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James Taylor (born 1963) is a British author, expert on maritime art, and former curator of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, east London.
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James Taylor (born 1963) is a British author, expert on maritime art, and former curator of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, east London.
Taylor was educated at the Universities of St Andrews and Manchester. Early in his career, Taylor spent time as an auctioneer with Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers, where he was the Victorian paintings specialist. From 1989, he was a curator of paintings, drawings and prints, exhibition organiser and Corporate Membership Manager at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. [1] He began to publish on marine art in the mid 1990s.
Taylor has since written several books, including illustrated histories on maritime and yachting art, and, in 2008, The Voyage of the Beagle, charting the story of the ship made famous by Charles Darwin. In March 2009, Dr John Van Wyhe wrote in BBC History Magazine , that The Voyage of the Beagle "brings together a wonderful mixture of old and new illustrations and information about the voyage from wildly scattered sources." [2] He has also produced a study on the popular English 20th century cartoonist and Punch magazine editor, Fougasse, who created the anti-rumour and gossip posters during World War II. His publication Your Country Needs You - The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster (Saraband, August 2013) was timed to coincide with the start of the World War I commemorations in 2014. Dazzle - Disguise & Disruption in War & Art and Pack Up Your Troubles - How Humorous Postcards Helped to Win World War One were published in September and October 2016 by The Pool of London Press and Bloomsbury respectively.
Taylor guest-curated the exhibition Dazzle - Disguise and Disruption in War and Art at the St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery in Lymington (16 June -23 September 2018) that included loans from private and public collections including: the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Russell-Cotes, Southampton City Art Gallery, Tate Britain and the V & A. Also, co-organised the Dazzle study day at the University of Southampton on 30 June 2018. [3]
Among Taylor’s professional achievements are several Sir James Caird Awards for writing, and the Sir Geoffrey Callender Award for outstanding achievement in supporting the public lecture programme and developing the corporate membership scheme of the National Maritime Museum. Since 1999, he has worked as a freelance writer and lecturer. In 2001, he was appointed an official lecturer for the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS), now renamed The Arts Society. According to the Mere Literary Festival, Taylor ‘lectures regularly to a wide range of societies, including NADFAS [The Arts Society] around the world.’ [4] [5]
In June 2015 Taylor was awarded a PhD from the University of Sussex for his thesis on William Westall (1781-1850) the 'landscape and figure draughtsman' who sailed with Matthew Flinders on the voyage of HMS Investigator (1801-3) – the first recorded circumnavigation of Australia.[ citation needed ]
His publication The Voyage of the Beagle... was short-listed for the Mountbatten Maritime Prize in 2016. [6]
Taylor is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[ citation needed ]
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803, was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. Later reports say the ship took part in celebrations of the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom, passing under the old London Bridge, and was the first rigged man-of-war afloat upriver of the bridge. There was no immediate need for Beagle, so she "lay in ordinary", moored afloat but without masts or rigging. She was then adapted as a survey barque and took part in three survey expeditions.
Sir William Robert Patrick Knox-Johnston is a British sailor. In 1969, he became the first person to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. Along with Sir Peter Blake, he won in 1994 the second Jules Verne Trophy, for which they were also given the ISAF World Sailor of the Year Awards. In 2007, at the age of 67, he set a record as the oldest yachtsman to complete a round the world solo voyage in the Velux 5 Oceans Race.
Thomas Earnshaw was an English watchmaker who, following John Arnold's earlier work, further simplified the process of marine chronometer production, making them available to the general public. He is also known for his improvements to the transit clock at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London and his invention of a chronometer escapement and a form of bimetallic compensation balance.
Cyril Kenneth Bird CBE, known by the pen name Fougasse, was a British cartoonist.
Darrell Craig McClure, was an American cartoonist and illustrator best known for his work on the comic strip Little Annie Rooney from 1930 to 1966. The strip took its name from an 1890 song by Michael Nolan.
Gordon Frickers is a marine artist based in Plymouth, Devon, but also paints in France. Frickers was the first marine artist to be exhibited at the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011.
Norman Wilkinson was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolours and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur. Wilkinson invented dazzle painting to protect merchant shipping during the First World War.
A nautical chronometer made by Thomas Earnshaw (1749–1828), and once part of the equipment of HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his voyage around the world, is held in the British Museum. The chronometer was the subject of one episode of the BBC's series A History of the World in 100 Objects.
D′Iberville was a French Navy Bougainville-class aviso, designed to operate from French colonies in Asia and Africa. She was launched on 23 September 1934.
Brian Lavery, is a British naval historian, author, and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England.
Conway Publishing, formerly Conway Maritime Press, is an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It is best known for its publications dealing with nautical subjects.
Peter Goodwin is a British maritime historian and author, and the former Keeper and Curator of HMS Victory.
Charles Pears was a British painter, illustrator and artist. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.
HM Yacht William and Mary was a royal yacht of the Kingdom of Great Britain, named after the joint monarchs who ruled between 1689 and 1694. She was launched in 1694 and completely rebuilt in 1765. In all, she remained in service for over a century before being sold in 1801.
Guépard was the lead ship of her class of destroyers (contre-torpilleur) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Valmy was one of six Guépard-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
Verdun was one of six Guépard-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
The French destroyer Vauban was one of six Guépard-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy during the 1920s.
The French destroyer Vautour was one of six Aigle-class destroyer (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy in the interwar period.
Gerfaut was one of six Aigle-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy in the interwar period.
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