Original post 31 March 2020:

The #GraingerMuseum sits on the #RoyalParade edge of the #UniversityOfMelbourne; Australia’s only purpose-built biographical museum, probably because he paid for it and oversaw its construction in 1935-8, when he was only in his 50s. It’s got a half-wheel shape, his own suggestion, but the details and construction by the University’s favoured interwar architects #GawlerAndDrummond. It’s been open full time after a long renovation in 2010, but still contains much of what I remember from the 80s when it was only open sometimes, and the University was rumoured to be wanting to get rid of it. Surprised they agreed in the first place, though he was super-famous, since it was only open for researchers for decades, and it’s a peculiar collection of everything Percy wanted to put there, from music to clothes to photos, details on his mother’s suicide, and the #whips he liked to use during sex (!), ‘free’ music machines, wax cylinder recordings of folk music…goodness I didn’t see half of that ! Was just racing through. Just listened to his 1916 In A Nutshell suite though, it’s great ! Also just learned he was a racial purist, believing Northern European everything to be better – but he liked Japanese and Polynesian fabrics too…hmmm. @ Grainger Museum

This is an outfit made out of …Turkish towels, on display at the #GraingerMuseum. In the 1910s, #PercyGrainger, amongst many other enthusiasms, thought that his mother Rose’s idea of making clothes out of towels was brilliant, because they were colourful, like he imagined Scandinavian peasant costume to be, and also clean, because easily washable. He wore them at lectures, and when on retreats, not down the street every day, which is a bit disappointing. Also, he was very pretty as a young man, that’s him aged about 21, when he was already popular in London for private recitals and starting out on his concert career. The photo is by London society photographer #AdolphDeMeyer. Percy was in the right place right time, plus he was a brilliant pianist. @ Grainger Museum

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