This week the doors of Johnson’s Birthplace opened to the public again after 117 days of closure. As July 2020 will go down in the Museum’s history, so did July 1901. The month marked the official opening of the house as a public Museum, and we have been taking a look in the Museum’s archive to find out more about this auspicious day.
The Birthplace Museum first opened to the public on May 27th 1901 but the official opening event took place on Saturday 6th July. The Mayor and corporation invited the Johnson Club to Lichfield to do the honours, with Johnsonian editor and author George Birkbeck-Hill and politician Augustine Birrell leading the proceedings.
The Johnson Club were a London-based group formed on December 13th 1884, exactly 100 years after Samuel Johnson’s death. They met four times annually, initially at the Cock Tavern on Fleet Street and later at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese following the demolition of the former. They met both in London and took journeys to sites of Johnsonian interest including Pembroke College, Oxford and an earlier visit to Lichfield in 1889.
In July 1901 the guests arrived by train to Trent Valley Station and were met at Lichfield Guildhall by Mayor George Haynes, where a crowd gathered as they visited the Birthplace in procession. Dr Birkbeck Hill formally opened the Museum with a dedication speech referring to the international audience for Johnson, and his optimism that people would come to Lichfield from all parts of the world. He was right in his assumption, as the Birthplace visitor book records 41 different countries which people travelled to the Museum from in the first eight years after opening alone.
After visiting the Birthplace, the party walked across the Market Square to St Mary’s Church to inspect the register which includes Johnson’s baptism information, and after tea at the Guildhall Augustine Birrell gave a lecture on Johnson at the Bishop’s Palace. The minutes report that £9:5:0 was taken for admission for the lecture to raise funds for the Museum, making a respectable audience number of 74.
The day ended with a private dinner at the George Hotel, after which author Henry Wheatley read a paper on ‘Dr Johnson in the Midlands’. The menu for the evening was:
Rump Steak Pudding
Welsh Lamb
Fruit Pies
Cheese
Punch and Good Fellowship
Festivities continued on Sunday with special services at the Cathedral and dinner hosted by local Museum supporter Mr F H Lloyd. The guests were sent off with a gift of strawberries from Councillor Johnson.
It is startling to see the breadth of coverage that the opening event received in the press, both locally and nationally. Scrapbooks contained in the Museum library include articles from publications including Tatler, the Times, the Daily Mail, the Birmingham Daily Gazette, the Morning Leader, Manchester Guardian, British Weekly, Literary World, Daily Graphic, Morning Advertiser, Glasgow Mail, Glasgow Evening Times, the Star and the British and Colonial Printer. The list gives us a clear indication of the reach of Johnson’s legacy in the early 20th century.
With thanks to Margery Dunlevy and Nigel Hunt for their work on our scrapbook collection and visitor books while volunteering at the Birthplace.