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Science and Industry Collection

Working life includes themes such as water supply (wooden water main from Nantwich), the local mineral and chemical industry (including a Roman salt pan, flagons and bottles), local engineering including Long case Nantwich clocks, steam engine, weighing machine and tin making tools. Items from the footwear and clothing industries also feature such as shoe lasts and examples of shoes and boots made locally. Timber and wooden furniture manufacture includes tools and there are also shop and office fittings such as adding machines and wall signs. Photographic processing, retail distribution (packaging etc) and general commerce is also represented in the collection including Mrs Saint’s Collection from Rhodes, Nantwich toyshop.

Subjects

Science and Industry

Social History Collection

Community life includes civic items, objects associated with the police and fire services (including a fire engine), the Beam Health trust collection, schools and education. Domestic and family life includes themes such as heating, lighting, water and sanitation, domestic cleaning equipment, food, drink and tobacco, medical supplies, hobbies, crafts and pastimes including toys and games, commemorative items and furnishings and fittings.

Subjects

Social History

Fine Art Collection

Watercolours, drawings, prints and oil paintings.

Subjects

Fine Art

Personalia Collection

Spectacles, curling tongs, pipes, snuff box.

Subjects

Personalia

Archaeology Collection

Pottery, Axe, Roman burial urn, Medieval stylus. Woman’s medieval ring and Bronze Age child’s bracelet. There are also items such as a Roman Salt Pan.

Subjects

Archaeology

Arms and Armour Collection

Warfare and defence items including Civil War armour, cannon balls and shot and also local items associated with the First and Second World War.

Subjects

Arms and Armour

Costume and Textile Collection

Men’s clothing includes jackets, trousers, waistcoats, swimming costume and boots. Women’s costume includes dresses, jackets, skirts, capes, wedding dress, aprons, mourning clothes, underwear and nightwear, bonnets, gloves, boots and shoes. There are also various accessories such as spectacles and a range of children’s clothing, including Christening Dresses, footwear and nightwear. Textiles include bedcovers, quilts and samplers.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Medals Collection

Medallions (commemorative).

Subjects

Medals

Numismatics Collection

Coins and tokens.

Subjects

Numismatics

Photographic Collection

The photographic material includes a large collection of postcards collected by Margaret and Mabel Wooldridge, and mostly from c.1904-1939. The pictures, stamps, postmarks, handwriting and messages provide a valuable insight into life in the early 20th century and during wartime. Images include those of individuals, groups (e.g. members of Nantwich Urban District Council in 1910) and events such as a railway disaster at Shrewsbury in 1907 and a Royal Visit in 1926. There are also images of Nantwich streets, buildings and commercial premises.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

Books, local directories and guides, documents, programmes, receipts and maps.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The history and development of narrow gauge railways in Great Britain is represented by a wide variety of exhibits ranging from locomotives and wagons to documents and tickets. Over seventy individual railways are represented. A major section is devoted to Welsh slate railways and particularly the Talyllyn Railway. Rev W W Awdry, famous for his “Railway Series” children’s books, several of which are based on the Talyllyn Railway, is remembered with a reconstruction of his study.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum’s Collection is the world’s largest, and most significant, accumulation of artefacts relating the British Army and other Land Forces of the British Crown (including the former Indian Army until 1947). The Collection consists of over one million items, spanning a 600-year period with particular depth and strength for the period c1780-1914. Its geographical remit extends to all parts of the world where British land forces have fought or been stationed.

Although the Museum received its Royal Charter (159KB) on 8 April 1960, the origins of the institution go back to the years just after the Second World War. The amalgamation of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, brought together at Sandhurst a collection of historical items around which a Royal Military Academy Museum was formed. There was an existing network of regimental and corps museums, but it was identified that there was a need to provide a repository for items relating to the pre-1947 Indian Army, the Irish regiments disbanded in 1922, and cavalry regiments which lacked depots at which they could form museums. Appeals for exhibits were published in the newspapers in 1948 and subsequent years, and in late 1949 the Indian Army Memorial Room was opened; followed by cavalry and Irish regiment displays in 1951. By 1958, with thousands of items in a rapidly growing collection, it was felt that then separate collections of Indian, Irish and cavalry relics should be brought together into a single National Army Museum. In 1960 the Royal Charter (159KB) was obtained, and Her Majesty the Queen opened new permanent displays in the former Riding School at Sandhurst on 15 July 1960.

The collections continued to rapidly expand in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963 the Museum acquired large proportions of the collections held by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In 1971, the first phase of the current museum building was opened in Chelsea, London, providing additional storage and display facilities. In the early 1980s the NAM’s collecting remit was extended to the First and Second World War and beyond. In the 1990s and 2000s a number of major collections were acquired. These included the collections of the Buffs; the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes; the Women’s Royal Army Corps; Royal Army Education Corps; the Museum of Army Transport; the Middlesex Regiment; the reference collection of the Army Museums Ogilby Trust; and books from the War Office Library. In 1991 the Soldiers Effects Records were transferred from the National Archives, and in 1999 over 20,000 sealed patterns were acquired from the Ministry of Defence.

In the first decade of the 21st century the Museum focused more on collecting contemporary material relating to the then current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, whilst continuing to augment its older material. In 2013 the Museum acquired the Field Marshal Sir John Lyon Chapple Indian Army Collection of badges and insignia. The Grenadier Guards Archive was transferred to the Museum in 2016 and the Coldstream Guards Archive in 2019. The Museum has also started to rationalise its Collection, focusing on the review of duplicate items, non-military badges and buttons, and vehicles outside its core collecting remit.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: Not known

Licence: CC BY-NC

The collection of uniform includes over 80,000 items of uniform and other garments dating from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. Collectively this constitutes one of the world’s largest collections of occupational costume.

The collection of fine and decorative art embraces pictorial works of art, together with three-dimensional arts and crafts such as sculpture, ceramics and silver. The collection includes ethnographic and soldier-made craft objects, as well as jewellery and mess ware. In total the collection comprises some 50,000 works on paper, over 700 oil paintings, 1,500 items of silver and 1,600 ceramics.

The collection of medals and badges includes over 20,000 individual medals including 39 Victoria Crosses, and around 50,000 badges and other insignia.

The collection of colours, guidons and flags numbers nearly 1,200 items, including very rare examples from the English Civil Wars (1642-49), and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1783-1815.

The collection of weapons covers those used by the British soldier from the age of the longbow to the present day, and includes around 2,400 edged weapons, over 250 polearms, and over 1,700 firearms. A small representative collection of Artillery is also included in this category.

The collection of equipment includes in excess of 16,000 items of personal equipment, scientific instruments, models and dioramas, medical equipment, musical instruments, armour and horse furniture.

The vehicle collection numbers around 40 items, ranging from motorcycles and armoured vehicles to large trucks and primarily relates around the theme of transport and logistics.

The Museum’s collection of archives, photographs, film and sound contains tens of thousands of private, regimental and business papers illustrating more than five centuries of British military history. The photographic collection comprises an estimated 500,000 images dating from the 1840s to the present day. The film collection is composed mainly of unofficial footage taken by soldiers and their families from the 1930s onwards. The sound collection holds recordings (dating from the 1920s onwards) of British Army and military bands, and over 750 oral history recordings. The Museum holds archival material including documents, sound recordings, photographs and film in both physical and digital formats. It is also a Place of Deposit for Public Records. The Museum maintains a separate Institutional Archive.

The collection of printed books is the largest in its field readily accessible to the general public. The library administers over 58,000 volumes published since the early sixteenth century, which include extensive holdings of regimental histories, campaign histories, biographies, Army Lists and other official publications. In addition, the Museum holds over 1000 periodical titles. The Museum provides access to a number of online resources through the Templer Study Centre such as JSTOR and Ancestry.

The collections include small numbers of items relating to foreign armies used for comparative purposes. The Museum will continue to collect material relating to foreign armies with a clear comparative role and high potential for display and/or research.

The Museum also holds a handling collection managed by the Learning Department. Although the items belong to the Council of the National Army Museum, they are not bound by this Policy.

Source: Collection development policy

Date:

Licence: CC BY-NC

Science and Industry Collection

Lamps, especially Yorkshire including the Wilf Company Early coal cutting machines Rescue equipment, especially breathing apparatus Gas detectors including flame and electrically operated Shot firing material especially exploders and dummy pills Surveying equipment including dials, theodolites, dumpy levels, tripods and distomats models of machinery plans covering mining boundaries and workings Caphouse Collection of 6,000 accessioned, mainly Yorkshire, material including large machines, objects , works of art, printed ephemera, photographs and books; many acquired during the pit closure programme of 1980s and 90s. Includes some large collections from British Coal with part of the Art collection and some locomotives now on loan to various preservation societies. British Coal Collection of 4,000 items transferred from Lound Hall, Notts. This is the NCB historic collection formed by Dr Alan Griffin in the 1970s and 80s and is a closed collection. It has a 19th century hazel corf, a Little Eaton (Derbys) gangway waggon and most of a Mecco Moore coal cutter.

Subjects

Science and Industry

Geology Collection

Contains 2 comprehensive collections from former Training Colleges and Coal Measure fossils from Yorkshire Collieries.

Subjects

Geology

Social History Collection

Trade Union material including commemorative, memorabilia and ephemera (most banners are on loan). Management and administration: tables, chairs, typewriters , calculators and pay objects. Medical: Caphouse medical room, sterilising units and firt aid kits. Commemorative material from various disasters. Non-technological aspects of colliery life illustrating domestic, leisure, family and welfare interests.

Subjects

Social History

Fine Art Collection

Includes paintings, drawings, sketches, prints, sculpture and photography with work by miner artist especially the Norman Phillips archive, H A Freeth Pit profiles series and Perlee Parker’s Pitmen at Play. Norman Phillips archive H. A. Freeth Pit Profiles Perlee Parker’s Pitmen at Play.

Subjects

Fine Art

Photographic Collection

Large proportion related to machines or the functioning of the pit. Includes prints, negatives, transparencies, glass slides, film and video at 16mm, U-matic and VHS. Albert Walker albums -colliery surface features especially headframes BJD albums recording the firm’s production Glass lantern sides for training purposes Material related to functions of the pit and individual pits.

Subjects

Photography

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

The museum holds a substantial collection of objects representing the history of English Association Football in a worldwide context. There are several distinct collections, each of major historical significance, totalling over 25,000 objects. The FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) Museum Collection is considered the finest and most significant collection of football history worldwide in the public domain and forms the core part of the museum’s collection. It was developed by Harry Langton and contains over 2,000 items including pictures, books, printed ephemera, toys and games, ceramics, playing equipment and metalwork such as sculptures. The collection is particularly representative of the period from 1880-1918 but covers the brood history of football evolution from the ball games of early civilisations around the world to the development of the modern game. The material is worldwide in origin but around 85% relates to English football. Key items include historic literature such as ‘Memorie del Calcio Fiorentino (1688), toys and games including one made in Preston in 1884 and considered the worlds’ oldest example. Other FIFA-owned material currently at the museum includes another 2,000 items ranging from famous trophies to souvenirs and a collection of 1,5000 books dating from 1839 to 1995. The Harry Langton Collection comprises 2,000 objects relating to the general development and history of football and is of the same quality and importance as the FIFA collection. The museum is essentially based around the collections of this collector, who developed a significant collection of football memorabilia, amassing the more unusual objects such as ceramics, toys, equipment and fine art, in addition to caps, medals, photographs, playing kit and ephemera. The collection came to international recognition in 1990 when Rome hosted an exhibition as part of the World Cup. A further exhibition in the USA in 1994 brought the collection to the attention of FIFA, the world football organisation that acquired part of the collection (the key collection now held by the museum). Harry Langton continued to acquire further material for his own collection and this was eventually purchased by the museum. Key items include ‘Discorso Sopra Il Giuoco Del Calcio’ published in 1580 in Florence and considered the world’s oldest book on football, Arnold Kirke Smith’s jersey and cap from the world’s first official international football match in 1872 (England v Scotland) and several historically important fine art works. The People’s Collection comprises over 4,000 miscellaneous items acquired through individual donations, loans and contemporary collecting. The collection relates to all aspects of the game and is well representative of the 1940-1980 period, but includes objects dating throughout the 20th century and up to the present day. Material includes playing kit and equipment, formal dress, supports’ effects, medals, trophies, pennants, international caps and gifts, archival material, books, booklets and brochures, scrapbooks, newspapers, magazines, photographs, programmes, trade items, other printed ephemera, toys and games, video and audio recordings and other commemorative items. The museum also recently purchased 67 items comprising the Sir Stanley Matthews Collection. Key items in the collection include international caps and other items relating to both Sir Stanley Matthews and Sir Tom Finney and an 1889 FA Cup Final Winner’s Medal. The Preston North End Football Club Collection contains over 2,000 donated items of archive and memorabilia related to various clubs, football in general but most specifically to the Preston club, one of the earliest and most historically significant professional football clubs in the world and the first winners of the football league. Items include club awards and commemorative gifts including trophies, medals and pennants, assorted archive material such as minute books, photographs, stadium fixtures such as seating and signage, artwork including paintings and stained glass, books, newspapers, magazines, programmes, tickets and other printed ephemera and video and audio recordings. Key items include an 1884 gatebook, framed lithograph of the 1888/9 Preston North End Team and Football League and FA archive material from the early 20th century. The Football Association Collection provides a valuable record of the history of the world’s oldest football association and its key activities and responsibilities such as the England national team and FA Cup competition. The museum owns over 300 items and holds a further 2,000 items on loan, comprising international gifts, original artwork (paintings and sculptures), photographs, archives and commemorative awards relating to international matches and events. Key item include a bronze figure of a goalkeeper – a centenary gift of presented to the FA by UEFA in 1963, photographs of the 1923 ‘White Horse’ FA Cup, minute books of 1903-1975, 1881 presentation scroll to Charles Alcock (a founder of the FA) for 18 years of service, gifts sent from many countries to congratulate the FA on the 1996 World Cup victory, a lithographic print, ‘Snow at Stamford Bridge’ from the 1953 exhibition organised by the FA and Arts Council. The Football League Collection is a major loan comprising over 1,500 items ranging from trophies to photographs, books, archives and other objects. The collection is an important record of the oldest football league in the world and covers the history of the competition, match records and other related subjects. Key items include Championship trophies and shields and player appearance records for Football League matches. The Wembley Stadium Collection is a large and varied loan collection of over 1,000 items representing the 77-year history of the Empire Stadium, Wembley. Objects include trophies, stadium fixtures, promotional and commemorative items, artwork, photographs, glass negatives, books, programmes and various printed ephemera. The collection also features material relating to the role of the stadium for other sporting and music events. Key items include the crossbar from the 1996 World Cup final, a replica of the Jules Rimmet trophy, original 1923 seating and turnstile from the grounds and the stadium foundation stone.

Archives Collection

In addition to the museum collections, there is a developing collection of supporting research material held in the museum’s Research Centre. This comprises books, fanzines, newsletters, promotional literature, listings, reports, magazines, newspapers and cuttings.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

Main Collection

The collection started with the purchase of 38 paintings from the collection of John Julius Angerstein, which included both historical Continental works as well as representative paintings from the British School and even a work by a then living painter, Sir David Wilkie. At the start, there was no established annual purchase grant, so the growth of the collection was heavily reliant on gifts and bequests, which began with the Beaumont Gift in 1826 and the Holwell Carr Bequest in 1831. After 1855, when the Gallery’s management was reconstituted, a new annual purchasing grant was established, and a policy instituted which envisioned the Gallery becoming the national repository of Western European art from its origins in the mid-13th century. This remained the case until 2014, when the Gallery acquired its first American painting, at which point the Gallery’s strapline changed to indicate that it was a Gallery of paintings in the Western European tradition,

Contextual Collection

The Contextual Collection was formed in 2008, in order to exercise appropriate care for works of art owned by the Gallery, but which were not considered to be part of the normal collecting remit of the main/National Collection. These included works which illuminated and celebrated the history of the Gallery. This was called the ‘History’ collection but was renamed the ‘Contextual Collection’ in 2023, to reflect the broader range of objects in the collection, for example, those by associate artists.

Library Collection

The Library was established in 1870 with the purchase of the private library of some 2,000 volumes belonging to the late Sir Charles Eastlake, the first Director of the National Gallery.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC

Main Collection

The National Gallery houses the national collection of painting in the Western European tradition, spanning the period from the thirteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The Gallery aims to tell the story of painting in the Western European tradition as completely as possible and at the highest possible level.

The collection includes masterpieces such as Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ, Holbein’s Ambassadors, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, Vermeer’s Young Woman Standing at a Virginal, Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, Turner’s Fighting Temeraire and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. The work of some of the greatest painters, for example Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Monet and Cezanne, is represented in great depth, with a range of works of varying types and from different periods of the artists’ careers.

The National Gallery is also custodian to the following collections, which are distinctly separate from the National Collection. The works in these collections are not subject to the constraints of the Gallery and Galleries Act 1992.

Collection development for the Library and Archive is supported by policies required for Archive Service Accreditation.

Contextual Collection

The National Gallery’s Contextual Collection consists of works of art and objects, acquired by the Gallery since its foundation, which illuminate the history of the Gallery, its buildings, its collection and its relationship with contemporary artists.

The Contextual Collection includes portraits of former National Gallery staff, directors, trustees and benefactors; depictions of the Gallery’s buildings and their interiors at different periods; internal and external architectural sculpture and mosaics forming part of the Gallery’s fabric; and furniture and objects that have a significant connection to the Gallery. It also includes commissions, works of art by contemporary artists, including Artists in Residence or Associate Artists, as well as other artists whose work has been the subject of temporary exhibitions at the National Gallery, or who have worked directly from the collection.

Frame Collection

The Gallery consists of approximately 3,000 frames, including original frames acquired with certain paintings, antique frames subsequently acquired to frame Gallery paintings, and reproduction frames, either produced at the Gallery or externally at various moments.

Library Collection

The Library contains around 100,000 printed volumes relevant to the study of the history of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the early 20th century. The Library’s holdings include monographs, catalogues raisonnes, exhibition catalogues, and pamphlets; works on iconography; permanent collection catalogues from the National Gallery and important galleries throughout the world; a fine collection of publications relating to private collections in this country and abroad; a significant collection of early guidebooks; a strong collection of early source works consisting of approximately 2,000 titles published before 1850; catalogues of picture sales from major auction houses and reasonably complete runs of the catalogues of certain commercial dealers; over 250 periodical titles, of which 150 are current.

Archive Collection

The National Gallery Archive holds records generated by the Gallery, from its establishment in 1824, in the course of its business. These records are Public Records, and the Archive is recognised as a Place of Deposit by the National Archives. Gallery records are selected for permanent preservation due to their evidential, informational or historical value, in line with the Public Records Acts of 1958 and 1967, and National Archives’ standards.

The Archive holds records from individuals and corporate bodies, where they have a particular relevance to the history of the Gallery, its Collection, or the history of collecting European paintings. This includes the private papers of staff, trustees, collectors and academics, or papers relating to pictures in the Gallery’s Collection.

The management of the Archive is guided by the Code of Practice on Archives for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom (third edition, 2002). The Archive Development Plan and Policy are managed separately to this policy through the Archive Service Accreditation.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2024

Licence: CC BY-NC