Watt is the great mechanical engineer who produced what might be called the first piece
of modern mechanical engineering.
Today is a very important event. It marks the official opening of the Watt in the World
exhibition, which is an exhibition of archives, objects, ephemera, etc., that are designed
to illustrate Watt's life in Scotland and in Birmingham, his family and his work, and
the ways in which he's been commemorated since his death.
Watt was huge in the 19th and 20th centuries but he's kind of gone very quiet. People are
not so aware perhaps of this period of history so I think it's important that Birmingham
remembers all its histories and there would be no Birmingham as we know it without the
innovation and the drive and the power of Watt's engines.
Today, it's an important event, not just for the exhibition, but because we're launching
a new book - The Power to Change the World: James Watt, A Life in 50 Objects. It doesn't
treat James Watt as a great hero. He was a very significant inventor - a creator of the
modern world in many ways.
I think it's been a really fantastic collaborative project with the University but also the Library
and the Museum and Art Gallery and the Assay Office, because it's brought different perspectives,
different points of view, different collections together.
The exhibition, like the book, is an attempt to explore Watt in a wide context. Not just
to portray him as the great steam engineer. He was that. But he was also somebody who
invented other things. What we see are not just the things that Watt did and his letters
and the things he created, but also material that relates to the people he worked with,
his family, and other members of the Lunar Society.
The real quality that Malcolm and the book has brought to the project is a wider range
of inputs and perspectives and different voices and its made a more rounded picture of Watt.
One of the things that I've been interested in over the last couple of years is how James
Watt entered popular culture. I've been collecting what might be called James Watt ephemera,
which includes trade cards and adverts and postcards. But also objects that were designed
to be sold to the public as a means of making sense of James Watt for a wider audience.
There’s also Watt as he’s revealed in popular culture in other countries. Watt,
for example, was very big in Japan and there’s a wonderful woodblock print dating from the
1870s which I was able to purchase which is in the exhibition which is a representation
– a Japanese representation – of Watt and the kettle.
There's so many nice bits. I like Jesse Watts's dog, who's been clipped and therefore spoilt
according to her brother. And I have to like James Watt himself there, Chantrey's bust
which is a very powerful statement about the man.
James Watt is a historical figure but he still resonates with us today. And one thing I hope
is that the exhibition together with the book will provide an opportunity for people whether
they're academics or heritage professionals or members of the public to look at James
Watt and his context and his relationships in new ways.