National Museums Liverpool (NML) has hit out at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after the banking group withdrew permission for the use of two images for a text panel that covers the history of banking in the city – including its link to the slave trade.
The panel, which is for the new Museum of Liverpool, details Liverpool’s imperial connections and trade, and includes a section on the history of banking in the city entitled “We’re in the money”. The museum asked to use two images relating to the National Bank of Liverpool (NBL) and Parr's Bank, the successor companies of which are now part of RBS. The images were of a NBL cheque dated 1868 and a Parr’s Bank vignette showing the symbolic Liver bird.
The majority of the text covers the history of banks lending money to Liverpool merchants, but it also makes reference to the slave trade: “Many early Liverpool bankers were also merchants who owned slave ships; the development of banking was closely linked to the transatlantic slave trade.”
RBS said it would withdraw permission for the images unless the sentence relating to slavery was removed from the panel, because neither of the banks had any connection to the slave trade.
But David Fleming, director of NML, said the museum would not change the text and has now found an alternative image from its own collection.
“This is hypersensitivity gone made,” he added. “[The panel tells] the story of early banking in the city, which was involved in the slave trade along with other [industries]. It’s not a matter of passing blame – these are facts. Organisations can’t keep brushing slavery under the carpet; it is part of British history.”
Philip Winterbottom, archives manager at asset management at RBS, told Museums Journal: “This is not about burying the issue under the carpet – we have nothing to hide but in this context the images are not related to the story the museum is trying to tell.
"We understand that the history of banking is linked to the slave trade, but both NBL and Parr’s Bank [in Liverpool] were established after the abolition of slavery.”
The panel, which is for the new Museum of Liverpool, details Liverpool’s imperial connections and trade, and includes a section on the history of banking in the city entitled “We’re in the money”. The museum asked to use two images relating to the National Bank of Liverpool (NBL) and Parr's Bank, the successor companies of which are now part of RBS. The images were of a NBL cheque dated 1868 and a Parr’s Bank vignette showing the symbolic Liver bird.
The majority of the text covers the history of banks lending money to Liverpool merchants, but it also makes reference to the slave trade: “Many early Liverpool bankers were also merchants who owned slave ships; the development of banking was closely linked to the transatlantic slave trade.”
RBS said it would withdraw permission for the images unless the sentence relating to slavery was removed from the panel, because neither of the banks had any connection to the slave trade.
But David Fleming, director of NML, said the museum would not change the text and has now found an alternative image from its own collection.
“This is hypersensitivity gone made,” he added. “[The panel tells] the story of early banking in the city, which was involved in the slave trade along with other [industries]. It’s not a matter of passing blame – these are facts. Organisations can’t keep brushing slavery under the carpet; it is part of British history.”
Philip Winterbottom, archives manager at asset management at RBS, told Museums Journal: “This is not about burying the issue under the carpet – we have nothing to hide but in this context the images are not related to the story the museum is trying to tell.
"We understand that the history of banking is linked to the slave trade, but both NBL and Parr’s Bank [in Liverpool] were established after the abolition of slavery.”