Past exhibitions

Hauling the James Caird. Copyright: Royal Geographical Society

A landmark exhibition about an incredible real life tale of survival, the epic story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 Endurance expedition.

The exhibition features about 150 compelling photographs of the expedition's ordeal taken by ship photographer Frank Hurley, who dove into frigid waters to retrieve his glass plate negatives from the sinking Endurance. The photographs, printed from the original negatives and Hurley's album of prints, are accompanied by gripping memoirs from the voyage.

Find out more about Endurance: Shackleton's Antarctic adventure

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Courtesy of Cunard

This small exhibition takes a light hearted, sensitive look at life on board passenger and merchant ships at a time when homosexuality was illegal, and for gay men there were few places to be safe. Personal stories and mementoes give a glimpse of what life was like for gay men at sea.

Originally shown at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, this exhibition has since been on tour around the country. It is now back at the Maritime Museum as a permanent display.

This exhibition is available for tour. See the touring exhibitions page for further information.

Find out more about Hello Sailor! Gay life on the ocean wave

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A Manchu bride, Beijing 1871-2. ©The Wellcome Library

Merseyside Maritime Museum is the first UK venue to show this extensive exhibition of almost 150 photographs by the legendary Scottish photographer and travel writer John Thomson (1837-1921).

The photographs document his journeys through China from 1868 to 1872. Unlike most photographers working in the Far East at that time, Thomson was not a government official, nor a missionary. He was a professional photographer who was fascinated by China. Thomson possessed an open mind and was sensitive to the lives and surroundings of his subjects. He was able to capture people and street life in a most natural way. His photographs therefore form a unique archive documenting 19th century China's landscapes, architecture, people and customs.

Thomson's collection of 650 glass plate negatives is now housed in the Wellcome Library, London. This exhibition of prints from the collection was shown in venues across China in 2009 before coming to Liverpool.

Find out more about China through the lens of John Thomson 1868 - 1872

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This major exhibition took visitors on a journey of discovery through 800 years of Liverpool history.

The displays told the story of the city's changing fortunes, from medieval 'Lyverpoole' to 21st century 'Livercool', the European Capital of Culture.

Find out more about Magical History Tour

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This small exhibition takes a light hearted, sensitive look at life on board passenger and merchant ships at a time when homosexuality was illegal, and for gay men there were few places to be safe. Personal stories and mementoes give a glimpse of what life was like for gay men at sea.

Find out more about Hello Sailor! Gay life on the ocean wave

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A  display and online feature to mark the 25th anniversary of the sinking of MV Derbyshire, the biggest British registered merchant ship ever to have been lost at sea.

Find out more about The sinking of MV Derbyshire

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© Anthony Brown

Merseyside Maritime Museum hosted ten of the 100 mixed-media portraits that Liverpool artist Anthony Brown has displayed across the city throughout 2007. Brown’s work is a tribute to the many talented people the city has produced from musicians to writers, lawyers to artists. Employing a collage technique, he uses personal information on the subject such as birth and school certificates, family photographs and related news articles to form each image.

The display at the Maritime Museum included portraits of Sara Wilde, Joe Ankrah, Wai McWatt, Tom Simpson, Alan Bleasdale, Angela Heslop and Sue Wiliams as well as previously un-seen portraits of George Melly, Gareth Abbott and Bill Citrine.

Find out more about 100 heads thinking as one

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© 1997-2005 Romuald Hazoumé. Photo: Benedict Johnson.

A contemporary art installation by the Benin artist Romuald Hazoumé exploring issues of slavery. The artwork, made from jerry cans designed as masks, mirrors the plan of the slave ship the Brookes and was accompanied by sound effects and audio-visual commentary. The display of La Bouche du Roi coincided with the opening of the International Slavery Museum in August 2007 and a series of events planned around the city's annual Slavery Remembrance Festival.

Find out more about La Bouche du Roi

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This half size surf boat was built for use in the celebrations marking Ghana’s independence from colonial rule in 1957. Ghana was formed from the former colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland and became the first African country south of the Sahara to achieve independence.

The boat, which was raced by a crew representing Liverpool’s Elder Dempster Shipping Line in the 1957 celebrations, was on display in the entrance of the Maritime Museum to mark the 50th anniversary of Ghanaian independence.

Find out more about Ghanian racing surf boat

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Imagine you have been shipwrecked on a desert island! How would you survive and how would you escape? This imaginative interactive exhibition gave young visitors and their families the chance to find out for themselves the survival techniques, boat building and navigation skills needed to escape. 

There are still fun activities to try and a photo tour of the exhibition on the Shipwrecked website.

Find out more about Shipwrecked - can you escape the island?

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Engraving depicting an enslaved woman, c1820, ref D/CR/12/4

25 March 2007 marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.

To commemorates this bicentenary, the Maritime Archives and Library held a small display from their collections, including items relating to the trade, those who profited and suffered due to it, and its eventual abolition.

Highlights included letters to and from leading figures in the campaign against the slave trade, including William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, as well as pamphlets and engravings produced as part of the campaign.

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Image copyright Christian Aid/Leah Gordon

The Merseyside Maritime Museum was the first venue to display this original sculpture, representing the continuing struggle for freedom and human rights in Haiti.

The Freedom! sculpture, made out of recycled objects found in the dangerous slums of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was created by young Haitians and sculptors Eugène, Céleur and Guyodo from Atis Rezistans in collaboration with internationally renowned Haitian artist Mario Benjamin. It was commissioned by international development charity Christian Aid and National Museums Liverpool to mark 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

Find out more about Display of Freedom! sculpture

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Detail of model of developments on Liverpool's waterfront

A small display, organised by Liverpool Vision, about proposed developments around the Mann Island area of Liverpool's waterfront, with information on the new Museum of Liverpool and the British Waterways canal project

The display included a model of the new proposals and an audio visual presentaion with images of the new buildings together with a flythrough of the Museum of Liverpool.

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Liverpool’s famous dance halls are depicted in banners for this colourful community exhibition. The Grafton and The Liverpool Olympia have witnessed many eras of dance over the years. The flappers of the 1920s, the mop-tops of the 1960s and the punks of the late 1970s to early 1980s are some of the periods explored in the display. The banners – created by local youth and community groups - explore the cultural roots of families living around the Grafton and the Liverpool Olympia. They highlight a love of dancing as a link between four generations of residents, proving that present-day Grafton regulars are repeating history without realising it.

Dancing Not Football is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The community groups involved in this project are Vernon Sangster Community Centre, L6 Community Centre Streets Project, Edge Hill Youth Club, Central Youth Centre.

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The history of the Blue Funnel Line, the premier Liverpool shipping company trading to China for over a century, brought to life with posters, film, ship models and personalised items from the crew.

Find out more about Blue Funnel to China

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From t-shirts to jeans, to fluffy towels and the sheets we sleep on, cotton is something we take for granted. But have you ever thought about where cotton comes from? That it's not just a plant but a commodity traded around the globe? Liverpool is a city built on cotton and the industry shaped the North West. This exhibition explores how cotton has been grown, used and traded and why a plant from the tropics has played such a significant role in local history.

As part of exhibition we have linked with the Jeans for Genes Campaign and will be displaying denim jackets and T-shirts signed by Jeans for Genes’ celebrity supporters. Visit www.jeansforgenes.com for more information.

Find out more about 100% Cotton

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Merseyside Maritime Museum and IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, present a special display to highlight the effects of the illegal trade in ivory on the survival of the world's elephants.

The centrepiece of the display is a large hourglass filled with crushed ivory; a symbolic reminder that time is running out for elephants.

Find out more about Time is running out for elephants

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Detail of 'Panda Building' by Michael Pace Sigge

This independent 'poem art' exhibition, organised by Liverpool Front House, features the work of 14 artists, all past and present staff of National Museums Liverpool. Each piece has been made in response to a poem, as part of Liverpool's prestigious 2006 Poetry in the City festival.

Liverpool Front House is a community based arts project that promotes the creative talents of Liverpool city centre's working community. To millions of visitors these people are the 'face of a city'.

Dare to Dream will be touring to cities twinned with Liverpool - Shanghai, Dublin and Cologne - before returning in 2008 with images and critique from the tour.

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The Maritime Archives and Library at Merseyside Maritime Museum is commemorating the life and death of Admiral Lord Nelson with a display of archive material from his time, an important age for Liverpool's and Britain's maritime history.

The display includes items that relate to Nelson himself and to his famous vessel HMS Victory, such as a paper and cloth cut out figure of the naval hero from c1800.

These are supported by archive material demonstrating the mood of the time and pressures of the Napoleonic Wars, offering an insight into significant elements of Liverpool maritime history during this period.

See items that illustrate the history of British involvement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the exploration of new worlds and civilisations, as well as the rapid development of Liverpool as the city became a port at the forefront of world commerce.

Find out more about Age of Nelson

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A display of newly-acquired rare archive photographs taken on board the blockade-runner CSS Alabama in August 1863.

Find out more about Archive photographs of CSS Alabama

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A major exhibition celebrating more than 100 years of transatlantic travel and exploring the experiences of passengers and crew. The exhibition that will take visitors away on a journey from Liverpool to New York, discovering life above and below deck on cruise liners that sailed from the 1900s to the present day. The vast scale of ships, the frenzied preparations before setting sail and the wide range of passengers are all brought to life through striking images, artefacts, personal stories and original film footage.

Find out more about Liverpool to New York: The Only Way to Cross

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Cruel Sea is a national touring exhibition from Age Exchange, based on 18-months of reminiscence interviews with veterans from around the country. It commemorates the experiences of Merchant Navy seamen and their comrades who were lost at sea through enemy action. It is illustrated by 3D time-slice portraits, film and sound from award-winning artist, Tim Macmillan. The exhibition is unusual in that its focus is first hand reminiscence of the war at sea and not historical fact.

You can learn more here http://www.age-exchange.org.uk/cruelsea [opens new window]

Find out more about Cruel Sea

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Seafaring ancestors can be difficult people to trace since they were often away at sea for long periods. This exhibition includes examples of some of the types of record that can be used when tracing ancestors who worked in the merchant navy. For more information please visit the Maritime Archives and Library searchroom or see our web site.

This temporary display is located outside Maritime Archives and Library at the museum. It is part of the Archive Awareness Campaign 2004. More details can be found at http://www.aamsept2003.com/ [opens new window]

Find out more about Maritime Records for Family Historians

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To complement the Spirit of the Blitz exhibition the Piermaster's House was transformed into a wartime house, with its taped-up windows and period furnishings. The waterfront house captured the atmosphere of the war years when Liverpool faced daily bombing. Everyday household items ranging from home-preserved food to make-do-and-mend clothes reflected the days of shortages and rationing.

The house included original period furniture and evocative possessions like gas-masks, ration books and a radio playing 1940s dance music. The children's bedroom showed the overcrowded nature of many homes when relatives and friends came to stay after being bombed out. One bed was made up so that two children could sleep 'top to tail'. A tiny front garden was filled with freshly-planted vegetables to boost meagre rations. The house was brought to life by role players including an ARP warden, complete with bicycle!

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This major exhibition commemorated a powerful and important subject by recounting the experiences of those who lived and worked through the Second World War in Liverpool, in particular the Blitz bombing of May 1941. The profound effects that the war had on the community of Liverpool will be examined through the personal accounts of people who were there - a disappearing generation. To accompany the exhibition the nearby Museum of Liverpool Life featured a wartime garden and the Piermasters House will be converted into a 1940s house. There will also be a display of wartime vehicles in the Great Western Railway building.

Find out more about Spirit of the Blitz

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A photographic spotlight on Liverpool’s world-famous waterfront. From the grandeur of the Liver Building to the ornate detail on a lamp, evidence of Liverpool's maritime and mercantile history is here to admire.

All images are supplied by English Heritage.

Right: Image of 'The Three Graces' © English Heritage. NMR.

Find out more about Liverpool: World Heritage City

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The Maritime Museum hosts one third of this Albert Dock installation. A 50ft floating jigsaw puzzle comprised of 16 unattached pieces is heard plays sounds of random percussion. It is complemented by a sugar sculpture of a black Liverpool personality outside of the venue.

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Highlights from the land transport and boat collection in the Great Western Railway building, opposite Museum of Liverpool Life.

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An exhibition of shipbreaking by Thomas Ward Ltd at Preston, Barrow and Morecambe from 1894, told in 24 panels of texts and photographs. Wards recognised that although shipbreaking was dirty and unglamorous, there was money to be made from it, confirming the old saying "Where's there's muck, there's brass". The exhibition has been produced through collaboration by museums in Lancaster, Barrow and Preston with grant-aid from North West Museum Service.

Find out more about Muck and Brass

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An exhibition in two parts:

The main exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool Life featured trains, cranes and beauty queens - the story of the Meccano factory at Binns Road, Liverpool that exported toys around the world.

To accompany this, at Merseyside Maritime Museum there was a display of kits, models and collectors' tales, including Hornby trains, tracks and accessories, Dinky Toys and Bayko sets, along with guilds, clubs and magazines.

Find out more about Meccano: Twentieth Century Toys