Collection: National Museums Northern Ireland

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  National Museums NI was established as National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland under the Museums and Galleries (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. It comprises four museums that were founded at different times and for different purposes. The summaries below are indicative, rather than comprehensive.

  The national collection has been almost 200 years in the making. It is an amalgam of institutional histories and the passions of generations of curators, scholars and enthusiasts. Although the thinking about collecting and collections has evolved over time (and continues to evolve), the creation of the national collection has always been fundamentally driven by the desire to record and preserve what is important about the world that we live in and our place within it.

  Ulster Museum

  The Ulster Museum is the oldest of the four, its collections originating with the formation and activities of the Belfast Natural History Society (1821), re-named the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society (1842), and the closely associated Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club (1863). During most of the 19th century, their focus was on developing collections mainly in the area of natural history, but also archaeology and ethnography, and displaying these in the Belfast Museum which had been opened by the Society in 1831. Separately, in 1890, the opening, by the Belfast Town Council of the Belfast Art Gallery and Museum provided a catalyst for broader collections development, embracing not only art but also antiquities and a greater capacity for natural history specimens. A critical mass was created in 1910 when the collections of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society were acquired by the Belfast Art Gallery and Museum. This led ultimately to the construction of a new building, the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery at Botanic Gardens, which opened in 1929, and the establishment, through the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, of the Ulster Museum as a national institution. The Ulster Museum opened in 1972.

  The nature and development of the Ulster Museum’s collections reflect the above history. A number of 19th-century natural historians, travellers and benefactors are particularly noteworthy. These include William Thompson (botany and ornithology), Sir James Emerson Tennant (entomology), Gordon A Thomson and George Benn (antiquities), and James McAdam (palaeontology). Embracing most, if not all, of these areas was Canon John Grainger who, shortly before his death in 1891, donated his complete collection of geological and zoological specimens, antiquities and art objects to the Belfast Art Gallery and Museum – as a result of which he has subsequently been referred to as ‘The Father of the Ulster Museum’. All these subject areas have been enriched and enhanced by subsequent collecting, several aspects meriting mention. Critical to the development of the botany collection was the gift by The Queen’s University of Belfast of its herbarium (1968).

  A substantial part of the Archaeology collection is derived from the early days of antiquarian activity in Ireland during the mid-1800s; from material displayed in the ‘Belfast Museum’ (1831-1910). Some of these archaeological collections, including those of the Rev. Canon Grainger, are substantial. While the majority of the collections and objects on display were found by members of the public, the Museum acquired a number of pioneering excavations particularly those from Neolithic megalithic tombs. Excavations undertaken by previous members of staff include evidence of Ireland’s earliest settlers at Mount Sandel Co. Londonderry and substantial holdings from the urban medieval excavations of Carrickfergus.

  The collection and display of industrial archaeology formed part of the policy of the Ulster Museum from the 1960s, under the then Directorship of Mr William Seaby. The driving force for this activity was W.A. McCutcheon, who conducted new and intensive research into the subject matter between 1956 and 1968 and expressed his ‘deep conviction of the relevance and validity of industrial archaeology’. From 1968 to 1974 this research was translated into new displays on engineering history at the Ulster Museum. Machinery and other material culture were accessioned into the permanent collection of the Ulster Museum, whilst archival material and photographs associated with McCutcheon’s research were gifted to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The Ulster Museum’s collection includes material from all of the major industries for which the north of Ireland was once renowned, including linen production, heavy engineering, ship-building, rope making and brick making.

  The development of the art collection was stimulated during the early part of the last century by some significant gifts and bequests. The former are exemplified through JMW Turner’s The Dawn of Christianity, gifted in 1913, and 34 of his own works presented by the distinguished Belfast-born artist Sir John Lavery in 1929. The bequest of Sir Robert Lloyd Patterson, given to the Belfast Art Gallery and Museum in 1919, was significant in that the paintings were sold some ten years later, with the approval of the trustees of Lloyd Patterson, on condition that the proceeds be used to acquire other works representative of the contemporary British school. This was an important factor in the subsequent shaping of the collection which, through successive shifts in acquisition policy, has grown to encompass not just the work of Irish painters but also British, European and American, both historical and contemporary.

  Since the 1890s, acquisitions for the Fine Art collection have been made by purchase, gift and bequest, either from individual benefactors or on behalf of organisations including the Art Fund, the Contemporary Art Society, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Elisabeth Frink Foundation, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Haverty Trust and the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland. Notable acquisitions have been supported by grants from the Art Fund, the Esme Mitchell Trust, the Friends of the Ulster Museum, the Department for Communities, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund. A small number of acquisitions have been made by public subscription. In 2012, the Arts Council NI collection was gifted to National Museums NI. Since 1998, the Fine Art collection has been enriched through the acceptance in lieu of six major works. The Dutch collection has been significantly strengthened by the allocation of a Jan van der Heyden, an exceptional Jacob van Ruisdael and six etchings by Rembrandt. The Post-war British collection has received major works by Ben Nicholson and Frank Auerbach. Most recently, in 2021, a magnificent Tissot of an Irish sitter has filled what had been a serious gap in the 19th century European and British collection.

  The works of art on paper collection, the largest fine art collection, has multiple areas of strength owing to significant donations and past acquisitions. Many of these donations were given in the late 19th and early 20th century forming the foundation of the collection, the treasured Henry Fuseli drawings were given by the first curator of the Art Gallery when it was on Royal Avenue, in 1890. A significant donation of wood engravings from Lady Mabel Annesley given in 1939 forms the basis of the print collection and various schemes, such as the National Art Collections Fund, have bequeathed important works e.g. by Ruskin and Rossetti. Donations of local importance by individuals such as John and Roberta Hewitt have also been significant.

  The applied art collections, which comprise ceramics, glass, silver and metalwork, furniture and wood, costume and textiles, jewellery and a childhood collection has two areas of particular strength, namely the 18th century and the contemporary period. The historic collections are of predominantly Irish material, and the contemporary are international in scope. The Ulster Museum represents the only public collection of international contemporary applied art in Ireland.

  The current Ulster Museum collection of fashionable dress, accessories, and textiles essentially replaces the one that was lost when Malone House, where the former collection was stored, was burnt down following its bombing in 1976. Beginning from a ‘clean slate’ the museum was forced to re-examine our collecting policy. This prompted a particular focus on developing a strong 20th-century fashion collection. Each year, since 1984, two complete outfits for spring/summer and autumn/winter have been purchased – one International designer outfit and one high street outfit. This unbroken chain of contemporary fashion acquisitions is a unique achievement for the Ulster Museum, one of the very first museums in the world to recognise the significance of collecting contemporary fashion. As far as rebuilding the textile collection, major acquisitions concentrated on areas where the nucleus of a collection was still in existence, including the important 1712 Lennox Quilt.

  Between 2016 and 2020 the Ulster Museum developed its history and art collections through ‘Collecting the Troubles and Beyond’, funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme. This involved the acquisition of significant collections including the NI Prison Service collection, the James Ellis collection, the Tom Hartley collection, artwork by Geordie Morrow and contemporary photographic collections representing well-known photographers including Martin Nangle and Frankie Quinn. This collecting activity focussed on Northern Ireland’s recent past and its legacy that continues today.

  Ulster Folk Museum

  The genesis of the Folk Museum lies in a memorandum prepared in 1943 about a post-war policy for the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery (see paragraph 2.2.1) in which the then Director, Sidney Stendall, advocated the creation of an open-air museum. This aspiration was pursued by his successor Wilfred Seaby and, following a favourable report presented to the Northern Ireland Parliament, the Ulster Folk Museum Act was passed in 1958. The Folk Museum’s remit was to illustrate the ways of life, past and present, and the traditions of the people of Northern Ireland. Individuals influential to the development of the Folk Museum included, in addition to those mentioned above, Estyn Evans, a pioneer in the study of folk culture in Ireland, and its Directors, George Thompson and Alan Gailey. The current site, at Cultra, County Down, was purchased in 1961.

  The Folk Life and Agriculture collections focus on ways of life and traditions of the people of Northern Ireland in a western European context from the late nineteenth century through to the early decades of the twentieth century. They include material culture representing buildings, domestic life, agriculture, craft and textiles, and nonmaterial culture including traditional music and oral histories. Duncrun Cottier’s House was the first building to be selected, dismantled and brought to the Cultra site in 1961. The building was re-erected and completed in 1963. The Ulster Folk Museum formally opened in July 1964 along with the Coalisland Spade Mill. They were soon joined by more buildings and the rural area of the open-air museum began to flourish. The rural area of the open-air museum is a representation of a dispersed settlement, common to Ireland, with dwellings and public buildings reflecting regional variations scattered through an open landscape. Much was put into the spaces between buildings, the ditches, the field boundaries etc. as well as the construction of the buildings themselves. Most of the buildings were brought brick by brick from their original locations, Ballydugan Weaver’s House being the only replica building in the rural area of the museum. In due course, the museum decided to establish a small town. Some of the buildings in this area had already been reconstructed to be part of the dispersed settlement, but they were later incorporated into the new townscape. With the building of the town, there was a drift towards constructing replica buildings, instead of moving entire buildings from their original situation, as had been the earlier policy. Today, there are over 50 buildings on the site.

  In parallel with these developments, an equally wide-ranging body of material relating to ways of life and traditions was collected through targeted fieldwork over many years. This has not only complemented the buildings but also provided important evidence of the rich social fabric of Ulster and the day-to-day lives of people. It covers such areas as farming, crafts and domestic life through both objects and archives. The latter include rich collections of photographs, the most important of which are those taken by W A Green and R J Welch, and sound recordings covering oral and aural histories such as music, folk tales and linguistic diversity.

  The foundation for the costume and textiles collection was laid by one of the first group of curators, Katherine Harris, in the early 1960s. Harris’ background in geography and ethnography served her well as she explored and collected fine examples of local dress and textiles, in many cases directly in conversation with those who were born and raised in the late 1800s. Her interest in material culture and traditional craft skills spanned across a range of media including straw work, needlework and everyday dress. Over a period of almost ten years Harris collected, exhibited and published aspects of the Folk Museum’s collection of dress and textiles. Some of the most significant objects in the collection were acquired during this period, including fine examples of Irish lace, linens, and bedcovers.

  In the fifty years since Katherine Harris’ retirement from the museum, the collection has been developed further by three successive Curators of Textiles, each bringing with them, in turn, specialisms in the study of Home Economics, Folklore, and Design for Fashion and Textiles. As a result, the collection has grown considerably in both size and quality to its present status as a comprehensive archive of dress and textiles in Ulster from 1730 to the present day. A recently developed contemporary collecting plan has supported the acquisition, through purchase, of a number of objects illustrating technical and design skills, from Irish makers.

  Ulster Transport Museum

  Alongside the emergence of the Folk Museum, a museum dedicated to transport was also being considered by the above-mentioned Wilfred Seaby, Director of the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery. A local committee of transport enthusiasts presented a number of vehicles, mainly rail, to the Belfast Museum on the understanding that they, together with other transport items already in the Museum’s collection, would be maintained and developed. Between 1954 and 1956, two buildings were leased in Belfast to hold the growing collection. New premises at Witham Street, Belfast, were purchased in 1960, a curator was appointed in 1961 and the new Belfast Transport Museum, under Belfast Corporation control, was opened in June 1962. It remained under Corporation control until responsibility was transferred to the Trustees of the Folk Museum in 1967 through the Ulster Folk Museum Amendment Act. At the same time, the Dalchoolin site, located a short distance away from the Folk Museum, was acquired as the site for the new Transport Museum. In 1973, the official name of the institution was changed to The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum to reflect the amalgamation.

  Today the Transport Museum lies within a 40-acre site, representing almost forty years of incremental development in the opening of a Transport Gallery in 1976, a Rail Gallery in 1993 and a Road Gallery (1995). Influential figures in the early development of the transport collections, particularly road and rail, included the first curator, Robert Beggs, and Robert Galbraith. These collections include extensive and representative holdings of Irish railway vehicles, significant items being received from the Ulster Transport Authority (now Translink) and Córas Iompair Éireann. Public and private road transport is reflected in items ranging from horse-drawn vehicles to a De Lorean car.

  The collections also cover transport associated with sea and sky. Of particular significance in the former category are Result, a 19th-century schooner, one of some 200 vessels comprising the UK National Historic Fleet and ship plans from Harland & Wolff, Belfast’s major shipyard, including design drawings for Titanic. The latter includes items ranging from a Shorts SC.1 vertical take-off aircraft, a Rex McCandless designed autogyro to a Martin Baker ejector seat and a Merlin Spitfire engine. Due to challenges associated with collections care and storage and a lack of curatorial expertise, the maritime and aviation collections have not been reviewed or significantly developed since the late 1990s.

  Ulster American Folk Park

  The Ulster American Folk Park opened in 1976, two individuals – Eric Montgomery and Dr. Matthew T. Mellon – being particularly prominent in its establishment and early development. The former had been instrumental in setting up the Ulster Scot Historical Society (now the Ulster Historical Foundation) to undertake research into Ulster-American links. During the 1960s, with government support and the active cooperation of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Eric Montgomery developed proposals to restore the ancestral homes of notable Americans whose forebears had emigrated from Ulster. One such building was a County Tyrone farmhouse, birthplace of Judge Thomas Mellon, the banking and industrial magnate of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. This was the context in which Dr. Mellon expressed his interest and his support would lead to the restoration of the Mellon Farmstead and, ultimately, the creation of the Ulster American Folk Park.

  The site, approx. 80 acres, seeks to tell the story of emigration from Ulster to America from the 17th to the 19th centuries and uses objects and buildings to reflect experiences in both places. Whilst the Ulster dimension is more developed, largely through eight vernacular buildings, significant progress has been made in correcting this imbalance by the importation and reconstruction of historic structures, now numbering five, from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee.

  While objects in the collection cover primarily domestic life and crafts, and farming, they also cover areas that inform the wider story of emigration, the most noteworthy being the Paul Louden-Brown White Star Line Collection acquired in 2010. Comprising over 7000 objects, it illustrates the context of Titanic through the history of its parent company.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The collections of National Museums NI are estimated to be in the region of 1.4 million items. The collections are multidisciplinary, diverse and span all time periods, referencing Northern Ireland within and to the wider world. Historically, they have grown on the site-based framework of the Ulster Museum, the Ulster Folk Museum, the Ulster Transport Museum and the Ulster American Folk Park. However, since similar collection types can relate to more than one site, they are more appropriately classified within three broad and complementary subject areas. National Museums NI will continue to collect within these subject areas and the time periods and geographic areas to which they relate. The subject areas are:

  • Art
  • History
  • Natural Sciences
  • Art

  The art collections include fine and applied art and incorporate both historical and contemporary material, mainly within an Irish context but also including some significant international holdings. In excess of 14,000 works, the art collection contains paintings, sculptures, works on paper, lens-based media, Troubles art, glass, ceramics, silver and metalwork, jewellery, furniture, costume and textiles. These collections are significant at both a national and an international level.

  The Irish Art collection spans the 17th century to the contemporary. Almost all major Irish artists and movements are represented, with particular strengths in landscape, portraiture and subjects associated with the north and west of Ireland. In 1929, the Belfast-born Sir John Lavery (1856-1941), a leading ‘Irish Impressionist’, donated thirty-four paintings from all periods of his career including ‘Under the Cherry Tree’ and ‘The Green Coat’, a dazzling full-length portrait of his wife Hazel. The landscape and life of the West of Ireland is of particular importance characterised, during the early 20th century, by the work of Paul Henry, William Orpen, Jack B.Yeats and Sean Keating, and in the post-war generation by Gerard Dillon, Derek Hill, Barrie Cooke and many others. Strengths of the twentieth-century collection include Irish Modernism and Irish artists of international importance, such as Mainie Jellett, Louis le Brocquy, William Scott and Willie Doherty. The figurative tradition remains strong in Northern Irish post-war painting, and is represented by Charles Lamb, William Conor, Colin Middleton, John Luke, Dan O’Neill, Basil Blackshaw and many others. In portraiture, a group of 18th century Belfast sitters by Strickland Lowry and Joseph Wilson is notable, as is a series of 20th-century literary portraits, including the first Portrait of Seamus Heaney commissioned from Edward McGuire in 1974, and the last portrait completed months before the poet’s death in 2013 by Colin Davidson. Recent acquisitions have focused on the Irish landscape, and include work by Elizabeth Magill, Melita Denaro, William McKeown and Paddy McCann.

  The 20th century and contemporary collection are of outstanding international importance. Successive curators have strengthened these areas to form one of the most impressive collections of modern and contemporary art in the U.K. outside London. The early 20th-century British collection includes work by Stanley Spencer, Walter Sickert, Duncan Grant and others of their generation. The International Post-war represents the largest and most important area of the collection, and includes Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell and ‘Colour Field’ artists Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler. European post-war painting is represented by, among others, Karel Appel, Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tapies, and the German ‘Group Zero’ by Gunther Uecker, Otto Piene and others. British art is particularly strong in abstract painting with excellent St. Ives artists including Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton, William Scott and Ben Nicholson. Two of the most important works in the collection are an exceptional early Francis Bacon Head 11 (1949), and a seminal Barbara Hepworth Curved Form (Delphi), (1955). The later 1960s, 70s and 80s includes work by Bridget Riley, Anthony Caro, Joseph Beuys, Gilbert and George and many others. Recent acquisitions include the manga-influenced Japanese painter Makiko Kudo, Belfast-born Hannah Starkey, whose photographic work considers the urban experience of young women, and two sculptures that address themes of climate emergency and migration; The Dog that lost its Nose (2009) by Siobhan Hapaska and Blue Sky Thinking (2019) by Patrick Goddard. A collection of time-based media was begun in 2008, and includes major work by Willie Doherty, Bill Fontana and Cornelia Parker.

  The Italian collection includes some of the first paintings to enter the Ulster Museum collection. In 1893, an exceptional pair of genre portraits by Giacomo Ceruti were bought as ‘foundation pictures’ and are the most important works by the artist in the UK. The collection was transformed in the 1960s by the acquisition of two major 17th century paintings, Allegory of Fortune by Lorenzo Lippi and St Cecelia by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli. The Flemish collection includes a small group of 15th-century panels attributed to the Master of the Legend of St. Catherine, the Master of the Female Half- lengths and an impressive School of Bruges ‘Virgin and Child’, known as the Carrickfergus Madonna. The acquisition of Moses Striking the Rock by Hendrik van Balen, a gift through the Art Fund in 2021, has considerably strengthened the Flemish collection. The Dutch collection has recently been transformed by two major acceptances in lieu: The Cornfield by Jacob van Ruisdael, a masterpiece of international importance from the Beit Collection, Russborough, and a View of the Palace of the Dukes of Brabant, Brussels by Jan van der Heyden. The British collection is strongest in portraiture, usually of sitters with local or Irish connections. One of the most important paintings in the collection is an exceptionally fine late work by J.M.W. Turner The Dawn of Christianity (The Flight into Egypt), 1841. Most recently, in 2021, a magnificent Tissot Quiet, 1881, of an Irish sitter, has filled what had been a serious gap in nineteenth-century French and British painting.

  There are two major strengths to the works of art on paper collection, the first is its ability to demonstrate various shifts and important movements in this mode of artistic production: Works by John Ruskin and J.D. Harding demonstrate the emergence of watercolour painting being popularised and considered a ‘fine art’. A large collection of wood engravings represents the importance of the wood-engraving revival and how women artists were at its centre. A donation of Rembrandt etchings through the acceptance in lieu of tax scheme celebrate his impact on printmaking which can be seen through over 300 years of the practice in the collection. The second strength is seen through large, or significant, holdings of work by individual artists including, for example, Henry Fuseli, Andrew Nicholl, Elisabeth Frink and Mainie Jellett.

  The Ulster Museum has the largest collection of artworks that relate to the Troubles. Throughout the 30-year period and up until today artists from Northern Ireland and beyond have responded to the conflict through their artistic practice and a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, lens-based and ceramic. During the period of the conflict, the Ulster Museum did collect several significant artworks, including Woman in Bomb Blast, 1974, by F. E. McWilliam, …morning workers pass…, 1978, Rita Donagh, Ulster Crucifixion, 1978, Ken Howard and The Other Cheek?, 1998, John Keane. It is only in more recent times, which has included the substantial gift of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s collection in 2012 that the collection has grown to its current level of significance. Since 2014 the Ulster Museum has also acquired work by artists including Mary McIntyre, Donovan Wylie, Dan Shipsides, Gerry Gleason, Peter Richards, Ursula Burke, Jack Pakenham and Gladys Maccabe, through purchase, gifts and donations.

  The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) gifted collection provides the context and foundation of the wider Ulster Museum art collection. It demonstrates contemporary artistic practice in the region across the past 40 years, not just through local artists work but also through the international – with artists who exhibited or worked here. It also reflects more than just the physical art, but maps the galleries and cultural activity of this place. Though it is one gift it represents two collections; the CEMA collection, formed in the early years of Northern Ireland’s existence and the ACNI collection, which began in the mid-1960s and as a result represents the artistic practice in relation to the conflict. Another area of strength is the number of works that connect to performance. It can be seen as a teaching collection as it teaches us about our own visual past.

  The fashion collection has several strengths. The historic fashionable dress section is especially strong in the 18th century. This includes an 18th-century court suit belonging to the 2nd Earl of Belvedere, a cut velvet and metal thread suit worn by the Black Rod of the Irish Houses of Parliament in 1751, and a rare court mantua gown. Additionally, the donation of the textile heiress Elizabeth Balfour Clark’s 1911 court dress and train has highlighted an emerging collection of court dress with the Ulster Museum. Also held are outfits of almost every year from the mid-18th century to the present day. The fashion dolls, which complement the historic garments, are the most important element of the childhood collection. However, it is the 20th-century haute couture and contemporary fashions which are the most distinctive elements of the fashion collection. Every designer of note is represented, from Poiret, Chanel and Dior to McQueen, Galliano and Westwood. High street retailers both physical and online are also represented.

  In terms of textiles there is a small but important collection of 18th-century bed furniture, mostly by named Irish embroiders. This includes the 1712 Lennox Quilt made by Martha Lennox, daughter of the Sovereign of Belfast, the Delany bedcover, a by Mary Delany, the well-connected 18th-century artist and epistolarian, and the Antrim bed furniture, a complete set worked by or under the supervision of Lady Helena McDonnell, 1705-83, daughter of the 4th Earl of Antrim. Important tapestries and other textile wall art include the 18th-century Pilgrimage to Mecca set by Paul Saunders, Arabesque by Joshua Morris and the mid-20th century Adam and Eve by Louis le Brocquy. Most important of all, however, are two large wall hangings, Océanie – Le Ciel and Océanie – La Mer, by the French artist Henri Matisse.

  The main strengths of the ceramics collection lie in British and European historic ceramics, Irish ceramics, Asian and the contemporary. The British and European historic collection comprehensively documents the development of pottery and porcelain from the late 16th century. The Irish collection, which has pieces dating from the 18th century is representative of all the major potteries in Ireland. There are significant and unique pieces of, amongst others, Dublin delftware by Henry Delamain, excavated material from the Downshire pottery, Belfast, Wade Irish Porcelain and one of the finest collections of First Period and Second Period Belleek porcelain. The Asian collection is a small but important element of the ceramic collection that puts the European pieces into context. This collection ranges from stoneware of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) through to early 20th century Japanese porcelain. The Ulster Museum, from 1982, pioneered a contemporary collecting policy within the ceramic field. As the only public collection of international contemporary ceramics in Ireland, it continues to form an extensive, comprehensive and inspiring record of the work of ceramic artists.

  The glass collection consists of mainly two areas. Firstly, the historic collection, which is made up of mainly English and Irish 18th and 19th-century glass. A highlight of this section is the group of 350 drinking glasses showing the development of such wares since the last quarter of the 17th century. There is, too, a comprehensive collection of decanters including many rare marked Irish pieces. Ireland was an important glass manufacturing region in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries and the collection reflects this. Each of the Irish factories is represented. Without doubt the most important piece in the Irish glass collection is the bowl and stand that was once owned by the Marquis of Bute. As one of the most spectacular pieces of Irish glass ever made it has no comparison in any public collection in Britain or Ireland. As with the ceramics collection, the Ulster Museum was innovative in its policy of collecting contemporary glass and this collection is unique in Ireland. With over 100 artworks, it is an internationally important collection that continues to chart new movements within the glass medium. The most significant work in the international contemporary glass collection is Azure Ice Crystal Sconce by Dale Chihuly, which is made up of elements cut at the Waterford Glass Factory.

  The jewellery collection is, except for recent contemporary acquisitions, almost exclusively the gift of Mrs Anne Hull Grundy, art and jewellery historian, who had Northern Irish connections. Comprising some 700 pieces, it dates from the 16th century to the 1930s, and includes the best existing collection of 19th-century Irish jewellery. Recent contemporary acquisitions include a Ring Set by Wendy Ramshaw and jewellery by Zoe Arnold, Jane Adams, Grainne Morton, Katy Hackney and Emmeline Hastings.

  The small, but significant furniture and wood collection comprises mainly Irish material, however, the earliest piece in the collection is an Italian marriage chest or cassone from the 16th century. The collection contains some very fine and important examples of Irish cabinet-making of the 18th century. As well as carved early mahogany pieces there are later 18th-century examples of the neo-classical style, including a side table by William Moore. Another significant example is a mirror dating from 1760 by Francis and John Booker of Dublin. The 20th century is represented by an elegantly designed and inlaid chest of drawers in the Art Deco style by James Hicks of Dublin and the only wood carved sculpture by Rosamund Praeger. Contemporary furniture includes work by Andrew Klimacki, Mary Little and Joseph Walsh

  The historic Irish silver collection has few equals. The earliest piece, the ‘Loftus Cup’, is engraved with the words ‘This silver-gilt cuppe was made of the great seale of Ireland in 1593, Adam Loftus being then Lord Chancellor….’. Seventeenth-century pieces include two fine porringers of 1685, a tankard of 1679 and a rosewater dish of 1658. The 18th-century collection is particularly strong, with all the styles and influences of the time represented. The single most important acquisition is the ‘Kildare Toilet Service’, a uniquely large and complete 28 piece silver-gilt toilet service, made for the dressing table of the wife of the 19th Earl of Kildare to celebrate the birth of their son. Made by David Willaume of London, it dates from 1720-22. The contemporary silver collection to is primarily Irish, with pieces by leading Irish silversmiths, however, the collection has recently expanded to include work by international silversmiths.

  History

  The History collections reflect evidence of people and events from the earliest settlers, through the main archaeological and historical periods and up to the present day. They also include significant material from various world cultures.

  Archaeology

  The archaeology collections span the time from the arrival of Ireland’s first Mesolithic settlers (c. 8000 BC) up to the later Medieval period (c. AD 1600). The vast majority of the collection is local but of note is the internationally significant material from the Spanish Armada wrecks of the Girona and La Trinidad Valencera. A smaller range of material from a number of the classical civilisations includes Rome and Greece and there is a dedicated gallery to finds from Egypt including the display of the mummified remains of Takabuti.

  During the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods the major flint and stone outcrops that occur in the northern part of Ireland is reflected in the substantial amounts of stone artefacts acquired. This includes the Malone Road hoard, Belfast, of exceptionally large Neolithic polished stone axes. Bronze Age tools and weapons are well represented and more unusual items are a pair of Bronze Age musical horns from Drumbest, near Ballymoney in Co. Antrim. Items acquired as a result of the Treasure Act (1996) have added to the variety of Bronze Age gold jewellery on display. In contrast, Iron Age material is rarer.

  The arrival of Christianity sees an array of new objects, some made specifically for the Church. The Museum’s active involvement in recovering material from the dredging of the River Blackwater which borders Co. Armagh and Tyrone added significantly to this aspect of the collections. It includes the 7th-century Clonmore shrine, Co. Armagh (a decorated receptacle to hold the relics of a Saint) along with evidence of Viking gold, silver and material raided from church sites.

  One of the most significant recent acquisitions is the 10th-century bronze hand bell from Ballyclog, Co. Tyrone (on display). It is one of the few bells associated with a Christian settlement that has connections to St. Patrick. Objects from settlement sites also increasingly feature as do the first signs of urbanisation including coinage. Moving towards the 1600s, part of the collections reflect the conflict and political relationships with England.

  World Cultures

  The World Cultures collection numbers some 4,500 items. It is closely linked to the history of the Ulster Museum and primarily covers material from the Arctic, Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand). Objects in the collection include baskets, masks, figures, tools and weapons, clothing and jewellery. One of the rarest items in the collection is a tapa cloth figure from Easter Island, one of only two other known examples in the world.

  Most items were acquired in the 19th and early 20th centuries, by members of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. The European bias and power imbalances that characterised this collecting leave a complex and sensitive legacy to address today. Whilst some material was acquired legitimately, the collection does include objects which present significant ethical issues. In light of the decolonisation agenda within museums, the implementation of a new approach to these collections is a priority for National Museums NI.

  Modern History

  The Modern History collections cover a range of objects relating to the political, social and economic history of Ireland, including archival materials (photographs, maps, paper ephemera), paintings, books, banners, costumes, weaponry, coins, banknotes, medals and tokens.

  The two centuries to 1700 were frequently punctuated by upheaval and war and yet these turbulent years saw the development of the modern economy. The conflicts of the era are reflected in the weapons and armour in the collection. Coins, trading tokens, printed material and religious items trace the rapid development of civilian life in the shadow of war. With political stability in the eighteenth century came rising prosperity, an enriched cultural life, and an appetite for new ideas. The artefacts in National Museums NI collection from this era reflect this growing wealth. Silverware, pottery, and jewellery speak to a new opulence. Pieces of regalia of the Order of St. Patrick, a dormant order of chivalry once as exalted as the Order of the Garter, are part of this collection. Growing inequality in society is demonstrated in ‘penal crosses’ and beggars’ badges.

  The late 18th century witnessed the American and French Revolutions, encouraging radical thought. The United Irishman’s rebellion in 1798 was eventually crushed, and the Act of Union was passed in its aftermath. The collection includes military uniforms, weapons, and personal belongings of significant figures involved in this struggle, including the sword and coat of Henry Joy McCracken, industrialist and revolutionary, and the death mask of agitator and organiser, James Hope. The industrial collection contains a wide range of engineering and linen-related material from this period, charting Ulster’s growth from a largely agrarian to industrial society. The Great Famine of the 1840s made the gulf between rich and poor all too apparent, and the collection holds famine tokens and cooking pots from this period.

  The Home Rule to Partition collection highlights this crisis period with examples of propaganda from both the Home Rule and Unionist campaigns, and artefacts and weapons from the Mountjoy II. The First World War prevented the Home Rule Act 1914 from being implemented, and the Easter Rising complicated an already difficult political situation. The collection includes a wide array of First War artefacts, including personal belongings and medals from both sides as well as objects from Ireland illustrating the rapid constitutional and social changes that were occurring. There are items from the Easter Rising and the partition of Ireland, and pieces that demonstrate the rising role of the women’s movement, and labour organisations. The significant Second World War collection includes uniforms, medals, and gas masks, as well as items related to Belfast’s wartime industry. The collection also reflects the political and social history of the 1950s and 60s with many political posters, objects relating to the civil rights movement and the wider cultural history including theatre and sporting memorabilia.

  Contemporary History

  The history of Northern Ireland from the late 1960s to the present day has been dominated by the civil and political conflict known as ‘the Troubles.’ The events that took place here after 1968 have impacted not just the people of Northern Ireland, but people across the world. The collection covers themes of politics and conflict, and the impact of both on everyday life, people and communities.

  The objects, photographs, political ephemera and artwork in the Troubles collection represent a wide range of experiences. The Troubles collection includes items directly associated with the conflict – a rubber bullet, improved explosive devices, firearms and a bomb disposal robot. There is a large collection of material associated with the Northern Ireland Prison Service as well as crafts and artwork created by prisoners in Armagh Women’s Gaol, HM Prison Maze and Magilligan. There are many emotive objects in the collection and those that remain contested in terms of significance and meaning amongst those who experienced the conflict.

  The contemporary history collection also includes objects that represent our wider social, cultural and economic history. The collection is a dynamic one and it continues to be developed and refined. Recently acquired items include George Best’s Northern Ireland football jersey, a puppet of Gerry Adams from the TV series Spitting Image, material relating to the life and career of Belfast-born actor James Ellis and a collection of Pride t-shirts dating from 1991 when the first march was held in Belfast.

  National Museums NI is committed to developing its approach to community history and our community history collection. This involves working with community partners to curate their history and ensuring our collection is more diverse and inclusive.

  Photography Collection

  National Museums NI holds a wide range of historic photographs most are in black and white and kept in print and negative format. The collection dates from around 1870 and represents commercial and social life, industrial and economic activity, street scenes and townscapes, transport and political and social events. Key collections include the Harland & Wolff Collection of shipyard photographs, bodies of work by W.A. Green, A.R. Hogg, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board collection and the Hackney Collection of First World War photographs charting the recruitment and training of the 36th Ulster Division in the First World War, and their journey to the Battle of the Somme and beyond.

  Other important collections include the work of Cecil Newman, describing local urban and road development in the 1960s and 1970s; the Garland collection, which records the aftermath of the Belfast Blitz, 1941, and the work of local home defence agencies; the Glass Album relating to the Land War in Gweedore, County Donegal, in the 1880s; the Douglas Sobey Collection relating to the LGBT movement in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and photojournalism dating from the 1970s by Martin Nangle, Bill Kirk and Frankie Quinn.

  National Museums NI maintains a large collection of lantern slides depicting social, economic, and industrial life in Ireland in the late 1800s and 1900s. A large photographic archive includes copies of major collections held elsewhere, such as the Annesly, Young, and Langham collections. The photographic collections also chart the development of photography itself. Our oldest photographs are daguerreotypes and calotypes from the dawn of the medium, and there is a collection of cameras, magic lanterns, and photographic equipment, dating from the 1850s onwards.

  Transport, Industry and Technology

  The Transport, Industry and Technology collections cover all forms of transport built or used in Ireland, from the late eighteenth century to the present day, and the industrial heritage of Ulster. The non-material collections comprise oral and aural histories giving an insight into transport and industry in Ireland and local people who have contributed to the development of transport around the world.

  The collection of non-commercial road vehicles reflects the innovations of local manufacturers such as Harry Ferguson and Crossle but also charts the development of the road users vehicle as a status symbol from the turf carts used on farms to the luxurious carriages belonging to James Shein to the streamlined Rolls Royce as well as more contemporary vehicles such as the DeLorean and Clan Clover. Included in the collection are a number of military vehicles that reflect the civil war in Ireland during the 1920s as well as the more recent Troubles. The commercial vehicles show how public transport has grown not only in Belfast but in more rural areas of Ulster. There is an extensive motorcycle and bicycle collection highlighting local innovators like Rex McCandless’ and his featherbed frame as well as local racing legends like Stanley Woods and endurance riders who gained notoriety for their sporting triumphs. The first cardiac ambulance in the world highlights emergency service vehicles, along with a number of fire engines.

  The rail collection is a comprehensive overview of the growth of the railways in Ireland and the technological developments that occurred throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes early steam engines that ran the lines in Donegal and Maebh, one of the largest engines to ever be seen on the Irish rail network. The innovation of the railbus and the popularity of the narrow gauge railway in Ireland are also important features of the collection. Included in this is the tram collection depicting early commuting in industrial Belfast at the turn of the century and their replacement by the trolleybuses.

  The maritime collection mainly consists of locally made vernacular vessels that depict life by the coast through fishing, transport and recreation such as currachs, rowing boats from the North coast and oyster boats from Galway. The merchant schooner Result is the largest boat and its local connections to Carrickfergus and fascinating story make it a highlight of the collection. The local links continue through objects associated with the RMS Titanic, built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff, and the important collection of ship plans depicting the shipbuilding heritage in Belfast from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.

  There is a strong local association with aviation through the Belfast Short Bros factory at Queens Island. A number of the aircraft in the collection were built by this company and some even tested over Belfast Lough such as the Shorts Sealand and the SC1, the first VTOL aircraft in the world. The local connections continue through replicas of Harry Ferguson’s monoplanes as well as a number of Miles aircraft which had a base out of Newtownards for a period after World War II.

  The industrial revolution is of particular significance to the northeast of Ireland, which became a world leader in a range of industries. These industries boosted the economy and employed many thousands of local people across generations, meaning that the experiences of industrial life are integral to individual and community identity and heritage. Professor WA McCutcheon, an industrial archaeologist, was the driving force behind the development of the industrial collection in the 1960s. Machinery and other material culture was accessioned into the permanent collection, including material from all of the major industries for which the northeast of Ireland was once renowned, such as linen production, heavy engineering, shipbuilding and rope making. Significant specimens include six stationary steam engines that exemplify power generation in the 19th century, a Columbian printing press donated by The Belfast Newsletter, and looms, spinning frames and beetling machines representing the hugely significant linen industry.

  Folk Life and Agriculture

  The museum’s material culture collection is in part a study collection, and in part a resource for the open-air museum. It contains important collections of agriculture, domestic life, crafts, community life and dress and textiles. The domestic life collection is a particular strength, thanks in part to the need to furnish the buildings in the open-air museum. So too is the collection of dress and textiles which represents excellence in technical skills, creativity in design and wear, industry in the factory and on the farm, and an appreciation of dress and textiles as folk art, over a period of almost three hundred years in Ulster. There are rich agricultural collections including early seed winnows, threshers, ploughs, horse and farming-related material and an extensive spade collection highlighting the regional varieties.

  Costume and Textiles

  The collection of dress and textiles includes over 30,000 objects, the result of almost 60 years of fieldwork, research and acquisitions. It is the largest public collection of dress and textiles in Ireland and one of the largest of its kind in any open-air museum in the British Isles. One of the core strengths of the collection is dress and textiles from the period 1840 -1910, linens that reflect the growth of power loom weaving in Ireland, and both finished and working examples of whitework embroidery and lace.

  One of the earliest pieces in the textile collection is a panel of lace for a child’s bonnet, believed to date from the early eighteenth century. The most recent acquisitions include examples of contemporary millinery, and a patchwork wall hanging made during the 2020 Covid 19 lockdown to celebrate the work of the NHS.

  The collection covers a very wide area of dress and textiles but some of the more significant collections include:

  • A collection of wedding dresses, from 1850 to 1990
  • A collection of regalia for brotherhoods in Ireland (including the Orange Order) from the mid-1800s to present day.
  • A collection of almost 100 objects for Irish Dance from the 1930s to the present day.
  • A large college of household linens 1790 to mid-1900s, including those produced by named manufacturers
  • A collection of over 400 examples of Irish lace from the mid-1800s to mid1900s
  • A collection of patchwork bedcovers and hangings illustrating a wide range of techniques and patterns, from the early 1800s to the present day

  Sound Archive

  A non-material culture collection is held within the museum’s sound archive, largely stored on cassette or reels, although significant efforts are being made to digitise it. It is an extensive collection of recordings spanning transport, industry, crafts, folklore, language, traditional music and song. Whilst the bulk of the collection was amassed in-house by museum curators, some collections were acquired from external sources.

  Photography Collection

  The Ulster Folk Museum holds significant photographic collections capturing the way of life in Ireland, mainly Ulster c. 1850-1930, from notable photographers such as W. A. Green. Substantial in-house archive photography captured the history, activities and events of the Ulster Folk Museum from the early 1960s onwards. In addition to still images, the museum has collected moving images in the form of film over the years. This material is currently being digitised to enable researchers to view this historical portal to our past. In collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen, the museum is an access point to the “Digital Film Archive” that provides, via a computer station, 70 hours of digitised moving images about Northern Ireland from 1897-2000.

  Library and Paper Archive

  The library and paper archive deals with the subject matter of the museum. The library contains about 25,000 books and many periodicals, covering a wide range of topics from cookery to local history, from costumes to early motor cars. It includes a considerable collection of international journals concerned mainly with folklore and ethnology, many of which cannot be found elsewhere in the province. The archives have an equally wide scope, containing reminiscences, linguistic and folklore material, transport material, maps, plans and much more. Collections include the open-air museum buildings archive, folklife questionnaire collection and papers pertaining to notable individuals including Estyn Evans, Richard Hayward, George Thompson and Alan Gailey.

  Languages of Ulster Archive

  The Ulster Dialect Archive contains published and unpublished wordlists and glossaries that document the distinctive speech of the people of the area that comprises the old nine-county Ulster. Within that area, three principal dialect areas are generally distinguished. The first is Ulster-Scots (sometimes called ‘Scotch-Irish’). The second is Mid-Ulster English (also described as ‘Northern Hiberno-English’ or ‘Ulster Anglo-Irish’). The third is the speech of those areas where Irish Gaelic is either still in use or has died out relatively recently. Most of the material in the archive is in the form of the written or printed word. However, a significant proportion is found within the museum’s sound archive. The paper-based dialect archive contains several manuscript collections, notably the Sir John Byers glossary (c. 1910), the Montgomery manuscript (County Antrim dialect, 1961), and the Huddleston manuscript (Ulster-Scots poetry and prose). Published collections include the donated Ulster-Scots library of Professor Robert J Gregg (1912-1998) and many now rare and out-of-print works. Much of the material in the collections have been electronically captured on a dictionary database. PDF copies of this dictionary are available for download either is a whole or by alphabetic letter.

  Emigration

  The Emigration collections relate to the interpretation of people in new places and are concerned primarily with social history surrounding the migration of people from Ulster and their settlement in North America from 1600 to the present day. These collections include: Ulster and American domestic miscellanea, textiles and costume; Ulster and American furniture, craft tools and agricultural implements; and, emigrant related buildings and associated building maintenance materials and fittings, drawings, photographs and other records.

  Natural Sciences

  The Natural Sciences collections show particular emphasis on the botany, geology and zoology of the north of Ireland but also include material of international provenance:

  The Zoology collection holds examples of every mammal species living in Northern Ireland today, and skeletons of whales and dolphins that have washed up on these shores. The collection contains more than 2000 mammal mounts, skins, and skeletons. The finest of these are on display, while many more form an important reference collection. More than 300 bird species are known from Northern Ireland, and the collections include mounts of nearly all of them. Many were prepared in the early 20th century by the famous Sheals taxidermists of Belfast.

  There are more invertebrates in the collection than all the other specimens combined. Most of the insect specimens are from the UK and Ireland, but many are from further afield. Among them are the exceptional collections of Morpho and Parnassius butterflies. There is also a significant collection of other invertebrates, particularly snails, from across Ireland.

  The geology collection includes around 30,000 fossils, 11,000 mineral specimens, 4,000 rocks, and a growing collection of meteorites. Highlights of the fossil collection. include the only dinosaur bones ever found in Ireland, an Edmontosaurus skeleton and Giant Deer bones. The minerals collection includes examples of those first found in Northern Ireland – Larnite, Garronite, and Gobbinsite. In the rocks collection is iconic Mournes granite and Cushendun ‘pebble beds’, as well as the 1780 million year-old Inishtrahull gneiss, the oldest rock in Ireland. There is a small, but representative, collection of meteorites, including several that fell in Northern Ireland. Among them is a 113kg iron meteorite, spectacular slices of ‘stony iron’ pallasites, a small Lunar meteorite, and many small pieces from the great Russian meteorite fall of 2013.

  The herbarium started modestly—an alga, collected from a ‘boghole’ in Co. Donegal in 1815. From there it has grown, with many types of plants represented in a collection of more than 100,000 specimens. The collection includes mosses and liverwort; seaweeds and pondweeds; ferns, flowers, shrubs and trees; fungi, lichen and slime moulds.

  Related material includes a collection of manuscripts, drawings and contemporary wildlife art paintings, early and/or rare natural sciences books, transparencies and photographs, and data generated through fieldwork.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC