Everyone's Virtual Exhibition (EVE)

EVE is the online catalogue and virtual exhibition space of the Bill Douglas Centre. Through EVE you can explore the collection and create your own collections & exhibitions.

 

Dickens at 200

Tuesday 7th February marked the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. To mark the occasion a new exhibition presenting artefacts from both the Bill Douglas Centre and the University's Special Collections can now be seen in the foyer of the Research Commons in the Old Library building on campus. The display includes images from original serialisations of Dickens' novels in the mid 19th century and first editions of his stories in book forms from Special Collections and stills, publicity material and ephemera from the many cinema adaptations of Dickens, such as this sheet music for the 1922 version of Oliver Twist starring Jackie Coogan. Professor Grahame Smith's study Dickens and the Dream of Cinema suggested that Dickens had a cinematic sensibility ahead of his time and he was certainly fascinated by moving image entertainments. Some of these featured his own stories and the display includes lantern slides based on A Christmas Carol. The exhibition was curated by students - the team was led by BDC volunteer Anna Langdon and also included Amy Weller, Helena Shand, and Tara Rogers.

As the exhibition is in the foyer area of the research commons is can also be seen at weekends between 10am and 6pm as well as during the museum's opening hours. It will be on display until 23 March.

 

Our BDC - New Articles on Photography and Film Music

We have two new articles as the the latest contributions to 'Our BDC' - where volunteers and others that love our collections write about their favourite things.

James Downs has written about our collections of photographs here Photography at the Bill Douglas Centre by James Downs

James has volunteered at the BDC for three years - he has published a number of articles on early photography and previously worked in archives in his native Scotland before coming to Devon.

Our regular facebook poster Hannah Lamarque has also written an article, in her case about Film Scores and Composers. Hannah is a musician who plays the violin, and is currently in her second year studying English at the University. She has volunteered for a year at the BDC and has worked extensively on our music collections. .Her article is here:

Film Scores and Composers by Hannah Lamarque

You will also find a weekly choice of object by our Hannah each week at our BDC facebook page. If you 'like' the BDC page you will receive our updates in your feed. Scroll down for more 'Our BDC' essays.

 

Special Event - Bryony Dixon on 'Why Silent Film Still Matters' 30 January

Why Silent Film Still Matters

We held a very successful special event here on Monday 30 January. Bryony Dixon, Silent Film Curator at the BFI, author of 100 Silent Films and co-director of The British Silent Film Festival, gave an illustrated lecture on 'Why Silent Film Still Matters'. Perfectly timed for the release of the wildly popular award-nominated new silent film The Artist, the talk examined the unique magic of silent cinema to a large audience of both students and visitors. Bryony gave a fabulous talk and a number of members of the audience said how enthused she had made them about the wonders of the silent screen.

 

Try our new Audio-Visual Guide!

If you are a visitor who loves our pre-cinema artefacts but would like to know more about the collection, then we are pleased to introduce our new free audio-visual guide tour!

The audio-guide is designed to tour visitors around the museum’s lower gallery alongside parts 1 and 2 of the guide book (free to loan from the reception desk in the old library).

Peter Jewell himself - lifelong friend of Bill Douglas and principal donor to the museum - narrates the guide, leading visitors from pre-cinema through to the beginnings of film, offering insight into the history and acquisition of items in the collection.

The tour begins with shadow puppets and progresses to optical entertainments and Magic Lantern projection before introducing the beginnings of film through the pioneering Lumiere brothers and early film paraphernalia.

The equipment was provided through the 'Count Me In' scheme organised by Devon Museums. Young Ambassadors Daniel Milner and Jenny Wood recorded the commentary as part of this scheme and BDC volunteers Nick Hall and Alex Tindall have subsequently edited the material and prepared the equipment for visitors

To take advantage of this service please ask for a free audio-guide from the curator’s office. They are simple to use, and we hope they will enlighten your visit!

 

Black History Month at the BDC

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have a new temporary exhibition at the Bill Douglas Centre, just outside our Upper Gallery. 'African-American's on Screen' has been curated by a team of 4 students as part of the University's activities for Black History Month. The team - from left to right in the picture above, Nick Abbey, Ellen Browne, Nina Gillespie, and Annie Purrier - researched and selected items from the collection charting the changes in black representation and participation in cinema, particularly in America, from the earliest moving image forms to the present day.

Nick Abbey from the team said: ' We enjoyed finding artefacts that helped us to see the progression in the depiction of black people in cinema, from the overtly racist images often seen in the earliest films to current releases. African-Americans are now actively involved in both auteur and commercial cinema, starring in and making their own narratives about their experience but also involved in mainstream entertainment. Being involved in the Centre was a fantastic opportunity enjoyed by the whole team'.

Click below to find a history of Black representation in American cinema written by the curatorial team for the display.

African-Americans on Screen by Nick Abbey, Ellen Browne, Nina Gillespie and Annie Purrier

 

Family Fun Day 29 October

 

Our family fun day took place on Saturday 29 October featuring a children's magic lantern show with performances by 'Professor' Mervyn Heard' one of the UK's foremost lanternists. Over a hundred children and parents enjoyed activities for families based on the artefacts in the museum, making shadow puppets, zoetropes, thaumatropes and projections.

 

Flyer for Family Fun Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100 Years since the First Film Fan Magazine

 

100 years ago, on 21 October 1911, the first ever film fan magazine, The Pictures was published. We hold the magazine in The Bill Douglas Centre (see the picture of the cover above) and our collection tracks a century of fan magazines in the UK, from the beautifully illustrated editions in the 1920s to Empire and Total Film today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for an article on our fan magazines by Dr Lisa Stead, who studied the BDC's fan magazines in the 1920s for her PhD, and the BDC's curator, Phil Wickham.

 

 

Bill Douglas Symposium 23 September 2011

On 23 September we held a symposium of papers to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Bill Douglas, one of Britain's greatest filmmakers and who gives his name to our museum.

There were papers from a number of eminent scholars: Karen Lury (University of Glasgow) spoke about the idea of contingency in Bill's Trilogy, Brian Hoyle (University of Dundee) talked about his unmade film projects, Jonny Murray (Edinburgh College of Art) put his work in the context of Scottish filmmaking of the period and Paul Newland (University of Aberystwyth) discussed the importance of landscape in Bill's epic Comrades. Filmmaker Sean Martin talked through images of cinema and the pre-cinematic in theTrilogy and Andrew Noble (ex- University of Strathclyde) shared his and others memories of working with Bill. The BDC's principal donor, Peter Jewell, introduced some of the highlights of the unique collection of artefacts that he and Bill put together and told how they came to acquire them. There was also the first ever screening of Charlie Chaplin Lived Here, Bill and Peter's 8mm film made in 1966, which inspired quite a bit of press interest.

There will be another important event to mark the anniversary of Bill's death in Edinburgh on 29th and 30th October, which is a festival being run by Craigmillar Community Arts at Bill's birthplace of Newcraighall. There will be films, exhibitions and discussions including a talk by Peter Jewell. Go to Bill Douglas - A Place of Dreams

 

New film about The Bill Douglas Centre

The Bill Douglas Centre Film

 

Click here for our new student made film about the work of The Bill Douglas Centre. The film was made by MA students Hannah Brown, Laz Carter, and Joe Hickinbottom and funded by the Exeter University Foundation. Many thanks to all that took part and helped in the making of the film. You can also find the film on the University's youtube channel and embedded in the BDC's facebook pages.

 

 

The Chinese World on Film

To celebrate the publication of The Chinese Cinema Book (BFI/Palgrave Macmillan, May 2011), edited by University of Exeter’s film academic, Dr. Song Hwee Lim (and Julian Ward from the University of Edinburgh), we have put together a new temporary public display showcasing our many artefacts on the Chinese world on screen. The display was put together by first year English and Film undergraduate Pippa Dixon-Marshall and two PhD students working on Taiwan cinema, Yen-nan Lin and Wan-jui Wang (here is a photo of Yen-nan, Wan-jui and Pippa with the display case). The items on display encompass materials on Chinese-language films as well as on English-language films that have drawn inspiration from or been set in the Chinese world. Items from earlier periods include pre-cinematic Chinese shadow puppet and novels on which Hollywood films from the 1920s were based, whereas more recent items highlight the global reach of Chinese cinemas in the figures of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and in the popular genre of the wuxia (swordplay, martial arts) film, such as Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for the Chinese language flyer for the display

 

 

Family Fun Day!

Following the success of our first family fun day in July (see below) we held another very popular Family Fun day on Saturday 26th February 2011, which had 130 visitors. Guests took part in activities including animation, shadow puppets, and flick book making for families and children of all ages. The event was again organised by educator Clare Saunders and featured a computer animation workshop by community artist Kate Green. Here are some pictures from the event:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BDC Museum Guide now available

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bill Douglas Centre's Museum Guide has now been published, edited by BDC curator Phil Wickham and designed by Delphine Jones from the University's Communications and Marketing department. The guide has over 100 pages of text about the museum's collections of cinema and pre-cinema, written by experts from the University of Exeter, with over 100 full colour pictures of our artefacts. You can buy a copy of the guide for £10 at the Centre or borrow one for your tour of the galleries from the reception desk at the Old Library. If you live further away and would like to purchase a copy you can either send us a cheque payable to the University of Exeter for £13 (inc £3 for postage) or contact us at bdc for details on card payment options. The Guide's ISBN is 978-0-902746-16-9.

 

OUR BDC

Welcome to a new regular feature on the Bill Douglas Centre website - 'Our BDC' is space where students, volunteers, and indeed anyone passionate about our collections write about their research using the Centre's artefacts or about their favourite object in the museum. Further pieces will be added and 'Our BDC' will have a permanent home on our Teaching and Learning page with alerts to new material here on the home page.

BDC volunteer Maria Rose has written articles on Art Deco and Cinema

Art Deco style and cinema by Maria Rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and on the enduring appeal of Louise Brooks and the artefacts we hold on the star in the Centre. Maria put together a small exhibition of materials related to Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box that we displayed before the screening on the 23 June at the Phoenix.

'There is only Louise Brooks!' by Maria Rose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laurence Olivier Cigarettes by Jennifer Barnes

Anton Walbrook by James Downs

Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011 by Hannah Lamarque

American Celebrity Magazines of the 1960s by Nick Hall

Michael Powell by Jade Cancelliere and Rachael Grant

The Wonder Emporium of The Bill Douglas Centre by Anna Thorp

SCREENING THE SOUTH WEST

An AHRC-funded project at the University of Exeter, Department of English and Film

Moving and projected images played a key role in popular and educational entertainment between 1820 and 1914, whether it was a Sunday school class gathered together for a magic lantern performance, children enjoying a peepshow at a fair, or a formal lantern lecture presented to the local Literary Society; a touring panorama displayed at the local town hall or the pictures shown by the cinematograph at the music hall. All classes and age groups participated in the rich array of popular, image-based entertainments, but until now, little work has been done to map the extent and impact of those occasions in provincial towns and cities in England. The purpose of this AHRC-funded project has been to demonstrate the extensive regional distribution of moving and projected images by mapping their exhibition across the south west of England in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The project team surveyed exhibition practices, shows and showmen across Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, Barnstaple, Weston-Super-Mare and Penzance, uncovering a range of sites and shows, from the annual visits of Poole’s Myriorama to the magic lantern display of holiday photographs by a genteel Devon clergyman.

This online exhibition presents just some of the images, reports and anecdotes uncovered in the project survey.

(Project website at http://www.sall.ex.ac/projects/screenhistorysw) and a more detailed essay on the project can be found at Moving and Projected Image Entertainment in the SW

 

 

FAMILY FUN DAY

On Saturday 24th July 2010 The Bill Douglas Centre held its first Family Fun Day event. The day was a great success with over 80 visitors, many of them making their first trip to the Centre, including of course many children. The Fun Day was organised by educator Clare Saunders and featured a range of activities including making slides, zoetropes, flick books, shadow puppets, and working with computer animator Kate Green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the activities reflected the main themes within The Bill Douglas Centre's collections - projecting images and making pictures move to create spectacular effects and tell stories. Visitors were also able to explore our galleries and exhibits, discovering what a treasure trove they had on their own doorstep.

Thanks to Clare and Kate for all their help on the day and to our fabulous student volunteers - Jade Cancelliere, Rachael Grant, and Hannah Brown -who worked tirelessly to help children enjoy the museum and make wonderful artefacts of their own. Hopefully we will be able to run further Fun Days in the future - many thanks to all those who participated.

 

BDC Visitors' Education Pack

We are proud to announce that the BDC Visitors’ education pack is now available. The pack is specially designed for school groups and families visiting the Bill Douglas Centre and provides  information about our collections and activities inspired by our artefacts. The pack is suitable for a number of different age groups and can be combined with a group tour or visit of the centre for local schools, families, or visitors to Devon. Alternatively it can be used for activities within schools that are not within reach of Exeter, in conjunction with our website. The pack has been devised in collaboration with Exeter City Council and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. There are a limited number of hard copy editions or a PDF can be emailed. If you are interested please contact BDC email

 

New Temporary Exhibition at Queen's Building

 

A new display featuring previously unexhibited items from The Bill Douglas Centre Collections can now be seen in the University.

In Queen’s Buildings, between the café and the senior common room, we have a display entitled ‘Treasures from the Bill Douglas Centre’. This features a miscellany of dozens of artefacts, spanning two centuries and the vast range of objects that we hold related to the moving image, from lantern slides to toys to cigarette cards. The display aims to tempt those that have not yet made it to our free, public museum to visit the galleries in the old library and has been put together by our volunteers Rosie Gibbs, Eleanor Sanderson and Jo Mills. Eleanor and Rosie, who have led much of the redisplay work in our permanent galleries, say that 'we found the open brief for this exhibition fun; it allowed us to explore all sorts of new and unusual material throughout a collection we have come to know and love'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney at The Bill Douglas Centre - The Robin Allan Collection

The Bill Douglas Centre is proud to announce the addition of a significant new collection available to researchers thanks to a very generous donation from renowned animation scholar Robin Allan, author of 'Walt Disney and Europe' (1999). The Robin Allan collection is particularly strong on material connected with Walt Disney Productions and includes; a large number of books; research conducted for Robin's publications including transcripts of interviews with Disney artists; and a collection of original, and very beautiful, animation cells made for Disney's films. Robin writes that; 'I knew of The Bill Douglas Centre through my interest in the cinema and knowledge of Bill Douglas and his films, and it seems to me appropriate that my collection should have a fitting home at Exeter, where I was awarded my PhD on the work of Disney, so that other students would benefit from access to the material I had collected for many years.

 

 

©Disney

 

 

 

 

 

An Animation section in the Centre's library has been opened, comprising largely of material from The Robin Allan Collection. There is also a large amount of Disney memorabilia here, collected by Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell as part of our founding collection, some of which is displayed in our upper gallery. This new donation, added to our existing holdings, creates a very significant research resource on animation, and especially The Walt Disney Company, whose stories and images have had such a huge influence on our culture.

 

 

Student Work on the BDC

We have uploaded three student essays using the collections on to the site. They focus on artefacts connected with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rebecca and Doctor Zhivago. Go to The University of Exeter - Bill Douglas Centre - Teaching and Learning for details.