Missing piece of explorer museum jigsaw in place

9:14am Saturday 5th July 2008

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A MISSING exhibit has been installed at a museum dedicated to the life of an explorer.

A lifelike figure of Elizabeth Cook, the widow of Teesside's most famous son, has gone on show at the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, in Stewart Park, Middlesbrough.

Curator Phil Philo said: "It is fantastic that we can show the amazing achievements of the great Captain Cook, but equally important that we recognise Mrs Cook's contribution.

Elizabeth ran the household, bore six children, brought them up almost single- handed whilst Cook went on his voyages and had to deal with their deaths, some in their infancy.

"She was a remarkable woman, surviving not only her husband, but all of her children, and promoting her husband's achievements right up to her own death."

The figure is based on the only known portrait of Mrs Cook, now in the collection of the Mitchell Library, in Sydney, Australia.

She spent 56 years as a widow, and is shown dressed in a costume from the 1820s, surrounded by memories of her husband and family.

She holds in her lap a drawstring bag reputed to have been made from a piece of Elizabeth's embroidered wedding dress. The bag once contained a lock of hair belonging to Mrs Cook, according to an old note that came with the bag, along with two pieces of Tahitian barkcloth from Captain Cook's voyages.

The museum is open from 10am to 5.30pm each day except Monday.

Entry is free.