Gates of the Abode : A season of talks and workshops on death, departure and the unseen at Abney Park.
This lecture is part of the Tales of Departure series.
Between the Crimean War and WWI, Military Pin-Stuck Cushions (MPSCs), commonly known as sweetheart pincushions, hand-made by men, were gifted in their thousands, and most British households would have been familiar with these artefacts. MPSCs were created and cherished to facilitate emotional lives during unrest, separation and death. However, after WWI, with no continuity, evolution or even assimilation within similar forms of material culture, MPSCs are largely forgotten today. Public knowledge about them is sparse and often incorrect, with only a few cushions surviving, mainly preserved within private collections.
Abney Park carries its own deep ties to the organisations that supported the soldiers who once made these keepsakes. William and Catherine Booth, the married couple who founded the Salvation Army in the 19th century, rest in a prominent family plot near the main entrance, alongside other family members including Bramwell Booth.
This lecture will reveal how the Salvation Army, the YMCA and the Church Army played an important role in the life of the military, and what their work meant in conjunction with these deeply personal trench art keepsakes.
Speaker Biography:
Alessandra Curtis is a British-Italian folklorist, with a background in archaeology, driven by a passion for material culture and London history. Drawing on a wealth of social history and curious details, she explores the forgotten meanings attached to every-day items that tell stories of ordinary people, often overlooked in conventional records. She is the subject specialist behind the exhibition ‘The Material Heart: Front Line to Home Front’ https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/museumevents/the-material-heart/
Meeting point:
Please meet at the Harriet Delph room, next to the cafe, at the Stoke Newington High Street entrance.
Please arrive 10 minutes before the start time of 7:00pm.
Access information:
The Harriet Delph room is located next to the Abney Park Cafe.
There is level access at the High Street entrance to Abney Park.
Accessible toilet facilities are available.