Conserving a 19th Century Napoleonic Uniform

Thank you. Big reveal. Oh my god. There it is. What do you think? It's had a bit of a life, this coat. Oh, it sure has. The hair uniform needs conservation work to ensure that we can safely put it on display in our galleries at the National Maritime Museum. It has survived for over 200 years before coming to us and it's really a privilege to get to work on this uniform to ensure its survival for future generations. Okay, so I'll just show you some of the areas of damage on the inside so you can spot it already. Ah yes, there's some nibbling over here. Yes, definitely. Moth had a great little snack there. I've seen these in photographs, they're my favourite bit. Okay, so the eagles, as beautiful as they are, unfortunately do have quite a lot of damage. You can see quite a lot of tarnishing here. I like the little red threads that they've sewn in sort of around the legs of the eagle and its beak. You can tell that someone's put a lot of time and effort into making these little eagles. And this is silver, is it? It is silver, yes, silver lace. Quite a lot of damage on that as well actually, all those white flecks, especially here and here, are actually where the silver has been lost. I think this is what I'm most interested with, the lining on the sleeves. It looks like denim, doesn't it? It does. This is where the buttons are missing on the other side. Yes. So I have lost all of the buttons on the front, which again is very unfortunate. Show the cuff buttons. It's one of the few that we have, also with the tiny eagle. So Charles Hare's uniform is made up of a coat, a shako, which is a tall cylindrical military hat, a magnificent plume of feathers, which is inserted into the front of the shako, a chin strap, which was attached to the shako, but unfortunately is now detached, and a cross belt plate. I'd seen a lot of pictures of the uniform before it arrived here at the museum, but nothing compares to seeing it in person and seeing it for the first time. I had to keep, you know, sort of reminding myself that all these details told the story of 200 years of history, not just of Hare's escape. What does it tell us about the craftsman who made this uniform, about the customs officer who wore it day in, day out, before Hare used it in his escape? And what does it tell us about how Hare's family treasured and looked after this item? And that's where working so closely with my wonderful colleagues in conservation really comes in, because they're able to get to know the material in detail and to help probe those really important questions about the uniform's history. It's amazing to work on such historic objects. Because we can really feel the importance of preserving these objects for future generations. They've lasted for hundreds of years, and we're just one tiny step in the lifespan of this object and hopefully just helping it to live on for another hundred years.