CLUB members were given an insight into the enormous amount of planning and work that had gone into the Dickens 2012 exhibition being held at Portsmouth museum this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth in the city.
Rosalinda Hardiman, collections manager at the museum and a club member, said that the idea for the “A Tale of One City” exhibition was first mooted six years ago.
The fascinating number of items on show offers an insight into the lives of ordinary people who lived in the city in Dickens’ day related through themes such as crime, work, money, health, education and love.
Exhibits range from projects created by community groups in Portsmouth to something particularly special – part of the original manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby, the only Dickens book to mention Portsmouth.
This was borrowed from the British Library in London and arrangements to organise this necessitated upgrading the museum security system including taking on extra staff – all achieved thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
Tight security in a special manned vehicle had to be arranged for the transport of the manuscript from London to Portsmouth.
Most items, from the museum’s collections, relate to the history of Portsmouth and some are interactive – there are examples of the clothes worn by rich and poor children in Dickens’ day and these can be tried on.
There is the register recording Dickens’ baptism, an original letter showing his signature and despite the Dickensian theme many happy examples of life in 19th century Portsmouth as well as the sad ones so often associated with the writer.