It has been a busy few months at Southend Museums Service with a series of wonderful new donations and acquisitions which have expanded and enriched their varied collections.
Many of
the new pieces will be on display this summer including a fantastic
array of swimming costumes. Over five hundred pieces were donated by Mrs
Plume of Lincolnshire an avid collector of swimsuits and bikinis
including replica pieces from the early 19th century up to 1900 and from
then on, until the 1980s, there is one original piece for nearly every
year. An added bonus is that there is an extensive pictorial record of Mrs Plume wearing some of the collection, not something that would be encourage now but a fantastic record of bathing suite styles and a great addition to Southend’s costume collection.
Continuing the seaside theme The Beecroft Art Gallery has also been fortunate enough, thanks to their eagle-eyed Keeper of Art, Clare Hunt, to acquire a dramatic seascape by Alfred Herbert the Southend artist who was to die in poverty in 1861.
The
painting, Local Craft Salvaging Wreckage, depicts the strenuous efforts
of locals as they fight to reclaim wreckage from a vessel which had
foundered off Great Yarmouth. It is currently on display in the main
entrance of the Gallery and this along with other examples of his work
form part of the Essential Beecroft, Water Colours and Oils, which runs
until 19 June. Not wanting to feel left out the world renowned EKCO radio collection has also had an exciting new addition. It may have been an ugly duckling of a recent mechanical music auction at Bonhams but it is the star of the show as far as Southend Museums are concerned. The plywood prototype carcass may not have been everyone’s taste but it will enable the Museum to demonstrate the birth of a design all the way through to its production.
The Life’s a Beach exhibition starts on 7 August and runs until 2 October.