Earlier this year, the Museum partnered with the University of Birmingham and two of their students to explore and interpret the internationally important crusader coin collection. Join Elizabeth and Ilenia below as they share their experience of volunteering at the Museum.
At the Museum of the Order of St John, there are around 800 crusader coins. As a second-year student of Archaeology and Ancient History and a master’s student of Art History and Curating at the University of Birmingham, we, Elizabeth and Ilenia, had the opportunity to provide different insights on the collection. The coins have been the object of the project “Bearers of the Cross”, which has made them available on an online catalogue and virtual exhibitions. This project fosters a contextual understanding of their role within the material culture and devotional practices of the Crusades.
The first phase of the internship took place under the supervision of the Museum Curators, Abigail Cornick and Rebecca Raven. Together, we cross-matched the online records to the physical coins, ensuring they were accurate and corresponded to the written descriptions. We also helped the Museum implement a new labelling system for each coin, so they can be immediately located through their identification number. In three days, we managed to reorganise around half of the collection!
The auditing process gave us the time and information to identify a theme we were interested in exploring further, as well as six coins that were relevant to it. After presenting these coins to Abi and Rebecca for approval, we started the second phase of the internship. During the week we spent researching at the University, we counted on the support of Professor William Purkis, who is also involved with the Museum as their Priory Librarian. The final aim was to create an interpretation strategy that linked the six coins together to provide knowledge on a wider theme. Building upon our research, we wrote the introductory panel and dedicated labels for our two online exhibitions!
Elizabeth: Challenging my preconceptions that coins and archaeology produced by the crusaders would only acknowledge their own cultures and beliefs, during the physical audit the coins that caught my eye exhibited examples of both Christian and Islamic iconography presented together. This led me to the chosen theme of my exhibition – Intercultural and Religious Exchange throughout the Crusades. My research for this introduced me to the intriguing history of imitating local currencies, inanimate conversion and methods of ruling adopted by the crusaders.
Ilenia: I gathered all the coins featuring female subjects in the collection, encompassing six iconographic types from both the devotional and political spheres. For instance, I highlighted the role played by the Virgin in the ruling programmes of crusader kings. I then investigated the societal and governmental conditions of some crusader queens, including the Venetian Caterina Cornaro. As I come from Venice, I was happy to bring the history of my city to this project. The stories behind these coins reveal dramatic episodes of subjugation to male relatives or authorities, but also moments of great success that deserve to be shared!
Overall, it was a challenging and stimulating experience. We both feel that we broadened our knowledge of the history of the Crusades, but also our practical skills in terms of label writing, synthesis ability and interpretation planning. The staff created an environment where we could feel at ease and understand what it means to collaborate within the heritage sector.
We would like to thank the University of Birmingham, in particular the Collaborative Research Internships Team, Professor Purkis and the staff of the Museum of the Order of St John for this first glimpse into the working world.
The two online exhibitions Elizabeth and Ilenia worked on will be available on our new Collections Online website later in the year.