Lincoln museum to host exhibition of rarely seen Tennyson items

Rarely seen items about the Lincolnshire-born poet Alfred Lord Tennyson will appear in an exhibition at The Collection Museum early next year.

Artists Sarah Bennett, Andrew Bracey and Danica Maier have put together an exhibition called ‘Bummock’ with items from the Tennyson Research Centre. ‘Bummock’ is a term used to describe the large part of an iceberg hidden below the water.

The exhibition will be held at The Collection Museum on Danes Terrance from Saturday, January 8 until Sunday, February 20.

The exhibition is a result of a four-year project studying the unexplored depths of the Alfred Tennyson archives. The artists hope that through this project they can bring these hidden aspects of the Tennyson Research Centre’s archive into public view.

The three artists have created new artworks motivated by their research into the unseen and often undervalued parts of the archive. These works, shown alongside the artworks, will be the objects and related stories from the archive that inspired them.

The Tennyson Research Centre is considered the most significant collection in the world relating to Lord Alfred Tennyson.

Sarah Bennett’s research in the Tennyson archive focused on accounts of various illnesses suffered by Tennyson’s immediate family, and the medications and therapies used as treatments during the nineteenth century. She has also investigated the situation of the female Tennysons who were excluded from a university education, unlike their male counterparts.

The catalysts for Andrew Bracey’s artworks were the jottings and drawings in the miniature notebooks from Alfred and Emily Tennyson’s eldest son Hallam. He has recreated selected pages from the notebooks using woodblock prints.

Danica Maier has created a variety of drawings, embroidery, live readings and other works inspired by Tennyson’s great niece Fryn (Winifred) Tennyson Jesse.

This exhibition forms part of a wider research project – ‘Bummock: Artists in Archives’ – which is led by Maier and Bracey and is investigating, researching and using parts of the archives as catalysts for new art works.

Meanwhile, the Bummock Tennyson Research Centre Symposium with guest speakers will be held at The Auditorium at The Collection on February 19, followed by a book launch – tickets range between £5.98 and £11.37 and can be purchased here.

Jenny Gleadell, exhibitions and interpretation officer at The Collection, said: “This exhibition offers a new insight not only into the life and work of Alfred Tennyson, but also the wider Tennyson family and the lives of others in the period.

“Without a project like this, many of these objects and stories would have remained hidden deep within the Tennyson archives. This is an opportunity to see them alongside the unique artworks they have influenced.”