Collection: Nottingham Museums

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The museums which compose Nottingham City Museums & Galleries have been acquiring objects since before 1867 when the Natural History museum was established. The collections range across many disciplines; Costume and Textiles (with an emphasis on lace), Decorative and Fine Art, Antiquities and Archaeology, Social and Industrial history, world cultures and items associated with Newstead Abbey (especially those relating to the poet – 6th Lord Byron). Also collected are all aspects of Natural History; Geology, Zoology and Botany. Many items have a strong local ( and Nottinghamshire) provenance. The city’s collection currently consists of over 100,000 humanities objects and in excess of half a million natural history specimens.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  HUMANITIES

  Costume & Textiles

  The has collected lace since before it opened in 1878, this being the principal manufacturing industry for which the town was world famous. The initial aim was to provide inspiration for designers and to put local textiles, particularly lace, into a world-wide historical context. From the early 1960’s onwards costume was collected with the aim, eventually fulfilled in 1973, of opening a dedicated museum (closed 2003).

  There are five main collections:

  • Lace: machine-made and hand-made: Designated in 2014, along with the associated machinery (q.v.); a nationally significant collection with unrivalled coverage of machine-made lace including the earliest known surviving pieces dating to 1768. This is adequately contextualised by a good selection of hand-made lace and costume made or trimmed with lace additionally supported by an excellent selection of lace machinery in the Industrial collection. There are over 8000 records for lace but this represents in excess of 50,000 samples as many are contained within manufacturers pattern books.
  • Costume: men’s, women’s, children’s c.1700 onwards comprising over 12,000 items, the majority being higher status women’s clothing as that is what commonly survives – material is not specifically local as there was no “regional” style.
  • Embroideries: The collection has some 2000 items incorporating “needlework”. 16^th and 17^th century embroidery is well represented by the superb Middleton Collection (on loan to the castle museum since 1883). A large selection of 19^th century samplers has been acquired.
  • Textiles: woven, printed, knitted: was a hosiery centre before it was a lace centre and products of it stocking frames have been actively sought.
  • Non-British costume and textiles (responsibility for curation of purely ethnographic material now passed to World Cultures)
  • In addition there are six subsidiary collections:

  • Accessories carried in the hand or on the person
  • Accessories connected with the putting on, taking off and care of costumes
  • Tools used in needlework, textile crafts and home industries
  • Source material: fashion books and plates, magazines, photographs
  • Dolls and dolls’ clothing
  • Furniture (closed – had been acquired solely for dressing room sets at the Costume museum, much now disposed of)

  Decorative Art

  A rich resource containing some of the Museum’s finest items. Objects were acquired from 1873 onwards under Henry Cole’s founding vision to inspire local designers – these ceramics, glass, metalwork, furniture and jewellery, are part of the history of design as well of craftsmanship and are becoming increasingly important for their social historical context.

  The majority of pieces date from the 17th century onwards though there are a few (46) mainly late medieval items, mostly pottery. The collection covers a wide range of hand-made and industrially made domestic, household and personal objects of mainly British origin with some significant European and a handful of Oriental items.

  There are five main collections:

  • Ceramics: Pottery comprises over half the collection. Significant elements are the Salt-glaze stoneware which has a close association with and the Wedgwood collection (1400 pieces of jasperware). Alongside the Ballantyne loan collection active collecting of contemporary studio pottery has continued since the early 1980s.
  • Glass: 612 glass items principally 19th Century Venetian and 18th Century English. Comparable collections of Venetian (Salviati) glass are found only in Edinburgh, Paris and Berlin.
  • Metalwork: dating from the 17th century onwards, the 282 British items include work in a variety of different metals including silver, iron, pewter etc. The precious metalwork is limited to silver and silver gilt – the most important being the Gibbs collection of Georgian domestic silver. The wrought iron gates etc. have strong local provenance.
  • Jewellery: 423 pieces mainly British and European jewellery dating mainly from the 17th century to the present day. It consists primarily of “designer” jewellery, but also includes some costume jewellery.
  • Contemporary crafts: around 200 objects incorporating many aspects of the above with works by important British designers of the past 30 years

  There are three subsidiary collections:

  • Clocks, watches and barometers: Locally manufactured pieces (214).
  • Furniture and woodwork. A small selection of 17^th – 19^th century British and Continental furniture, displayed as part of room sets at Wollaton Hall and Newstead Abbey. Woodwork – there are panels, bench ends, boxes, parts of screens and beams a number of which are of local significance
  • Small decorative objects (tortoiseshell, enamel, etc.)

  Fine Art

  Founded on large bequests, this collection ranges across British and European oil paintings, water-colours, drawings, prints and sculpture. Works date from the 11th century to the present day. The following are the main collecting themes:

  • Alabaster Carvings; though only few in number (21) this is the most important collection of such sculpture outside of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nottingham is strongly associated with the manufacture and trade in alabasters in the 14th and 15th centuries.
  • European (Non-British) Oil Paintings (109); mostly Dutch and Northern European it has a good representative selection of genre, still-life and landscape works – of particular local importance is Jan Siberechts’ View of Nottingham from the East [NCM 1977-515]
  • British Art 1700-1900, the majority of the collection falls into this category represented by over 4000 oils, watercolours, etchings, drawings, prints etc. It includes some 155 examples of the works of the born artists Thomas and Paul Sandby. Richard Parkes Bonington is represented by 140 works. Landscapes include examples of the work of Wilson, Barrett, Turner, Girtin and Cotman and a small group of oils by George Morland.
  • Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Topography and work by Local Artists. Responsibility is currently divided between Social History (800) and Fine Art (169) the former holding items primarily of historical interest. The latter has the only major public collection of works by significant artists of the 19th and 20th centuries; Thomas Barber, John Rawson Walker and Henry Dawson. It also tells the story of the rise of as a provincial art centre.
  • Modern and Contemporary Works. Over 500 works including important pieces by William Nicholson his son Ben and Ben’s wife Winifred; oil paintings and works on paper by locally born artist Dame Laura Knight; representative pieces of the modernist school by Edward Burra, Edward Wadsworth and Tristram Hillier and a selection of pieces by Mathew Smith, L.S. Lowry, Ivon Hitchens and Stanley Spencer along with a small group of sculptures by Jacob Epstein. Recently significant collections of Fine Art Photography and Textiles and items of contemporary sculpture have been acquired through participation in the Contemporary Art Society “Special collections scheme” and through the Society’s “Commission to Collect” Award.

  Human History

  “Archaeological specimens and relics” were listed among the “objects desired” by the in 1878, building on a small but important collection of medieval pottery donated to the Midland Counties Art Exhibition in 1874. With rare exceptions (Nemi and ) the present collections resulted from chance finds, gifts or purchases from collectors. They now consist of several major collecting areas; archaeology, numismatics, military, arms and armour, locks and keys. The most significant collections are those of artefacts from the at Nemi, local archaeology and numismatics.

   

  • Archaeology (international); of at Nemi near the collection of 1612 objects (principally votives, coins and architectural fragments) is of outstanding importance for the study of early Roman religion – several of the exhibits are internationally famous.
  • Archaeology (local); 6232 records including lower Palaeolithic groups (important evidence for settlement in the , c. 200,000 years ago). The finest collection of Bronze Age weapons in the Midlands, nearly all from the near Nottingham – also two log boats from . Significant early Anglo-Saxon material includes grave goods from and pottery from the earliest settlement of . Late Saxon and medieval finds from , especially the site of and Castle. Medieval and early post-medieval pottery, regionally very important and one of the best collections in . 214 recent Archaeological Site Archives have or will be deposited.
  • Numismatics; 8467 items of which coins (7057), local tokens (396) and medals (843) are the principal elements. Local Roman and Medieval hoards form the backbone of the coin collections.
  • Military: holdings from the volunteer and local militia periods of several Nottinghamshire units; including uniforms, weapons, badges and books; 1799-1814; the Loyal Nottingham Volunteers, Nottingham Local Militia, Nottingham Volunteer Rangers, and Notts. Yeomanry Cavalry. 1859-1908; Robin Hood Rifle Volunteer Corps, 4th Notts. Rifle Volunteers and Sherwood Rangers. 1944-1945; 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment (82^nd Airborne Div.) when based at Wollaton Hall.Arms and Armour, Firearms; (512) A miscellaneous collection of Arms and Armour – the majority (Japanese) have been transferred to World Cultures. Firearms with local military associations account for half of the holdings. Licensed firearms from local amnesties are also kept.
  • Locks and Keys; (351) A remarkably comprehensive collection from the Roman period to early 20th century it contain items of great rarity. Mostly given by a local collector. It includes many high quality local, British, European and non-European examples.

  Industry & Technology

  The collecting of industrial objects began with the acquisition of lace machinery items in 1878. By the 1970s’ the collecting base was very broad and covered a wide range of technological subjects (not exclusively of local interest) and a separate museum had been opened to house them.

  • Lace Machinery; 700 plus items – part of the Designated collection, it has some of the earliest lace machinery built in the country including models by John Heathcoat and John Leavers. Other lace machines built in are held along with associated equipment used in the various processes of lace-making.
  • Hosiery and Machine Knitting; a small collection of 73 items including stocking frames from which the earliest lace machines were derived. Collecting is restricted to items with strong local significance.
  • Transport, Bicycles; 300 objects with special emphasis on the company of and including the associated firm of Sturmey Archer. A number of cycles of other makes are held to show general technological development.
  • Telecommunications; representing the development of the telephone to the present day. Mainly products made by the Ericsson/Plessey company of Beeston (). The collection also includes exchanges, engineers’ equipment and telegraphy material. There is a large archive comprising Ericsson’s collection of glass negatives, photographs, design drawings, in-house journals and press material (571 items).
  • Tobacco Industry; large machinery used to manufacture cigarettes in Nottingham. Cigarette vending machines are also held.
  • Transport: Cars, Motorcycles; comprised of a number of made cars and motorcycles. The car collection has a unique 1904 Celer, a Raleigh Safety Seven and a Brough Superior saloon. The motorcycle collection includes machines by Raleigh, Campion and Brough.
  • Business Machinery; This consists chiefly of a collection of typewriters (134) from the 1890s’ to 1970s’. The Nottingham firm of Bar-Lock is well represented although there are examples from most of the larger typewriter manufacturers in Nottingham.
  • Pharmaceuticals; Manufacturing equipment made and used by the Boots company and other local chemical manufacturing firms.
  • Engineering; Machine Tools, Mechanical engineering, Civil engineering and Prime Movers – the last category having the largest item in the collection, the Basford Beam Engine.
  • Printing; A number of different types of printing presses are held in this collection which has special reference to the H.S. Cropper and Cropper Charlton companies of Nottingham. Other items held are associated with the industry – 184 items.

  Subsidiary collections contain items relating to electrical and precision engineering, domestic photography, domestic electrical equipment, agriculture, coal mining, smithing, time keeping, woodworking and waterways.

  Newstead Abbey

  The collections at Newstead Abbey have been determined by the history of the house and its inhabitants. Founded as an Augustinian priory, following the Dissolution the estate was acquired by the Byron family. In 1818 the property was sold by the 6th Lord Byron to Thomas Wildman. Acquired by William Webb in 1861 ownership passed to his grandson Charles Ian Fraser who sold Newstead to Sir Julien Cahn for presentation to Nottingham Corporation in 1931. From then until 1973 the Abbey was administered by the City Librarian. The central themes of the collection are:

  • Newstead Priory; archival and archaeological material.
  • Byron Family; archival material, furniture, paintings, family portraits, memorabilia.
  • 6th Lord Byron; memorabilia including furniture, books, correspondence portraits, pictures, prints, costume and other personal belongings and documents. Prominent amongst these are; the Pigot Collection containing autograph letters from Byron to members of the Pigot family, all dating from his adolescence and early manhood in Nottinghamshire and the 1937 Roe-Byron Collection of more than 1200 items. Consisting of books, manuscripts, pictures, prints and other material relating to the poet – a unique record of the state of Byron scholarship to 1923. It contains one of only four known copies of the poet’s first published book, Fugitive Pieces.
  • Wildman and Webb Families; portraits, books, furniture, armour, pictures, prints, photographs, correspondence, household accounts and visitors’ books, also the Goodlake Collection of Crimean War memorabilia.
  • Architectural and Garden History of Newstead; prints, pictures, drawings, architectural plans and elevations, correspondence and other archival material.
  • History of the Newstead Estate; archival material including estate maps, site plans, sale catalogues, manuscripts and correspondence.
  • Historic interiors; in order to interpret Newstead Abbey as an historic house a programme for the recreation of the interiors was initiated. Efforts have been made to acquire furniture, furnishings, fittings, decorations etc. known to be original to the house (or items sufficiently similar). Also documentary evidence of the historic interiors, such as drawings, water-colours, photographs, inventories and other contemporary descriptions. Together these form around 1/10^th of the collection.

  Social History

  A large, broad and diverse collection of around 30,000 objects the purpose of which is to illustrate the rich and varied history of Nottingham and its people from 1600 to the present day. Items of social historical interest had accumulated at the Castle since 1878. Subsequently collected systematically from the late 1960s’ efforts culminated with the opening of a dedicated museum at Brewhouse yard in 1977. The bulk of the collections held cover the period 1870-1950 with “greater ” the geographical focus. They can be broadly categorized under four headings:

  • Community Life (including Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, religion, calendar customs, rites of passage, government, law and order, education, organizations, wartime, newspapers and topographical views).
  • Domestic Life (buildings, cooking, furnishings, fixtures, gardening, heating, housekeeping, laundering, pastimes, sport and sanitation)
  • Personal Life (including child rearing, medical, finance, personal records, reading and writing, smoking and tobacco, shaving and personal toilet)
  • Working Life (items relating to work which is hand-powered and workshop-based – as opposed to machine-powered and factory-based as collected by Industry). Trades and professions are well represented by objects ranging in scale from small items to entire shops; Architects, baking, brewing, chemists, dentists, hair dressers etc. Also collected are the end products of many local firms. A notable collection is the large “John Player tobacco Advertising Archive” of packaging, point-of-sale and press advertising, posters, promotional material, original artwork, etc. relating to the products of the firm from the 19th century to the 1980s’.

  World Cultures

  Nottingham museums hold over 4,500 ethnographical items – the largest such collection in the East Midlands. The collections are varied and contain much good material. However representation is somewhat unbalanced reflecting individual collectors interests in specific aspects (such as weapons and pottery). Significant amongst these collectors is local antiquarian W.J. Thompson. The largest groups are from:

  • Nigeria; 286 items (including 100 early pottery vessels), most acquired from an unknown source in 1878.
  • The Pacific; Oceania etc. approximately 1000 pieces received mainly from W. Fillingham-Parr in 1887 and W.J. Thompson in 1952 – paddles, clubs spears and arrow heads being strongly represented
  • India; collecting commenced with the purchase of fine Indian leather and metalwork ( workshops) from the 1878 Paris Exhibition.
  • Burma; mainly Buddhist figurines acquired in 1889.
  • China; fine silks transferred from Costume & Textiles.
  • Japan; around 500 pieces – chiefly the Japanese arms and armour given in 1921 by Sir Frank Bowden.
  • Peru; 200 pieces of Chimu pottery once thought to date from 800-1532 subsequent research has indicated a far more recent origin is likely.
  • North America; 244 items representing some of the indigenous North American Nations of the USA and Canada.

  Wollaton Hall

  A small collection of items relating directly to the Grade 1 listed Hall, buildings and estate. This includes fixtures (wall paintings on the Hall North and South Stairs) the 18^th century Organ, curtain rails, candelabra and architectural “salvage” (e.g. fireplaces removed during the conversion of the hall to a Museum in 1926).

  NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS

  The Natural History Museum was founded in 1867 as the town’s first public museum. The collections were used as the basis for the teaching of natural history at the (established shortly thereafter) and as such were developed to include examples from all the major animal, plant and geological groups. This has led to NCMG having one of the most comprehensive of regional collections. The link with university was severed with the removal of the collection to storage and subsequently the establishment of a dedicated Natural History Museum at Wollaton Hall in 1926. It finally joined with the in 1952.

  Geology (Rocks, Minerals Fossils)

  Comprising 50,000 fossils, 4,000 minerals, 3,500 rocks. A comprehensive collection of British fossils and rocks and minerals from around the world – the geology collections has been a major component of the Natural History Museum since its creation. Several large, high quality acquisitions greatly augmented the collection during 1870s’ when the Carrington, Mello and Hollier fossil collections were added. Further important fossil collections from Rev. Chamberlin (British Fossils) and Professor Swinnerton (Permo-Triassic footprints) came In the 20th century.

  The mineral collections were amassed from individual purchases from the early 1880s; the Davy mineral and later the Gilman rock and mineral collections were added early in the 20th century, and the useful Crowther mineral collection was donated in 1954. Strengths of the collection are:

  • Nottinghamshire Upper Carboniferous plant fossils; this is a very important collection as complete plant fossils are now very rare because of mechanized quarrying methods.
  • Nottinghamshire Permo-Triassic reptile/amphibian footprints.
  • Nottinghamshire Lower Jurassic vertebrate fossils.
  • British Carboniferous Coal and Silurian fossils.
  • Nottinghamshire Pleistocene animal and plant fossils, including the famous cave deposit specimens from Creswell and Pleasley.

  Vertebrate Zoology

  The Museum has “a very fine collection of display mounts and taxidermy.” Over 6,000 individual vertebrate specimens ranging from complete horse skeletons to small bat skulls. The majority are mounts, study skins or osteological preparations but some are preserved in spirit. Around 80%, are from overseas, with 20% from and . Some specimens were given to us by the (Natural History). Also acquired was a sizeable collection of vertebrate material from the Royal Liverpool Institute in the 1890s’. In the 1920s’ the museum acquired the Mansfield Parkyns collection of Ethiopian birds dating from the 1840s; and in 1945 the “Welbeck Collection” of mounted birds. Many individual specimens were bought from the best taxidermist companies, such as Rowland Ward and Edward Gerrard.

  Strengths:

  • Birds; this collection is especially varied and includes many high quality diorama displays.
  • Local fish mounts and dioramas; important to the local angling community because they include several important angling records.
  • Large African Mammals including Cheetah, Leopard, Giraffe and Gorilla.
  • Extinct species; such as the Passenger Pigeon and many rare species which are now impossible to obtain such as the Duck-billed Platypus, Argus Pheasant, Kakapo, Kiwi, Kea etc.
  • Birds’ eggs collections, in excess of 16,500 specimens, containing British, European and local material, some of which contain items from lost great collections.

  Invertebrate Zoology (Insects)

  340,000 specimens (65% British & European, 35% foreign). The Fowler, Hunter and Carr collections are nationally important. In general a very comprehensive collection covering most groups however local collections are incomplete at the species level, and the world-wide collections are incomplete at the family level in some groups and in geographical and habitat coverage. Strengths of the collection are:

  • Examples from many famous collectors, travellers and international experts especially from the 19th century.
  • The Fowler Coleoptera collection is significant because Canon Fowler wrote the standard work on British Beetles in the 1880s, with many of the illustrations based on specimens from this large collection. The original illustrations are also held.
  • Crowfoot Lepidoptera collection includes many rare specimens.
  • The British and Nottinghamshire Hymenoptera and the Hunter Diptera collections are especially good for a non-national museum.
  • The Nottinghamshire collections of most orders are a permanent record of the wildlife found in the county over the years.
  • The systematic display collections are still of interest as they set British and European species in the context of their foreign counterparts.
  • The Bragg collection of Stick Insects is noteworthy because it represents the work of a locally-based international expert in the field.

  Invertebrate Zoology (Non-insect)

  52,000 specimens (10% British & European, 90% foreign). A comprehensive local and world-wide collection of shells (which along with beetles and butterflies, were one of the main enthusiasms of Victorian naturalists) plus a moderately comprehensive collection of spiders and other arachnids. Again the original teaching purpose of the collection has ensured that there are at least a few examples of many of the animal groups within this section.

  Strengths:

  • Nottinghamshire molluscs, including specimens from C.T. Musson, the county’s shell expert in the 19th century;
  • J.W. Carr’s collections Nottinghamshire spiders and other invertebrates which support many of his own field records;
  • Marshall Collection of shells, which includes British species, importantly – and unusually – in all stages of development, and world-wide species from Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia;
  • The Pitchford collection of British shells.
  • Blaschka glass models of coral, jellyfish and other marine invertebrates acquired 1887-1890 from the famous father and son team of Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka of Dresden.

  Botany

  Originating with field collections, themselves augmented through exchange with other botanists around the country, also by donation and purchase. This was supplemented by much field collecting throughout the and by the Curator Professor Carr, especially from Nottinghamshire. Most of the Botany collections are significant and they include the important Carr and Fisher Antarctic material and some early herbaria. At least 100,000 specimens (roughly 65% British & European, 35% foreign), a very comprehensive collection of flowering plants, ferns, mosses, fungi, algae and seaweeds, etc. from Nottinghamshire and around the world.

  Strengths:

  • Early herbaria; Edward Lhwyd’s herbarium and a ‘Hortus Siccus’. made by Richard Newdigate both dating to the 1690s.
  • Carr herbarium of Nottinghamshire plants, a well provenanced collection closely linked to Carr’s records and unpublished flora and mostly collected by him.
  • British herbarium, a comprehensive collection of most British plant species, including many Irish locations.
  • The E.M. Holmes Collection of Lichens is comprehensive and of increasing value as lichens start to recolonize areas such as Nottinghamshire.
  • The Fisher herbarium covers Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and much of the British Isles, and is notable for the extensive bramble and rose section which is of increasing interest to plant geneticists (supported by notebooks).
  • Fisher material includes Arctic specimens collected during the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition of the 1890s.
  • Foreign Herbarium, holds many specimens from Europe and around the world, mostly as typical species from several continents, containing material from foreign dealers and botanists this collection contains specimens back to the 1790s.

  SUPPORT COLLECTIONS

  Objects of all types which are not part of the permanent collections but are acquired or produced to support public or museum activities such as handling sessions, furnishing for displays and reproductions or for reference purposes. Most departments have a quantity of such items – the largest belongs to Social History which classifies over one third of its collection as “NAS” (Non-accessioned stock). It is recognized that these objects may have a limited life span or relevance to the Museum and their long term retention may be uneconomic. Therefore objects acquired for these purposes are accounted for separately and not necessarily subject to the high standards of care and documentation that govern the treatment of objects in the permanent collections.

  School Loans collection

  This collection came to Nottingham Museums from the local education authority in 2003. The majority of the collection is un-provenanced and is neither Accessioned or Registered. It is administered by the Learning & Engagement team as “Access Artefacts”. Themes include: Community, Domestic, family and working life, Ethnography and Natural History.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2023

  Licence: CC BY-NC