A tale of two Christmasses

One servant wrote to the college's newspaper, the Sphinx, to thank him for a "substantial knife and fork tea" served in a room "cheerfully decorated with holly and mistletoe". Lecturers and professors contributed to food and drink and the student council lent the use of their piano for after-tea songs and dance delivered by the servant's minstrel troupe.

Researchers also found a record of the Juvenile Christmas Lectures for boys and girls during the holidays of 1900, given by the renowned oceanographer and geologist Professor William Herdman, who had played a significant role in setting up a marine research station on Puffin Island in 1887.

His Christmas lecture series was held in the grounds of the Victoria Building where part of Brownlow Hill's old vacated lunatic asylum still stood and which housed some of the College's departments.

Children were invited to attend one of three lectures where Professor Herdman would explain the origins of sea serpents, dragons and giants, as well as the feeding habits of marine animals, such as the toothed whale and octopus. He would also discuss shells, rocks and the submerged forests in Liverpool Bay, as well as the life-histories of "insects in disguise" such as caterpillars and butterflies.

The event would also include a tour of the College's Natural History Museum which included animal skeletons such as crocodiles and snakes, as well as sea creatures such as sharks and turtles. The University's Victoria Gallery and Museum (VG&M) now displays some of Herdman's most prized collections in the Tate Hall - the former library of the Victoria Building.