Collection: Manchester Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Biology Collection

  The natural science collections were mostly collected before 1900 and contain many specimens upon which species definitions are based (type specimens). The age, scope and quality of the collections therefore define their huge importance. The museum holds over 1 million botanical specimens including 5,000 type specimens. The majority of specimens are of flowering plants, comprising 185,000 general, 345,000 European, 70,000 British, 39,000 specimens in the Leo Grindon collection, and 47,000 other specimens (duplicates, 3-D material, pharmacy and spirit collections). There are also 100,000 mosses, 35,000 liverworts, 27,000 ferns, 9,000 diatoms, 18,000 algae, 9,000 Exsiccata (uniform sets of numbered dried specimens with printed labels), 20,000 fungi, 36,000 lichens, boxed seeds and slide specimens also included (10,000 Palaeobotanical slides and 8,100 general/histological slides) and 50,000 unsorted specimens. The Herbarium contains plant material from all parts of the world, including local and regional specimens where applicable and was formed through the amalgamation many thousands of smaller collections and several major collections such as the European flowering plants (Charles Bailey collection), non-European flowering plants (founded on collections by Cosmo Melvill) and the Leo Grindon collection of cultivated and horticultural plants and associated illustrations and text cuttings. Other important collections include the Richard Spruce specimens, Darwin material from the voyage of the Beagle and specimens from Linnaeus’ herbarium. Insect collections comprise 3 million specimens including around 11.000 type specimens. It is the third largest collection in the U.K., and a major international scientific resource, representing all insect orders. Beetles form the largest group with 1.4 million specimens, some of which e.g. Spaeth Tortoise beetles are the most important in the world. Other predominant groups are the butterflies and moths (800,000) which include the extensive Schill collection of world Lepidoptera, dating from 1898 and one of the earliest notable collections. There are also 800,000 other types of insect. Some of the earliest insect specimens are recorded in 1802 by Thomas Marsham and were collected by the Rev. W. Kirby, although general lack of data means that other collections of the early nineteenth century do not survive in recognisable form. The invertebrate zoology collections total 474,000 specimens and include c.5,000 type specimens. Molluscs form the majority of this group (380,000) and key collections are those of Hadfield, Townsend and Darbishire. There are also 60,000 arachnids, again with major collections from Freston, Locket, LaTouche and Mackie. The 27,000 slide specimens include the Waters collection (Bryozoa), Halkyard and Sidebottom collections of Foraminifera plus specimens of Acari. There are 7,000 other invertebrates from various groups. Vertebrate zoology comprises just over 30,000 specimens (c.40 types) and includes all groups and all regions of the world collected since the 19th century. There are 16,500 birds and 10,000 birds’ eggs, one of the strongest parts of the collection and including the Dresser collection. There are 1,560 mammals (Neave Collection), 750 fish, 500 amphibians and 900 reptiles, mostly dry preserved, but with some spirit specimens.

  Subjects

  Reptiles; Mammals; Plants; Fish; Birds; Insects; Biology

  Geology Collection

  The fossil collection contains a quarter of a million specimens and its major strengths include fish from the Old Red Sandstone and Upper Carboniferous fossils from the Williamson Collection (plants) and Eagar Collection (non-marine bivalves). There are also significant collections of footprints from the Triassic and the Buckman Collection of ammonites and plants from the Jurassic. More recent material includes the Boyd Dawkins, Jackson and Armstrong collections of cave mammals from the Pleistocene. The next largest group of specimens comprises the 15,000 worldwide mineral collections, including the Harwood Collection. Well represented are the minerals from British orefields and zeolites from worldwide localities. Zeolites are minerals associated with hydrothermal activity (water heated/superheated by molten rock) and are found in cavities in volcanic rock and in lava flows etc. Locations such as Shetland, Cumbria mining fields, the Pennine Orefield, Alderley Edge, Cheshire, Cornwall, Ireland and the Scottish Tertiary igneous province are well represented within the mineral collections. Another major strength of the geology collection as a whole is the Hickling Collection of coals and related rocks, which forms part of the group of 5,000 rock specimens held by the museum. The geology collections of rocks, minerals and fossils date mainly from the 19th century and are the 6th largest in the U.K. There are 2000 type and figured specimens.

  Subjects

  Fossils; Geology; Minerals

  Ethnography Collection

  The collections have been developed since early donations of Arctic and prehispanic artefacts by R.D. Darbishire in 1900-1930, artefacts mainly from Oceania gifted by Charles Heape in 1923 and J.P. Mills’ Naga collection (1924). The Kennedy Collection from Oceania and the Carline Collection from Africa were included among items purchased from Halifax Museum in 1955 and the museum also acquired the R.W. Lloyd Japanese collection in 1958. Another important acquisition was the group of 1750 worldwide artefacts from Salford Museum in 1970. Field collections form an important group and include Wanindiljaugwa material from Groote Eylandt collected in 1952 and gifted by Peter Worsley and also material acquired through fieldwork by University staff e.g. masks and pottery etc collected in Nigeria by Frank Willett (1956-7) and modern Peruvian pottery collected by George Bankes in 1984. The collections are generally dated from the pre-1960s and contain only around 150 European items, with the majority originating from Africa south of the Sahara (6,000), North Africa (400), Oceania (4,000), Indonesia (300), Asia (2,250), North America (200) and Central and South America 1,300). Also included is a small collection of 300 historical ethnographic photographs. The museum has also developed its collection through purchases, which more recently include modern hairdressers’ signs from Nairobi, examples of modern Zulu beadwork and Mursi artefacts from Ethiopia. Contemporary Manchester culture also features as a small group of material.

  Subjects

  World culture; Political and World cultures; Ethnography; Religious; People

  Archaeology Collection

  Of most significance are the collections from the excavations of Flinders Petrie, Kathleen Kenyon and others in Palestine, Cypriot material excavated by the British Museum and the Universities of Sydney and Edinburgh, the Sharp Ogden collection of Mediterranean, Medieval and other antiquities and parts of the Wellcome Collection (Classical and Etruscan antiquities etc). The museum also holds a nationally and internationally significance collection of 14,060 Egyptian artefacts covering 4,000 years, from Predynastic to the Graeco-Roman period. The collection comprises 1960 items of organic material, 350 items of animal and human bone, 1,400 pieces of metalwork, 3,700 stone objects, 6,000 items of pottery, 500 glass artefacts and 150 examples of linen/cloth. There is also a collection of Egyptian stelae and false door on loan from the Wellcome Trust. The first collections were presented to the museum in 1890 by Jesse Haworth and Martyn Kennard, who had provided funding support for excavations by William Flinders Petrie at Kahun, Illahun and Gurob. Further groups were acquired on a similar basis between 1891-96 from sites at Nagada, Hawara, Medum and a significant and rare group of objects from Amarna. The collections grew through regular gifts from societies and institutions such as the Egypt Exploration Fund, the Egypt Research Account, the British School of Archaeology in Egypt and the Liverpool School of Archaeology. Recent material has been added from excavations by Platt, Sharp Ogden and Robinow from sites including Saqqara and Amarna. There is also an important group of Egyptian stelae and other artefacts from the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. The archaeological artefacts originate mainly from Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and the Ancient Near East with small collections, particularly prehistoric, from other parts of the African continent and from Asia. There is also material excavated in Jerusalem 1961-1967 by Dr Dame Kathleen Kenyon (on loan from the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem) and material excavated at Tell Iktanu by Dr Kay Prag in 1987-1990 (on loan from the British Institute at Amman). Objects within the collection as a whole date from the Palaeolithic to late/post-medieval and include a total of 48,550 items. These comprise 13,000 stone implements (including Egypt), 2,000 stone objects, 2,500 items of metalwork, 600 items of human and animal skeletal material and other organic material, 250 items of jewellery and carved gems, 500 items of Roman glass, 250 inscribed clay tablets (cuneiform) and 400 terracotta figurines (Cypriot, Greek and Roman). The pottery collections are the largest group and comprise the following: 5,000 Western Asiatic, 500 Cyprus, 1,200 Greek world, 1,000 Italy and Roman Empire (excluding Britain), 15,000 Roman and post-Roman Britain, 250 Prehistoric European and 400 Medieval European. The archaeology department also holds a discrete collection of Wedgwood pottery bequeathed by Jesse Haworth in 1920. There are also 6,500 photographs and lantern slides including a large gift of several thousand old lantern slides from the Manchester Geographical Society in the 1970s and the recently acquired Allegro archive of around 1500 photographs and transparencies relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

  Subjects

  Archaeology; Ancient Egypt; Past Societies

  Ancient Egyptian, Sudanese and Near Eastern Collection

  The museum holds approximately 16,000 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; basketry/ropes; canopic boxes; canopic jars; coffins; coins; faience figures; faience vessels; flints; food/plant materials; foundation deposits; funerary cones; furniture; glass vessels; jewellery; metal figures; metal vessels; mummies (animal); mummies (human); musical instruments; offering tables; ostraca; papyri; pottery; ‘Ptah-Sokar-Osiris’ figures; relief sculpture; scarabs/sealings; shabtis; shabti boxes; slate palettes; soul houses; stelae (stone); stelae (wood); stone figures; stone vessels; textiles/leather; toilet articles; tomb models; tools/weapons; wall paintings; wooden figures Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Abusir (ERA and Brunton); Abydos (EEF, 1888-9, 1897-1904, 1909-13; EES, 1925-6; ERA, 1900, 1902, 1904; BSAE, 1921-2); Alexandria; el-Amarna (EEF 1888-9, EES, 1921-5, 1928-9, 1930-6, 1963, 1983-4); Armant (EEF, 1888-9; EEF, 1929-31, 1939; EES, 1940); el-Badari (BSAE, 1923-6; EEF, 1924-5); el-Bahnasa (Oxyrhynchus) (BSAE; EEF, 1903-5); Ballas (ERA, 1895); Beit Khallaf (ERA, 1901, 1908; EEF, 1888-9, 1899-1904, 1909); Beni Hasan (Garstang); Biahmu; Cairo; Dendera (EEF, 1897-8); Edfu; Esna (LU [Garstang], 1905-6); Fayum (BSAE, 1923-6; Umm es-Sawan – Royal Anthropological Society, 1928); Gerza (BSAE, 1910-11, 1913-14); Ghita (BSAE, 1905-6); Giza (inc. BSAE, 1907); Hammamiya (BSAE, 1923-26); Harageh (BSAE, 1913-4); Hawara (Petrie, 1888-9; BSAE [Petrie], 1910-11); Hu (Diospolis Parva) (EEF, 1897-9); Ihnasya el-Medina (Herakleopolis Magna) (EEF, 1899-1901, 1903-4, 1909-10); el-Kab (ERA, 1897-9); Kom el-Ahmar (Hierakonpolis) (ERA, 1898); Kom Medinet Ghurab (Gurob) (Petrie, 1888; ERA, 1903-4; BSAE, 1920-1); el-Lahun (inc. Kahun) (Petrie, 1888-90; BSAE, 1913-14); el-Mahasna (EEF, 1909); Mallawi (Robinow collection, 1895-6); el-Matmar (Brunton, 1930-1); Mazguna (BSAE, 1910-1); Memphis (Mit Rahina) (BSAE); Meydum; el-Mustagidda (Brunton, 1927-9); Naqada; Naukratis; Nazlet el-Shurafa (BSAE, 1911-2); Qarara (EEF, 1902-3); Qasr Ibrim (EES); Qaw el-Kebir (Antaeopolis) (BSAE, 1923-4); Qift (Koptos) (Petrie, 1893-4); el-Rataba (BSAE, 1906); Rifa (BSAE, 1906-7); el-Riqqa (BSAE, 1912-4); Sa el-Hagar (Sais) (Robinow collection, 1895-6); Saft el-Henna (Goshen); Saft el-Khammar (BSAE, 1922); San el-Hagar (Tanis); Saqqara (EEF, 1888-9; EES, 1956, 1968-72); Serabit el-Khadim (EEF, 1905); el-Sheikh Ibada (Antino) (EEF 1888-9, 1912-4); Sidmant (EEF, 1909-10; BSAE, 1920-1); Tarkhan (BSAE, 1911-3); Tell Atrib (Athribis); Tell Basta (Bubastis) (EEF, 1887-9); Tell Hisn (Heliopolis) (BSAE, 1911-2); Tell el-Yahudiya (BSAE, 1906); Thebes (inc. Deir el-Bahari [EEF, 1894-1910]; Qurna [BSAE]; Ramesseum); Tuna el-Gebel; Zaraby; Zowyeh. Sudan: Buhen (EES); Faras (Oxford Excav. in Nubia, 1911-3); Kerma; Kostamneh (Garstang); el-Kurru; Sanam (Oxford Excav. in Nubia, 1912-3); Sesebi (EEF, 1888-9; EES, 1936). Palestine: Tell el-Fara (Beth Pelet) (BSAE 1927-30); Tell el-Ajjul (Gaza) (BSAE [Petrie], 1930-2); Tell Jemma (BSAE 1926-7).

  Arms and Armour Collection

  The Simon Archery Collection contains worldwide archery-related objects, ephemera and literature relating to the history and development of archery. There are crossbows from Europe and Asia, dating from the 16th century to the present day and a large number of composite bows particularly from India and Pakistan, dating from 1703 to the 19th century. The Japanese laminated bows mainly date from the 19th and 20th centuries. The native bows originate mainly from Africa, the Pacific Islands and South America (Brazil) and there are other groups of longbows, quivers, Japanese bow-and-arrows, thumb-rings and steel-bows from the 1950s and early 1960s. Over half the collection comprise arrows and arrowheads from Britain, Africa, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Java, Korea and Turkey. The museum also holds a small collection of firearms, mainly retained for comparative purposes and as part of the Ingo Simon bequest, rather than for display purposes.

  Subjects

  World Culture; Weapons; Arms and Armour

  Medals Collection

  The numismatics collection includes 2,000 medallions and the Simon Archery Collection of weapons has an associated collection of 75 medals and 200 badges.

  Subjects

  Medals

  Numismatics Collection

  There are around 30,000 European coins, 12,200 Roman and Byzantine coins, 2,800 Greek coins and 4,000 Oriental coins, which represent the main focus of collecting. This group includes 19th century collections of Bellot and Spencer, early 20th century collections of Smith Churchill, Gueterbock, Sharp Ogden and Steinthal and the internationally important collection of Greek and Roman coins acquired through the Raby bequest of 1958. The collection is one of the most significant in the UK and the Greek and Roman series is of particular academic importance. There are also 4,300 British and 1,500 Colonial coins, around 1,500 other items and 3,600 tokens. The most recent additions to the collection include the Arditti collection of Maundy money (donated in 1991), the Alderley Edge hoard of Roman coins transferred from the National Trust in 1995 and the Shaw collection of Byzantine copper coins purchased in 1997.

  Subjects

  Ancient Greece; Coins and Medals; Numismatics; Tokens; Southeast Asian; Roman Empire; Coins

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC