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Military History

The collections consist 150 items of arms and armour including the Baker rifle, 150 costume and textiles, 1,000 decorative arts including General Woolf’s writing case from Quebec, 110 fine art, 500 ethnography, 8,000 medals including 33 of the 55 Victoria Crosses awarded to members of the regiment, 100 photographs and 8,000 archival books, documents, personal records.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The River & Rowing Museum was granted provisional museum registration status in 1994, when building work on the new museum had just commenced. Unusually there were no existing collections for the new museum to display; all the exhibits required for the planned galleries were acquired during the period 1995 – 1998. The collections were assembled to help interpret the Museum’s three themes of the River Thames, the international sport of Rowing and the history of the town of Henley on Thames, in accordance with an agreed collecting policy.

Objects were acquired by purchase, donation or loans from individuals, organisations and other museums. Assembling collections for a museum not yet built, in the shadow of the sale of the collections from Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, meant that many items were initially offered on loan in case the project did not succeed. Some of these loans have been converted into gifts now that the Museum is established.

The collection has developed significantly since the Museum officially opened in 1998. The rowing collection is now believed to the largest of its kind in the world. Its development has been due in large part to one of the museum’s founders, Christopher Dodd, a former rowing journalist who took on the role of Rowing Historian in the Curatorial Department once the Museum opened. The majority of the rowing library and the modern rowing collection has been acquired through him and his contacts. This includes the boat Steve Redgrave won his fifth consecutive gold medal in at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. The other significant contributor to the rowing collection is Thomas E Weil. Mr Weil is an American collector of rowing memorabilia and was a founding Trustee, serving on the Board until 2021. He has made two major donations of objects, once in 2003 and again in 2013.

A significant part of the Henley collection came to the Museum from Henley Town Council (HTC) and remains on loan from them. This includes some archival items, although the public record office holds the majority of the council’s archive documents.

The fine art collection remains relatively small but the Museum has made some major acquisitions and several commissions since opening. The painting ‘Henley from the Wargrave Road’, 1698 by Jan Siberechts was purchased with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund in 2001. Following major retrospectives of the work of local artist John Piper in 2000 and 2003 work was acquired. ‘String Solo’, 1934 was donated to the Museum by the Piper estate in lieu of tax in 2001, and ‘Ruined Castle’, 1984 in 2002. ‘Gate to the River’, 1940 was purchased in 2003.

The Museum has commissioned two major pieces; the sculpture of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent that stands in the Museum grounds was produced by Sean Henry in 2001 and the painting ‘Gollon at Henley’ was produced in 2008. Grant funding has also been sought for a series of fine art purchases relating to all three collections, in particular the Thames collection with purchases including work by Frederick Watts, Myles Birkett Foster, William Havell and Joseph Farington.

Two major archaeological finds have also been added to the collection since 1998, a 12th Century logboat carbon dated to between 1110 and 1250AD and a gold coin hoard dating to the Iron Age. The logboat was discovered on the Shottesbrooke Estate in Berkshire. It was preserved and put on display at the Museum using funding from the Pilgrim Trust. The gold coin hoard was discovered by a local metal detectorist on the edge of Henley on Thames close to Grim’s Ditch and declared as a Treasure Find. It was purchased with the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The Museum has also collected other local archaeological finds through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, including a late 13th – early 14th century seal matrix pendant owned by a local woman, Margarie Pevrel.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

Since 2021, the River & Rowing Museum has been undertaking a full audit of the entire collection. The numbers below were collated before the audit, and as such while the proportions of collection categories remain broadly the same, the exact numbers in some areas have changed. It will be updated upon completion of the audit.

[Pre-2021] The Museum now has 22,105 accessioned items in its collection. Under the themes outlined above they largely fall into the following areas:

• Archaeology, 417 items, 1.74%
• Archive, Library & Maps, 5044 items, 28.6%
• Costume & Textiles, 292 items, 1.65%
• Decorative & Applied Art, 738 items, 4.18%
• Fine Art, 997 items, 5.7%
• Numismatics & Medals, 338 items, 1.92%
• Oral History, 50 items, 0.28%
• Photography & Video, 5126 items, 29%
• Science & Industry, 533 items, 3.02%
• Social History, 3993 items, 22.64%
• Transport – Boats/Oars, 216 items, 1.22%

The River & Rowing Museum collects on three major themes:

1. The international sport of rowing
2. The town of Henley-on-Thames and its surroundings
3. The non-tidal River Thames

We have the following significant collections:

The Boat Collection–The RRM’s collection of boats is unique, encompassing prototype racing boats and craft traditionally used on the Thames. The criteria under which boats are added to the collection is that they have one or more of the following attributes:

• innovation in design
• association with outstanding athletes or performances
• importance as an example of a type
• educational value.

The Thomas E. Weil Collection – A collection of rowing art, memorabilia, and literature, largely relating to Great Britain but including various international pieces. Including an extensive collection of trophies, carte de visite and cigarette cards. Items date from the 16th century to the present day.

Thames Conservancy Collection – Archive from the Thames Conservancy (1857 – 1972) including minute books, maps, ledgers, lock keepers’ uniforms and equipment, and photographs.

Henley Royal Regatta Archive – Collection of photographs, programmes, posters, memorabilia and souvenirs, entry badges, medals and trophies relating to the history of the Henley Royal Regatta (1839 – present)

The Rowing Machine Collection – Collection of rowing machines that illustrates its development from the turn of the 20th century to the present day.

The Brakspear Collection – Collection of objects and photographs relating to Brakspear’s Brewery while it was located in Henley on Thames.

The Piper Collection – Largely a collection of archive material (catalogues, books, photographs) relating to the artist John Piper, includes original artwork for theatre scenery, paintings, prints, ceramics and sculpture.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2016

Licence: CC BY-NC

The Museum first opened its doors in 1938, a century after the rescue, mainly to build a home for the coble, which was gifted to the RNLI in 1913. In order to properly tell the story, the RNLI started actively collecting throughout the 1930s. The core of the collection was built in those early days.

In the beginning, the focus was on objects connected to the Darling family and the SS Forfarshire, and later shifted to include memorabilia produced to commemorate Grace. In recent years, this has included objects produced by the RNLI to sell in its museum shop.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

• Coble fishing boat used in the rescue (on the National Register of Historic Vessels)
• William Darling’s RNLI Medal
• Paintings, prints, works on paper
• Sculpture
• Clothing and textiles
• Letters and personal memorabilia
• Documents on early lighthouses in the region
• SS Forfarshire items
• Souvenirs and memorabilia
• Family gravestone

Total of 1142 objects (June 2019)

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

A lifeboat museum in Cromer first opened its doors in 1967. Housed in an old lifeboat shed, the museum shared with visitors a collection of objects and archives resulting from the work of Cromer lifeboat station. The collection grew with donations from the local community and tourists. An historic lifeboat was provided by the RNLI as a focus for the museum but had no connection to the local story. The lifeboat H.F. Bailey was purchased at auction and replaced the boat on display. H.F.Bailey served at Cromer from 1935 to 1945 under Coxswain Henry Blogg, the RNLI’s most decorated crewmember and Cromer’s national hero.

The museum moved to purpose-built premises in 2006.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

• RNLB H.F.Bailey ON777

(1446 on the National Register of Historic Vessels and part of the National Historic Fleet);

• objects from the formation of a lifeboat service in Cromer at the beginning of the 19th century, to current RNLI services at Cromer;

• a significant collection of medals and awards won by Coxswain Henry Blogg and Cromer crew including some of the first ever awarded bronze RNLI medals;

• service records and correspondence of the station;

• personal items belonging to Henry Blogg;

• photographs;

• items of equipment;

• lifeboat models;

• related wreckage from shipwrecks attended by Cromer lifeboats;

• memorabilia and RNLI fundraising items;

• Paintings, prints, works on paper;

• Film and audio recordings.

Total of 1308 objects (June 2019)

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2019

Licence: CC BY-NC

Personalia

The museum collection comprises artefacts associated with the life of Roald Dahl and includes items owned by Dahl in his lifetime. Objects from the writing hut include clothing and accessories, coins, photographs, writing materials, miscellaneous items collected as hobbies etc, spectacles, a suitcase, rug, walking stick, smoking items, furniture, framed cuttings, pictures, poems etc and books including dictionaries.

Fine Art

The collection includes portraits of the writer e.g. by artists such as Matthew Smith.

Archives

The major part of the collection comprises the Roald Dahl Archive of literary correspondence with agents and publishers; manuscripts, typescripts, annotated proofs, publications and reviews of books published for both adults and children; unpublished material; speeches and articles; screenplays for film and television; scripts for TV series; stage plays; audio work, Roald Dahl’s ‘ideas books’; interviews, biographies and publicity material; correspondence with schools; personal papers including letters written to his family in his schooldays and associated ephemera such as school reports, essays and school photographs; other general family photographs, correspondence and ephemera assembled by Roald Dahl during his lifetime (1916-1990), formerly filed in his garden work hut and donated to the Centre by the Dahl family.

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC

The RGU Art & Heritage Collections comprise over 8,000 objects, including work created by university alumni, together with additional materials reflecting methods of teaching and study in art education, engineering, pharmacy, life science and domestic science. The collections celebrate the creative culture and talent formed in the North-East of Scotland while providing a record of industrial, pedagogical and technological change.

Art and Architecture

The Art collection forms the largest part of the University Collections. Most work dates from the 1950s to the present day, but there is also a significant quantity of earlier work. Not all disciplines practised at Gray’s School of Art are equally represented, with a heavy bias towards painting, drawing, printmaking and ceramics. While this has been corrected in relation to new acquisitions of student work, the historical imbalance remains. The Architecture collection contains teaching equipment, ephemera and student drawings dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, with more recent student work being retained for the collections from 2007.The Art and Architecture collection also contains a large group of landscape architecture and art antiquarian books.

Science and Society

This collection comprises material relating to the general history of the University, including now-defunct departments such as the School of Navigation. It contains teaching equipment, teaching aids and photographs relevant to the first School of Pharmacy in the UK and to the former School of Engineering and Chemistry. Notebooks, samples of dressmaking, catering and laundry equipment are retained from the School of Domestic Science. Over 100 Needlework objects are held in the collection. These are part of the Needlework Development Scheme, a collection of over 3,500 items which was disbursed between various UK universities, colleges and museums when funding for the scheme was withdrawn in 1961.

Source: Collection development policy

Date: 2025

Licence: CC BY-NC

Social History Collection

The collections comprise objects relating to the Pioneers and the Co-op movement including 19th century items typical of those used in the shop such as scales and reproduction furniture.

Subjects

Social History

Costume and Textile Collection

There are banners donated by Women’s Guilds and Co-operative Societies.

Subjects

Costume and Textile

Decorative and Applied Art Collection

The museum holds a large collection of commemorative Co-operative pottery and plateware.

Subjects

Decorative and Applied Arts

Photographic Collection

Photographs relating to individual Pioneers and to the general development of the Pioneers and the Co-op Movement.

Subjects

Photography

Archives Collection

The National Co-operative Archive is held at the Co-operative College in Manchester and contains documents manuscripts and books relating to the Rochdale Pioneers Society and the general history and current development of the Co-op Movement. There are substantial manuscript collections associated with eminent co-operators and social philanthropists, Edward Owen Greening, Robert Owen and G J Holyoake.

Subjects

Archives

Source: Cornucopia

Date: Not known, but before 2015

Licence: CC BY-NC