Hidden Nature

Pressed between one of the pages of Volume 10 (1922) of a Trevelyan family photo album is a preserved ‘perfect, six-bloomed Sweet Pea’. The sweet pea cutting was taken from the gardens at Wallington Hall, Northumberland, which was home to the Trevelyan family.

The sweet peas at Wallington were known to be prestigious. Page 49 of Volume 10 contains a newspaper clipping (see below) dated November 1923 and written about a gathering at the Village Hall in Cambo to honour the outgoing needlework Exhibition Secretary, Mr. Edward Keith, on his retirement. Apart from his other talents such as wood-carving and bee-keeping, Mr. Keith was also a well-respected gardener at Wallington Hall. The article pasted into Volume 10 reads, “His work is excellent and artistic. His sweet peas are famous nationally. The Wallington garden is one of the best in our country.”

This album is part of Charles Philips Trevelyan Archive held in Newcastle University Special Collections and Archives. One of the most prominent members of the family was Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan (1870-1958). A Liberal then later Labour M.P., Sir Charles was the last of the Trevelyan Baronets to live on the family estate at Wallington and his Socialist beliefs led him to donate the estate to the National Trust in the 1930s. One of the most engaging areas of the Trevelyan archive is a collection of 39 photograph albums and scrapbooks created by Charles and his wife Lady Mary Katharine Trevelyan nee Bell [Molly] (daughter of industrialist Sir Hugh Bell and half-sister of Gertrude Bell). The albums reveal an intimate picture of Charles and Molly’s family life at Wallington and feature the couple’s six children, Pauline, George, Kitty, Marjorie, Patricia and Geoffrey.

The family albums provide a captivating insight into the life of a landed, if somewhat unconventional family, from the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, through both World Wars, to the early 1960s.

You can browse Volume 10 and more of the Trevelyan family photograph albums between 1889 and 1960, on Page Turners.

This image is a page from European Butterflies and Moths (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 595.78 KIR), by W.F. Kirby.

European Butterflies and Moths, was published in 1882 and gives a comprehensive guide into the world of the Lepidoptera. Over 130 years later, the book is still easy to read even for novice readers, as the book is 'designed to provide entomologists and tourists with a comprehensive illustrated guide to the study of European Macro-Lepidoptera’ (as Kirby explains in the preface).

W.F. Kirby was born in Leicester in 1844. He found a deep interest for butterflies at a very young age, which continued into his adult life. After his father’s death and the family’s move to Brighton, he became more involved in the entomological world, joining the Brighton and Sussex Entomological Society before he moved to Dublin in 1867. While there, he became an established and famous entomologist after his book, A Synonymic Catalogue of diurnal Lepidoptera was published.

Images from the Entomology collection were used in the exhibition 'The Beauty of Insects: Seeing Art in an Entomological World', which was curated by two MA Art, Museum and Heritage students as part of their placement with Newcastle University Special Collections and Archives.

Elizabeth Blackwell's herbal contains beautiful illustrations of medicinal plants. The book was used as an up-to-date apothecary’s reference book and includes American plant specimens which had been newly discovered.

A herbal is a book of plants, describing their appearance and how they can be used in the creation of medicines.

Elizabeth Blackwell (1707-1758) was born in Aberdeen and was a Scottish botanical illustrator and author. At the age of 28 she married Alexander Blackwell who practised as a physician, but had no formal medical training. He had a few problems with the authorities, and it would be this that would lead to Blackwell's creation of her herbal.

After both Elizabeth and Alexander fled to London, he set up a printing business. However, since he had not participated in a four-year printer's apprenticeship, he faced very heavy fines. His debts soon mounted once his printing business closed and he was soon sent to debtors' prison.

In order to raise funds for herself and her daughter, and also secure her husband’s release from debtor’s prison, she started on creating a herbal. She drew all of the illustrations herself with help from her husband in prison to provide his medical knowledge to write the accompanying texts. She had support from the Society of Apothecaries as well as some leading Doctors. At the time, it was very unusual for a woman to create botanical illustrations, but she drew the designs, engraved the copper plates and hand-coloured the illustrations all herself.

The herbal was originally published in weekly installments over a period from 1737-39, with four plates being published each week. However, the copy in Newcastle University’s Special Collections is made up of all of those installments bound into two large volumes.

With the money from the publishing of the book, her husband was released from prison. However, he soon became involved in more shady businesses and the debt's rose again. He later fled to Sweden, leaving Elizabeth and her daughter in London.

Find out more about Elizbeth Blackwell's Herbal in 'A Curious Herbal' on the Education Outreach team's Amazing Archives website (designed for Key Stage 4 children).

We believe nature is everywhere, even in the urban environment; from grass peeping up between the cracks in the pavement, birds flying over head and flower walls attracting insects. Newcastle has changed significantly since the 1800s, however, some of these images may look familiar to the buildings and structures that we see today.

High Level Bridge

This was opened by Queen Victoria on 28^thAugust 1849, as she crossed the bridge by train, however the first passenger train used the bridge on 15^th August 1849.

With the advent of the railway, the first act to propose a rail crossing of the Tyne was passed in 1835. At that time railways were regional, however GNER (Great North of England Railway) obtained Acts authorising the building of a rail link to connect to London, and eventually Scotland. Initial plans were not adopted. Finally the Act authorising the building of a road and rail bridge across the Tyne was passed in July 1845.

The bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson and T.E. Harrison with a double desk configuration and took four years to complete

Due to increased rail services across the Tyne, The King Edward Bridge was opened in 1906 to carry main line services. Local rail services are now transported over the High Level Bridge and the road bridge carries one way traffic.

Newcastle Central Station

The present site of the Central Station was settled on after much debate. The Newcastle and Carlisle railway initially proposed a site on the South Bank of the river, near to the Redhaugh terminus. They eventually agreed with George Hudson to a general station north of the Tyne.

In 1846, a local architect, John Dobson was appointed by George Hudson with assistance from T. E. Harrison and George Stephenson. The design was a broad curve so that trains approaching from East and West could be accommodated.

The station was opened by Queen Victoria on 29^th August 1850 when she visited the station by train and the day was declared a public holiday in Newcastle.

Royal Victoria Infirmary

In 1896, the Mayor of Newcastle suggested a new infirmary be built as a fitting memorial to celebrate Queen Victoria’s reign. Contributions flooded in, one of the contributions was one hundred thousand pounds, from Mr John Hall, given on the condition that the new infirmary was built on or near the Leazes. A site was then obtained from the Freemen and the Corporation. The Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone on 20th June 1900, and as King, he opened the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1906.

The new hospital was two storeys high and owing to the sloping parts of the hospital had a lower ground floor. It had a main corridor with the wards passing off both sides of the passageway and connected by secondary corridors. Each ward contained 24 beds and there was accommodation for 400 patients.

The Royal Victoria Infirmary is still on its present site and has expanded over the years, although much of the original building has been rebuilt. Peacock Hall is the only original building left with the statue of Queen Victoria standing in the foreground.  With the University’s Medical School now adjacent to it, the R.V.I. has established itself as a major teaching hospital and research centre in the North East and United Kingdom.

Find out more about some of Newcastle's iconic buildings on the Special Collections blog.

The art of Thomas Hair provides a valuable and unique visual record of the region’s mining history. Although the landscape remains scarred by the industry, and other physical remnants of the pits have survived, much more has been lost due to the process of industrialisation and the passage of time. Hair’s work affords us a contemporary view of the pits that shaped our communities and the lives of those dependant on them.

Little is known about Hair’s life. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne around 1810, and his working life began when he trained with local engraver and lithographer Mark Lambert. Hair moved to London at some time in the late 1830s, and exhibited his work at the Suffolk Street Gallery from 1838, and several times at the Royal Academy during the 1840s. Although based in London, Hair maintained a strong affinity with the North East and continued to produce work inspired by the region during his time in the capital.

Hair travelled the ‘Great Northern Coalfield’ of Durham and Northumberland during the early nineteenth century, sketching and painting many of the different scenes of mining life. The paintings were then taken back to his studio, where they could be turned into etched engravings, either by Hair himself or another engraver he was associated with. Much of his work relating to the coalfield was published in Sketches of the Coal Mines in Northumberland and Durham; A Series of Views of the Collieries in the Counties of Northumberland and Durham, in 1844. Frank Atkinson, who wrote the ‘Preface’ to the 1969 edition of Hair’s Sketches and Views, has commented on the technical accuracy of Hair’s depictions, as well as his ability to pick up the small details that capture the essence of the scene.

Hair died in Newcastle on 11 August 1875, and was buried in an unmarked grave in All Saints Cemetery. Although we know little about the artist himself, his art gives us an invaluable insight into the ‘The Scenery of our Native North’.

This daguerreotype is among the first-known photographic images of Niagara Falls and the Clifton Hotel.

Daguerreotypes were produced using an early photographic process involving an iodine-sensitised silvered plate and mercury vapour. This photographic method does not permit reproduction so the images are unique.

These photographs were taken by Hugh Lee Pattinson (1796-1858), who was an English metallurgical chemist and industrialist. Among his many achievements, he invented the 'Pattinson Process' (invented in 1833), which is a method for removing silver from lead. The process is dependent on the fact that lead which has least silver in it solidifies first on liquefaction. 

To view more Daguerreotypes, visit CollectionsCaptured.