Collection: Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The primary collection in the museum is the Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell collection of cinema and pre-cinema material assembled between the 1960s and 1990s. Following Bill’s death this was donated by Peter to the University in 1994 and the museum opened to the public in 1997. This initial collection of over 50,000 items has been augmented since by further donations from Peter and acquisitions from a variety of other donors. Some of these have been large collections, such as the material on animation from Robin Allan (2007-14 in 3 tranches), or large donations of film publications and ephemera from Roy Fowler (1997-2005), research materials on the panorama from the estate of Ralph Hyde (2015), photographs from the career of continuity supervisor Pamela Davies (2017),silent film stills and ephemera from the estate of Townly Cooke (2018) and books and ephemera from Linda Ruth Williams and Mark Kermode (2020 -). Others have given small donations of groups or single items that add to our holdings. We also have some significant archive holdings detailed in section 8. The collections are used intensively in teaching and research at the University and national and international scholars visit to consult material.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The museum is dedicated to the history of the moving image and its reception. Our collections are particularly centred on the audience experience, forming a people’s history of the moving image over three centuries through material culture. The Bill Douglas and Peter Jewell Collection is particularly strong in the following areas: popular optical recreations pre-dating cinema; the early years of moving pictures; and the cinema as a popular cultural institution to the present day. These areas are represented through both books and artefacts and cover a period from the 17^th century to the present day. Other donations have created further areas of strength in the museum, such as animation, including the largest collection on Disney in the UK; British cinema, especially independent production since 1970; film and cinema publicity material; fan publications; and star ephemera. The collection is used extensively for teaching and research at the University of Exeter and we are mindful of the potential for such uses when we make decisions on acquiring material, as well as any acquisition’s relationship to existing holdings and its display appeal for the public.

  We predominantly acquire items of ephemera and related materials around moving images.

  The museum collections as a whole contain approximately:

  • 25 shadow puppets and 75 related shadow show items
  • 38 magic lanterns and 1181 magic lantern slides
  • Almost 2000 items related to the panorama, including 113 original prints, 37 handbills and unique research materials
  • 556 optical toys, 34 stereo viewers and 1800 stereo cards
  • 450 film show programmes dating before 1928
  • Thousands of pieces of star ephemera, particularly for culturally significant figures such as Charlie Chaplin (1200 items) and Marilyn Monroe (800 items)
  • 400 pieces of film publicity material
  • 2800 cigarette cards
  • 6575 postcards
  • 1730 posters
  • Over 1500 items of film tie-in merchandise, such as figurines, toys, jigswas and games
  • Archives of 4 independent filmmakers working since the 1970s
  • Over 22,000 books on the moving image, kept for their value as artefacts as well as for their content
  • 6400 photographs
  • 350 prints and paintings
  • 700 film related vinyl records
  • 2990 pieces of sheet music

  Over 86,000 items in total

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC