Collection: Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The National Museum of Wales was founded by Royal Charter in 1907. The first collections were those of the Cardiff Municipal Museum (originally founded in 1868) which were transferred to the new National Museum in 1912. The Cardiff Museum held some significant collections, particularly the Menelaus collection of contemporary European art and the Pyke Thompson collection of art and European porcelain. The collection also contained a set of casts of early medieval Welsh stonework and other archaeology, art, social and natural history items.

  Since its foundation the Museum has been active and innovative in collecting and in developing its collections as well as creating a portfolio of museum sites across Wales in which to display and make its collections accessible. The original Museum comprised six collecting departments: Antiquities and History; Geology and Mineralogy; Botany; Zoology; Art; Industries. Collecting aimed to be encyclopaedic in its nature during these years with early significant collections acquired through donation, bequest and loan. Some exceptional collections began as loans to the Museum, including the internationally important collection of impressionist art and sculpture lent, and later bequeathed, by sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. Other collections include the John Dillwyn Llewelyn collection of early photographs and the Rippon collection of insects, shells and minerals acquired in 1918. In 1930 the Museum of Antiquities, Caerleon, and its important Roman collections were transferred to the Museum by the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association.

  The 1940s and 50s were an exceptional period of growth with the Museum accepting some major donations and bequests. Significant was the donation in 1946 by the Earl of Plymouth of St Fagans Castle, its gardens and parkland, for the creation of an open-air Museum. The Llyn Cerrig Bach hoard of Iron Age metalwork was recovered and donated during construction of a wartime airfield on Anglesey. Major bequests including Sir William Goscombe John’s collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture and the Melvill-Tomlin collection of molluscs, associated library and papers. In 1958, the Museum also established its archive of oral testimonies, traditions and dialects based at St Fagans.

  The 1960s saw the re-erection of several historic buildings at St Fagans, including the farmhouse from Kennixton, Gower. Since then collections have been developed through Museum research projects. Amongst these are the significant Neanderthal fossils from excavations at Pontnewydd Cave and finds from the discovery and excavation of a new Viking Age site on Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey and the Bangor University insect collection. Natural Science collections have developed in areas including marine and off-shore habitat mapping. Research into the Welsh Lower Palaeozoic palaeontology and the hard rocks has also resulted in new items being accessioned into the Museum collections.

  In 1984 the Museum was lent the Derek Williams collection of twentieth century art and money from his estate was used to establish a trust for its continued development and enhancement. This has resulted in the acquisition of significant new art works into the Museum and the development and strengthening of the contemporary art collections.

  Other key acquisitions have been purchased following their designation as Treasure Trove (since 1996) or Treasure. These include the Civil War coin hoard from Tregwynt, Pembrokeshire and the Burton hoard of Bronze Age metalwork.

  In 1999 the Big Pit colliery and its associated collections were transferred into the care of the Museum. This has enabled the existing industrial collections of small coal mining items to be placed back into their original context in displays at the Big Pit.

  Collecting for the Museum is increasingly being undertaken by our visitors and members of the public. Some of these come through new discoveries from across Wales, for example, a new species of Jurassic dinosaur Dracoraptor hanigani discovered near Penarth in 2014. A changed remit for St Fagans National History Museum now focuses collecting around new collaborative projects with communities and other third sector organisations. One aim of such projects is to improve the social history collections in specific areas. For example a project with MenCap Cymru is resulting in the recording and acquisition of new items concerning the history of some of the former mental health hospitals across Wales.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2016

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales is the national repository of three-dimensional material relating to Wales’s natural and created heritage and culture, and of international material that helps to define Wales’s place in the world. It is the leading museum body in Wales; the collections, numbering in excess of 4 million specimens or groups, and the academic standards and scholarship of the staff have a national and international reputation.

  The breadth and quality of many of our collections in the humanities and sciences alike make us unique amongst U.K. national museums. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales differs from the other national museums and galleries in the U.K. by the range of our disciplines – wider than any apart perhaps from the Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland – and by the number of different sites operated. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales fulfils for Wales the functions of all the London-based National Museums and Galleries, and hold the collections in trust for the people of Wales.

  Art

  The Art collection comprises works of fine and applied art from antiquity to the present. The emphasis on art from Wales is complemented by strong holdings of other British art and certain aspects of European art, with some wider international representation.

  The particular strengths of this collection are:

  • Outstanding French Realist, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and sculpture by Rodin and his contemporaries.
  • Other European oil paintings from the Renaissance to the 20th century (relatively small in number but most of very high quality).
  • British art of the 18th , 19th and 20th centuries.
  • The ‘New Sculpture’ of the late 19th century.
  • Contemporary art.
  • A comprehensive collection of art by Welsh artists from the 18th century to the present, including substantial bodies of work by Richard Wilson, Thomas Jones, John Gibson, Penry Williams, Augustus John, Gwen John, David Jones and Ceri Richards.
  • Graham Sutherland’s personal collection.
  • Work by John Piper.
  • Portraits of Welsh sitters in various media.
  • Welsh topographical and landscape art.
  • A large and wide-ranging collection of works of art on paper.
  • Historic photography, including portraiture, and collects lens-based contemporary art.
  • Pottery and porcelain made in the south Wales factories between the 1760s and the 1920s.
  • Eighteenth century continental porcelain and English-made wares from the late medieval period to the present.
  • English silver from the Renaissance to the mid-19th century, including major pieces for Welsh patrons.
  • A growing collection of modern and contemporary applied art, especially ceramics and silver.

  Social and Cultural History

  The Social and cultural history collections range from re-erected historic buildings to oral testimony recorded in the field. Historically the Museum focused on collecting examples of architecture from Wales that represented domestic building types and constructional techniques. Welsh Vernacular furniture, furnishings, items relating to domestic life, commerce, medicine, law and order, and textile collections dating from the 16th century to present all form a significant collection.

  Specific collection strengths are:

  • Historical buildings: 2 in situ buildings – one of which is a Grade 1 listed building – and over 60 buildings which have been dismantled and re-erected on site. This includes a good collection of farmhouses and cottages, small rural industrial/craft buildings and barns. Also good representative examples of regional (domestic) building types and constructional techniques.
  • Commerce: mainly business and trade materials.
  • Collections relating to medicine, law and order and ecclesiastical items.
  • Vernacular furniture: the finest collection in the UK, as well as a notable collection of horological items.
  • Costume and textile collections, dating from the 16th century to the present day, including both fashionable and everyday wear, occupational clothing and accessories of all types.
  • Domestic Life: a comprehensive collection of cooking, dairying equipment, household appliances, tableware, ornaments and furnishing fabrics.
  • Agriculture: agricultural tools, vehicles and machinery dating from the late 18th century to the mid-1950s, either of Welsh manufacture or with strong links to Wales.
  • Craft collections representing the working life of rural and semi-industrial Wales, e.g. woodworking, leatherwork, metalworking crafts, basket making.
  • Textile crafts such as quilting, embroidery, lacemaking, tailoring and products of the woollen industry in Wales.
  • Cultural life collections, relating to music, folklore and customs, cultural, educational and social institutions, popular culture, sports and children’s toys and games.
  • Archival collections which include the definitive archive of Welsh oral traditions and dialects, fieldwork films, manuscripts relating to Welsh ethnology, a photographic archive and oral history projects both internally and externally generated.

  Industry

  The industry collections include in situ listed buildings and industrial sites comprising a colliery, a slate quarry workshop complex and a woollen mill. These significant sites are accompanied by associated collections that detail their history, operation and production. The collection also contains significant items associated with the coal and other heavy industries of Wales. More recently collecting has focused on contemporary Welsh industry particularly the automotive, toy and computer manufacturing areas.

  Collection strengths are:

  • Listed coal mine within the World Heritage Site of Blaenafon.
  • Comprehensive and internationally important collections of coal mine lighting, hand tools, roof supports, drams, rescue equipment and trade union objects.
  • Comprehensive range of models depicting coal mining techniques and equipment, iron and steel plant.
  • Wide range of documents covering most aspects of colliery operation and administration, and union material.
  • Metalliferous industry hand tools, process samples and products.
  • Welsh-made bricks, tiles and refractories.
  • Prime movers, particularly oil and gas engines.
  • Welsh-made automotive industry products.
  • Products of Welsh light industry especially from the toy industry.
  • Near-complete range of Welsh-made computers.
  • Listed slate quarry workshop complex at Llanberis including original in situ engineering equipment, working water and Pelton wheels, and large collection of foundry patterns.
  • Original engineer’s house and furnished re-erected quarrymens’ houses.
  • Restored and fully operational table incline.
  • Slate hand working tools, early twentieth century mechanised extractors, wagons, locomotives and products.
  • Drawings and sketches of quarrymen at work by M.E.Thompson.
  • Listed woollen mill buildings at Cambrian Mills, Drefach-Felindre including original machinery and other machinery from woollen mills across Wales.
  • Welsh-made flat textiles, samples and flannel quilts, 18th century to the present.
  • Collection of documents, notably metalliferous and modern industry company brochures, company newspapers, share certificates and civil engineering documents.
  • Archives pertaining to Cambrian Mills.
  • Books, journals and Parliamentary Papers; notably a near-complete set of Mines & Quarries Inspectorate publications, early gas and electricity industry journals, and technical works on prime movers
  • Large and nationally important collection of Welsh photographs relating to the industries, engineering and industrial archaeology of Wales.

  Transport

  The transport collection contains over 150 models of vessels that were used off the coasts of Wales and 250 ship portraits. It includes the oldest surviving Welsh-owned car, a 1900 Benz, examples of the Gilbern, the only car made in Wales, a Cambrian Railways coach and a Cardiff horse tram. There is also an extensive collection of 7mm scale railway models, illustrating both pre-grouping and pre-nationalisation railways in Wales.

  Collection strengths are:

  • Welsh railway carriages.
  • Working replica of the world’s first railway locomotive (Penydarren 1804).
  • Tramplates and early railway track components.
  • Working small boats from around the Welsh coast.
  • Hand tools and personal ephemera pertaining to land and maritime transport.
  • Nationally important collection collections of Ship models and ship portraits.
  • Documents and books particularly railway and maritime, notably a complete run of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping from the mid1830s to the present.
  • Large and nationally important collection of transport photographs.

  Archaeology

  The archaeological collections form the primary ‘first-hand’ evidence on which all interpretations of our material past are based. The collections focus upon Wales’ prehistory and early history, with many originating from archaeological excavations undertaken across Wales. Significant items have been acquired through the Treasure Trove and Treasure processes, particularly Bronze Age metalwork and medieval jewellery.

  Collection strengths are:

  • Palaeolithic artefacts, Pleistocene fauna and hominid finds, from Welsh caves, including Pontnewydd Cave and Paviland Cave.
  • Assemblages of finds from excavations of Welsh Mesolithic and Neolithic settlement sites, Neolithic megalithic tombs and the axe-factories of Graig Lwyd and Mynydd Rhiw.
  • Important Bronze Age burial assemblages, early copper, lead and gold mining finds and associated products, particularly the rich collections of adornments, weapons and tools.
  • Excavated collections from Iron Age hillforts and defended enclosures from Wales.
  • La Tène or ‘Celtic’ art, including the Llyn Fawr hoard, the Llyn Cerrig Bach votive lake assemblage, the Capel Garmon firedog and the Cerrig-y-Drudion crown.
  • Internationally important collections of Roman military material from the fortresses of Isca (Caerleon) and its environs and Usk.
  • Collections of finds from excavations of Roman auxiliary forts of Segontium (Caernarfon), Brecon, Gelligaer, Caersws, Neath and Loughor.
  • Finds from Roman civilian sites, such as Llantwit Major villa, Whitton farmstead and Caerwent – the most important Roman town in Wales.
  • Roman industrial and mining sites in Wales, including Holt, the works depot of the Twentieth legion, and Dolaucothi, the only known Roman gold-mine in Britain.
  • Early medieval inscribed stones and stone sculpture, including casts.
  • Collections from three early medieval sites of international significance, Dinas Powys, Llangors crannog and Llanbedrgoch.
  • The early medieval population assemblage of human remains from Llandough.
  • Collections from medieval sites, in particular the significant Welsh castles and abbeys.
  • The Magor Pill 13th-century boat.
  • Stone sculpture including surviving elements from the chapter house door, Strata.
  • A collection of medieval and later gold and silver jewellery and individual items of iconic or national significance.

  Numismatics

  The numismatic collection has been developed through purchase and the acquisition of coin hoards through the Treasure Trove and Treasure processes.

  Collection strengths are:

  • A general collection of coins from the Greeks to present day. Some areas of national/international importance, resulting from hoards and from focused collecting.
  • English and British Isles coinage, especially Saxon, Norman and later medieval coins from Welsh and other mints in western Britain.
  • Roman Welsh coinage, notably the Rogiet hoard.
  • Coins minted in Wales from the time of Charles I and the Tregwynt Civil War coin hoard.
  • Welsh tokens, banknotes and paranumismatica.
  • Medals – notably those commemorating acts of civil gallantry – especially those relating to Wales or to the exploits of Welsh people.

  Geology

  Amgueddfa Cymru is the main repository for fossils from Wales; these are augmented by research collections from other parts of the UK, and from worldwide sources. The collection is therefore of international status and significance, and is one of the major palaeontological holdings in the UK.

  The Museum holds the most comprehensive mineral and rock collections relating to the geology of Wales.

  Collection strengths are:

  • Palaeozoic invertebrates, especially trilobites, brachiopods and bivalves.
  • Carboniferous (Coal Measures) plants.
  • Jurassic ammonites.
  • A definitive and comprehensive collection of Welsh minerals.
  • Reference material from almost all mine sites in Wales.
  • Welsh gold, Welsh millerite (World-class); British fluorite and World cassiterite.
  • A significant collection of native silver specimens from the Kongsberg Mines in Norway.
  • A significant collection of British minerals, including some derived from heritage collections, and a research collection of Leicestershire material.
  • The Welsh Reference Rock Collection, (consisting of hand specimens and petrological thin sections) acquired dominantly by field collection during the 20th Century.
  • Welsh research petrology collections, derived from Ph.D. theses and published papers.
  • Welsh Coal Collection; collected during the 20th Century from working collieries.
  • Welsh slate collection.
  • Shallow borehole collection from South Wales, with associated logs and maps.

  Zoology

  Collection strengths are:

  • Coleoptera, particularly Tomlin and Gardner bequests).
  • Diptera (agricultural, host associations and Palaearctic coverage).
  • Hemiptera (agricultural host associations and Palaearctic coverage).
  • Lepidoptera (British and world-wide butterflies, British moths).
  • Foreign collection comprehensive in coverage of insect families.
  • Mollusca, particularly the World Mollusca in the Melvill-Tomlin collection and its associated library.
  • Mollusca from Britain and Wales, giving an almost complete coverage of the British fauna.
  • Non-marine and land Mollusca especially African and the Palaearctic.
  • Bivalve Mollusca from the Indian Ocean and world-wide localities.
  • Cephalopods.
  • World-wide Quaternary Mollusca.
  • British and Welsh spiders.
  • All British woodlice species.
  • Soil mites from Wales and beyond.
  • Extensive collections of benthic invertebrates from British waters, and especially Irish Sea.
  • Extensive collections of Polychaeta from British and world-wide localities.
  • Collections of parasitic worms of marine fish.
  • Mounted specimens of most British mammals and many British birds.
  • Cabinet specimens of birds, birds’ eggs and mammals.

  Botany

  Collection strengths are:

  • A large collection of flowering plants, mainly from Europe, including the largest collection of Welsh plants in existence, with associated collection of fruits and seeds.
  • A fern collection of international scope.
  • A small collection of glass microscope slides showing mainly sectioned plant material.
  • Large bryophyte collections with special reference to Britain, but of international scope.
  • Extensive lichen collection, mainly British, with special reference to Wales.
  • Large collection of timber and wood sections from all parts of the world.
  • Collection of economically-important plant products, including food-stuffs, textiles and pharmaceuticals.
  • Large collection of samples and mounted slides of Quaternary palynological samples.
  • Hyde collection of modern palynological samples, acquired from the Asthma and Allergy Unit of Sully Hospital.
  • Large collection of prints and drawings mainly 18th and 19th century, charting the development of botanical illustration.
  • Large archival collection of transparencies and glass negatives of plants and landscapes, botanists, and diagrams from publications.
  • World-wide collection of postage stamps trade cards on botanical themes.
  • A unique collection of botanically accurate wax models of flowers, fungi and other plants.
  • Blaschka glass models of invertebrates.

  Library

  The Library holds an archive of rare and historical texts as well as books that support the work of all the curatorial Departments. Particular collection strengths are in the disciplines of Mollusca, Roman archaeology, Flora, Architecture, and Social/Industrial History.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2016

  Licence: CC BY-NC