User:Cmtillotson

Christopher Tillotson

Overview

The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience.

Milestone 1

Impact of Winston Churchill's WWII Era Speeches
Objective: How did Winston Churchill's famous World War Two speeches impact the course of the war?

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Milestone 2

Origin Of Stonehenge Material
Objective: What does Stonehenge's material reveal about who built it and what it's purpose was?

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Milestone 3

History and Influence of Football's Commercialization in England (Capstone)
Objective: What economic, cultural, and social impacts has the commercialization of Football had in England?

Below the objective statement, Insert a one or two paragraph summary of your findings from having reached this milestone. If this milestone, for you, represents a humanities and arts capstone, please indicate so. Edit the link below to link to your milestone page.
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Activity Journal

The activity journal represents an ongoing log of reflections gained through each and every project activity on the calendar.

Leave the above sentence in place exactly as it is, delete this sentence, and add a new activity journal entry for each major trip or activity in which you participate (museum visit, cultural experience, etc.).

Activity #1 Westminster Abbey and Tower of London

May 8th, 2017

First today we visited Westminster Abbey. Before I arrived at the Abbey I was mildly interested, but I left feeling like it was very worthwhile for me! The first thing that really caught my interest was the tomb of the unknown warrior. I had been to Arlington before, and was surprised to find out that Westminster had a similar memorial. It was moving to be reminded of the sacrifices of those brave men that fought for the betterment of the world. The second thing to catch my interest was seeing the tomb of Issac Newton. This was really cool to me because he is regarded as the father of modern physics, and being a WPI student I had learned all about his works. The fourth thing was the tomb of Bloody Mary, this is an interesting topic for me because I am a Catholic and it is always amazing how far we have come in the way of religious tolerance. I also was very moved by the painting of Saint Christopher because this is who my parents named me after because they loved to travel and he is the patron saint of travel. The only tie in to my milestones was the memorial to Winston Churchill in the Abbey, but it was more an indirect relation.

We also visited the Tower of London, which was also very cool. The one thing that I noticed was that a lot of the tower and surrounding vicinity was not original, however this only took away from the experience mildly. I enjoyed looking at the different weaponry that they had. The crown jewels were also very cool and I enjoyed looking at them. There was a video of the queen being crowned that I had not seen before. I did not find any major tie ins to my milestones, but there was some info on World War II, which relates to Winston Churchill of course.

Activity #2 St. Paul's Cathedral

May 9th, 2017

Today we arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral just before the opening at 8:30 AM. The outside of the Cathedral was quite stunning from the exterior due to both the shear size and intricacy. Once inside I was given a headset for the audio tour and begin to make my way through the building. First I looked around in the nave and begin to take in the combination of architecture, art, and religious symbolism. I learned about how Christopher Wren designed the Cathedral and the different religious and political reasons for why it was built the way it was. Going up to the whispering gallery and getting a view from above was beautiful.

Although I am not of the denomination St. Paul's is I was still moved by all the religious symbolism and art. I really liked "The Light of the World" painting, and I spent some time admiring it. The video display in the church of the man being buried, the woman hanging, the man sitting in fire, and the upside down man was very odd to see. I could see what the artist was trying for, but mostly I found it more distracting than moving. The memorial at the back reminded me how much the U.S. was involved in helping the UK during World War II. I thought the tribute was moving, and found it ironic that Richard Nixon was the one present at St. Paul's when it was presented.

The memorial to the members of the Antarctic expedition was also very cool, as I can remember learning about that in the past. Moving into the crypt was also a cool part of the church. I was looking for an ancestor of mine named John Tillotson who was the Archbishop of Canterbury and at one point the dean of St. Paul's who died in 1694. I did manage to find a memorial to him in the crypt, but after some research I found he was buried in a nearby church. So I decided to take a walk to St. Lawrence Jewry in order to investigate. I found out that the church was firebombed in WWII, but that his vault survived and he is still buried there today. His original memorial still stands in the corner of the church where his vault is.

Activity #3 Natural History Museum

May 10th, 2017

Today my group took the tube to the Natural History Museum, and arrived around 10 AM when the doors opened. After making it through security we were greeted with the view of a large hall with an escalator going through the center of an earth sculpture. Before making our way up we walked around looking at portholes with different fossils and rocks inside. One of the most interesting was a moon rock encapsulated inside a large glass pyramid.

We then made our way up the escalator to an exhibit on volcanoes, tectonic plates, and earthquakes. The one thing I noticed early on in the museum was the amount of interactive exhibits that engage visitors in learning. After this we entered an exhibit dealing with geologic time and different ways the earth changes over long periods of time. After we spent some time in a geology exhibit looking at various materials and precious stones.

After a short lunch break we continued on through the exhibits. We saw a gallery of taxidermy creatures, and then another of large fossilized prehistoric creatures. We also looked through a exhibit dubbed "Creepy Crawlers" that had all kinds of spiders, crabs, and lobsters. My group particularly enjoyed an exhibit that illustrated how different spiders hunt prey. My favorite exhibit was marine invertebrates, because they had a life size giant squid (which happens to be my favorite animal). The last exhibit we visited was focused on dinosaurs, and then we left around 1PM to begin work on milestones and journals.

After seeing the both the U.S. Natural History Museum in D.C., and the British Natural History Museum I would say the collection in the U.S. Museum dwarfs the British Museum.

Activity #4 National Gallery

May 11th, 2017

Today my group walked to The National Gallery and arrived around 10 AM. I was never much of a fine art fan, but I decided to enter the museum with as little reservation as possible as to what the experience would hold. One of the first things I noticed when entering the gallery was that a majority of the paintings subjects were Christian in nature. I enjoyed these paintings the most. Many different painters had scenes of the nativity, the crucifixion of Jesus, and St. Jerome. These paintings I had no problem taking a few minutes and really looking into them and admiring the work of the artists.

One thing Peter and I noticed and discussed was the contrast of the christian and mythological paintings on display in the gallery. One room in particular had two large paintings one a picture of Christ, and one being a mythological scene. We also noticed the level of detail in specific paintings, and how the closer you got the more you could notice. I can only imagine how much time must have been spent on many of the works. We also are both James Bond fans and had to stop in the gallery that appeared in "Skyfall" to recreate the scene.

After looking at very detailed paintings is was hard to believe that some paintings in the gallery can be considered masterpieces. Specifically the Monet gallery left me underwhelmed. I understand the difference between realism and impressionist works, but I still wasn't that impressed. The one thing that did impress me was the way that painters with only dots could create a keen sense of depth in their work. Overall I enjoyed my time in the gallery, however, it wasn't my favorite attraction I have visited so far.

Nothing in the gallery related to my milestones, but this makes sense because the works there are not from the time periods my milestones cover.

Activity #5 British Museum

May 12th, 2017

Today my group and I walked to the British Museum and entered right around 10 AM. After the typical bag search we entered the museum to a large central room. We walked by a shop that caught our eye as it had numerous items for sale with a Rosetta stone print. We all had a laugh and thought some of the items were "over the top." Funny enough we decided first to stop at the ancient Egypt exhibit. As we walked through the door we were greeted by none other than the Rosetta stone itself. This was the one piece on display that I wanted to see the most. I have memories of writing a paper on the Rosetta stone at some point in my previous schooling. I know that it unlocked languages to historians that were previously thought dead and I understand the importance of a find like that. We continued to walk through the Egypt exhibit after stopping at the stone.

We then wandered into the Greece area of the museum, and I was impressed by the collection of items they had. Then I thought of the phrase "the sun never sets on the British Empire", and I really realized that by looking at all the different items they had. The British Empire was all over the globe at points concurring lands so it makes sense that they would have brought back and had access to so much global history. They even had items from North America, and this made perfect sense because I assume at least a portion of the items were sent back when the original colonies were still controlled by the crown.

We continued to walk though other exhibits including one on the enlightenment. I was very impressed by the collection of different artifacts they had. One thing I was really impressed by was the craftsmanship in miniature wood carvings. They held interesting designs including one of the last supper that was really well done. That was one theme I had when walking around the museum was the level of craftsmanship that all the different civilizations had around the world through history. I think today's world is more driven by technological advancements and craftsmanship today is less artistic and more practical. Overall I enjoyed my time in the British Museum admiring their large collection.

I didn't see any exhibits that relate to my milestones, but it is a large museum and I did not get a chance to see all of it.

Museum of London

May 15th, 2017

Today my group and I visited the Museum of London. I was excited to find out that this museum would be focused throughout all time periods in London and not one particular aspect. We arrived a few minutes early before the museum had opened so our group spent some time looking at a sculpture outside with a letter on it. We noticed that the letters were very unique in the way that the letter "s" often looked like an integral symbol and also sometimes looked like an f. We spend some time discussing why this might be until the museum doors opened at 10 AM. We decided it would be best to buy a museum map and booklet so we could identify the highlights we wanted to see.

The first room was one of my favorites, it was called "London before London". It detailed the history of the people who lived in London before it became officially settled. It had examples from the stone age and the bronze age. I always am astounded to learn about prehistoric people and be reminded that civilization as we know it today was not always here. They also had many examples of the animals, such as reindeer, that lived in the area before humans had a chance to tamper with the environment.

The next room was all about the Roman invasion of the area. I always have admired all that the Roman empire was able to accomplish. The next exhibit moved into medieval times and even had a example of a typical dwelling that could be found in the city at the time. I was very impressed by a model they had of the old St. Paul's that burned in the great fire of 1666. I wondered if the cathedral had not burned in that fire if it would still be around today, and I might have even been able to go inside of it on this trip. They also had a short video I watched talking about the "Black Death" that spread throughout Europe. It was simply astonishing to see how many people died and suffered as a result of this illness. I had also been very curious about the "Great Fire" of 1666 and was excited to explore and interactive exhibit detailing the events that took place.

I was really hoping that there would be some detail of Winston Churchill in the museum, but there was not. The museum overall dealt with events and places rather than people, and I think this is why he was not mentioned. The only other connection I have to another milestone is they listed the founding years of some of the famous London football clubs.

Churchill War Rooms

May 16th, 2017

Today I visited the Churchill War Rooms in order for me to gain more insight into my first milestone. I arrived around 10AM to the museum, and was really impressed from the moment I began the tour. The first room was the actual "War Cabinet" meeting room. I couldn't help but think about the discussions and decisions that took place in that room. I don't believe it to be an exaggeration, in my opinion, that decisions made in that room account for much of the world today.

As I continued the insight I gained towards my first milestone was invaluable. The exhibits supplemented my already solid knowledge of how Churchill influenced the world during World War II. There was also an expansive timeline of Churchill's life that really helped arrange my knowledge about him chronologically. He did so much in his 90 years and I have to say that I was really impressed and inspired by him. His contributions to the world are still remembered today, and rightfully so.

Seeing a place so entrenched in important world history was really an enjoyable experience. The museum allowed me to better understand the war as something that really happened, and not just events recorded in history books. In the gift shop I found a book about Churchill's speeches that I think will be a great asset for me going forward. I also took some pictures of the rooms for potential use in my deliverable. I spoke with a supervisor at the museum and got contact information in order to gain permission to use these pictures in my possible video.