Newsletter: November 2022
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
1952-2022
In memory of Her Late Majesty, our Exhibitions Manager has been busy creating a small, but carefully curated, graphic-based exhibition which has recently been installed in The Royal Mint Experience.
The Queen’s image, perhaps the most reproduced in human history, has defined The Royal Mint for 70 years and the display charts the work the Mint undertook throughout her long reign, from Great Seals of the Realm to coins for our pockets.
For more information on the Royal Mint Experience, please visit: The Royal Mint Experience | The Royal Mint
Frances Madge Kitchener, a wasted talent?
On 14 November, Chris Barker, our Information and Research Manager, gave a talk to the British Art Medal Society on the subject of the artist Madge Kitchener.
The niece of the Great War senior Army officer Lord Kitchener, Madge Kitchener is perhaps best known for her work on the thrift plant design which appeared on the twelve-sided threepence from 1937 (see her original plaster model above). But prior to this she had long harboured a passion for medallic art. Chris’s talk took a closer look at her work and dealings with the Royal Mint and asked the question, was this a lost opportunity to nurture and develop a talented medallic artist?
The talk was well received by all attendees and we hope that it will be available on our website very soon. Watch this space!
Panasonic visit
On 24 November, the Museum hosted a visit from Panasonic and a group of French government officials to the Royal Mint Experience.
The team from Panasonic kindly donated equipment to support our hugely successful reminiscence box project that has so far reached almost 250 care homes, and been used by over 20,000 residents, around the UK.
The French government representatives were guests of Panasonic who were visiting their South Wales based factory. Keen to promote some of the community projects they support, Panasonic arranged to visit the Mint and show the work we have been doing with the help of their donated Toughbook computers.
They were treated to a tour of the Royal Mint Experience exhibition by members of the Museum team, a demonstration of the interactive reminiscence boxes and generous helpings of tea and cake!
Research Placement
This month the Museum team was joined by Beth Seaman, a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, hoping to gain some hands-on experience of collections management and research in the heritage sector.
Beth was with us at a busy time for the team, and her meticulous cataloguing skills were an asset in locating, recording, and digitising artwork from coinage competitions over the last forty years.
As a doctoral researcher, Beth’s current work explores and tracks the representation of medicine across the medieval and early modern periods. She was also able to spend some time examining the Museum’s collection of late medieval and early modern gold angels, which played an important role in healing superstitions during the period. Keep an eye out for some of Beth’s research in our guest articles soon.
