The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum



The Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is situated in Marton, Middlesbrough.

Artworks by artist Simon Patterson, a previous Turner Prize nominee, are installed within the museum. Patterson made a series of kite (bird) mobiles based on the designs of 19th Century Australian aeronautical pioneer Lawrence Hargrave. The mobiles made of stainless steel and perspex, are suspended from the ceiling and named after seabirds such as the 'Fluttering Shearwater' and 'Cook's Petrel'. As well as Hargrave's designs, Patterson was inspired by how seabirds follow in the wake of a ship. These would have been the same types of birds that Cook and his crew saw on their journeys around the world. Patterson also designed a wall painting for the Museum's cafeteria, which is based on a modern star map of the southern sky which Cook would have used to navigate his way to Australia.