July 7-Raquel Rodriguez

Today is another wonderful day at the metropolitan city of Glasgow; I woke up and got ready for my class. I went to my classroom/kitchen on the second floor of the dorms here at Glasgow Caledonian University that by the way are very nice. Dr. Long gave us the good news that we are visiting three museums today since we have a tour bus pass that we could use. Of course, I said YES!!! i'm thinking I will have two evenings free for shopping.

Our first stop was the Peoples Museum; the best way to describe it is amazing. It had so many cultural artifacts, for example the banana boots that Billy Conolly wore on stage in 1970. Also his guitar that look like a box to me. Cierra and I took an amazing pictures.

I have to say that compared to the museums back home this one was very interactive, it made you want to learn more. Some of the captions in the museum reflected the accent of the Glasgow people. For example in one it said ‘ye’ll’ dee facin ‘ the Monument, this was a caption put under a window where u could see the place where public executions were held between 1814 and 1865. The monument they refer to is the Nelson Monument, which was the last thing they saw because, is right in front of the execution site.

This museum also showed how Glasgow was the industrial capital of the world in fact was voted the European Capital of Culture in 1990. They invented so many cool things like a sewing machine that looked like a lion. Kimball and Morton Ltd. in 1901 made this sewing machine so it will look like an ornament when it was not in use. In the early 19th century, they were also world leaders in producing industrial machinery, iron, and steel structures such as bridges. In the 20th century the industry decline and it disappeared by 1960. Glasgow was once known as the Workshop of the Empire. One of the reasons that Glasgow decline as a manufacturing city was because they stop developing new technology also they were cheaper goods abroad.

I am definitely not a fan of museums but this one caught my attention because it just narrated the story a city and how became what it is now. The population of Glasgow grew from 77,000 in the 1800 to 1 million by 1912. There were not enough houses for everyone and this cause overcrowding, which helped the spread of diseases. This gave the city the name of the Tenement City until the 1940s most Glaswegians lived in one or two-roomed tenement houses.
Hope you all enjoy reading about our visit to the Peoples Museum and get an idea of what Glasgow is all about.