpoint to create some of the most beautiful and technically accomplished drawings in the history of art. Drawing in Silver and Gold examines the history of this evocative medium, in which a metal stylus is used on a specially prepared surface to create lines of astonishing delicacy. This beautifully illustrated book examines the practice of metalpoint over six centuries, in the work of artists ranging from Leonardo, Dèurer, and Rembrandt to Otto Dix and Jasper Johns. A team of authors-curators, conservators, scientists-address variations in technique across time and between different schools, incorporating new scientific analysis, revealing patterns of use, and providing a rare demonstration of the medium's range and versatility. They reappraise famous metalpoints of the Renaissance and shed new light on infrequently studied periods, such as the seventeenth century and the Victorian silverpoint revival. A new examination of an exquisite but not thoroughly understood medium, Drawing in Silver and Gold offers fresh interpretations of a practice central to the history of drawing and will serve as the most authoritative reference on metalpoints for years to come.--Provided by the publisher. [2015] • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 7.023.3-035.676.293

England's shipwreck heritage : from logboats to U-boats /by Serena Cant. What do characters as diverse as Alfred the Great, the architect Sir Christopher Wren, diarist Samuel Pepys and the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins have in common? All had some involvement in shipwrecks: in causing, recording or salvaging them. This book examines a variety of wrecks from logboats, Roman galleys and medieval cogs to East Indiamen, grand ocean liners, fishing boats and warships - all are woven into the history of shipwrecks along the coastline of England and in her territorial waters. Wrecks are not just physically embedded in this marine landscape - they are also an intrinsic part of a domestic cultural landscape with links that go beyond the navy, mercantile marine and fishing trade. Evidence of shipwrecks is widespread: in literature, in domestic architecture and as a major component of industrial archaeology. Shipwrecks also transcend national boundaries, forming tangible monuments to the movement of goods and people between nations in war and peace. In peacetime they link the architecture and monuments of different countries, from shipyards to factories, warehouses to processing plants; in time of war wrecks have formed a landscape scattered across the oceans, linking friend and foe in common heritage. England's Shipwreck Heritage explores the type of evidence we have for shipwrecks and their causes, including the often devastating effects fo the natural environment and human-led disaster. Ships at war, global trade and the movement of people - such as passengers, convict transports and the slave trade - are also investigated. Along the way we meet the white elephant who perished in 1730, the medieval merchant who pursued a claim for compensation for nearly 20 years, the most famous privateer for the American revolutionary wars and the men who held their nerve in the minesweeper trawls of the First World War. 2013. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 656.61.085.3(42)"05/19"

An American in London : Whistler and the Thames /Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort. In the 1860s and 1870s Whistler produced a body of work based on the Thames. Pivotal to his career, this beautiful group of paintings, prints and drawings permits a detailed examination of his approach to composition, subject and technique. The earliest paintings, notably Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge, produced soon after his arrival in London, mark one of his most profound and successful challenges to the art establishment of the time. As well as allowing a detailed study of the evolution of an artist, these works show the Thames under contrasting climatic conditions, from Chelsea in Ice to the lovely Nocturn: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge, which depicts the deep blue of warm summer evenings. They bring to life Victorian London: the workers and women who frequented the Thames-side wharves and pubs, the shipping that thronged the Pool, the barges that navigated the perilous passage under the bridges, and the steamboats and ferries crowded with daytrippers. The Nocturns of the 1870s mark an important breakthrough in Whistler's art: his shift from French Realism to sophisticated harmony, based on mood and atmosphere, but still rooted in a literal rendering of the Thames waterside. The famous Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge is the culmination of his bridge paintings; here the influence of Japanese prints reached its fullest form. This comprehensive and handsomely illustrated study presents the definitive examples of Whistler's radical new aesthetic approach to the time-honoured subject of the city and river. In addition, the works reveal to us his world - the exhibitions, the personalities, the buildings, the style, and the atmosphere which inform his art and root this American cosmopolitan securely in the ranks of artists inspired by London and the Thames. 2013. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 7WHISTLER

Before the battlecruiser : the big cruiser in the world's navies 1865-1910 /Aidan Dodson "The battlecruiser is perceived by many as the most glamorous of warships, remembered for its triumphs and tragedies in both world wars. Often forgotten are its lineal ancestors, the big cruisers that were constructed as capital ships for distant waters, as commerce raiders, and as fast scouts for the battlefleet during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth. In this new book by bestselling author Aidan Dobson, the 200 or so big cruisers that were built for the world's navies from 1865 are described and analysed in detail. The type came into being in the 1860s when the French built a series of cruising ironclads to project its power in the Far East. Britain followed suit as did Russia. By the 1890s the general adoption of these fast, heavily-armed and moderately armoured vessels ushered in the golden age of the big cruiser. These great ships would go on to be key combatants in the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars, the Japanese employing them within the battlefleet in a manner that heralded later battlecruiser tactics. In Britain, in reply to the launch of the big Russian Rurik in 1890, there was spawned the freakishly huge HMS Powerful and HMS Terrible, ships that underlined the public's view of the glamour of the 'great cruiser'. Indeed, the two ships' cap-tallies became ubiquitous on the sailor suits of late Victorian British children. In some navies, particularly those of South American republics, the big cruiser became the true capital ship, while the Italians built the Giuseppe Garibaldi as a more affordable battleship. By the beginning of the twentieth century the type became yet bigger and guns approached battleship size; with HMS Invincible the British created what was, in 1912, officially dubbed the 'battlecruiser'. Despite their growing obsolescence in the new century some had remarkably long careers in patrol and other subsidiary roles, the Argentine Garibaldi still sailing as a training ship in the 1950s. The design, development and operations of all these great vessels is told with the author's usual attention to detail and depth of analysis and will delight naval enthusiasts and historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.81.3(100)

Eastern fortress : a military history of Hong Kong, 1840-1970 /Kwong Chi Man and Tsoi Yiu Lun. "Celebrated as a trading port, Hong Kong was also Britain's 'eastern fortress'. Likened by many to Gibraltar and Malta, the colony was a vital but vulnerable link in imperial strategy, exposed to a succession of enemies in a turbulent age and a troubled region. This book examines Hong Kong's developing role in the Victorian imperial defence system, the emerging challenges from Russia, France, the United States, Germany, Japan and other powers, and preparations in the years leading up to the Second World War. A detailed chapter offers new interpretations of the Battle of Hong Kong of 1941, when the colony succumbed to the Japanese invasion. The remaining chapters discuss Hong Kong's changing strategic role during the Cold War and the winding down of the military presence. The book not only focuses on policies and events, but also explores the social life of the garrison in Hong Kong, the struggles between military and civil authorities, and relations between the armed forces and civilians in Hong Kong. Drawing on original research in archives around the world, including English, Japanese, and Chinese sources, this is the first full-length study of the defence of Hong Kong from the beginning of the colonial period to the end of British military interests East of Suez in 1970. Illustrated with images and detailed maps, Eastern Fortress will be of interest to both students of history and general readers."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.48(512.317)

Goldsmith of Grays : "Pickfords of the North Sea" ; a history and fleet biography /by Graham Dent with the assistance of other members of the Society for Sailing Barge Research. Compilation, editing, additional research and text by Richard Walsh "After nearly a decade in preparation by author Graham Dent and colleagues from The Society for Sailing Barge Research, comes this much-anticipated history. Founded in the mid-1800s, by the early 1900s the Grays, Essex, firm of E.J. & W. Goldsmith Limited operated by far the largest fleet of sailing barges in the 'seeking' trades of the south and east coast of England. With relatively modest in-house needs for bulk transportation, they were largely reliant on others for most of the cargoes that filled the holds of their unique fleet. First in the field with standardised craft, the business was to endure for over 100 years. This is the fascinating story of the people, the sailing barges, the motor vessels and the business that was Goldsmith of Grays. The book features many little-known facts, some a surprise even to surviving members of the Goldsmith family. A staggering quantity of related images from the early days of photography up to the present, bring to life the story of the firm accorded the epithet "Pickfords of the North Sea"."--Provided by the publisher 2018. • BOOK • 3 copies available. 347.792GOLDSMITH

Resurrecting Dr. Moss : the life and letters of a Royal Navy surgeon, Edward Lawton Moss MD, RN, 1843-1880 /Paul C. Appleton ; edited by William Barr. "Resurrecting Dr. Moss chronicles the life and death of Edward Lawton Moss, a Royal Navy surgeon on the last great British north polar expedition of the nineteenth century. Arctic historians and bibliophiles are familiar with Moss's account of the1875-76 British Arctic Expedition, published under the title Shores of the Polar Sea, but little has been known about Moss himself. Now, thanks to Paul Appleton's painstaking research, his life has taken shape in this well-crafted biography." "Relying heavily on Moss's own letters, Appleton has created a portrait of a man he calls "an example of the best traditions of British naval medicine during the Victorian era." Author, artist, explorer, and scientist, Dr. Moss was also a pioneering medical officer. After being posted in British Columbia, he played a pivotal role in founding one of the earliest medical institutions on Canada's west coast, the hospital at the Esquimalt Naval Base. Dr. Moss's life was cut short at the age of thirty-seven when the HMS's Atalanta disappeared en route from Bermuda in 1880." "Resurrecting Dr. Moss includes several previously unpublished letters and is illustrated with a selection of Moss's watercolours."--BOOK JACKET. 2008. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 92MOSS:359.61(711)

Western women travelling East, 1716-1916 / by Penelope Tuson. "The Arcadian Library in London holds one of the finest collections of writing by Western women travelling to the East. The books and manuscripts cover almost four centuries of travel and range from Mary Wortley Montagu's incomparable early eighteenth-century 'Turkish' letters to the publications of twentieth-century archaeologists, journalists, diplomatic wives and flamboyant adventurers. The best-known - for example Harriet Martineau, Lady Florentia Sale, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Edwards, Gertrude Bell and Lady Anne Blunt - are represented, alongside lesser-known European travellers such as the early Victorian writer Julia Pardoe and the Belgian-born Italian nationalist, Carla Serena. The feminist Mary Astell, on reading Mary Wortley Montagu's manuscript, commented that women could 'travel to better purpose' than men and could provide more accurate accounts of their cultural encounters. This book examines the question of whether or not women's writings reflect a special 'female gaze' and discusses the style and content of women's writing about the East and the ways in which writers negotiated and adapted their narratives to conform to their readers' expectations while often, at the same time, challenging contemporary gender roles. The subject matter is wide-ranging and eclectic. The writers' interests and opinions reflect their own cultural backgrounds but extend from conformist and unsympathetic to adventurous, subversive and open-minded. Often they were more able than male travellers to observe and appreciate cultural difference and they recorded their impressions with enthusiasm and genuine understanding. Many women travellers were also talented artists and their sketches, watercolours and photographs, reproduced extensively in this richly illustrated book, illuminate much of their writing."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 820.9/32082

Arctic labyrinth : the quest for the Northwest Passage /Glyn Williams. "For centuries British navigators dreamed of finding the Northwest Passage - the route over the top of North America that promised a short cut to the fabulous wealth of Asia. We now know that several passages exist, and if climate change continues some may soon be open, but for most of the period of the search they were choked by impassable ice. Knowledge was won only at great cost as expedition after expedition, often in the most terrible conditions, added to patchy and sometimes fatally misleading charts. Arctic Labyrinth tells the extraordinary story with great skill and brilliance. From the tiny, woefully-equipped ships of the first Tudor expeditions to the steam-powered vessels of the Victorian age and the icebreakers of the modern era, Glyn Williams describes how every form of ingenuity was tried in order to break through the ice barriers set across a nightmarish maze of tortuous channels and sterile islands. The heroism, folly and horror of these voyages were almost unbelievable: men suffered and died from scurvy, frost-bite and starvation, entire ships were crushed in the ice - and all in pursuit of a goal that proved futile. Williams's book is an important work of exploration and maritime history, and a remarkable study in human delusion and fortitude."--Provided by the publisher. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 910.4(987)"17/18"

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