HULL’S GREATEST SHOWMAN

Thomas Sheppard meets Thomas Sheppard - the waxwork!

During the 19^th century P.T. Barnum, who is the subject of the Hollywood musical “The Greatest Showman,” was making a name for himself with his wonderful museum that displayed all manner of the weird and wonderful.  His museum, Barnum’s American Museum, was known for its strange exhibits. 

In Hull we had an equally ambitious curator in the form of Thomas Sheppard, a well loved, well respected, well read gentleman who loved Hull and its history.  Thomas Sheppard, like P.T. Barnum, was also a lover of the strange and unusual, and also a great showman, using his knowledge and cunning to draw attention to the many exhibits he had in his Hull Municipal Museum, thus attracting thousands to see the amazing displays that he had to offer. 

THE HULL MERMAID

The Hull Mermaid (Probably Fake)

P. T. Barnum was well known for having the Feejee Mermaid, an exhibit thought lost in a fire at the museum, however, the world was split into two when the exhibit was announced, with those claiming it was genuine, whilst others argued that it was a hoax. 

In the 19^th century hoax mermaids were the stuff of legend, and locally both Hull and Beverley had numerous reports of mermaids being shown in back street public houses. 

In Hull Thomas Sheppard had the Hull Mermaid, which was discovered in 1934, when Sir Alistair Hardy FRS, acquired the specimen.  Hardy would eventually take on a teaching post at Hull University teaching zoology, where he worked until 1942.  During this period the mermaid was scanned using a radio-graph machine, and found to be a hoax.  It was subsequently loaned to the Hull Maritime Museum where it is on display today.

THE HUMBER MONSTER

Creating a monster!

During the 1920’s and 1930’s the Humber region was known in the local, regional and national press for attracting attention on the alleged sea serpent sightings.  The stories made headline news during the period, and cashing in on this Thomas Sheppard took an elephants foot out to Spurn Point and made footprints in the sand.  Sheppard then called up the offices of the Hull Daily Mail, who turned up and photographed the scene.  The story, published in January 1934, talked about the local sightings and the recently published reports of the Loch Ness Monster, drawing attention to the Hull Municipal Museum on Albion Street.

YE OLDE WHITE HARTE’S SKULL

On the way to work

Thomas Sheppard was often included in some of the greatest mysteries of our time, or his time, but one such mystery was that of the skull discovered in Ye Olde White Harte’s attic space in October 1937.  Thomas Sheppard heard of the discovery and headed over from the museums to examine it.  He thought that it was a hoax, but sent the skull to Sir Arthur Keith, M.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.S., and Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, as well as being the top bone surgeon in Great Britain at the time.  He also thought that it was a hoax perpetrated by either medical students, the staff at the pub, or the builders working on the roof. 

It worked, however, with reports appearing in multiple editions of the Hull Daily Mail and Hull Times, and today the skull is still talked about, recently appearing in Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns. 

LAND OF GREEN GINGER

Last year saw the amazing acts of wanton wonder perpetrated by the Land of Green Ginger Fellowship, but one of the earliest scholars to present all the theories on the origin of the street name was Thomas Sheppard, who often appeared in local, regional, national and international newspapers and magazines talking about the street.  Whenever people wrote in, Sheppard, would answer their questions, writing thousands of letters in his life time on such matters. 

Despite this, Thomas Sheppard never favoured any such theory on the origin of the name, and if he did, he never wrote about it, opting to leave it a mystery, but presenting the full facts and theories for all to read.

THE MUMMY

Thomas Sheppard with the Egyptian Mummy and an x-ray of the sarcophagus

In March 1930 Pannett Park Museum, in Whitby, was selling a complete female Egyptian mummy, which had inspired Bram Stoker to write “The Jewel of the Seven Stars,” which would cover the topic of Egyptians and a tomb that contained a mummy.  Thomas Sheppard had heard about the sale of the mummy, and headed to Whitby, purchasing the mummy, complete with sarcophagus, and returning it across the North Yorkshire Moors to Hull. 

The story, however, takes a strange twist with a small information board in Whitby at the museum, on which it states that Sheppard travelled back to Hull with the mummy in the passenger seat! 

THE OLD STREET

How many Hull men have ever had the ambition to build a full Hull street from scratch?  How many went on to achieve that?  Thomas Sheppard had such a dream, and created a street at the rear of Wilberforce House in the old warehouse.  It opened in July 1935, but was constantly evolving with Sheppard purchasing old shop fronts from properties that were being demolished.

Old Street created by Thomas Sheppard

The street, when completed, had shop frontages, with fixtures and fittings from old pubs, clubs, and well known historical properties.  Sadly, enemy action saw the Luftwaffe drop bombs onto the warehouse, destroying the old street.

THE END OF AN ERA

On Monday September 29^th 1941 it was revealed that Thomas Sheppard, at the age of 65, had resigned his position as curator of the Hull Museums.  On the day after Thomas Sheppard’s resignation the Hull Daily Mail listed all the museums that he was responsible for working on in his 40 years of service to Hull, they included the Albion Street Museum, Wilberforce House, National History Museum, Museum of Fisheries and Shipping, Museum of Commerce and Transport, the Mortimer Collection, and Paragon Station’s Railway Museum.  He was also involved with the Folklore Museum at the Tithe Barn in Easington.

Thomas Sheppard died on Monday February 19^th 1945, his death made the front page of the Hull Daily Mail, and tributes came in from across the UK.  His funeral attracted hundreds, but his legacy lives on.  His passion had attracted thousands to Hull museums, and continues to do so today.