Assassination! The brick chronicle of attempts on the lives of twelve US Presidents. BOOK REVIEW!!!

Assassination is a history book by Brendan Powell Smith, who looks at the many attempts on twelve different US Presidents throughout history. Published in 2013. Which you can purchase a copy on Amazon 

Assassination! The Brick chronicle 
of attempts on the lives of 
twelve US Presidents.

Brendan is a lego photographer, who has undertaken many different Lego projects such as the Brick Bible, where he has done a similar thing with his history books but with famous scenes from the Bible. Such as Adam and Eve and the Last Supper. 

Brendan's Brick Bible push started his new historic projects including the Assassination! and Revolution!; hopeful there will even more in the near future.

JFK being shot by Oswald in 1963

With the Assassination book he has laid out it out to have step by step stages and scene of the event that have unfolded. Giving you the information as well as a photos of each scene that is described in Lego. He has made history seem more palatable but he some how makes a lot of his work as realistic as possible, no matter how shocking or gory he has made it work in the materials he has available, Lego. 

Although in most cases the scenes are amazingly constructed but in small cases there is some room for improvement which looks like he might have achieved in the next book - Revolution!

John Booth Shooting 
Abraham Lincoln
in 1865 at Ford's Theatre.

It is such a shame that some of the scenes do look like that Brendan has used photoshopped for things that were hard to recreate out of Lego. Such as the smock of the gun when John Booth, after shooting Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Which is a shame as it destroys the idea of having all of it naturally made up of Lego.

There could have been better attention given to the typos which should have been picked up before publishing. For example he meant to put "Schrank", who attempted to assassinated Theodore Roosevelt but spelt his name as "Shrank". This is quite obviously a typo because he uses the correct spelling throughout the rest of the chapter that uses Schrank's story.

As a dyslexic I can understand some of these mistakes but to get this far in production of the book seems silly, ignorant of the publishers, printers and sorry, the author. 

Brendan Powell Smith, 
the author of Assassination 
and other Brick Books.

Moving past the mistakes and faults of the book, it is a great historic book to read and flick through. Brendan has looked at the events from many angles, such as looking at the background of the assassins and looking at the facts rather than casting judgement upon them. This allows the reader to think for themselves to bring their own thoughts about them. Making the book in some respects un-biased, which is rare in writing about history and past events. Most historians and writers seem to lavish themselves in putting their own point across but it seems that Brendan has skipped and ignored the idea. Which makes it a great read for history and Lego fans worldwide. 

I can't wait to read his next book, which I will post my own judgement upon soon. 

Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story

Lego Museums visited Natural History Museum on 12th September 2014 to see the Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story. The exhibit looks through four different types ancestral hominids. These include Homo Antecessor, Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapien. 

Will has lost interest in evolution of man for some reason.

They look through each species individually. In doing so they look at the tools they use, what their environment they lived in, and what short of wildlife which lived around them.

This is a great place for the blind as there are many replicas and reconstructions that people can touch. 

Although if you have kids it might not be the best idea to take them before it closes on the 28th September 2014 as our ancestors didn't necessarily wear clothes. So with their reconstructions and illustrations are accurate AND mostly are nude. So if you don't feel comfortable for you or your children to see full frontal rubber reconstructed nudity then it is probably not a great idea to take them. If this might put you off this is only near the end, so you could easily skip it and still enjoy the exhibit. 

Homo Neanderthalensis reconstruction 

Natural History Museum

Lego Museums visited the Natural History Museum on the 12th September 2014. This Museum is a architectural marvel with the amazing decorative tiles all over the museum itself. You might be coming to the museum for the natural history but the museum itself is soaked in architectural history, as well the historic and famous dino Skeletal model Dippy the Diplodocus who you are hit with once you enter the building itself.  

Dippy the Diplodocus 109 years old

The whole place is jam packed with animal history from Dinos to the Human story of Evolution and some species that you can recognise even today. Although you will need to book about a week off to even scratch the surface of the amount of stuff with in this huge museum. It is definitely worth the time to come down and see what they have to offer. 

Will has lost interest in the
evolution of Man for some reason.

This is a great place for children as they will be amazed by the huge and mind blowing specimens that are shown throughout the museum. There is a wildlife garden where they could run around and explore and have fun. This is the best place where they can have fun and learn at the same time. This will keep them occupied until exhaustion but it will all be worth the effort.  

This museum is also well placed in a street grouping of all the great museums in London; the V & A Museum, Science Museum and of course Natural History Museum. So if you feel like a change of scenery then you have a museum which is only a stone throw away. So go and have fun and explore until you're mind explodes.    

Visit Shakespeare's Globe.

Lego Museums visited the Globe's exhibit within the reconstruction of the 1997 on 25th July 2014. The project was brought together by one man Sam Wanamaker. He believed in bringing the famous playwrights world, William Shakespeare, to life on stage. As Shakespeare said himself in As You Like It: 

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages..." Act 2 Scene 7.

William Rowley you got the lines all wrong. It's "Alas poor Yorick, I knew him".

Sam has really brought the Elizabethan theatre to life with this such iconic scene of the Tudor past. Everything about the place gives the visitor or audience a time machine to the 16th and 17th century theatre. 

As for the exhibit that they have on the same site as the theatre itself; it is a small but lively exhibit showing the life of Tudor England, the history of both the Globe and Shakespeare, as well as talking of the history of English acting and theatre. Along side this historic side of things you look at the painstaking work that went into researching and constructing the Globe that everyone knows and loves today. You have a choice to look around the exhibit on your own or have a tour of what you can see as well as within the Globe itself.

Lego Shakespeare meets the man who brought his Globe back to life, Sam Wanamaker.

The Globe uses its history to agian school audiences by teaching them about Shakespearean acting as well as fashion and history with their number of workshops they have to offer the interest young people in drama, history and of course Shakespeare. As we all know learning about him and his plays were not always a highlight of school if you are just reading his plays. So what the Globe is doing is making it interesting to those who may not like history or old literature. 

This is a great place to go if you're a fan of Shakespeare, Tudors and Elizabethan theatre then is worth a go and see of the exhibit and the theatre to see a play. 

Visit to HMS Belfast with the Imperial War Museum

Lego Museums visited HMS Belfast in London on the Thames in 9th July 2014. This is a warship which was built in 1936 and launched in Belfast on St Patrick's Day 1938. She was the largest and most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy of the time and still was for most of the War.

Will going for a close up of HMS Belfast.

It was designed for the protection of trade, was called into service to patrol the northern waters to impose a maritime blockade on Germany. Although after being hit by a mine, she was out of action for three years. 

The ship bell - HMS Belfast

After returning to the home fleet in 1942. HMS Belfast was sent to to the arctic to protect the convoys and Russia's supply route throughout the war. HMS Belfast continued to be apart of the arctic convoy until 1944 when she spent five weeks supporting D-Day landings and she was reported to have fired one of the first shots on D-Day itself.

Will loves the HMS Belfast.

After the Second World War HMS Belfast played her role in the Korean War 1950-52. She then spent her final years as a peace-keeping duties until she was retired in 1963. 

In 1967 the Imperial War Museum took her under their wing. She was then opened to the public in 1971 on 21st October. 

The way the IWM has done with the HMS Belfast is well done. All way through the warship there are a number of wax works showing that each room was used for. Including sounds of the ship that have been placed in really brings the place alive for all the visitors. Even some of the wax works move to give the visitor a strange feeling that you aren't really alone.

Will is hanging with the crew of HMS Belfast.

Postmaster I wish to gain multiple views on my post, please.

Will is wondering what is for dinner... potatoes... damn it not again!

As well as this, throughout the ship there are a number of original articles that would been used around this time and period. The whole ship is a adventure inside out. A great place to lose the kids in. A great place to go for the day out if you are interested into World War 2 and military weapons of war.      

Museum Ducks

Museum Ducks is a fellow museum blog on Twitter. If you are Quakers about museums and rubber ducks then join the photography fun. Then take a look... twitter.com/DucksMuseum

Museum Ducks Logo.

Museum Ducks uses the museum collectible duck to have adventures around museums. Sort of similar to Lego Museums in some respects. Using an object to travel around museums and galleries with taking photos.

These are just a selection of museum ducks that are used on the museum blog:

Caveman an old museum duck from the British Museum.

Egyptian from the British Museum.

Roman from the British Museum.

Viking from the British Museum.

William Shakespeare another old duck from the British Museum but now you can find in some libraries such as the Guildhall Library in London

Henry VIII from the Mary Rose Museum.

D-Day Museum 70 Years of the Normandy landings

Lego Museums visited the D-day Museum on the 6th June 2014 on the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings in 1944. Let’s remember those who sacrificed everything for the greater good on D-Day. Let’s commemorate those thousands who lost their lives so others may live in freedom.

Will with his D-Day 70 year's badge.

Will entering the D-day Museum.

The museum is pact with WW2 history from Portsmouth and other aspects of the Operation Overlord. Going into the museum you come across first is the large and long Overlord Embroidery, which is the modern-day comparison to the Bayeux Tapestry of 1066. This 272ft long piece of art (33ft longer than its 11th century counter-part), looks back upon the dark days before the operation of 1940 to the victory in Normandy in 1944.

The embroidery itself is worth going into the museum alone to see. Although through-out the museum there is a number of other great and interesting galleries to see.

These galleries display a large number of real artefacts for the war alongside some life-like wax works, which gives the objects a life of their own as well giving the visitor a feel of what it was like in times of war within the late 30s and early 40s. Also using their personal objects of the men who lived it gives a touching look into the lives of all who were involved, with the stories of home with the blitz to the life at the front-line in France. This museum also looks at the aspects of both sides, from the Allies and the Germans.

For those military armament fans; there are a large rang of weapons and vehicles what are dotted around the museum. This small museum is fantastically laid-out to easily show the visitors all what the museum has to offer. 

BANG!!!

Will looking out from a landing boat.

Will is driving a U.S. Jeep.

If you are a large WW2 and/or military buff you should go to the D-day Museum to enjoy what they have to offer.

British Museum

Lego Museums visited the British Museum in 23th May 2014. The famous British Museum is known to have a large collection of world historic artefacts from Egypt to Britain itself. This is the oldest National Museum in the World. Where ever the objects come from, there is a huge diversity of the all periods the country of origin. All these objects that are held here are mixed with the most well-known to the unknown e.g. the Rosetta stone, Elgin Marbles to Prehistoric mask of Star Carr and the Iron Age Waterloo Helmet.

Will going into the British Museum

If you are going to the British Museum, would suggest that you really need a stand of silk thread or bread crumbs to found your way out of the labyrinth of gallery full to the brim of world history. 

As you walk into the museum you are hit with the celebrated Great Court. Visitors across the globe look up to have a set of the huge arched glass roof. While in this centre piece of the museum you may enter the main galleries, including the Room of Enlightenment and the long Egyptian exhibit that holds the legendary Rosetta stone.

Will walking through the Great Court.

Will reading some books in the Room of Enlightenment.

If you plan to go to the museum for one day, see and enjoy everything you might be disappointed. As there is over 70 rooms that are flowing with history waiting to be looked at over a number of days. There is a room for everyone's historic tastes. You can see what most appeal to you or go adventurous and see the things you wouldn't necessarily see or with you would be interested in. As a whole the museums is fantastic for young and elderly historic fanatics. The museum is bursting with history so you days of fun at the museum.

The Egyptian Gallery.     

Regularly the museum hosts many different temporary exhibitions like the Viking: Life and Legends; and Eight Mummies, Eight Lives, Eight Stories. Which were on and starting when we visited. Lego Museums will be visiting most of these exhibitions when new ones come about so keep an eye out for new posts of each matter. These temporary exhibitions are normally exclusive to the British Museum, so come and see the ones you wish while you can.

Vikings: Life and Legend

Lego Museums visited the British Museum and its temporary exhibit Vikings: Life and Legend on 23th May 2014. This exhibit is dedicated to the lives of the Viking and looking past the myth of horned helmet savages. This exhibit shows that they were more than raiders from the east to still from the west. They are portrayed in the galleries show that they were patrons of art and religion. Rather than the blood thirsty heathens we hear of today.

Will is a fan of the Vikings. 

Throughout the galleries there are shown weapons that tell you they are more than just used for war but also used for status, showing loyalty and even used after death as ritual offerings. They were men of fashion with clothespins which also show off their love of art. As well as this they show that they were very religious with pendants to Thor, Odin, etc. With this they believe they also believed in the use of magic. Having teeth and plaster paw prints pendants to gain the power and abilities of the animal they come from. Almost like Shamanic beliefs.

Moving though to case to case you have a flood of information that is given to you by linking the objects that you see in there with the information that is given, rather than taking about the individual artefacts in turn they almost use them all as one.

 Oh Will might change his mind about them.

Going into the main hall of the exhibit you will found the overwhelming Roskilde 6, an 11th century Viking ship. This is the centrepiece of the show and quite right to. Even though there is not much of the real timbers left you still get that intimidation of the size with the modern metal frame that they are placed in, which are there to show the visitor the original size and shape of this monster of a ship.  

Although this is a great exhibit, it has had some bad reviews, such as "the cattle crush of this exhibition" by the Museums Association Journal. Yes this exhibit was crowded but in my opinion it was just because it was so popular. So you can't really blame the exhibit at all really with that one. I did have a lot of people complaining around me to their friends and family the business of the galleries but most of the people I saw around were enjoying the lush of information they had before them and getting real stuck in with all the interesting stuff the galleries had to offer.  

Royal Garrison Church

The Lego Museums visited the Royal Garrison Church on the 7th May 2014. The small but lovely church is located within the city of Portsmouth. This such a small and not well known about church had its part to play in English history, by evolving from a hostel and hospital to becoming hit by a WW2 bomb. However, in between this it became a lovely place for a Royal Wedding.

Will visits the Royal Garrison Church.

The Church was founded in 1212 by the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches. Built a number of buildings to serve as a hostel for pilgrims and a hospital for the sick and elderly.

Flying through time to 1540, after Henry VIII's Reformation, the builds where used as a ammunition store. The buildings were neglected and started to decay.

Moving to Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I. In 1559 there was a grand building project for the defence of Portsmouth began. The small medieval hospital buildings were used to create the Governors house. Within this house in latter year; two significant events of historic importance happened.

The first was in 1662 there was a surprising thing for that time and even for now, there was a Royal Wedding held here. This was a marriage between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. The second was in 1814 on which there was a grand receptions held to celebrate the death of Napoleon. This was attended by many famous people at that time; these included the Prince Regent, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia (Germany).

Now moving to the 19th Century, the architect G. E. Street spent ten years in repairing the Church. This was completed by 1871.

However, in 1933 the church was given to the Office of Works in which it was hit be a firebomb raid in 1941. This destroyed the roof of the building and which is now visible as a reminder of the war.

There is a little chapel at the back of the church that has a lot more information about the history of this lovely, small place. Although it might be seen be a small and insignificant church that is not interesting because it is a ruin but that ruin you see today has miles upon miles of history on its back so it is worth going to have a good look around. 

Star Wars Day - May the 4th be with you

We at the Lego Museums love Star Wars and Lego, strangely enough. So we wanted to join everyone else with this fun day dedicated to Star Wars. We asked people to send in photos of their Lego Star Wars to celebrate and they did not disappoint with the response. Here are some:

"May the 4th" by Deanne via Twitter.

"The Duel" by Fiori via Twitter.

"These are not the droids you are looking for" by Top Trump Fans via Twitter.

Here are some of Lego Museums own photos:

Will is a Star Wars Fan.

Will with a load of his Star Wars friends.

Will being chased by a Gamorrean.

So these are the droids you are looking for.

Will caching up with R2D2 and C3PO.

Come on Han smile for me.

Thank you to all who sent in their photos and May The 4th Be With You.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Lego Museums visited the historic dockyard on the 25th April 2014. The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard contains a number of attractions and historic naval ships. These all include HMS Warrior, HMS Victory, National Museum Royal Navy Portsmouth and the Mary Rose Museums.

The first place we visited in the Dockyard was the famous iron armoured warship, HMS Warrior. Launched in 1860, it was the pride of the Victorian fleet. Powered by steam and sail. She was Britain's first iron-hulled, armoured warship. With all this, making her the largest, fastest and most powerful ship of her day. Even so after a few years she sadly became obsolete.

Will is about to go abroad upon the HMS Warrior.

Now restored and sailed back home to Portsmouth, the Warrior serves as a museum to the Victorian industrial age and sea warfare. This is a great ship to even to see from the outside but even better inside with all its armaments and interior.

Moving on to the National Museum Royal Navy Portsmouth, which is farther up the dockyard placed in this lovely historic buildings. These builds hold many exhibits about the Royal Navy through-out history. The recently re-opened on was the Hear My Story gallery. The exhibition tells the undiscovered personal stories from real men and women who lived the naval history over 100 years. You and discover these stories through many interactive touch screens and their own items they have left behind.

Will looking through the Hear My Story Exhibit at the National Museum Royal Navy Portsmouth.

The other exhibits and galleries at this large museum was Race to War Exhibition, the Victory Gallery, the Nelson Gallery and the Sailing Navy Gallery. Looking at the Race to War Exhibition, this is to commemorate the First World War. Telling the stories of the war by sea and years of peace, the arms race with Germany and the naval leadership of Winston Churchill. Moving to the Victory Gallery, which looks at the story of the famous ship, HMS Victory. This looks from the day she was launched, 1759 to the day she was restored. This goes through the many stories of the people who lived and died on her when she was in service. Going to the Nelson Gallery, this houses a large number of Nelson objects that contrasts his public hero with his private life. Now with the Sailing Navy Gallery, housed in a lovely 18th Century Naval storehouse. With the building itself can tell the visitors a story was well as what is inside the galleries; with the original floor are made of the timbers captured from French and Spanish ships. The exhibit gives a new light on the Sailing Navy.

Slightly moving on, to the famous naval sailing ship, HMS Victory. The jewel of naval history as being the ship that lead the Battle of Trafalgar by being the flagship and accompanied with Lord Nelson in 1805. This beautiful ship shows what was life like on board a 18th Century ships and where Nelson fell and died during the Battle of Trafalgar. With the reconstructed interior of the ship really makes the visitor feel to have gone back in time.

Will is boarding the famous HMS Victory.

Will is living the history aboard the Victory.

FIRE!!!

Finally looking at the NEW Mary Rose Museum that contains the 500 year old Tudor ship is a amazing museum. The architecture of the building works with the ship itself. The Mary Rose fits in perfectly within the building and its historic dry-dock where it has been ever since it was raised in 1982. Re-discovered in 1972 it took them ten years to excavate the ship and it's artefacts of about 19,000. With all these artefacts are now next to the hull of the ship which help the visitors understand the life on board this historic ship that sank on 19th July 1545 during the Battle of the Solent. As many of the museums within the Dockyard it has a number of interactive screens that people can use to learn about the ship while having fun at the same time. After being under the sea and silt for over 400 years it was found by Alexander McKee and then raised by Margret Rule. After it was raised and placed in the dock it has been going through about 30 years of conservation. Now it is in its last stages of conservation the new museum was opened in 31st May 2013. This painstaking conservation should be finished in about 2016 or 2017 when all the walls of the case of the ship will be taken down so visitors will be able to view the ship with no interruptions.

Will is having a good look a the Tudor Warship the Mary Rose.

Milestone Museum

Milestone Museum is a living museum in Basingstoke. This contains a large network of streets, buildings and shops repainting the history of Hampshire from the Victorian era to the 1940s.

Will is walking through the streets and going through Britain's rich past as he goes.

Lego Museums visited in the 3rd April 2014 to see the LEGO Lost World Zoo exhibit there displayed a large selection of Lego art that depicted life-sized prehistoric animals and early species of man.

Will see a Giant Lego Moa

Will with a Lego Homo-Neanderthalensis.

Although we can't forget that his is a Victorian era living museum to us can't leave it out. The place is full of history that is waiting to be unwrapped. Even with the smallest thing thought of.

Lovely un-touched King Edward Cadbury's chocolates.

Will is waiting for the Bus.

However, the Lego exhibit might not go with the rest of the museum, it was a good and fun exhibit to see. Definite family friendly place with or without the Lego.