LM&G manages nine sites across the City of Leeds, comprising: Abbey House Museum, Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds City Museum, Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills and Thwaite Watermill, Leeds Discovery Centre, Lotherton and Temple Newsam.

Core to our museum service are the collections; an estimated 1.3 million individual objects, which include our historic buildings, across a vast range of disciplines. Our collections derive from locations across the world, across cultures and time spanning some 5 billion years of Earth history and 300,000 years of human civilisation. There is a distinct Leeds flavour in that through the collections we celebrate the people, culture and natural environment of our city and its environs, but it is in no way restricted to a local focus.

Four of our collections are Designated; recognised as being pre-eminent collections of national and international importance under the Arts Council England Designation Scheme and have an international reputation for their quality, depth and unique nature. These are Decorative Arts, Fine Arts, Industrial History and Natural Sciences.

Our collections are by no means static: we are actively developing them and moving forward. A vibrant programme of collecting is ongoing and is conducted through various means including; purchase, gift, community projects, transfers, bequests and commissions. We have mature relationships with national funding bodies and our local supporting organisations and have a strategic approach to collecting. As a result our collections are among the best in the UK in terms of quality and range but also in how they are being shaped by the communities with whom we engage.

Archaeology

There are approximately 20,000 individual artefacts in the Leeds archaeological collections, including ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities as well as native British, European and foreign archaeological material. The historic core of the collections is composed of objects collected by the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society between the early 19th century and 1921, when the collections were transferred to the care of Leeds City Council. These include high quality objects such as sculpture from Greece and the Greek islands and the mummy of the ancient Egyptian priest, Nesyamun. The archaeological collection not only covers many thousands of years of history and prehistory but also represents a wide range of cultures and civilisations around the world.

British and European Archaeology

Prehistoric Collections The prehistoric collections include stone axe heads, flint arrowheads and other stone tools from the Yorkshire region and beyond, numerous bronze artefacts and local Bronze Age hoards, and objects from ‘Lake Dwelling’ sites on the Continent. The Philosophical and Literary Society acquired a collection of Palaeolithic stone tools from the northern French gravel deposits, which during the 19th century helped make the case for the antiquity of human beings. This is supplemented by welldocumented stone tools from Kent and southern counties. The bulk of the collection is composed of lithic material, a good proportion of which remains unprovenanced.

Romano-British Collections

Roman artefacts are very well-represented by the excavated finds from the Dalton Parlours Roman villa excavations, material from the Roman town of Aldborough, finds from Adel in north Leeds and a scattering of finds from other parts of the UK. These are supplemented by substantial local excavation archives from Wattle Syke and Rothwell Haigh. A large part of the collection is unprovenanced.

Early Medieval Collections

Material representative of the Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods is not numerous but it is highly significant. Fragments of the Leeds Parish Church crosses (9th- 10th century), and The West Yorkshire Hoard (7th-11th century), are of national significance as well as exquisite craftsmanship. Other objects from the period include a number of unprovenanced Anglian cinerary urns and iron weapons, a high status brooch from a Jutish burial in Kent, and a group of carved gravestones found at Adel Church.

Medieval Collections

Finds from excavations at Kirkstall Abbey, the Cistercian monastery in west Leeds form the bulk of our holdings from the Middle Ages. However, we have material from a number of moated sites in the region and kiln firing experiments at Bodington Hall in Leeds from excavations in the 1960s. Much of the material is ceramic and fragmentary.

Overseas Archaeology

Ancient Egyptian Collections

The most important exhibit is the mummy of the ancient Egyptian priest Nesyamun dating from about 1100 BC. This is supported by a more miscellaneous collection of about 1,000 Egyptian artefacts representing both daily life and funerary practices. The collection is strongest in the Predynastic period (before 3100 BC) because of the Society’s subscription to Mr Randall-Maclver’s excavations at El -Amrah for the Egypt Exploration Society early in the 20th century.

Greek Collections

A group of very high quality sculpture collected by people on the Grand Tour is the highlight of a more miscellaneous collection of ancient Greek artefacts which consists mostly of pottery. There is also a significant quantity of Cypriot ceramics and related material in the collection.

Roman Collections

This service has also been fortunate to acquire a share of the finds from Lord Savile’s excavations at

Lanuvium in Italy, which includes fragmentary material from an important Etruscan and Roman temple, Hellenistic style pottery and some fine fragments from an important statue group depicting cavalrymen and horses. This is supported by a more miscellaneous collection of Roman small finds from Ventimiglia and other sites collected in the 19th century.

Other overseas collections

There is a significant collection of material from the Near East (particularly from excavations at Jericho), North America and India, as well as a small number of objects from other countries outside Europe, collected during the 19th century.

The end-date for archaeological collecting is the closure of Kirkstall Abbey in 1539, after which material is the responsibility of the Social History department. However, in cases where later material has been acquired by archaeological methods, i.e. by excavation, field walking or metal detecting, it will usually still become part of the archaeology collection.

There is archaeological material within the World Cultures collection, notably ancient Chinese, South America (particularly Peruvian), and Native American material.

Decorative Arts

The Designated collections of decorative arts comprise furniture, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, flat textiles, wallpapers and objet d’art. Historically, they derive mainly from the collections of the Leeds City Art Galleries before their amalgamation with the City Museums in 1995, though there is an overlap in some areas with the LM&G’s social history collection.

The bulk of the material is historical, having been collected from the 1890’s onwards and is displayed within the context of the two country house museums, Temple Newsam and Lotherton. A second strand to the collection was developed from the late 1970’s onwards when a collection of modern British craft was acquired with the help of the Lotherton Endowment Fund. This is numerically small but of very high quality. It is mostly held at Lotherton with some ceramics at Leeds City Art Gallery.

Furniture

We have amongst the finest collections of British Furniture in the country. The core of the collection dates between c.1550 to 1900. There are also a few items of modern craft furniture. Superb examples of major makers are represented in the collection, including Thomas Chippendale the elder and younger, Linnel, Marsh and Tatham, Vile and Cobb, and Gillows. Another important area of the collection is the vernacular furniture. The chairs in this area are of particular importance and include the oldest known Windsor chair, bequeathed by Roger Warner in 2008. Part of this collection includes items of servants’ and backstairs furniture.

Included within the furniture collection are important and rare items of country house lighting, comprising chandeliers and electroliers, sconces and various kinds of lamps. Again these are considered vital for the understanding of the domestic interiors and decorative arts in general but are useful objects and are in use within Temple Newsam and Lotherton.

Ceramics

The ceramics collection is numerically the largest within our collection comprising approx. 5000 items. The collection of English Pottery which ranges in date from 1650 to 1900 is of particular importance. It contains the largest holdings of creamwares in the country. There are also exceptionally rare and unique items of stoneware, pearlware and earthenwares.

The English porcelain collection though numerically smaller than the pottery nonetheless contains important items of early Worcester and mid 1700s Derby.

We have a small collection of continental ceramics. This is an area which has never been actively collected. Within this there are items of exceptional rarity including Delftware pottery, Sevres and Meissen.

Oriental pottery and porcelain form a numerically large area of the collection. Of particular note is the Savery bequest of Chinese Ceramics.

Metalwork

Our collections of metalwork, especially silver, are remarkable. Unlike other collections which have been gathered by means of gift or bequest, the collection of silver is a comparatively small but choice assemblage of objects largely built up by curators. This means that Leeds is able to survey English silver not only in terms of style and maker but also in the way that it illustrates material culture. There are numerous outstanding pieces in the collection of international importance, notably the Raby Cistern by Philip Rollos, the Tea Equipage by Paul de Lamerie and the Kirkleatham Centrepiece by David and Anne Tanqueray.

Glass

Leeds has a small collection of English glass. It forms an important and complementary collection to our holdings of silver and ceramics. It is of particular importance to give a fuller picture of the understanding of the material culture of the domestic interior.

Wallpapers

We are one of only three institutions that actively collect wallpapers in the country alongside the V&A and the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. Of particular note is the Roger Warner collection of wallpapers. This includes not only salvaged items from English houses but also items relating to the prominent firm of Jeffrey & Co with example of papers designed by artists and designers such as Walter Crane, and Lewis F. Day. The collection also includes an archive of the papers found at Temple Newsam and Lotherton. An interesting aspect of the collection is reproductions of papers from institutions such as the Palace of Westminster.

Miscellaneous Objets d’Art

There are miscellaneous items of decorative art within the collection that have been given and bequeathed. Although these have never been the focus of active collecting, they are interesting collections in their own right. Some deserve particular mention:

The Cliff bequest of Ivories, the Oxley gift and bequest of ivories and miscellaneous objets de vertu, the Frank Fulford collection of Oriental hardstones and etuis and the Dorothy Una Ratcliffe collection of fans and miniatures.

Archives and Works on Paper

There are important archives relating to the decorative arts within the collections. These include the archive of the Leeds furniture maker; Hummerston Bros and the exceptionally important collection of Country House sale catalogues.

There is also a small collection of ornament prints, designs and trade cards.

Recently there has been a strong drive to collect works on paper illustrating interiors and social history leading to notable acquisitions by William Redmore Bigg and Thomas Rowlandson.

Modern and Contemporary Applied Arts

Our collection of British modern applied arts can be broadly divided into five main areas: jewellery, ceramics, metalwork, furniture and textiles. Collecting of contemporary craft began in earnest in 1968 when Lotherton opened to the public. It was decided that Lotherton should be a showcase for British applied arts from the nineteenth century until the present day. Major artists are represented in all areas of the collection. The ceramics collection is particularly strong surveying major artists from the 1930s until the present day.

Dress and Textiles

The department of dress and textiles was established in 2008 through the amalgamation of material from the nationally and internationally significant Designated Decorative Arts and Industrial History collections along with related material in the Social History collections. By bringing together the different collection areas under ‘Dress and Textiles’ it has created a significant collection detailing the history of what people have worn in the past, the textiles they have used for their clothing, furnishing and decorating their homes.

Dress Collection

The dress collection is predominantly British and consists of clothes and accessories for men, women and children. Although there are a few accessories which date from the 17th century, the majority of the collection dates from the 18th century onwards.

A large part of the collection has a unique regional significance in that the items have been worn, bought or made in Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire region.

However, the collection also represents the wider history of British fashion as it contains items which have been collected for their excellence of cut and construction or for their aesthetic beauty. Of note is the Kenneth Sanderson collection which contains a large quantity of mainly 18th century male and female fashionable clothes and accessories. There are also many items representing high end couture fashion from the end of the 19th century to the 21st century. Outstanding garments include an 1881 dress by Charles Worth, worn by the daughter of a Yorkshire mill owner and a particularly strong collection of garments dating from the 1960s by some of the best known British fashion designers, such as Jean Muir, Bill Gibb, Zandra Rhodes, Vivienne Westwood, Bruce Oldfield, and Philip Treacy.

Leeds Tailoring

A significant and unique area of the dress and textiles collection is the large quantity of material relating to the production, finished product, promotion and selling of the nationally important tailoring manufacturing industry in Leeds. There are a few items dating from the start of the rise of the industry in the late 19th to early 20th century but the majority of the objects date to the height of the industry in the 1930s to its decline in the 1980s. The collection includes items such as tools and equipment, suits, photographic archive and promotional material.

Although a number of the Leeds tailors are represented in the collection, the two Leeds’ manufacturers best represented are Burton and Hepworths.

Textiles

The textile collection, of all the areas in the costume and textiles collection, is the widest ranging in terms of date and it includes some extremely rare fragments dating back to the 15th century. The collection contains fragments and also complete items highlighting the wide variety of techniques used in the production of textiles for dress, furnishings and interiors.

Like the dress, the textile collection has many items with a unique local significance, which illustrate the use or manufacture of textiles in the home, for practical or decorative use, in the Leeds and surrounding area. This includes a large and extensive collection of needlework samplers dating largely from the 18th and 19th century and also many patchwork and quilted bedcovers.

An important sub-group of the textiles collection is the collection of country house floor coverings including carpets and other coverings. Rare items include early 1800s linoleum and Venetian carpets. These are considered important for understanding the country house interior and have informed restoration projects at Temple Newsam and elsewhere.

Of particular note in the textiles collection are the exceptional Henry Ginsberg and Roger Warner collections: The Ginsburg Collection consists of European embroideries, silks, linens, lace and printed cottons dating between 1450 and 1900. The core of the collection is printed cottons and contains examples of well-known designs from the best French and English manufacturers of the 1700s, such as Oberkampf from France and Bromley Hall in England. The collection of silks is extremely comprehensive in that it can illustrate the major developments in style and design between 1450 and 1800. It includes examples of dress and furnishing silks from Florence, Lyons and the British manufacturing centre of Spitalfields.

The Warner collection comprises a significant collection of mainly upholstery fabrics from English country houses, dating from the 1650s to the first quarter of the 1900s.

Fine Arts

Our Designated fine art collections have principal strengths in the areas of 18th and early 19th century English watercolours, 20th century British Art, particularly the period 1910 to 1950, and a modern sculpture collection more extensive than any other regional gallery in the UK. There are also significant holdings of late 19th century pictures, particularly strong in the area of Victorian narrative painting, and some high quality French paintings, as well as notable examples of contemporary artists’ moving image works from the last decade of the 20^th century.

The collections are kept and primarily displayed across three sites, with overall approximately 1300 oil paintings, about 3,000 English watercolours, and 2,000 prints and about 1000 sculptures. The primary elements mentioned above at the city-centre located Leeds Art Gallery, as well as notable collections of ‘Old Master’ and British painting dating from before 1840 at Temple Newsam, while the Gascoigne family paintings and some British Impressionists are shown in the settings of the Edwardian house, Lotherton. In both these latter venues the fine art collections are integral to historic country house displays, and, taken overall, with the Art Gallery which is best described as a gallery of modern and contemporary art, the collections offer visitors, and researchers, a wide range of engagement through different display styles and strategies.

Victorian Art

We have collected Victorian pictures since the Art Gallery opened in 1888. Whilst not comprehensive, our collection holds some remarkable works. Of particular note are the landscapes, characterised by Sogne Fjord by Adelsteen Normann, Pre-Raphalite romantic pictures like Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott, ‘modern moral subjects’ of everyday life like Holl’s The Village Funeral and Tissot’s the Bridemaid), as well as paintings depicting contemporary events like the war in Afghanistan by The Drums of the Fore and Aft by Edward Hale.

We are probably most associated with the Leeds artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, the holdings of whose works has grown to encompass the largest of any public collection.

British and French Painting 1850-1900

We hold a major collection of French art of the Barbizon school, including important works by Courbet and Corot. We are able to demonstrate the changes since the Renaissance, in particular with the development of realism and impressionism. Andre Derain’s Barges on the Thames, acquired later is a key work in the post-impressionist canon.

British Art 1900-1920

The work of Walter Sickert and the grouping around him of young artists known as the Camden Town Group, (Ginner, Gilman and Gore) who were influenced by new European developments are well represented in our collection. Mark Gertler, David Bomberg, Stanley Spencer and Leeds’ own Jacob Kramer were part of this fresh approach, and are all represented with significant, and often multiple works in the collection. We also have major works from the Vorticists painters Nevinson and Wyndham Lewis. The First World War period is also well represented by artists such as Paul Nash.

British Impressionism and the Sam Wilson Collection

The Leeds woollen manufacturer, Sam Wilson formed a modern and progressive collection, which was subsequently bequeathed to the city in 1918. Focusing on ‘English Impressionists’ like Mark Senior, Wilson built up a collection of over three hundred paintings, sculptures, oriental porcelain and Gillow furniture. Collecting artists of his own times – notably Frank Brangwyn, Georg Sauter, George Clausen, William Orpen and John Buxton Knight, Wilson’s collection also included several sculptures by Olsen and Alfred Gilbert.

Modernism. Painting in Britain 1920-1950

This period is dominated by the artists such as Spencer, Sickert and Matthew Smith and Wadsworth the acquisition of which was driven by gallery director Philip Hendy. Work by most other leading British artists of the period were bought and during the Second World War a pioneering series of exhibitions was held at Temple Newsam, Leeds, featuring emerging ‘new’ artists such as Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson and Augustus John, thus establishing Leeds’ reputation as a centre for contemporary art.

Post War British Art 1950-1980

Significant acquisitions have added some major works from this period; these include significant loans from the Leeds Art (Collections) Fund. One of the most celebrated being Francis Bacon’s Painting 1950. Other artists represented from this period include the Gregory Fellows – a series of artist residencies at Leeds University who included Terry Frost, Alan Davie, Hubert Dalwood, Reg Butler, Kenneth Armitage, Austin Wright, Norman Stevens, John Walker and Keith Milow.

Art Post-1980

Painting is still the dominant medium in Leeds Art Gallery’s collection, and acquisitions continue to be made by artists who still use paint in new ways, such as Terry Atkinson and notably by women artists, including Gillian Ayres and Paula Rego.

More recently, however, we have collected in the expanded arenas of art production, from Stephen Willat’s ‘collagist’ approach in Doppelganger, to Susan Hiller’s Monument, which incorporates audiotape.

We have embarked on a new direction, acquiring new works by artists working with the moving image and sound, including works by Mark Wallinger, Rosalind Nashashibi, and Tacita Dean. This also involved the Gallery in commissioning artists to make work specifically for the collection. Bill Fontana, Georgina Starr and Mariele Neudecker each produced new work and this direction of travel has continued with a recent commission from Bob & Roberta Smith.

Sculpture

The Leeds sculpture collections comprise over 800 objects, 400 works on paper and the Henry Moore Institute Archive of over 270 collections of papers relating to sculptors. These include personal papers, diaries, casting ledgers, photographs and sketch books. The collections are principally British from c.1875 to the present day, although they include works from earlier centuries and other parts of Europe. The Leeds sculpture collections are managed in partnership with the Henry Moore Institute, a specialist centre for the study of sculpture.

The core of the present collection was established in the mid-twentieth century when Leeds Art Gallery gained a reputation for the perceptive collecting of early modern and contemporary sculpture. The introduction of support from The Henry Moore Foundation, beginning in 1982, and the establishment of the Henry Moore Institute in 1993 confirmed Leeds as an international centre for the study and appreciation of sculpture. Since then, the collection has more than doubled in size and expanded in depth, as well as scope, through the acquisition of historic and contemporary works, sculpture and works on paper, preparatory and finished material.

The collections seek to narrate the development of sculpture being made in Britain over the last century as broadly as possible by representing neglected practitioners as well as established ones, by incorporating monumental and architectural sculpture by means of drawings, maquettes and archival material, and by using the works on paper collection to represent the scope of contemporary practice alongside acquisitions of three-dimensional work. In recent years there has been a particular focus on conceptual, performance, photographic and other expanded sculptural forms and definitions from the 1960s and 1970s, which traditionally have been considered difficult to collect and as a result are underrepresented in museum collections of sculpture.

Prints and Drawings

Today, Leeds boasts one of the finest collections of prints and drawings in Britain, which is predominantly strong in the area of English watercolour. It includes around 3,000 drawings and watercolours of national importance, and a fine collection of around 2,000 English prints with small but high quality collections of European and Japanese prints.

The story of collecting prints and drawings at Leeds Art Gallery began in 1925 when Robert Hawthorn Kitson, an amateur watercolour artist and member of the Gallery’s sub-committee, set out to create ‘a first rate general collection of watercolours’, in the following inter-war years the acquisition of watercolours became the Gallery’s main focus of collection, when several key purchases including The Ploughed Field by John Sell Cotman and Lake Albano and Castle Gandulfo by John Robert Cozens.

The Gallery’s expansion in to the field of English watercolours began to attract notable private collectors, which led to important bequests. In 1937 the collector and biographer of John Sell Cotman, Sydney Decimus Kitson, bequeathed a significant share of his Cotman collection. This included major works by Cotman including: Barnard Castle from Towler Hill and nearly 600 Cotman studies.

In 1952 we received the Lupton collection, which totalled some 500 watercolours and around 400 prints. Not only did it include major works by leading English watercolour artists of the late 18^th century but also a sequence from Turner’s prints for the ‘Liber Studiorum’ and 64 etchings by Rembrandt.

We have a small, but significant, collection of early European intaglio and relief prints dating from c. 1450. We also have a large number of popular prints with subjects ranging from topography, portraiture to satires. The last century saw us actively collecting other works on paper by living artists including many important names. Most notably: Laura Knight, Paul Nash, William Roberts, Henry Moore, Eric Ravlious, Graham Sutherland and Edward Burra. In recent years the most notable purchased Leeds has made is The Valley of the Washburn by J M W Turner.

Industrial History

The Designated industrial collections represent the industries of Leeds through the companies, products and personalities involved. The collections also aim to reflect the working life of Leeds people through their jobs and working environments.

19th century Leeds was sometimes described as the “City of 100 Trades” and the collections reflect the diversity of different industries which flourished in the area.

The most significant collecting areas are:

• Textile machinery
• The Leeds printing industry
• Engineering, including locomotive and railway collections of international significance

We hold material from notable companies and manufacturers such as John Fowler & Co., Vickers PLC, A. Kershaw & Sons, Benjamin Gott, Burtons, Kirkstall Forge and the Hunslet Engine Co. and a wealth of other firms.

The collections comprise tools, machinery, industrial products, archive ephemera, photographs and other personal records, but do not include substantial company archives.

Leeds Social and Community History

The Leeds social history collections started with an emphasis on “bygones” and folk life in the 1920s. Reconstructed street displays at Abbey House were added in the 1950s. Traditional strengths have been in the areas of childhood (toys and games), retailing history, domestic life, musical instruments, slot machines and automata and printed ephemera. This has resulted in a rich and wide-ranging collection of social history material (over 100,000 items).

Significant specific collections include:

• The Ernestine Henry Collection of material relating to chimney sweeps
• The Waddington archive (games and puzzles)
• Burmantofts and Leeds pottery
• The Leonora Cohen suffragette archive

The emphasis for recent collecting has been material with a strong local provenance relating to Leeds history and manufacture or association with Leeds people, through partnership with community organisations, from the post-medieval period to the present day.

Recent contemporary collecting projects have included work with over twenty different communities including Leeds Irish, Polish, Afro-Caribbean, Sikh, Muslim and environmental groups like Leeds in Bloom, Groundwork and BTCV. Each time we have pursued themes which have included: Steps in Time (Dance), Faith in the City, a Greener City and Food for Thought, Leeds Music Festival.

Lotherton

Lotherton is an historic house, mainly of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. It was formerly the home of the Gascoigne family who gave it to the City of Leeds in 1968. It came into public ownership fully furnished with the family collection of paintings, sculpture, silver, jewellery, furniture and ceramics. These comprise the Gascoigne Gift which comprises something over 900 items, including objects which the family had already given to the City when the main gift was made. The gifts continued up to the bequest of Lady Gascoigne in 1979, she being the last member of the family to live in the house.

Lotherton was established as a museum of art from 1800 to the present day, the theory being that it would tell the story of the decorative arts in Britain from 1800 to the present day while Temple Newsam told the same story from 1500-1800.

Further development of the collections was made possible by the Lotherton Endowment Fund, which was given by the family for the enhancement of the collections. Space was created in the building to display costume and Oriental art, particularly the Sanderson collection of historic costume and the Savery collection of Oriental ceramics. Family items seen as not being of museum quality were sold or returned to the family to make way for new acquisitions which now included modern and contemporary British craft and fashion, complementing the modern fine art at Leeds Art Gallery and the historic Sanderson items. The City already owned a few pieces of modern ceramic; to these more were added, together with furniture, metalwork, jewellery and flat textiles.

By this process the collections multiplied threefold to more than 2,700 items’. A fifth strand to Lotherton’s collecting became possible from 1994 onwards with the loan of 78 items from the Cooper collection of Victoriana and Edwardiana, particularly high-art furniture most of which is shown at Lotherton. In recent years, new emphasis has been given to the social history of the house, it has meant a new determination to acquire items with a Gascoigne family provenance, this being taken to include the families with whom they intermarried.

Militaria

Some extremely interesting items mainly European firearms, armour, swords and bayonets dating from circa 1450 to 1945. The firearms are a mixture of ‘live’ and antique weapons.

Natural History

The natural science collection comprises around 800,000 specimens, and is hugely diverse in terms of subject area, specimen type, and taxonomic range. It is Designated as being of national and international significance.

The geology collection includes a wide range of fossils, minerals, rocks and meteorites, telling the story of our planet’s history. Yorkshire’s geology is very well represented, and the mineralogy collection is a particular strength comprising a range of British and largely European specimens including some significant rarities and a modest collection of cut and polished gemstones. There are a number of type and figured specimens in the fossil collection and some rare assemblages of excavated cave material including Raygill fissure and Victoria Cave. Highlights of the palaeontology collection include a Giant Deer (formerly Irish elk) skeleton, ichthyosaur skeletons, and the Armley Hippo.

The zoology collection includes shells, skeletal material, microscope slides, taxidermy, skins, eggs and spirit specimens. This material represents a vast range of biodiversity including vertebrates, arthropods and molluscs.

The conchology collection (shells) is a particular strength with massive research value, as well as being a valuable resource for learning and display. We hold a range of type and figured material, such as specimens collected by Sylvanus Hanley and material described by Terry Crowley.

The taxidermy collection, including historic as well as recent specimens, is very popular with visitors of all ages, and is an inspiration for artists and scientists alike. We hold taxidermied specimens of endangered species including snow leopard, kakapo, and giant panda, and extinct species such as thylacine, huia, passenger pigeon and hyacinth macaw. These are hugely important for education, display and research purposes. Sadly, museums such as ours are now the only place where many of these species can be seen or researched. Highlights of our osteology collection include five skulls of the extinct thylacine, and skeletal material from extinct birds such as dodo, great auk, and moa. We hold a range of entomology material covering all insect orders, including insects collected in Yorkshire and around the world.

We hold one of the world’s best collections of fig wasps, collected and recently donated by Dr Stephen Compton. We have a strong collection of butterflies and moths collected both locally and abroad, including specimens of extinct and endangered species. Our botany collection includes thousands of mounted plant specimens and seeds, as well as dried fungus, mosses and lichen. The flora of Leeds and Yorkshire are well represented, and has recently been made more accessible to the public and researchers through the Museum to Meadow Effective Collections initiative.

From mysterious seeds to the oldest rocks, tiny fleas to huge mammoth tusks, or aardvarks to zebras, our collections are a valuable resource for anyone wishing to find out more about the world around them.

Numismatics

The 20,000+ coins, tokens, medals and other items in the numismatic collections include ancient coins, modern coins and paper money, as well as medals, medallions and associated material. The collection also includes local historical material and large numbers of modern European coins.

Ancient coins

There are approximately 8,000 coins from the ancient world in the numismatic collections, including a variety of Iron Age, ancient Greek, Republican and Imperial Roman, Byzantine, Viking, Medieval, and post-Medieval coinage. This also includes local coin hoards and coins from archaeological archives. There is also a large collection of ancient coin casts and coin moulds. The most significant collection of ancient coins is George Baron’s generous bequest of 2,000 gold, silver and bronze coins acquired by Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society in 1854.

Modern money

We hold an extensive collection of British, European and International coinage from the 17th century up to the present day. Part of the collection reflects national changes in currency and spending practices in the UK, for example decimalisation, early cheques, credit cards, etc. Other highlights of the collection include coins and banknotes from across the world, and alternative world currencies, both ancient and modern.

Military and Commemorative Medals

There are about 1,000 military medals and decorations in the collection relating to campaigns and individuals worldwide, but many with a local connection. This is augmented by substantial collections of regimental badges and military buttons. There is also a variety of local commemorative coins and medals, British historical medals and royal commemorative medals in the collection, as well as a more miscellaneous selection of medal series’ mainly acquired in the 19th century (for example, papal medals donated by George Baron and R.L.P Jowitt in the mid-1800s).

Other

Other collections of note include British and Yorkshire tokens, casts of Medieval and post-Medieval seals (royal, monastic, and heraldic), and historical ephemera relating to the collection. There is also a variety of miscellaneous material which ranges from Royal Maundy money to 1970s chocolate coins!

Temple Newsam

Temple Newsam has become celebrated for the fine collections of decorative arts, especially furniture, silver, ceramics, textiles and wallpapers, which have been built up since 1922 when the estate was bought from the Hon Edward Wood (later Earl Halifax) by the City of Leeds and developed as a country house museum. In 1922 almost all the contents of the house were sold or removed by the family, but from the 1930’s onwards strenuous efforts were made to refurnish the house, which today the basis of the collection consists of material from the families which lived there, particularly the paintings and furniture and forms what now makes up one of the finest publicly owned collections of English decorative art outside London.

There are many fine paintings that have hung in the house ever since they were painted and their future here has been secured in a number of ways. In 1948 the gift by Lord Halifax included the Italian pictures bought by the 4th Viscount in Venice in 1705 and the family portraits commissioned from the fashionable French portraitist Philip Mercier in the 1740’s. The Reynolds portrait of Lady Hertford, which she probably brought to the house when she took up residence here c 1808, was bought back for Temple Newsam by the National Art Collections Fund in 1952. Several more family portraits have returned to the house over the years. Old master paintings are a feature of the house the walls having in the past been adorned with Rubens, Titian and Claude Lorraine notable works we have are G B Pellegrini’s large Hector and Andromache, the horse portraits of Aleppo and Mother Neasham and Henry Morland’s painting, The Fair Nun Unmasked.

The furnishings tell a similar story. The furniture supplied for the Gallery by James Pascall in 1745 was by far the most important made for Temple Newsam in the 18th century and efforts to gather it back have been largely successful. Otherwise the house has been refurnished with objects of the highest quality, some made for Temple Newsam, other for other British country houses, often by the finest craftsmen of their day. So comprehensive is the collection now, that stylistic developments in England from the 16th to the 19th centuries can be studied in depth.

Of particular significance in the masterpiece of early neo-classicism in the library writing table made for Harewood House by Thomas Chippendale around 1771. Documented examples of Chippendale furniture, lent by the Chippendale Society, make Temple Newsam an essential place of pilgrimage for all those interested in the celebrated cabinet-maker’s work. There are miscellaneous items of clothing worn and objects used by family members and textiles relating to the furnishing of Temple Newsam. Archives and photographs relating to the archaeology and history of the house and family are also kept.

World Cultures

Leeds has over 12,000 items in its World Cultures collections, making it the largest centre for this collection focus in Yorkshire. Asia is best represented, particularly China and India, then Africa, followed by the Americas, Oceania and lastly Europe outside the UK. Star items include Chinese dragon robes, Japanese armour, a full-size Indian door and cart, Javanese shadow puppets, Tibetan skull cups, African masks and sculpture, a Marquesan club, early Woodlands moccasins, and Moche and Nazca pottery from Peru. There is a large handling collection of Plains American material bequeathed by friends of a local enthusiast and a good selection of masks, puppets and musical instruments world-wide.

During the last 60 years the collection has been enhanced with substantial loans from the University of Leeds and Rotherham, and the ‘rescue’ of the world collections from other English local authorities, with major transfers from Worthing and Hampshire. Now our focus has re-centred on representing the world links of residents of Leeds and Yorkshire, including the links that newer communities have with their countries of origin through our community history programme. The World collections are seen as important in forging cross-cultural links across a whole range of disciplines through such elements as music and masquerade, ceramics, costume and textiles and figure sculpture. There are many overlaps with Decorative Arts, Archaeology and the Social History collections.

Agricultural History

This collection is managed by the Parks Department of Leeds City Council, and therefore not part of the

Leeds Museums & Galleries Collections. It is worth mentioning here as the collection is located at Home Farm, Temple Newsam and is an area of collections that LM&G does not hold or collect.

The collection is predominantly based around agriculture, horticulture and estate management, but also includes domestic items associated with the working lives of the estate staff and their families. There is a reasonably large collection of horse-drawn transport, including private drive vehicles.

The date ranges from 1694 to 1968, from the building of the great barn to the end of the dairying operation, with few objects pre-dating the late 19th century.

Most of the objects have been collected from the Yorkshire area with a few from other northern counties.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: Not known

Licence: CC BY-NC

Leicester (now New Walk) Museum (& Art Gallery) was one of the first local authority museums to be opened under the 1846 Act of Parliament “For Encouraging the Establishment of Museums in Large Towns”. The founding collection was the gift of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, who since 1835 had gathered a range of items for reference and study. This was mainly made up of natural science specimens, but also included archaeology and items of antiquarian interest such as casts of official seals. In order to provide permanent public access to the collection, during the late 1840s the Society offered its collection of around 10,000 objects to Leicester Council in return for the Council agreeing to purchase and fit-out a former school building and run it jointly with the Society as a free museum. This opened in 1849.

The opening of the museum stimulated a wave of new donations and 22,000 items had been acquired by 1877. Over the subsequent decades, the collection continued to develop into new areas. This was encouraged and facilitated by both the physical expansion of the museum (including the development of new branch sites) and the development of new academic areas of interest.

The establishment of an art gallery, to complement the museum, was first suggested at a meeting of the School of Art Committee and Fine Art Section of the Leicester Literary & Philosophical Society in January 1880. An Art Gallery Committee was set up and well over E2,000 collected by 1881. A permanent gallery to show these works (using an extension of the museum built as a lecture hall) was opened in 1885.

While geology, botany, zoology, Egyptology, archaeology and (to a lesser extent) art were collected by the museum from 1849 onwards, science and industry and decorative arts were only recognised as separate disciplines in the 1950s and ’60s. By this time social history (including costume) had also emerged as a subject in its own right, although in Leicester it remained closely associated with archaeology until 1980.

The museum’s historical ethnography collections were largely disposed of after the Second World War as a decision was made to focus more on local and national collections. Some items, including an Egyptian mummy, went to Liverpool Museum which had suffered large losses to its ethnographic collections due to bombing raids during the War. However, this proved to be a short-sighted decision as mass immigration from the 1960s and ’70s made Leicester one of the most diverse cities in the country. The need to collect material that in some way reflected this diversity of heritage and geographic origin led to the establishment of what we now call World Cultures (i.e. art, craft, design and material culture from all around the World, particularly the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania) as a separate subject area from the late 1970s/earIy 1980s. This has raised important questions about traditional ways of defining collections which remain problematic and subject to continuing debate both within and without the service.

Archaeology and biology are the largest collections, comprising hundreds of thousands of items each, mainly collected through fieldwork and excavations. Until the 1990s the service included a Field Archaeology Unit (now part of the University of Leicester) and the County’s Biological Records Service. Industrial history is another substantial collection, reflecting a process of rapid economic change in the industrial landscape during the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

The collections have been developed through gifts, loans and purchases. Most items have been given, but some collections, especially art, have been built up with significant numbers of purchases. The City of Leicester Museums Trust supports Leicester Museums and Galleries through the purchase of items for the collections.

The Service went through a dramatic change in 1973/74 when, as a part of local government reorganisation, the city museums were incorporated into what became known as Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Records Service. From this time, defined collections policies began to be established.

In 1997 local government was reorganised again and Leicester became a Unitary Authority independent of the county. Three services were created from Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Records Service and the collections were reviewed to identify which authority should be responsible for which collection. The Determination of the Destination of Museum Collections report was approved by: Leicester City Council Arts and Leisure Committee (9 Nov 98), Leicestershire County Council Arts Libraries and Museums Committee (8 Jan 99) and Rutland County Council (18 Jan 99).

In essence, the collections division followed three principles:

Collections with strong provenance to either the city or county were allocated accordingly;

Some collections were allocated by theme i.e. standard gauge railways were made the responsibility of the county, with narrow gauge becoming part of the city collections. These allocations tended to follow the available curatorial expertise within each service at the time.

Existing displays were not dismantled and, in most cases, objects on display in one location but allocated to a different service were made loans.

In practice, the County transferred from the City items with greatest relevance to them, and for which the standard of cataloguing was sufficiently good for this to be judged. The City continued to hold the remaining (majority) of the collections. Since the original agreement and initial large-scale transfers, transfers of individual items or collections have continued, e.g. a number of items from the Snibston Discovery Museum were transferred to the city after the site’s closure by Leicestershire County Council in 2015.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Leicestershire County Council Museum collections were formed from the core collections of the Leicester Town (and later City) Museum and the Melton Mowbray Museum.

Leicester Museum developed from the middle of C19^th with the support of the Town and later (from 1922) City Council and the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. In the 1930s a Schools Loans collection was created as a significant part of Service delivery. In the 1940s some rationalisation of collections transferred material from the main collections to School Loans and also out of the service to other UK museums which had sustained losses due to war time bombing.

In 1974 the re-organisation of local government in Leicestershire created the Leicestershire County Council Museums, Arts & Records Service (LMARS) with responsibility for museums in Leicester, Leicestershire and the historic county of Rutland.

Between 1974 and 1997 LMARS developed collections based on curatorial specialisms of Fine Art, Archaeology, Social History, Biology, Geology, Science & Technology and Decorative Arts (including Costume, Ethnography and historic buildings and interiors). Museums reflecting these collections were developed in Leicester and local community museums were developed in Melton Mowbray, Market Harborough, Oakham and Donington-le-Heath Manor House. The County Record Office was responsible for archive collections.

Active collecting continued throughout this period and the collections grew in size and the curatorial departments increased in numbers of staff and focus of specialisation.

From 1983 a separate collection group was formed to reflect the new partnership arrangements that created the new Harborough Museum in Market Harborough. (The new museum collection was formed around the founding collection of the Market Harborough Historical Society ownership of which is retained by the Society).

In 1992 LMARS opened Snibston to showcase its coal mining and other Science and Technology collections.

In 1997 subsequent reform of local government in Leicestershire gave unitary status to Leicester City and to Rutland and effectively formed three museum services, one for each authority area.

In 1998 Charnwood Borough Council commissioned LMARS to co-create the Charnwood Museum in Loughborough using existing collections and curatorial knowledge. In 2007 the new Bosworth Battlefield Heritage centre was awarded Accredited Museum status with an associated collection of objects discovered through the process of landscape investigation to determine the actual site of the battle.

From 1999 the collections sharing agreement between Leicester City, Rutland and Leicestershire County Councils and the subsequent Acquisition and Disposal Policies of the three authorities have defined the collecting priorities and lead areas for the services.

In 1999 LMARS re-named its collecting areas on a thematic basis, re-forming the previous curatorial specialisms into commonly understood concepts of Natural Life, Home and Family Life, Working Life, Cultural Life and Sporting Life with Archaeology as a process driven collection that underpins all of the other themes.

The Harborough Museum Collection continues to be developed under its own collections title.

In 2014 Harborough Museum became part of a new culture hub on the first floor of the Symington Building as a result of a redevelopment project by Harborough District Council, Leicestershire County Council supported by the Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity.

In 2015 Leicestershire County Council took the decision to close Snibston Discovery.

Museum, objects on display were returned to their ‘home location’ storage spaces, (including stores within the Eastern Annexe of County Hall) returned to lenders or loaned to other museums and heritage bodies./p>

In 2016 Donington-le-Heath Manor House was transformed into The 1620s House and Garden, a curatorially-led project to re-interpret the house and its gardens in a more focussed way.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2021

Licence: CC BY-NC

Natural Life

Collections primarily of specimens and information which reflect the landscape, flora and fauna of the county. They demonstrate the changing natural environment of Leicestershire and its place in the rest of the world over time, comprising two main groups of botany and zoology. They include supporting archives about individual collectors, groups, societies and institutions that help tell the history and development of the study of natural science. These collections are linked to environmental information, species and site records (much in digital formats). They include type and voucher specimens, microscopy, a comprehensive historic and contemporary book collection, some comparative specimens for reference, educational and display purposes.

Botany Areas of Excellence:

• British non-flowering plants (lichens)
• British non-flowering plants (bryophytes)
• Records and personalia of significant Leicestershire naturalists and collectors (including Pulteney, Bloxham, Berkeley, Sowter, Ballard, Fletcher)
• Leicestershire flowering plants, ferns, slime moulds and algae.
• Collections of local natural history societies
• Botanical microscope slide collection

Zoology Areas of excellence:

• Important reference collections of Leicestershire (Leicester and Rutland) insects, from the 1800s to the present day and supporting reference collection of insects taken in the UK (England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales).

Archaeology

The archaeology collections provide evidence of human activity in what is now Leicestershire. They cover all periods of time from the prehistoric to the modern: some half a million years.

The collections include both finds and documentary archives resulting from excavations, fieldwalking, metal detecting and chance finds across the county.

The Finds Archive comprises a variety of archaeological materials, including human and animal remains.

The Documentary Archive comprises information relating to the discovery, recovery and conservation of, and research into, the finds, together with archaeological fieldwork archives and published reports.

The collections are supported by a library of selective reference works.

Areas of excellence:

• Lower Palaeolithic stone tools
• The Hallaton Treasure
• Coal mining before the Industrial Revolution
• The Bosworth Collection. The collection contains material traditionally associated with the battle as well as over 5000 artefacts collected during the Bosworth Battlefield Survey. Other material includes objects from an important Roman temple site.

Home and Family Life

The Home and Family Life collections reflect domestic life now and in the past. Alongside changes in domestic and personal technology the collections also record important aspects of family life including rites of passage, family structures and entertainment.

Objects including festivals and special occasions, games, toys, sporting equipment and the ephemera and objects related to things like shopping and holidays all fall within the collecting sphere of Home and Family Life.

The home is also an outlet for creative expression and objects associated with interior decoration, furnishings and home crafts are an important aspect of the collections.

Areas of excellence:

• The Palitoy toy company collection
• The Ladybird book collection
• The home craft collection of objects exploring historic female creativity in the home

Working Life

This collection reflects local trades and industries, partly through collections of tools and equipment, and increasingly through the acquisition of finished products and ephemera and images.

The collection has focussed on the work of traditional craftspeople such as the blacksmith, wheelwright, farmer and food producers and secondly on the commercial life of the County’s market towns in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The core of the collection is a representative selection of hand tools and products from the area’s traditional crafts, mainly dating from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. More recent collecting has concentrated on local businesses, mainly small and innovative concerns producing a unique local product.

The collections also include the larger manufacturing industries of the C19th and C20th and reflect the growth and decline of the industrial era and focus on Engineering, Transport and Travel, Mining and other Extractive Industries.

They represent the history of coal mining and the local mining communities. The story also draws on the Archaeology collections to tell the earliest story of coal mining with the nationally important collection of Tudor and later artefacts from the Lounge Opencast Sites.

The focus of the coal mining collections is a comprehensive set of artefacts used by Leicestershire miners in the 20^th century, many of which are directly associated with the collieries of the North West Leicestershire Coalfield.

Several Leicestershire-based businesses played an important role in transport technology; for example, Brush Electrical Engineering-built steam and diesel locomotives, tramcars, and bus bodies. Our collections include the only standardgauge Brush steam locomotive in existence.

Our collections also reflect Leicestershire’s contribution to aircraft design and production. They include five Auster aircraft and objects related to Sir Frank Whittle’s work at Power Jets Ltd which perfected Britain’s first jet engine at Lutterworth and the World’s first jet engine factory at Whetstone.

Leicestershire’s significant contribution to the development of tourism is reflected in objects which form part of the Thomas Cook Collection.

Working Life, Areas of Excellence:

• The Leicestershire Clock Collection made by local craftsmen in the period 1720 – 1820 including the Deacon Family clock making workshop from Barton in the Beans, with many original 18^th century tools and benches.
• Historic horse drawn vehicles including the Beaumanor Coach of 1740
• The Thomas Cook collection
• N.C.B. Era coal mining artefacts
• Leicestershire Aircraft design and manufacture
• Brush Electrical Engineering

Cultural Life

The cultural life collections reflect the artistic and cultural interests and aspirations of the people and institutions of the county in terms of Visual Art and Fashion. The collections are currently formed in two main parts: the Art Collection and the Fashion Collection.

The Art collection consists of works on paper and easel paintings which reflect the artist’s record of the changing landscape and built environment of the county; portraits of local people, their working and social lives and the traditional pursuits of local people particularly in the field of country sports.

The Fashion collections reflect fashionable and occupational dress of adult men and women from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present day.

Areas of excellence:

• Symington collection of corsetry, foundation-wear and swimwear
• NEXT archive and collection
• International Fashion Design
• The paintings and drawings of John Ferneley Snr and his family

Reflecting Leicestershire Life at our Market Town Museums

Leicestershire is a predominantly rural county with specialist centres of manufacturing, trade, learning, innovation and cultural and sporting activity. The overarching Leicestershire Life themes reflect the particular qualities of the story of Leicestershire including working on the land and earning a living from it as well as the villages, towns and industries that sprang from these activities.

Each Museum site reflects the particular nature of the areas and communities which they serve and these are in turn reflected in the focus of collecting through these sites.

Harborough Museum is a formal partnership with the Harborough District Council and the Market Harborough Historical Society, whose collection of local history items and antiquities is the foundation of the museum. Consideration is given to the collecting policies of other museums in this area including Lutterworth, Fleckney, Foxton, Hallaton, Desborough and Rothwell. Consideration is also given to the collecting policies of the Accredited museums in Northamptonshire.

The Harborough Collections reflect the history and development of the town and surrounding villages and include local manufacturers, retailers, farmers and food producers.

The collections also reflect local domestic and social life and record the contribution of local individuals.

Life in and around Market Harborough are reflected in three ways:

• through the (founding) collection of the Market Harborough Historical Society *
• the LCC Harborough Collection (denoted by the LEIMH (pre 1997) or M.H. accession prefix)
• objects from the area that are accessioned within the working life, natural life, home and family life, cultural life and archaeology collections

*The Market Harborough Historical Society has ownership of its own collection and appoints an Honorary Curator to liaise with collections teams to ensure its care and management.

The Harborough Museum collects material relating to the landscape and communities of Market Harborough and the parishes in its surrounding area

Melton Carnegie Museum exhibits the changing nature of rural Leicestershire and the relationship of the countryside with the market town. It reflects recent and current agriculture, local food production (particularly Stilton cheese making and Pork Pie production) animal husbandry and countryside management generally.

The changing lives of the area’s geographic and cultural communities from the earliest times to the present are also told within the galleries and enhanced through specific collecting and recording projects. The Museum leads on the collecting and recording of material associated with fox hunting and its related trades, crafts, and roles and its social and cultural life in partnership with the Museum of Hunting Trust.

Charnwood Museum is a partnership with Charnwood Borough Council and reflects the communities, working life and natural life of the area. The objects relating to the area are drawn out of the established collecting themes but have particular strengths in Archaeology, Working Life, Home and Family Life and Natural Life.

The Collections also reflect life in the town of Loughborough including its changing communities and their faiths, its principal industries and the University.

Heritage Sites and Landscapes

The 1620s House and Garden at Donington le Heath is a late Medieval manor house with Tudor and early Stuart additions. The contents of the building are a mixture of accessioned, un-accessioned historic and replica objects which tell the story of the lifestyle of the people who lived there during the early C17th.

Bosworth Battlefield interprets the landscape and events of the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses on 22^nd August 1485; the end to the Plantagenet dynasty and the beginning of the Tudor period.

The Hunting Collection

Because of Melton’s unique position both as a centre for fox-hunting and as a pivotal location in the evolution of fox-hunting as an organised sport, special consideration needs to be afforded to the scope and content of the hunting collections which are developed in association with the Museum of Hunting Trust. The Museum of Hunting Trust came into being in 1989 however, Leicester and Leicestershire Museums had been collecting material relating to local fox hunting almost from its founding in the 1840s. All the objects which relate to the history of fox hunting are accessioned items in the County Council’s collections.

The hunting collections reflect the aspirations of the Museum of Hunting Trust by covering, at a representative level only, the broad scope of hunting and its opposition in the UK. This provides a national context against which the more detailed local collections can be set.

These are specific to the ‘Leicestershire’ hunts (which straddle the county boundary) and represent all facets of the sport, its social milieu and its impact on the landscape of Leicestershire and its neighbouring counties.

The objectives of the hunting collection are to gather a body of material evidence which demonstrates:

• The role hunting has played in Leicestershire society and economic history, particularly in the Melton area; the families that spent the season there and the celebrities they entertained.
• How the hunt is organised, the hunt year and its established pattern of activities, the Leicestershire hunts, their territories, traditions and trophies.
• The hunting landscape, shaped to support fox populations and the chase, with traditional patterns of hedges, ditches and coverts, hunting lodges, country houses and estates.
• The rural crafts and trades which are closely associated with hunting and equestrianism generally, for example saddlers, boot makers, farriers, grooms, victuallers, inn keepers, tailors, photographers and equestrian artists.
• Hunting people themselves and how fox hunting impacted on their lives, hunting family histories, the hunt employees and hunt followers.
• Anti-hunting groups and the people who support them, their beliefs and commitments, and the information they produce.
• Hunting dress, from field clothes and liveries to hunt balls and hunt followers.

It is important for this collection to be set in a wider, national context. To this end, collecting objects and information relating to different forms of hunting practised elsewhere in the UK is included in the remit.

This is for illustrative purposes only, to provide a synoptic view of hunting nationally, not to acquire in great detail further study collections from beyond the ‘county’ hunt boundaries.

The Museum of Hunting Trust will support collecting in these areas and will facilitate the acquisition of key items which will develop the national identity of the collections. These acquisitions will become part of the county council collections.

The ‘Reserve’ Collection

The ‘Reserve’ is a collection of original historic objects originally established for use as ‘handling’ and loan material during the 1930s and has been continuously added to since then. It originated from the ‘Leicestershire Museum Education Service’ whose remit was broader than that of the County. It is now used to support displays, exhibitions and loan requests.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2021

Licence: CC BY-NC

The City of Dundee’s collections number some 150,000 objects and span fine and decorative art, archaeology, world cultures, history and natural history. These objects reflect the story of Dundee and its hinterland, and the City’s role in the rich history of Scottish art.

In 1824, Dundee’s Watt Institute, a museum and library, was formed. Original inventories of the collections do not survive, but we do know that it contained Arctic fauna and ethnographical objects. The Watt Institute collections of history, natural history and world cultures were acquired by the City in 1869 and moved into the newly established Albert Institute. The building was first extended in 1873 and by this date a small fine art collection had been established.

Between 1877 and 1891 The Albert Institute became the venue for Dundee’s hugely successful Fine Art Exhibitions, in their day described as second only to those held in Paris. Purchases from these selling exhibitions enabled the fine art collection to grow. Such was the success of these exhibitions that a third museum extension was required. Completed in 1889, this created the suite of four ground floor museum rooms and four first floor art galleries that still form the core of The McManus displays today.

Some of the earliest recorded donations, were given by Henry S Cox, of Cox Bros (Calcutta), one of the largest jute firms in Dundee. Material by Dr Peter Rattray, who followed in the footsteps of Mary Slessor, represents the single biggest donation of African material to Dundee. T W Miln and George Duncan MP were the first of a series of enthusiastic local art collectors to bequeath artworks.

The addition of the Victoria Galleries to the Albert Institute in 1888 allowed the museum exhibits to expand and in 1890 the South Room was redesigned as an Art Museum to show casts of Classical and Renaissance sculpture, which later expanded to Scottish work such as Pictish crosses. A grant from the Science & Art Department at South Kensington, now the V&A, London, covered half the cost. In 1911 the opening of the Central Reading Rooms on Barrack Street, now The Collections Unit, gave room for the collection to expand to over 100 pieces.

By 1895, the collections had grown so extensive that the Albert Institute and Victoria Galleries were over-crowded. The former Dudhope Barracks opened as a new Technical Museum on the 23rd July 1900. With model machinery, ship models, natural history, including the Arctic fauna and ethnography, its central feature was the Boulton-Watt engine, built in 1785. Despite its popularity, at the outbreak of WW1 the Barracks reverted to military ownership. Dudhope Museum closed in 1949 and the collections returned to Albert Square.

By the early years of the 20th century, The Albert Institute was home to Egyptian displays presented by Sir James Caird. Natural history exhibits included sponges and corals, fish, reptiles and birds. Large African big game, fossils and minerals, were contrasted with the skeleton of the Tay Whale and Arctic and Antarctic specimens, including some collected by Sir Ernest Shackelton during his Antarctic Expedition of 1914.

Throughout the 20th century the collection grew, through gifts, bequests and acquisitions secured by a growing specialist curatorial team. Barrack Street Museum focussed on the display of the natural history collections augmented by a series of popular touring and themed exhibitions in the Art and Nature gallery. The Barrack Street Museum closed in 1994, and reopened in 2005 as The Collections Unit, the main store for the City’s collections.

Broughty Castle Museum opened in 1969 with displays focussed on the whaling and military collections. Today displays explore the history of Broughty Ferry, Natural Science, Military and a dedicated gallery to The Orchar Collection.

In 1978, the Library was moved to new premises in the nearby Wellgate, and the museum interiors were modernized. In 1984, the Albert Institute with its dynamic early history displays was renamed The McManus Galleries, in honour of Lord Provost Maurice McManus. In 1989, to celebrate the transfer of the entire Orchar Collection to Dundee City Council, the busy hang of a red-walled Victorian gallery was recreated instantly becoming one of the most admired galleries in the building. Despite the building showing its age, a dynamic programme of exhibitions and displays contributed to the McManus Galleries being voted Dundee’s best loved building in 2000.

During this period, art acquisitions began to be made in partnership with external agencies including the Scottish Arts Council and the Lottery funded National Collecting Scheme for Scotland. In 2008, as part of its major redevelopment (2005-10), the building was renamed The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum.

Today, three of Dundee’s collections are Recognised as being of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government; the entire Fine Art Collection, Decorative Art Collection and Whaling Collection.

Leisure & Culture Dundee, on behalf of Dundee City Council, manages Mills Observatory, The Old Steeple, The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum and runs Broughty Castle Museum (in a partnership with Historic Environment Scotland who own the building and are responsible for the site).

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Whaling and Fine and Decorative Arts Collections are Recognised as being of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. Within the wider collections there are individual objects of local, national and international significance.

The museum collections sit within the broader context of collections owned by Dundee City Council, including Local History collections managed by Leisure & Culture Dundee Library Services, Archives managed by Dundee City Council and artwork and civic regalia in active use that does not form part of the accessioned museum collections and is administered by City Chambers.

ARCHAEOLOGY

The Archaeology Collection numbers over 8,200 objects relating to Regional and Foreign Archaeology.

Regional Archaeology

There are 6,360 objects in the Regional Archaeology Collection which includes objects and archives discovered by controlled archaeological excavation or chance finds. Up until the redrawing of regional boundaries in 1996, finds were collected from not only within Dundee but its surrounding area, including Tayside (which included Dundee City, Perth & Kinross and Angus) and Fife. Since 1996 the collecting area is restricted by the boundaries of Dundee City and finds are allocated via the Treasure Trove system. The museum is registered as a museum of last resort and can make a case to acquire unallocated finds from elsewhere.

The collections reflect the pre-history and history of Tayside with finds assemblages from important archaeological investigations such as the Mesolithic site at Morton, the Pictish Lundin Links long cist cemetery, both in Fife, alongside medieval urban sites in Dundee and the remains of industries that thrived in living memory. The archaeology of Dundee is evidence that the City’s position on the Tay Estuary has proved attractive for millennia and that the exchange of goods and ideas has always been important to the areas’ inhabitants. The collection also includes a modest number of finds from England.

Formerly the museum had its own Archaeology Field Unit which conducted its own excavations as well as aiding excavations in Dundee, Tayside and Fife. Currently Dundee City only has archaeological input in reference to planning applications.

The collections are organised under the following categories:

• Mesolithic

• Neolithic

• Bronze Age

• Iron Age

• Roman

• Pictish

• Medieval

• Post Medieval

The collection contains material that is important locally and nationally.

The museum is the chief depository for the archaeological finds from Morton and the accompanying excavation reports.

The Roman material from Severn fortress of Carpow is the most extensive outside the National Museum of Scotland and is of great interest to scholars of the Romans in Scotland. Included in this assemblage is a piece of scale armour, lorica squamata.

The Regional archaeological collection also contains one of only two log boats to have survived excavation from the Tay. It dates from 485AD and has been identified as being dug out from a single log oak. The human remains from Lundin Links are a rare surviving example of people from the Pictish era.

Foreign Archaeology

The Foreign Archaeology Collection is defined as objects discovered in an archaeological context outwith Great Britain. It contains more than 1,900 objects, with examples from Ancient Egypt, Europe and the Americas.

The Egyptology Collection largely stems from the museum’s early involvement with the Egypt Exploration Fund (now Society). It contains examples from important sites such as El Amarna, Abydos and Deir el-Bahri and ranging in time from Predynastic to Roman Egypt. The most notable is a portrait of Princess Neferurē (from Deir el-Bahri, Egypt). Also included is Egyptian material donated by Sir James Caird. Acquired through subscribing to the Egypt Exploration Fund is a stone sarcophagus for the priest Hor-em-heb, son of the priest Pa-Hor. The Egyptology Collection has been subject to a collections review by National Museums Scotland which is published on their website.

The collection also includes 10 Greek Vases of exceptional quality.

WORLD CULTURES

The World Cultures Collection consists of 5,000 items from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. The greater part is African, predominantly from Nigeria, Zaire, Uganda and South Africa. The Americas Collection is predominantly Inuit with links to the Recognised Whaling Collection. The collection includes material collected by Dr Thomas Alexander Wise which was originally donated to the University of Dundee and transferred to Dundee City Council in 1993. Dr Wise was the first collector to bring Tibetan material to Scotland.

NUMISMATICS

The Numismatics Collection consists of circa 13,000 objects relating to Dundee, Scotland, Britain and Europe, the Classical World, and other countries around the world. Examples include coins, banknotes, trade tokens, communion tokens and medals. The ‘Paton Gloag Collection’ is of particular note and is believed to be of national importance. Also of significance are the coins of Robert II minted in Dundee, and Scottish and English gold coins.

Also included is the A Cairncross bequest, a collection of more than 700 mostly Chinese coins that date from the Qin Dynasty (201-206BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).

Recently an updated version of Scottish Banknotes was published which included a number of our Dundee banknotes. Of interest within the collection of banknotes is a large number of German Notgeld.

HISTORY

This encompasses a huge area of the collection and one that is continually added to, historically categorised as community life, costume, domestic life, military, personal life, photography, transport and working life, the collection currently consists of over 52,000 objects. It is curated in the following broad categories and will be re-categorised to fit these themes:

Community Life

The collections currently consist of over 4,000 objects relating to the communities of Dundee and its surrounding areas. The collection is defined as objects representing groups of people or shared between a group. Examples include sport, leisure, education, law and order, local governance, music and religion. Also included are specific groups, such as women’s groups, fraternal and friendly societies and anything related to the LGBTQ+ community. There are natural crossovers with Working Life themes, including politics, shopping, business and retail.

Of particular note is the diversity in the Sport collections. Recent, large donations have seen a growth in collections representing curling, boxing, bowling and golf.

Costume

This is a collection of over 5,000 items covering mainly female clothing, with men’s and children’s also represented. Highlights include Dundee-made Victorian dresses, an ever-growing collection relating to one of Dundee’s popular department stores Draffens, as well as a number of William Chalmers & Son shoes.

Domestic Life

This area currently holds about 1,000 objects relating to or used in the home or household, which includes soft furnishings, furniture (including musical instruments and clocks), tableware retailed by Dundee businesses, and toys and games. There is a natural crossover here with Working Life and Dundee-made furniture.

Of particular note is the Southwell Piano, thought to be unique in its design, a handmade ironing board from 1941 and a handmade quilt made by a named Dundee jute worker in the 1930s/40s.

Personal life

This is a collection of over 2,000 objects specifically relating to one person as opposed to a group of people and kept for private use rather than being used in a domestic setting. Examples include accessories, jewellery and personal care items. Also included are textile samples and swatches. Some archival material would also fall under this category in the form of personal cards and letters.

Also included anything linked to well-known Dundee individuals such as Mary Slessor, Robert Annan, Admiral Duncan, the Dundee Worthies, Mary Brooksbank, etc. Visits to Dundee from known figures would also fall into this category such as Buffalo Bill or Paul Robeson’s visit, or a band on a tour.

Military

Included in this collection area are over 2,000 items covering all military conflict as well as objects representing the Home Front. Collections relating to the Jacobites also fall under this heading, as well as collections relating to Broughty Castle and its military occupation. There is a crossover here with Working Life and Dundee made pistols.

Objects of note include the Jacobite banner, the scrap of tartan from Bonnie Prince Charlie’s kilt, the World War I chocolate nurse, Winkie and her Dickin medal, and the Carr Archive – an autograph book, photographs and postcards belonging to the Dundee Conscientious Objector Ewan Geddes Carr during World War I.

Working Life

The collections currently consist of over 9,000 objects that relate to the working life of Dundee and activities which are undertaken for commercial purposes. Examples include the Nine Trades, Trade Unions, textile industries, whaling, publishing and printing, food manufacture and transport.

The Whaling Collection is Recognised as being of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government

The material relating to Dundee’s whaling past and general polar exploration overlaps with the Inuit ethnographic material. In view of the small amount of material surviving, this collection constitutes a major British collection of international importance. A number of Natural History specimens were collected by the Dundee Whalers and are also considered part of the Recognised collection.

The shipping collection is a significant collection representing the City’s close connection to the sea. It is of great importance locally, regionally and in some areas nationally. Substantial research has been carried out into this collection.

Historically, industry was central to the life of Dundee. A working-class City, Dundee’s industries have shaped the development of the City and its people. The industry collection reflects the changing industrial landscape of the City, the development of new industries and their connection with the past, for instance big companies that came to Dundee attracted by the skills of the available workforce.

The Timex Collection is significant both locally and nationally, placing Dundee’s industrial heritage in a wider context. It reflects the productivity and success of the company in the City, as well as the strikes and final closure. Work will continue to improve documentation and knowledge of this collection working with former Timex employees. LACD is the main collection holder for Timex material in the City.

LACD is aware of other organisations within the City whose collections sit alongside and overlap with the themes above, especially the collections held by Dundee Heritage Trust – the jute collection at Scotland’s Jute Museum at Verdant Works and those of polar exploration held at Discovery Point.

Transport

The collections currently consist of over 2,000 objects relating to how people in Dundee travelled both locally and further afield, including the development of travel for ordinary people as it became quicker and easier.

Material relating to the transportation of goods to and from Dundee and the development of trading links using sea, rail, air and road. Significantly Dundee had some of Scotland’s first railways transporting goods and people, for example The Newtyle Railway opened in 1831. There is an overlap here with other History collection areas, including Working Life, Photography and Personal Life.

Of significance is the 1879 Tay Bridge Disaster collection including souvenir memorabilia, photographs, wreckage from the bridge (girders) and train (doors from the carriages) as well as commemorative material.

LACD is aware of other organisations within the City whose collections sit alongside and overlap with the themes above, especially the collections held by Dundee Museum of Transport.

Photography

This collection is separate from the Fine Art Photography collection and encompasses a range of media numbering about 20,000 items including lantern slides, glass negatives, albums, plastic negatives, 35 mm film (black & white and colour), photographic prints (from 19th century to present day, black & white and colour) and postcards.

The collection includes images of whaling and polar exploration, studio photographs, material relating to local industries and businesses, and images of notable Dundee sitters. Items of note include images of Dundee’s Whaling industry, images of Buffalo Bill’s visit to Dundee, 1904 and recently the purchase of a set of previously unpublished negatives from The Beatles 1964 concert at Dundee’s Caird Hall.

There is a natural crossover here with collections held at Dundee City Archives and the Local History Centre (Dundee Central Library), all part of Dundee City Council collections but not museum collection.

Oral History

Until 2004, the Oral History Collection consisted of a collection of cassette recordings. In 2004 oral history began to be pursued in a more strategic way, partly to include oral history in the McManus Galleries Who We Are redevelopment project, specifically The Making of Modern Dundee gallery.

We have a significant collection of Timex oral history recordings, recorded at the time of the strikes, which are currently inaccessible. These unique recordings on reel-to-reel tapes and compact cassettes need to be digitised and transcribed. The material has not been touched since originally recorded and used for the 1996 play On The Line at Dundee Rep. In addition, the permissions alongside this material need to be reviewed and brought in line with current documentation standards.

The Oral History Collection sits within a broader context of sound heritage cared for across collections in the City.

NATURAL SCIENCES (NATURAL HISTORY) COLLECTION

The collection consists of at least 46,000 specimens in four major categories; geology, invertebrates, plants and vertebrates. This is the percentage of each major part of the Natural Sciences Collection: Botany 23%, Invertebrates 38%, Vertebrates 24%, Geology 15%.

Vertebrates

Reptiles and Amphibians

This is a small collection of mounted specimens (mostly crocodilians, turtles, lizards, snakes, frogs and toads), display casts, skeletal remains and spirit preserved specimens. There are currently less than 200 reptiles and amphibians in the collection.

Fish

This collection, which is of regional significance, contains over 500 wet preserved specimens and display mounts of historical interest. Noteworthy specimens include a large Atlantic Sailfish cast, the last and largest Atlantic Sturgeon caught in the River Tay (1888) and a collection of 14 Sawfish snouts. There is a small but regionally important collection collected from the Carolina Port Power station in the 1970s.

Birds

The collection consists of mounted specimens (a few in original display cases), study skins, various body parts (i.e. wings, legs), osteology (skulls, skeletons and bones) and eggs. There are 6,795 bird specimens within the collection, this number will increase as individual bones will eventually get an individual accession number rather than the whole skeleton being accessioned under one number. There are no plans for active collecting of (pre-protection) nests and eggs.

Mounts – This collection contains over 930 specimens. Most are of British origin, although there are a small number of foreign specimens from localities such as Australasia and Antarctica (including some important non-native historical material collected by Sir Ernest Shackleton. About two thirds are recent, the remaining third being 19th-century specimens.) Over 90 specimens are from the Dundee Naturalists’ Society. Important non-native specimens were highlighted in Dr Sue Beardmore’s report on Priorities for Future Support and Development of Natural Science Collections in Scottish Museums, NMS Ellerman foundation.

Study Skins – This collection which is of regional significance contains over 2,200 specimens. It includes historical material from JFT, Nisbet and JT Boase. Most of the specimens are of Scottish origin and have full data. The small foreign component includes specimens from North and South America, Africa and Australasia.

Nests – This small collection is comprised mainly from donations made in the 19th century. Most of the common British species are represented. There are 143 bird nests listed on EMu. Further documentation is needed for this part of the collection.

Eggs – This is a large collection of circa 7,000 eggs, and many have inadequate data. Although the vast majority are probably of British origin there is also a significant amount of European and American material. Further documentation is needed for this part of the collection. Numerous important specimens were highlighted in Dr Sue Beardmore’s report on Priorities for Future Support and Development of Natural Science Collections in Scottish Museums, NMS Ellerman foundation.

Osteology – Mostly skulls, sacra and sterna of British birds with a handful of exotic bird skulls. The collection is complemented by a few complete skeletons. There are currently over 950 bird bones and skulls on EMu and this figure will increase when individual bones from whole skeletons get full records. Highlights include an impressive Eurasian Black Vulture skull from the Dundee Naturalists’ Society. Noted collections and specimens were highlighted in Dr Sue Beardmore’s report on Priorities for Future Support and Development of Natural Science Collections in Scottish Museums, NMS Ellerman foundation.

Mammals

Mounts – This collection contains over 260 listed specimens on EMu. Most are recent and are of Scottish origin, although a few foreign localities ranging from the Arctic to Australasia are also represented. The majority of the non-native specimens are from the historic collection before WW2 and include specimens of a lion (shot by Sir Thomas Dewar), Australian marsupials, various trophy heads i.e. leopard, kudu and moose. A polar bear from the Dundee Whalers is currently on loan and is displayed in the Hull Maritime Museum.

Study Skins – This collection which is of regional significance contains over 370 specimens. Although a few older foreign specimens are present, the vast majority is of recent Scottish material.

Osteology – This collection contains about 890 specimens listed on EMu, with just over half of this list being skulls, however, the number of bones (besides skulls) is set to greatly increase as individual bones from skeletons get individual EMu records. The number of documented osteology specimens has tripled since the previous policy 5 years ago thanks to retrospective documentation and is set to greatly increase further. It does however include the largest and most spectacular Natural History specimen – the Tay Whale skeleton (a sub-adult male Humpback Whale). Other large specimens include the skulls of an Asian Elephant, a hippopotamus, big cats, several walruses and dolphins. Numerous important specimens were highlighted in Dr Sue Beardmore’s report on Priorities for Future Support and Development of Natural Science Collections in Scottish Museums, NMS Ellerman foundation.

Microscopic slides – About 450 mammalian specimens on microscopic slides including many human pathology samples. Most have little data and some are from commercial sources.

The short and long-term priorities are the continued documentation and storage improvements of the Natural Sciences Collection. New acquisitions will be made as appropriate.

Invertebrates

Insects

This collection includes approximately 35,000 pinned specimens and is of regional importance. More than two thirds are well-documented, 20th century specimens of Scottish origin. The strongest groups are Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Coleoptera (beetles) and Diptera (flies). There are also a number of fluid-preserved specimens of aquatic species such as mayflies, stoneflies and caddis flies.

However, most of the entomology collections require cataloguing to individual specimen level and rehousing. The collections are documented and stored using widely accepted taxonomic classifications.

Molluscs

This collection contains about 5,000 specimens of shells and includes a substantial proportion of foreign material, mostly tropical seashells with little accompanying data. Among the British material, parts of southern England are currently better represented than Scotland.

The Derek Robertson Mollusc Collection of 622 specimens has scientific data and was collected around the British Isles.

There are 267 specimens collected by museum staff with scientific data, mostly from the Tay and 363 specimens donated by the Dundee Naturalists Society.

Other Invertebrates

This collection contains about 1,000 mainly fluid-preserved specimens covering Scottish marine, freshwater and terrestrial groups.

There are circa 2,000 Arachnids, mostly collected by museum staff during surveys in the 20th century.

Microscopic slides

This is a small collection of roughly 300 microscope slides of invertebrates, including 170 Lepidoptera.

The short and long-term priorities are the continued documentation and storage improvements of the Natural Sciences Collection. New acquisitions will be made as appropriate.

Botany

Algae

This collection contains fewer than 1,000 specimens from the 19th-century which need further documentation, mainly from southern England but including some Scottish material. The foreign material includes some 200 specimens from the Southern Hemisphere apparently collected in the 1860s.

Bryophytes

This collection contains about 3,500 specimens, mainly of British origin. It includes the 19th-century Scottish collection of G Forbes (800 specimens) and a small proportion of 19th-century foreign material of worldwide origin. The only modern specimens are contained in 250 packets collected from Angus and Perthshire.

Lichens

This collection contains about 3,000 herbarium packets. Most are well documented, modern Scottish specimens and comprise one of the most important 20th-century lichen collections in Scotland.

Although not part of the City’s collection, the Collections Unit hosts the collection of the British Lichen Society (BLS) which has an estimated collection of 8,000 specimens. This collection includes several thousand lichen specimens and is a lending collection administered by a BLS honorary curator. This collection is not covered by the Collections Development Policy and few new specimens are added to the BLS collection each year.

Vascular Plants

Herbarium – This collection contains about 9,500 pressed herbarium sheets. Included is the UK Duncan collection with some 2,200 voucher specimens for the “Flora of Angus” and 563 for the “Flora of East Ross-shire”; both of regional importance. Approximately 1,500 pressed herbarium sheets were donated from the Dundee Naturalists’ Society. The number of herbarium sheets listed on EMu has been steadily increasing thanks to an ongoing documentation audit of the herbarium.

Microscope slides – About 250 botanical slides of specimens donated and some from commercial sources, mostly of British origin.

Other botanical specimens include a small collection of economic botany (timber), seeds, cones and exotic ferns from New Zealand.

This collection is predominantly used for research, rather than display. The short and long-term priority is to continue to document the pressed herbarium sheets and to rehouse them in new purpose-made herbarium boxes.

Fungi

There is a small mycology collection of just under 100 specimens which consists mostly of dried fungi. More documentation is needed on this part of the collection.

Geology

Rocks

This collection contains 1,000 specimens, mainly of Scottish origin. Local rock types are reasonably represented but the collection lacks adequate non-local material for comparative purposes.

Minerals

This collection of approximately 1,700 specimens contains a significant amount of foreign material.

There is an important collection of agates, a semiprecious stone associated with volcanic rocks. They feature in the Landscapes and Lives gallery and the collection contains many fine examples of agates found locally and across Scotland. They account for 57% of the mineral collection.

Fossils

This collection contains 2,500 specimens, many of historical and scientific importance including material of national significance. Although local fossils are reasonably well represented, the number of specimens from other parts of Britain is inadequate for comparative purposes.

There is a small collection of graptolites, mostly from the Moffat shale group from the important site at Dob’s Linn, Dumfries and Galloway.

Also included are important Devonian period fossils collected locally (mainly from quarries), with examples from Balruddery Den, Dura Den, and the Turin Hill and Carmyllie area quarries. There is scope for collaborating with other organisations with similar regional material i.e. National Museums Scotland, Montrose, and Perth Museum.

There are complementary Devonian specimens from other important Scottish localities, many of them now legally protected, such as Achanarras, Caithness, Tynet Burn, Orkney.

Numerous important specimens were highlighted in Dr Sue Beardmore’s report on Priorities for Future Support and Development of Natural Science Collections in Scottish Museums, NMS Ellerman foundation.

The Kinnaird Collection of almost 1,000 specimens from Lord Kinnaird of Rossie Priory is a collection highlight and contains notable fossil fish and eurypterid specimens from Balruddery Den. The collection was originally arranged by geologist Sir Charles Lyell of Kinnordy.

FINE ART

Established in 1874, the City’s permanent Fine Art Collection comprises 8,000 items and spans four centuries of production by artists working in Britain and Europe. At its core is a fine collection of nineteenth and twentieth century Scottish painting which has formed the basis of our active collecting over the last forty years. The Fine Art Collection is Recognised as being of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

From its inception until the 1960s, the art collection was built primarily through donations and bequests. During the 1960s a small acquisitions fund was established, and curators were able to actively collect by purchasing work for the first time. It was believed that with the exception of three major gifts, the transfer of the entire Orchar Collection in 1987, the successful bid for some 70 works from the Scottish Arts Council bequest in 1997 and the gift of the photographic series ‘Hawkhill: Death of a Living Community’ in 2002, the ability to strategically build the collection through donations or bequests had ceased. In the last few years, this has reversed with several artists considering their longer-term legacy and seeking to place key works in the collection – notable here is the work of the Neil Dallas Brown and William Littlejohn Estates to distribute material held in the artists’ studio more widely amongst permanent collections across Scotland. Also significant is the gift of ‘The Antarctic Suite’ as a living bequest by Frances Walker, paintings which she considers the finest work of her career.

Over the last decade, key works have been acquired which provide contemporary context for the wider collection and history of Dundee. The Antarctic Suite is a good example of this, augmenting the fine art collection but also amplifying themes contained in the history and natural history collections based on Dundee long history of Antarctic exploration. Similarly, the Outset Scotland gift of work by Corin Sworn provides context for the world cultures collections and has been shown as an intervention within our permanent gallery displays. Viewing the permanent collections through a different lens has enhanced visitor experience and we will continue to develop this approach through active acquisition.

Active collecting, through purchase and where possible carefully selected gifts, is the only method by which the collection can be seriously developed. With no annual acquisition funds, the ability to secure grant aid from government, charitable and private sources is a key determinant in pursuing and securing major acquisitions.

European Oils, Watercolours and Drawings up to the 20th Century

A small collection, including work by Italian and Dutch ‘Old Masters’, mostly from

19th-century donors and one 20th-century collector, William Shiell.

Key artists include:

• Abraham van Beyeren

• Pompeo Batoni

• Louis de Boullogne

• Eugene-Louis Boudin

• Giovanni Battista Caracciolo

• Emilian School

• Jacob Maris

• Henri Fantin-Latour

English Oils, Watercolours and Drawings up to 1950

The English Collection is a fine and valuable one with works regularly selected for loan. As the collection was being established, the Fine Art Committee focussed acquiring work by artists associated with the Royal Academy. Therefore, many Royal Academicians are represented often by works featured in the annual RA Summer exhibitions.

Key artists include:

• Frank Brangwyn (a collection of some 250 works including 16 oil paintings)

• Edward Burra

• David Cox (60 pencil drawings)

• Laura Knight

• Edwin Landseer

• Alfred Munnings

• John Nash

• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, represented by Dante’s Dream, believed to be the finest Pre-Raphaelite work in a Scottish public collection

• Walter Sickert

• Stanley Spencer, including a piece from his important Resurrection series

• JMW Turner

English Oils, Watercolours and Drawings from 1950 to Present Day

This is a small group deriving in part from historic donations by the War Artists Advisory Committee and our ongoing partnership with the Contemporary Art Society. It includes work by:

• Edward Bawden

• David Bomberg

• Edward Burra

• Mark Gertler

• Alan Ronald

• Graham Sutherland

Scottish Oils, Watercolours and Drawings from circa 1650 to 1950

Dundee City has one of the best collections of Scottish paintings in the country. This includes outstanding single works; the Orchar Collection – the only nineteenth-century Dundee private art collections to survive in its entirety; and the best collection of work by artists of the Scott Lauder Group. The 20th-century collection has been confirmed as a nationally significant Scottish collection by the National Galleries of Scotland. Artists with a strong local connection feature prominently.

The Scottish collection is complemented by a significant group of local interest paintings including portraits of local worthies, Provostal portraits by nationally significant artists, topography and a large collection of maritime paintings. Much of this was collected by AC Lamb, whose wider collection forms the backbone of Dundee’s Local History Centre collection.

Key artists include:

• Alexander Carse, represented by The Village Ba’ Game, known to be one of the earliest representations of a football match in the world

• Stanley Cursiter, represented by a rare early work inspired by Italian Futurism

• John Duncan

• George Dutch Davidson

• Willian McCance

• William McTaggart

• John Maclauchlan Milne

• James McIntosh Patrick

• Sir Henry Raeburn, including a portrait of George Paterson, an important local sitter

• Allan Ramsay

• Katherine Read, represented by her finest work in a public collection

• Robert Scott Lauder & his pupils

• Glasgow Boys

• Scottish Colourists

Scottish Oils, Watercolours and Drawings from 1950 to Present Day

From the outset, the art collection has been a contemporary one built through presentations and bequests of work by living artists from Dundee’s prosperous 19th- century business community and an active collecting policy focused on contemporary Scottish work from the 1960s onwards.

This collection focusses primarily on acquiring work by artists who live or work in Scotland. Work by artists who have a particular connection with Dundee has always been purchased. Additions from the Scottish Arts Council bequest significantly improved this collection.

Key artists include:

• Elizabeth Blackadder

• John Bellany

• Steven Campbell

• Graham Fagen

• Callum Innes

• Eduardo Paolozzi

• David McClure

• Will McLean

• Alberto Morrocco

• Graeme Todd

• Robert Orchardson

Artist’s Prints

The collection of some 900 prints, particularly strong in early 20th-century British, ranges from Daniell aquatints to prints by French post-impressionists Degas, Vuillard and Chagall. There is an important collection of etchings and drypoints by JM Whistler that are part of the Orchar Collection.

Dundee is fortunate to have long had a dedicated print studio. The collection reflects this history, based first at Forebank, subsequently at Dundee Printmakers Workshop on the Seagate and now at DCA. Dundee City’s important collection is complemented by a major collection of 20th-century Scottish prints and a significant collection of Artist Books held by the University of Dundee.

Fine Art Photography

This is separate from the History photographic collections. Dundee was the first City to collect fine art photography purchasing two photographs by Thomas Joshua Cooper in 1985. This brave championing of artist photography at an early stage in its development has resulted in a fine collection representing many of the key Scottish-based photographers of the late 20th century. The range and quality of the collection was significantly improved with the acquisition of work through the Scottish Arts Council bequest.

The collection includes the largest body of work by Joseph McKenzie in a public collection. All vintage prints, made by the photographer himself, ‘Dundee: City in Transition, 1964-66′ was acquired in 1990 and ‘Hawkhill: Death of a Living Community, 1965-86’ acquired in 2002.

Since the fine art photography collection was established, photography has become mainstream and is now viewed as a legitimate medium in its own right. This has resulted in a subtle shift in focus from the collection of work by fine art photographers to include the acquisition of work by artists who work with photography.

Sculpture

The collections consist of about sixty pieces of sculpture, ranging from 19th-century marble portrait busts to contemporary bronzes. David Batchelor’s site-specific piece Waldella, Dundee is now synonymous with The McManus, and has become a key place-marker used to promote contemporary Dundee.

Key sculptors are:

• Benno Schotz

• William Turnbull

• Eduardo Paolozzi

• Gavin Scobie

• Gareth Fisher

• David Batchelor

New Media

The Fine Art Collection has been built up over 150 years through acquisitions of work in the traditional fine art media of paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. The contemporary art world no longer recognises these distinctions and increasingly boundaries are becoming blurred as the hierarchy associated with traditional media has been abandoned. Many artists work in a variety of media, rather than being associated with one. Artists also have a host of new technologies available to them.

Through externally funded acquisition projects, we have reflected this by building a small but important collection of works in new media.

This includes video artworks by:

• Roddy Buchanan

• Duncan Marquiss

• Andy Wake

• Pernille Spence

• Matt Stokes

Contemporary International Collecting

The organisation was fortunate to benefit from membership of the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland (NCSS), which ran from 2003-2013. The Scheme made funds available for research and international travel and encouraged more ambitious thinking about the collection. Through the Scheme work has been purchased which reflects contemporary developments in visual art, provides an international context for the permanent art collection and reflects the international outlook of the programmes at Dundee Contemporary Arts and Generator Projects. It is intended that the body of work collected under the theme ‘On Reflection’ is expanded to ensure that the City’s collection reflects the wider international context in which Scottish artists work.

DECORATIVE ART

The City’s permanent Decorative Art Collection is diverse collection of circa 2,000 items, with much of it having been collected passively from bequests. The most significant items are in areas which have been actively collected, and in the main purchased, by focused curatorial initiatives.

The Decorative Art Collection is Recognised as being of national significance by Museums Galleries Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government.

At its core is a fine collection of historic Scottish silver, mainly made in Dundee but with excellent examples of Edinburgh and other Scottish provincial silver. A good collection of historic Scottish pottery was actively collected for display in the 1980s. Scottish studio ceramics have been purchased between 1970-2010. In the 1970s good quality display collections of Georgian glass and 18th-century porcelain were purchased from Bond Street dealers to show the variety and development of the media in this period. Contemporary Scottish glass was actively collected between 1980 and 2010.

Active collecting by means of purchase is the only method by which this collection can be seriously developed. The ability to secure grant aid from government, charitable and private sources will be a key determinant in pursuing and securing major acquisitions, alongside the ability to place items on display.

Historic Silver

The collection comprises around 350 items, material evidence of significant economic activity in the City from the 17th century to the present day. It consists mainly of tableware with some church silver, trophies and presentation pieces. The bulk of the collection is Scottish, with the most important early piece being the Fithie Salver, two outstanding non-Scottish pieces are the Armitstead Salver, 1683 and the Doncaster Cup, 1816. The Scottish provincial silver collection is strong with an outstanding collection of items by Dundee makers. There are also several impressive pieces of Edinburgh and Glasgow silver.

Historic Ceramics

The Historic Ceramics Collection contains over 800 miscellaneous items. Much of it is standard household ware from the late 19th century, presented through bequest. There are several discrete important collections:

• Satsuma ware

• Assorted Oriental porcelain

• Chelsea and Bow figures

• Scottish pottery

• Modern Royal Doulton figures, donated by the factory

• 19th-century Staffordshire ceramics including transfer-printed ware

Glass

The collection consists of approximately 170 items of very mixed quality. The best of it was purchased in 1976, comprising 30 pieces of British and Irish Georgian glass 1720-1820.

Objets d’Art and Other Assorted Pieces of Decorative Art

This is a miscellaneous collection, numbering some 100 items. The key area is a small but attractive group of Oriental objects – ivories, lacquer and bronzes.

Contemporary Craft

The Contemporary Craft collection is small but includes fine examples of Scottish studio glass, including a large installation of engraved glass by Alison Kinnaird, and English and Scottish studio ceramics. Both collections were built through an active purchase programme throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Increasingly the boundaries between fine art and craft are becoming blurred. Many craft practitioners are no longer producing work that is primarily functional. Increasingly craft practitioners are exploring conceptual work and are experimenting with media much in the way that a fine artist would do.

The Contemporary Crafts Collection benefited enormously from the research, travel and funding for acquisitions available through the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland 2003 – 2013. Through the Scheme the collections of Scottish studio ceramics and glass have been built up. The collection has been developed more ambitiously with a purchase of works by major English and European makers. These include glass by Colin Reid and Bruno Romanelli and ceramics by Danish makers Bodil Manz, Gitte Jungersen, Michael Geertsen, and Per Ahlmann.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC