The ss Great Britain from 1843 to the present: Brunel's iconic steamship in motion and stasis

Two PhD studentships will research the history of the ss Great Britain, Brunel's iconic steamship, from 1843 to the present. The first student will focus on the period 1843-86, when the Great Britain carried passengers to the USA (1844-5) and Australia (1852-76), troops to the Crimean War (1854-6) and cargo between the UK and United States (1882-6). The focus is on the Great Britain as a ship in motion. The second student will examine the period from 1886 to the present and will focus on the Great Britain as a ship in stasis. In 1886, having been badly damaged in a storm, the Great Britain was abandoned in Port Stanley harbour, where she became a floating warehouse and a local landmark and popular picnic point for Falkland Islanders. In 1970 she was salvaged and relocated to the dry dock in Bristol in which she was originally built. Since then she has been restored and is now a major prize-winning museum. By focusing on the two lives of the ship, the studentships will not only tell its complex and shifting stories, they will also examine the different meanings given to the ship in different contexts and modes. Among other things they will consider whether a ship means something fundamentally different when it is moving, and when it is moored; when it is afloat, and when it is not.
The first studentship will examine the ship as a landscape both peopled and policed and also as a quintessentially mobile icon of empire and modernity. Given their focus on the ship as a moving object, this student will be particularly interested in the ship as liminal space. The student will explore the experiences of crew and passengers. How was status maintained or undermined? What was the nature of the relationships between different shipboard groups? How did voyaging affect identities of age, class, gender, race, nation and empire? How were the many segregated and hierarchical spaces of the ship established, policed and transgressed? Did the journey function as a rite of passage between 'home' and 'colony'? How did the voyage experience differ for outward- and homeward-bound passengers? How did speed and rapid mobility shape the experience? And what impact did contemporary representations of the Great Britain as an icon of empire and modernity have upon crew, passengers and eager harbour-side crowds?
The second studentship will explore the life of the ship after it stopped sailing. For the Great Britain this second life was complex, covering two different places - the Falkland Islands and from 1970 onwards Bristol - and two different functions - first as a storage hulk and popular picnic site, secondly as a major heritage attraction. The student will consider how the ship was used during its time in the Falklands and the meanings the vessel accrued. Did its name and heritage have a particular resonance in the semi-colonial space of the Falkland Islands? What explains the strong attachment of Falkland Islanders to the vessel? The second half of the thesis will explore similar questions and themes relating to the period of the Great Britain's salvage and return to Bristol. The student will draw on and also develop the recent oral history project on memories of the Great Britain's salvage and return as well as developing themes in Public History on the nature of the museum. How has the ship been represented? What stories have been told, how and why? What does a study of the Great Britain, one of Britain's most critically acclaimed and popular visitor attractions, reveal about the contemporary history of the heritage industry?
The studentships will benefit academics and students in disciplines like history, cultural and social geography & museum studies. They will contribute to visitor experience at the Great Britain and to further development of the Trust's interpretative materials and educational programmes. Detailed study of the Great Britain a

In 2002, Brunel was voted the nation's second greatest Briton (after Churchill) in a survey conducted by the BBC. His ss Great Britain is an extremely popular and successful visitor attraction, with over 150,000 visitors a year. It has won 23 national & international prizes, including Gulbenkian Museum of the Year. The Trust makes a major contribution via tourism to the local & regional economy. The planned CDA studentships would provide a number of specific cultural and economic benefits to the Great Britain & the Brunel Institute, their visitors and the wider public:

STUDENT ONE:
1) The student will compile a database of archival and museum collections relating to the Great Britain in the UK & internationally. This database will be made available in the Brunel Institute and access will also be possible via the website. It will benefit the Great Britain by feeding into future exhibitions, educational and interpretative materials. It will also benefit future researchers and professional users.

2) Widespread use of mobile phones and MP3 players provides an opportunity to offer downloadable audio trails using visitors' own hardware. The student will work with Great Britain staff to edit aspects of their research into a narrated historical trail entitled the Captain's Trail which will be available to visitors via the Trust's website. The trail will focus on the experiences of the ship's officers and crew - a currently under-developed area. Developing different historical trails through the ship enables the Great Britain to attract repeat visitors.

STUDENT TWO:
1) The student will catalogue the Trust's archives for in-house use. These archives relate to the history of the ship since 1970 and thus to its development as a museum. A catalogued archive will achieve two major results. Firstly, it will give the Trust much readier access to its own historical records. Secondly, it will enable the Trust to better share best practice with the sector more broadly. The Great Britain is already regarded as an important case-study of success; receiving consultancy visits from the likes of the Lottery Heritage Fund. Given that UK museums currently operate in difficult economic times and face a turbulent future, the importance of sharing best practice and learning from field leaders cannot be underestimated.

2) The student will work with Great Britain staff to edit aspects of their research into a narrated historical trail entitled Wrecking and Return.

BOTH STUDENTS:
Both students will collaborate with Great Britain staff to make information derived from their research available to the public, thereby enriching the visitor experience. In particular, they will work with Tritton and her team to develop resources to support public education outcomes in four main areas:

A. Lifelong learning and adult education lectures
The students will each deliver a lecture, drawing on their doctoral research, as part of the Great Britain's lifelong learning programme.

B. Storytelling sessions
The students will work alongside a professional storyteller employed by the Great Britain to develop their research materials into stories. Story-telling is aimed at pre-school children during term-time and at under-12s during school holidays. In practice however sessions tend to attract a broad, mixed audience.

C. Education and schools' work
Brunel is part of the National Curriculum for Keystage 1 & 2. Emigration features in both PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education) and also History at Keystages 3 & 4. Research materials gathered by the students will feed into the Trust's already well established and very successful programme of work with schools.

D. Blog
Both students will play a role in enabling the ss Great Britain to further develop its Web 2.0 strategy. They will achieve this by launching and managing a blog, describing the