Museum & Audio Tour corporate & narration scripts

Stop 7. Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer painted this picture in the Dutch city of Delft, in about 1665. It is smaller than many people expect, so if you can, take a step closer. [pause] A young woman looks back at us over her left shoulder. Her lips are slightly parted, as if she is about to speak, or has just heard her name. She wears a blue and yellow turban, an exotic costume for the time. Behind her, there is nothing at all, only darkness. Nothing to tell us where she is. And here is the first surprise. We do not know who she is. This is probably not a portrait of a particular person. Dutch painters of the period made pictures known as tronies: studies of a face, an expression or a character, often in costume. No record tells us whether someone sat for this painting, or who that might have been. So, instead of a name, Vermeer gives us a moment. Now look at the pearl. From a short distance, it looks perfectly round and solid, hanging just below her ear. But up close, it is barely there. Vermeer has suggested it with very few strokes: a soft, bright highlight at the top, and a fainter reflection underneath, picking up the white of her collar. There is no outline. Your eye fills in the rest. Look, too, at the blue of the turban. Vermeer used a pigment called ultramarine, made from ground lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone. It was one of the most expensive colors a painter could buy. [pause] Vermeer died in 1675, and for a long time afterward his work was largely forgotten. Today, this small painting is one of the most famous in the world. Before you move on, step back once more. Notice how, wherever you stand, she still seems to be looking at you.

Stop 9. Tyrannosaurus rex. Stand at the rail and look up. Way up. This skeleton is nicknamed Big Mae. She was found in Montana by a team from this museum, and she is one of the more complete T. rex skeletons ever discovered. Tyrannosaurus lived around sixty-eight to sixty-six million years ago, at the very end of the age of dinosaurs, in what is now western North America. Start at the head. The skull alone is about five feet long. Look at the teeth. The largest ones, including the root, are about the size of a banana. They are thick and strong, made for crunching through bone, not just slicing flesh. Scientists estimate that T. rex had one of the most powerful bites of any land animal that has ever lived. [pause] Now look at the arms. Yes. They are short. Each one has just two fingers. But look closely at the bones. They are thick and sturdy, and scientists think the muscles attached to them were strong. What T. rex actually used its arms for is still debated. Now walk around to the side, and look at the tail. It stretches out behind, counterbalancing that enormous head, like a seesaw with the hips as the pivot. Big Mae probably weighed as much as a large elephant, or more. But they were not just giants. They were animals that grew up, hunted, healed from injuries, and lived in a world very different from ours. Before you go, look at her ribs. Some of them have healed breaks. Big Mae survived a lot.

Stop 4. The Kitchen. Step inside and stand just to the left of the door, by the long wooden table. Try to imagine the noise in here at six o'clock in the morning. [pause] In the 1880s, Whitlow House employed a staff of around twenty. And this kitchen fed all of them, as well as the family upstairs and their guests. Look first at the great black range along the far wall. That is a cast-iron coal-fired cooking range. It had ovens, hot plates and a boiler for hot water, and it was lit before dawn and kept burning all day, even in high summer. Above it, on the rail, you can see the copper pans. They were cleaned by the scullery maid, usually the youngest member of staff, with a paste of salt, vinegar and sand. Now turn and look at the table in front of you. Scrubbed so often, over so many years, that the wood has worn into shallow dips. Stand at the end nearest the window, and you are standing where the cook would have stood. Her name was Mrs. Eliza Hale. She ran this kitchen for twenty-two years. We know a good deal about her, because she kept a notebook. It sits in the glass case to your right. It is full of recipes, shopping lists and costings. But scattered between them are other notes. Reminders of birthdays. A remedy for burns. A list of the kitchen maids who had passed through her hands, and where each of them went next. Some became cooks themselves, in other houses. Before you leave, look back at the range. Under the hot plate, the iron is worn smooth. That is where Mrs. Hale rested her hand, thousands of times a day, to feel whether the heat was right. When you're ready, head through the door on your left, down the stone passage to Stop 5, the Scullery.

Stop 6. The Library. Come in and stand on the edge of the carpet, facing the fireplace. You will see this room just as the family last arranged it, in the early nineteenth century. [pause] Carrow Hall was built in the 1760s, and the library was its grandest room. Look up at the ceiling. The plasterwork, with its garlands and medallions, was designed to impress visitors before they had even sat down. The shelves hold a little over four thousand books. History, sermons, travel, poetry and a great many volumes on farming, drainage and the breeding of sheep. Now, here is a confession. When the house was catalogued, we found that a good number of the finest leather-bound sets had never been opened. In a house like this, books were for reading, yes. But they were also for being seen to own. On either side of the fireplace, you will notice a pair of globes. One shows the Earth. The other shows the heavens, the constellations of the night sky. A gentleman's library was expected to have both. To the right of the window, there is a set of library steps, which folds away to look like a small table. Clever furniture of this kind was very fashionable at the time. And finally, look at the bookcase in the far left corner. Look closely. The books on its middle shelves are not books at all. They are painted wooden spines. That bookcase is a door. It leads to a narrow passage, which allowed servants to tend the fire without crossing the room. Please do not try to open it. Continue instead through the main doorway, to Stop 7.

Stop 11. Seminary Ridge. Stand at the edge of the trees and look east, across the open fields, toward the low ridge on the far side. Find the small cluster of trees on that ridge. [pause] It is about a mile away. On the afternoon of the third of July, 1863, the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate soldiers waited here, along this line of trees, in the summer heat. Early that afternoon, their artillery opened fire on the Union position on that far ridge, Cemetery Ridge. The Union guns answered. For a long time, the noise was enormous, and smoke covered the fields. Then the guns went quiet. And about twelve thousand Confederate soldiers stepped out from these trees and began to walk across the open ground toward that ridge. Look at the distance again. Picture walking it, in step, in heat and dust, with no cover. Fences cut across the fields, and the men had to climb over them, or tear them down, under fire. Union artillery and infantry fired into the lines as they came. Some of the attackers reached the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge, at a point now known as the Angle, close to that cluster of trees. They could not hold it. The assault, known today as Pickett's Charge, lasted under an hour. More than half of the men who took part were killed, wounded or captured. [pause] The next day, the Confederate army began its retreat. It never again invaded the North on this scale. Four months later, President Abraham Lincoln came to Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for the Union dead. Take a moment here before you move on. This field has been quiet for a long time now. Try, if you can, to listen to it.

Stop 8. The Cloud Chamber. Bend down a little and look through the glass into the dark box below. The light inside is angled so you are looking at a thin layer of mist, just above a cold black plate. At first, it may look as though nothing is happening. Keep watching. [pause] There. Did you see it? A thin white streak appears in the mist, then fades away, like a tiny vapor trail. And another. Each of these lines is the track of a particle passing through the chamber, something far too small to see. Here's what's going on. The bottom of the chamber is kept very cold, and the air above it is full of alcohol vapor. That vapor is on the edge of turning into droplets, but it needs a nudge. When a fast-moving particle shoots through, it knocks electrons off the molecules it passes. That leaves a trail of charged molecules, and the vapor condenses around them, forming a line of tiny droplets. So you are not seeing the particle itself. You are seeing its wake. Look at the shapes of the tracks. Some are long and straight. Some are short and thick. Some wobble and curl. Different kinds of particles leave different kinds of trails. Many of the long, straight ones are made by particles called muons. They are created high in the atmosphere, when cosmic rays from space slam into the air. They rain down on the Earth all the time, passing through buildings, through the ground, and through you. Right now, as you stand here. [pause] Scientists used cloud chambers like this one in the early twentieth century to make some major discoveries about the particles that make up our universe. Stay as long as you like. No two minutes in here ever look the same. When you're ready, Stop 9 is just around the corner.

Welcome to Port Halloway. This is Stop 1 of our walking tour, which takes about an hour and covers just over a mile. You can pause the tour at any point, and every stop is marked with a small brass plaque in the sidewalk. Right now, you should be standing at the top of a wide set of granite steps, looking down toward the water. [pause] These are the Harbor Steps. And for more than two hundred years, nearly everything that mattered in this town came up them. In the early 1800s, Port Halloway was a busy fishing and trading port. Look out across the harbor. Where you see sailboats and kayaks today, there were dozens of schooners, packed in so tight that people said you could walk across the harbor on their decks. Fish, salt, timber and molasses were hauled up these steps by hand. And families stood right where you are standing, watching for a familiar sail to come around the point. Look down at the steps themselves. You'll see that the middle of each one is worn into a shallow curve. That's two centuries of boots, barrels and bare feet. Now turn around, with the water at your back. Straight ahead is Front Street. The tall brick building on the corner, with the green door, was the Customs House, where every ship's cargo was recorded and taxed. To its right, the white clapboard building with the bell was the sailors' chapel. Before you leave the steps, look for a small carved anchor on the edge of the third step from the top. Nobody knows who carved it, or when. Local children say that if you touch it on your way past, you'll always come back to Port Halloway. Most people touch it. When you're ready, walk up Front Street toward the Customs House. Stop 2 is at the green door.

Stop 4. The Closes of the Royal Mile. You are standing on the Royal Mile, the old main street of Edinburgh. It runs downhill from the Castle, at the top, to the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom. It is roughly a mile long, but it is a Scottish mile, which is a bit longer than the English one. [pause] Now, look at the buildings on either side. They are tall and narrow, often six storeys or more. The Old Town was built along a narrow ridge of rock, and the people of Edinburgh had nowhere to go but up. At one time, the whole social ladder could be found in a single building. Wealthier families often lived on the middle floors. Poorer families crowded into the cellars and the attics. Now, look for a narrow opening between two buildings, like a gap in a row of teeth. Find one? That is a close. Closes are the narrow lanes and alleys that run off the Royal Mile, down the steep slopes on either side. There are dozens of them. Many are named after a person who once lived there, or a trade that was carried on there. Step just inside the entrance of the close nearest to you and look down. Feel how quickly the ground drops away. On a busy day, it is the quietest place in the Old Town. For hundreds of years, these closes were where most of the city's people actually lived. When you are ready, come back to the main street and walk downhill. Stop 5 is outside the next church you come to.

Trail Stop 3. The Old Ones. Step off the trail onto the wooden platform, so others can pass. Then stand still for a moment, and listen. [pause] You are standing in one of the last stands of old-growth forest in this part of the range. Some of the trees around you were already large when the first European settlers arrived in these valleys. Look up at the giant directly in front of the platform. Follow the trunk with your eyes, as high as you can. Its bark is deeply furrowed, thick enough to help protect it from fire. Its lowest branches are far above your head. Now look down, at its base. You will see that the bark is scarred black on one side. That is an old fire scar. This tree has survived at least one forest fire, and probably more. Now, turn to your left, and look at the long, moss-covered log lying on the forest floor. This tree fell many years ago. But it is far from dead. Look closely along the top of the log. You can see small seedlings growing right out of the rotting wood: ferns, mosses, and young trees. Foresters call this a nurse log. As it slowly breaks down, it holds water and nutrients, giving young trees a head start above the competition on the forest floor. In a forest like this, a fallen tree can go on feeding new life for a very long time. That is the thing about an old forest. Nothing is wasted. The old ones feed the young ones. [pause] Take one more moment here, if you like. Notice how much cooler the air is, how quiet. Then, when you're ready, return to the trail and continue uphill. Trail Stop 4 is about a quarter of a mile ahead, beside the creek.

Trail Stop 5. Reading the Canyon Wall. Walk to the railing at the overlook, and look across to the opposite wall of the canyon. [pause] You will see that the rock is not one color. It is striped, in horizontal bands. Pale cream near the top. Then a deep, rusty red. Then a band of grey. And far below, near the river, a dark, almost purple layer. Each of those bands is a layer of rock, laid down over a very long period of time. Here is the simplest rule for reading a canyon wall. In most places, layers like these were laid down one on top of the other. So, as a rule, the lower the layer, the older it is. The rock at the top is the youngest. The rock at the bottom, next to the river, is the oldest you can see from here. The different colors tell you about different worlds. Some layers formed from sand dunes. Others formed from mud at the bottom of ancient seas, or from sand and pebbles carried by long-vanished rivers. So when you look down that wall, from top to bottom, you are looking back in time. And the river at the bottom? That is the artist. Over a very long time, it has cut down through all of these layers, carrying the rock away grain by grain. Before you move on, find the thin white line, about halfway down. That is a layer of volcanic ash. Once, a long time ago, it snowed ash here. Trail Stop 6 is a short walk to your right, along the rim.

Stop 3. The Great Hall. Come in through the doorway and walk to the middle of the room. Stand roughly where you see the circle of darker flagstones on the floor. [pause] Try, for a few minutes, to imagine it full. In the fourteenth century, the great hall was the heart of the castle. It was where the lord's household ate, met, did business, heard disputes and celebrated. Look down at the circle of dark stones beneath your feet. That is where the open hearth once stood. A fire burned here, in the middle of the room, through much of the year. Now look straight up, to the roof. See the small wooden structure at the very top? That is a louvre. With no chimney, the smoke from the hearth drifted up and found its way out through there. Mostly. Now turn to face the far end of the room. You will see that the floor is raised there, by a step. That is the dais. The lord, his family and his most important guests sat there, at the high table, looking down the length of the hall. Everyone else sat at long trestle tables below, in order of rank. Turn around now, to face the end you came in by. Look up at the wooden gallery above the doorway. Beneath it runs the screens passage, and beyond that were the doors to the kitchens and the buttery. Food came out through there, and on special occasions musicians might play from the gallery above. [pause] So picture it. Smoke curling up to the roof. Torches on the walls. The noise of a hundred people eating, arguing and laughing. And at the far end, on that raised step, the lord, watching it all. When you're ready, leave by the small door to the left of the dais, and climb the spiral stairs to Stop 4.

Stop 6. Audio description of The Harvest Supper, painted by Thomas Ardley in 1872. This is a large oil painting in a gold frame, about seven feet wide and five feet high. The painting shows the inside of a farmhouse kitchen, at night, lit by a single oil lamp. In the center is a long, rough wooden table, running left to right. The lamp in the middle of the table gives almost all the light in the painting. Its warm, yellow-orange glow falls on the faces nearest to it, while the corners of the room fall away into deep brown shadow. Seven people sit around the table. Let's go around it from left to right. At the far left end sits an elderly man with a white beard and a dark waistcoat. He is leaning back in a wooden chair, his hands folded over his stomach. His eyes are half-closed, and he is smiling slightly. Next to him, on the near side of the table, with their backs partly turned to us, are two young boys, perhaps eight and ten years old. One is reaching across the table toward a loaf of bread. In the center, directly behind the lamp and facing us, is a woman of about forty in a plain grey dress and white apron. She is pouring something from a brown jug into a cup. She is the only figure looking straight out of the painting, toward the viewer. To her right sit two young women, close together, their heads tilted toward each other. One has her hand over her mouth. At the far right end of the table, a young man with sunburned forearms is cutting into a large round cheese. In the bottom right corner, a black and white sheepdog lies on the stone floor, head raised, looking up at the cheese. When you're ready, the next stop is six steps to your right.