vrsimility

Maps and related resources

Liverpool through the centuries

This is a list of some resources I have found useful in my historical researches. I will hopefully update it on an occasional basis. The entries below were current as of 5th Jan 2019.

Archives

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February 17, 2017

Daguerre and the Bold Street Diorama

Virtual reality in Georgian Liverpool

Daguerre's Ruins of Holyrood Chapel

Anyone anyone who visited the Victorian Treasures exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery would have passed Daguerre's 1824 painting Ruins of Holyrood Chapel. There's a fascination beyond the masterful rendering of moonlight when you know that the same subject was used on a much larger . . .

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February 16, 2017

The Chinese carriage

What was it for?

I know almost nothing of the Chinese carriage, not even its proper name. I'm calling it Chinese carriage because it has the words Chinese and Liverpool painted on the side we can see. Did it say Chinese and Manchester on the other side? Of course, many carriages had names and the epithet may have had no meaning beyond being aspirational. . . .

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February 11, 2017

The life and times of Isaac Shaw

Pioneer railway artist of the L&MR

The two railway artists

Two artists feature most prominently in the early history of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&MR). Thomas Talbot Bury was an architecture student who recorded the early days of the L&MR and then went onto a well-documented career as an architect.

By comparison what we know of Isaac . . .

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February 07, 2017

Mona's Isle

An early railway advert at Crown Street station

Hidden gems

The artist and scene painter Isaac Shaw left us a portfolio of interesting prints of the early Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&MR), including one of Crown Street station:

Silvrback blog image

I will return to talk about the picture at a later date but Shaw kindly included an interesting detail on the righthand . . .

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February 06, 2017

Newton

Trying to make sense of a mysterious painting

View of Manchester and Liverpool Railroad taken at Newton 1825: a mystery wrapped in an enigma

Charles Calvert's painting of trains passing at Newton-le-Willows (or Newton-in-Makerfield as it was more likely known at the time) has been widely reproduced despite obvious defects in perspective with regard to the train on the right. . . .

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February 05, 2017

Cholera at Melling's Yard

A cluster of cases affecting L&MR staff at Edge Hill

Cholera in Liverpool

In 1831 the second global cholera pandemic, the first to reach these shores, arrived in Gateshead to devastating effect. The Liverpool and Manchester press was naturally much exercised over the matter but neither city was fully prepared for the arrival of the dread disease in 1832. Liverpool history remembers the . . .

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February 04, 2017

Archive

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