Now honestly, History was never one of my strong points. I remember History at CXC (O level examinations run by the Caribbean Examinations Council); more accurately I remember that I sat the examination. I honestly remember little else, it was a choice between that and Geography and I thought I would fare better with History ... Ah Well :) I should however point out that I did enjoy my History classes and do not regret doing it, I had a dynamic and interesting teacher who was so passionate about the topic that he inspired you to be interested and do well. I passed so he had to be pretty damn good.
So I set off to see this exhibition because I figured I wasn’t staying too far from the British Library and it would kill some time. I would see some statues and stuff, look at some material on this thing I knew nothing about and be out in a couple of minutes. Well maybe going in with such low expectations was a good thing and then maybe again it could be said that the British Museum put me firmly in my place. I was wowed! I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition for so many reasons, that I had to buy a book to make notes so that the old memory would get them all in the blog.
First, the exhibition started with a short video which ran every couple minutes and gave you a synopsis of what was to come and an overview of what the Magna Carta was, which naturally leads to one of my favourite parts of the exhibition. It was not just an exhibition of old documents and stuff, it included video, historical documents and books, cartoons or sketches, teeth and a thumb bone (I am still trying to get over this), interviews with modern leaders and experts in the area of law and history, pottery, figurines, a teapot, advertisements, posters, paintings, speeches, swords, presentations. Oh my goodness it was such a mix of media and ways to learn that it reminded me of putting together an effective class for students who all learn differently, it hit all the notes necessary for auditory and visual learners although you really couldn’t touch anything for obvious reasons you still felt very connected.
I was very impressed with how the exhibition was put together in that it started with a history of King John: you found out who he was, something about the times he lived and what led to the development of the Magna Carta, and were taken right through to the recent uses of the Magna Carta and what it means to current users and some influential people. Not being too keen on History (or so I thought) the fluidity (best word I could think of) of the presentation of materials and information was excellent, natural as it little by little developed your interest in the topic and keep that interest to the end. However, by the end of the exhibition, what felt like a comfortable hour and a half or so I was a little overwhelmed with so much information but it was certainly a good overwhelmed.
Another thing that stood out but had nothing to do with the exhibition really was the frequent use of an F for S in older documentation for instance the US Bill of Rights heading spelt Congress Congrefs. I noticed this again at the British Museum the following day it makes for interesting reading of documents if you try to understand what they were saying. It was also fun trying to muddle through the other spellings and writings of other documentation. Although honestly, I think I was just so happy to get to documentation that was in English so I could read and understand it rather than read the notes and look at the pictures on the side that I would have noticed anything, lol.
Finally, in a separate exhibition area, there was an embroidery piece by Cornelia Parker based on the Wikipedia page about the Magna Carta. This piece was embroidered by a number of persons throughout the justice system as well as members of the Embroiderer’s Guild (such as the picture on the left). This meant that like Wikipedia the embroidery was completed by many so the piece consisted of the thoughts of many and was embroidered by many who are impacted by the Magna Carta. What an interesting concept …Another time where I learned something about myself, my environment and interestingly history, excellent! I think the lesson I learned (again) was not to dismiss things before I experience them (well some things); as they may surprise me.
