Collection: Bolton Art Gallery, Library & Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Agriculture Collection

  A small collection of local farming material.

  Subjects

  Agriculture

  Oral History Collection

  The collection contains a growing body of oral history recordings, which focuses on the 1930 to present and the compliments the pre-1930s Archives and Local Studies oral history collection.

  Subjects

  Oral history

  Medals Collection

  Locally issued Royal occasion medals, commemorative medals of the 17th-20th century, 17-19th century tokens, and military medals from the Peninsular War to modern times including military medals of men from Bolton and its surrounding district who served in various regiments. Some of this collection is part of the 1901 donation by James Finney (see also numismatics).

  Subjects

  Medals

  Transport Collection

  A small collection of items relating to canals, railways, road and aviation. There are 15 working scale models of locomotives manufactured in Bolton and at the Horwich Locomotive works and several examples of horse-drawn vehicles and associated stabling items. The collection also includes local wheelwrighting material and items.

  Subjects

  Transport

  Costume and Textile Collection

  The Museum’s costume collection ranges in date from 1810 to 1950 and includes especially women’s clothing such as dresses, shoes, hats and underwear. Workwear from commerce and the public sector includes police uniform and regimental uniform. There is also a range of costume representing Bolton’s ethnic communities. Textiles include Victorian samplers and a small number of oriental carpets and textiles, plus banners from textile trade unions, local Sunday schools, local militia and local temperance societies.

  Subjects

  Costume and Textile

  Social History Collection

  Material relates to the social and local history of the Bolton MBC area, covering the period c.1700 to the present and includes general social history, commemorative items, health, religion, sport, leisure and domestic life. There is also a developing collection of material relating to the various ethnic communities in the Bolton MBC area. Trade union material includes a small collection of local ephemera, printed material, certificates, banner and other objects. Architectural items comprise around 50 items including boundary stones, milestones, porticos and gateways from demolished buildings.

  Subjects

  Social History

  Numismatics Collection

  English and British coins from the Late Saxon to the present day, English 18th and 19th century tokens, foreign coins of the 18th-20th century, electrotypes of ancient coins and casts of medieval seals and Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins including a Roman coin hoard from Affetside. The material comes in part from a donation made in 1901 by James Finney (see also medals), in 1906 by W Richardson, Assistant Librarian of Bolton Library and in 1928 by the widow of J P Thomasson, an industrialist and philanthropist.

  Subjects

  Numismatics

  Photographic Collection

  Around 2,500 mainly black and white original and copy photographs, 250 black and white glass plate negatives, 200 glass slides and 300 local picture postcards, covering the period from 1860 to 1991. Themes relate to Bolton’s social and industrial history including sport and leisure, local clubs and societies, religion, women’s work, education and local customs. A recent addition is a group of 5,000 negatives from a commercial photographer dating from the 1930’s to the present day.

  Subjects

  Photographic equipment

  Fine and Decorative Art Archives Collection

  Letter, manuscripts, photographic material, documents and illustrative items associated with or relate to the collections and collectors (Archaeology, Egyptology and natural history), local sites and historical buildings Manuscripts, maps, printed ephemera and documents directly associated with other artefacts relevant to the industrial collections.

  Subjects

  Archives

  Ethnography Collection

  Material originates from Africa, India, Middle East, Pacific, South America, China, Burma, Japan and Europe. Of particular note is the Editha Taylor bequest of Japanese Decorative Arts (1959) containing works such as inro, netsuke and scent bottles by major craftsmen of the 19th century. 20th century Chinese ceramics were also bequeathed in 1940 by Frank Hindley Smith (see also fine art).

  Subjects

  Ethnography

  Geology Collection

  There are 15,000 fossil specimens, mostly of British origin and from a wide range of geological horizons and localities. Local Carboniferous fossils are well represented and the collections feature some type and figured specimens. The majority of the 6,000 minerals are from Britain (only a few locally found), although the collection is worldwide in scope. The rock collections contain about 3,000 specimens of worldwide origin, but again mostly are British or from Europe, with only a few local specimens.

  Subjects

  Geology

  Science and Industry Collection

  Small amounts of material relating to the locally important Chemical Industry, Papermaking and Printing Industry and also Coalmining and Quarrying. Another small collection of items from the engineering industry includes 37 stationary steam engine models e.g. an 1840 model by Benjamin Hick and a full size mill engine of 1903 by J and E Woods of Bolton. There are also ancillary tools, equipment, instruments and products. There are more representative collections from the Brick, Tile Making and Sanitary Ware industries. A collection of 330 Scientific, Calculating and Testing Instruments includes comprehensive collections of local coalmine surveying instruments and textile testing instruments. Iron and Lead Industry Collections include a comprehensive range of tools, clothing and iron samples from the last iron works in the world to manufacture wrought iron by the puddling process, T Walmsley’s Atlas Forge that closed in 1981. Trades such as leather, carpentry, clogging and basket making are also represented in addition to trade unions and the service industries. Early cotton textile machinery includes Crompton’s Mule, Arkwright’s Water Frame and Hargreaves Spinning Jenny and there are also textile samples, pattern books, dye and printing recipe books dating from the 19th and 20th century.

  Subjects

  Science and Industry

  Fine Art Collection

  The fine art collections comprise oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints and sculpture and includes works by notable British artists from the 18th to 20th centuries, particularly the English watercolour landscapes. There is a local history element to the collection with the inclusion of works that record the Bolton industries and Industrialists and local landscape. The contemporary collection also continues to grow through the regular donation of works by the Contemporary Art Society. The Leverhulme gifts of 17th and 19th century paintings form a core part of the collections at the museum and Hall i’th’Wood. A strength of the collection is the British 20th century work, particularly from 1900-1960. Of the 800 prints in the collection, many are by 20th century British artists particularly of the 1970s and early 1980s. The Sycamore Collection of Prints provides good coverage of British printmaking between 1900-1960 by artists such as Paul Nash, David Jones, Edward Wadsworth, Graham Sutherland and John Piper. 1960s Pop Art prints are also represented by the works of Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, David Hockney, Joe Tilson, Patrick Caulfield and R B Kitaj. Mass Observation is another important part of the 20th century collections; with over 1,000 works relating to the movement that was based in Bolton in 1937-39. Works cover a range of media such as painting, watercolour, drawing, collage, print and photography and include examples by artists such as Julian Trevelyan, Humphrey Jennings, Graham Bell and Humphrey Spender. The British 20th century sculpture collection includes works by Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959), Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore and is of national importance.

  Subjects

  Watercolours; Sculpture; Paintings; Fine Art; Drawings; Prints

  Archaeology Collection

  The Museum has formed a significant and comprehensive collection of Egyptology through subscriptions to British excavations since 1884, involving excavators such as Flinders Petrie and also local benefactors such as Annie E F Barlow, the daughter of a Bolton cotton-spinning manufacturer. The Egyptian collection is seen as one of the most important provincial collections in this country, is associated with 68 sites in the Nile Delta and Valley and dates from the Neolithic to the Roman/Christian periods. It includes a 3,000-year-old mummy plus other funerary and also domestic items. Interest in Egypt’s ancient civilisation, particularly textiles arose in the 19th century because of the links between Bolton and Egypt through the cotton trade. The reference collection of c.1500 specimens of Egyptian and Sudanese textiles is the third largest in the UK and dates from c.5000 BC to the 12th century AD. British archaeology dates from the Mesolithic to Post-Medieval. Foreign archaeology includes Near East, Swiss, Pre-Columbian, Aztec, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, India, pacific, Australasia and Greek. There is also an important collection of Egyptology including textiles, funerary items, domestic wares and a mummy. British Archaeology includes a relatively small number of Mesolithic to Post-Medieval finds, mainly acquired from the late 19th century onwards from local excavations. Collections also include Roman and Medieval objects from mid 19th century excavations in Warwickshire (James Murton bequest); Neolithic, Bronze Age and Roman material from Derbyshire and other sites, an important series of bone material and human artefacts from Derbyshire caves; flint tools from Pengelley’s work (1865-1880) at Kent’s Cavern; Roman material from Cirencester and flints from Northfleet, Kent; sherds of pottery from a Medieval kiln at Cheam, Surrey; flint tools of Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age date from Britain and Europe; Neolithic and Bronze Age flint implements, collected from the raised beach at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex; Bronze Age axes and spearheads, including part of a founder’s hoard from Bury St Edmunds, and Roman glass from Stanton Chair, Sussex. Ancient Near East material compliments Egyptian material and comes from excavations in Palestine by Flinders Petrie (1926-1938) in addition to more recent excavations in Syria, Jordan and Iran and a series of items from Iraq (John Rowland Ragdale collection) There is also a substantial amount of foreign material acquired from the 19th century onwards from all five continents, made up of small groups of objects but some of notable importance including artefacts from dwellings at Lake Bienne and Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland, excavated by Professor Fellenburg in the 1860’s (part of the Rooke Pennington collection); Pre-Columbian Peruvian pottery, wooden sculpture and mummies donated in 1903 by W T Smithies and also Pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles, purchased from Guillermo Schmidt Pizzaro in the 1930s and Aztec material from 1881 excavations near Mexico City.

  Subjects

  Archaeology; Ancient Egypt

  Ancient Egyptian, Sudanese and Near Eastern Collection

  The museum holds approximately 10,000 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; basketry; 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; sarcophagi; 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): Abadiya (EEF, 1898-9); Abusir el-Malak; Abydos (EEF, 1899-1904, 1909-13; BSAE, 1921-2; EES, 1925-6; ERA [Garstang], 1900; LU [Garstang], 1906-8); el-Amarna (EES, 1921-9, 1979-82; EES reserve material from 1920’s-1930’s given in 1966-7); el-Amrah (EEF, 1900-1); Armant (EES, 1930-3); Atfih (EEF, 1911); el-Badari (BSAE, 1923-5); el-Bahnasa (Oxyrhynchus) (EEF [Grenfell], 1902-3, 1906-7, 1913-4, 1921-2; EEF, 1904-5; BSAE, 1923-4; Starkey, 1924-5); Ballas (Quibell, 1894-5); Beit Khallaf (ERA [Garstang], 1900-1); Beni Hasan (LU [Garstang], 1902-4); Dendera (EEF, 1897-8); Esna (LU [Garstang], 1905); Fayum (EEF [Grenfell], 1901-1903; Petrie (textiles); BSAE [Caton-Thompson], 1924-6); Gumaiyima (EEF, 1885-6); Gerza (BSAE [Petrie], 1910-11); Hammamiya (BSAE 1922-4); Harageh (BSAE, 1913-4); Hawara (Petrie, 1888-9; BSAE 1910-11); el-Hiba (EEF [Grenfell], 1902-3); Hu (Diospolis Parva) (EEF, 1898-9); Ihnasya el-Medina (Herakleopolis Magna) (EEF, 1890-1, 1903-4); el-Kab (Quibell, 1896-7); Kafr Ammar (BSAE, 1911-3); Karanis (Michigan Expedition, 1924-5); Kom el-Ahmar (Hierakonpolis) (LU [Garstang], 1905); Kom Medinet Ghurab (Gurob) (Petrie, 1888-90; EEF 1903-4); Koshtamna (LU [Garstang], 1906); el-Lahun (Petrie, 1888-90); el-Mahasna (EEF, 1908-9); el-Matmar (BM Expedition [Brunton], 1929-31); Mazguna (BSAE [Petrie], 1910-11); Memphis (BSAE [Petrie], 1910-11); Meydum (BSAE, 1909-10); el-Mustagidda (BM Expedition [Brunton], 1927-9); Naqada (Petrie, 1894-5); Naukratis (EEF, 1884-6); Nazlet el-Shurafa (BSAE, 1911-2); Qarara (EEF [Grenfell], 1902-3); Qasr Ibrim (EES, 1963, 1966); Qaw el-Kebir (Antaeopolis) (BSAE, 1922-4); Rifa (BSAE, 1906-7); el-Riqqa (BSAE, 1912-3); San el-Hagar (Tanis) (EEF, 1883-6); Saqqara (EES, 1953-6, 1960’s, 1970-2); Seila (EEF [Grenfell], 1901-2); el-Sheikh Ibada (Antino) (EEF, 1913-14); Sidmant (EEF, 1909-10; BSAE, 1920-1); Sinai (EEF 1904-5); Tacba (EEF, 1911-12); Tarkhan (BSAE, 1911-3); Tarraneh (Terenuthis) (EEF, 1887-8); Tell Basta (Bubastis) (EEF, 1887-9); Tell Dafana (Daphnae) (EEF, 1885-6); Tell el-Farain (Buto) (EES, 1964-8); Tell el-Maskhuta (Pithom) (EEF, 1883-5); Tell Nabasha (EEF, 1885-6); Tell el-Yahudiya (EEF, 1887-8); Thebes (Deir el-Bahari [EEF, 1895-6, 1903-7]); Tukh el-Qaramus (EEF [Naville and Griffith], 1887). Sudan Meroe (Garstang, 1909-14); Napata (Oxford Excav. in Nubia [Griffith], 1912-3); Sanam (Oxford Excav. in Nubia [Griffith], 1912-3); Sesebi (EES [Blackman], 1936-7). Palestine Tell el-Ajjul (Gaza) (BSAE [Petrie], 1930-8); Tell el-Fara (Beth Pelet) (BSAE [Petrie], 1927-30); Tell Jemma (Gerar) (BSAE [Petrie], 1926-7); Wadi Ghuzzeh (BSAE [Petrie], 1929-30). Syria Tell Abu Hureyra (Oxford and Chicago Universities, 1972-4); Tell es-Sweyhat (Syria Excavation Fund, 1973-77). Jordan Petra (BSAJ, 1958-64); Tell Umm Hammad Esh-Sharqiya (S. W. Helms, 1982-4); Tell Iktanu and Tell Hammam (Kay Prag 1987-90).

  Decorative and applied Art Collection

  The decorative art collections include significant holdings of ceramics and furniture, with smaller collections of metalwork, dolls and glass. The 20th century British sculpture collection is of national importance. Many of the collections were developed around early 20th century bequests including the gifts of oak furniture for Hall i’th’Wood by Lord Leverhulme from 1902 – 1923, ceramics and glass from the William Graham bequest in 1935 and the Kaye collection in 1939 and the Frank Hindley Smith in 1940 of British 20th century paintings & Chinese ceramics. There is a small collection of c.180 pieces of glassware at Smithills Hall, ranging from ornamental to functional pieces. It consists mainly of 19th century wares but with some 18th century drinking glasses. Metalwork includes some electrotype reproductions of examples in the V&A collection and is generally a small mixed collection of various metals and objects. There are c.45 Dolls and dolls clothes including some fine Victorian examples. Ceramics represents the largest group of decorative art objects (c.700 items), mainly of British origin and ranging from Medieval to present day but particularly strong in 18th century with a small but good selection of English delftware, creamware, lead-glazed earthenware and salt-glazed stoneware. Other strengths include a group of Royal Lancastrian Pottery containing some good examples of lustreware. Other Art Pottery is represented by works by Della Robbia. Contemporary works are another important small group, ranging from domestic to one-off decorative pieces by many of the current ceramists working in Britain. The furniture collection comprises mainly English oak furniture of the 16th-18th centuries, particularly 17th century oak pieces carved in the northern regional style and good examples of 19th century mahogany furniture.

  Subjects

  Ceramics; Furniture; Decorative and Applied Arts

  Biology Collection

  Large collection of vascular plants (35,000) and other botanical specimens including marine and freshwater algae, fungi, mosses and liverworts, lichens and economic botany. There is a small collection (500) of mammal and bird skins and mounts, a small number of British and foreign reptiles and amphibia (mostly wet-preserved) with a few foreign mounted specimens, a few local and non-local British wet-preserved fish (freshwater and marine) and a small number of fish casts and mounts, a comprehensive reference collection of British vertebrate skeletal material and birds eggs. The insect collection includes 800 specimens of beetles, butterflies, moths, flies etc and there are other marine and terrestrial Invertebrates plus terrestrial, freshwater and marine molluscs. There is also a reference Collection of 700 British gall species. The Economic Botany collection is a small but important reference collection, featuring worldwide specimens associated with agricultural food crops, timber production and other economic themes. The marine, terrestrial and freshwater invertebrate collection is wide-ranging and mostly British species but not extensive in size except for the mollusc collections of mainly shells. Local specimens, British and foreign material is included in the collection. The collection of Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) contains type and cited specimens and is fully catalogued. The largest single collection of 3,800 specimens was purchased in 1907 from the widow of Dr. Philip Brookes Mason in 1907. Other large collections of mosses include those by William Wilson (1799-1871) from the British Isles and Increase Allen Lapham of the USA and Canada in 1836. Liverwort collections include Irish specimens from David McArdle (1849-1934) and specimens collected in the British Isles by William Henry Pearson and Benjamin Carrington in the 19th to early 20th centuries. There are collections acquired between the late 18th and mid 20th centuries by several notable Lancashire collectors including James Sims, the Rev. Colin Brewster, Edward Hobson and the Rev. Herbert Mann (his entire collection of 650 specimens was donated to Bolton Museum in 1945). British fungi total over 9,000 specimens, the largest collection of 3,000 acquired in the late 19th century from Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, mainly from southern England and the Welsh borders and include the following associated collectors: Charles Bagge Plowright, William Phillips and Christopher Edmund Broome. A further 2,000 specimens were acquired from the Welsh borders by Rev. John Edward Vize (1831-1916). Both collections originated from Dr. Philip Brookes Mason (1842-1903), whose own collection of 3,000 British specimens was collected in the 1850’s. His associates were Rev. Andrew Bloxam, Rev. Joseph Miles Berkeley and William Gresley. A local collector has also contributed a large number of local voucher specimens within the last decade. The lichen collection is the only main area of botany deplete in local specimens, although other areas of the UK, as well as Europe and North America are represented. Dr. Philip Brookes Mason’s collection of 5,500 UK lichens acquired between the 1840s-1870s was the first major collection acquired by the museum in 1907 and includes type specimens. Associated collectors are Rev. Andrew Bloxam, the Rev. William Allport Leighton, William Mudd and the Rev. Thomas Salwey. The collection includes specimens from North American acquired by Increase Allen Lapham. Other collections include those of William Mudd, Rev. Herbert Man Livens (collected 1868-1914 and containing Type and cited specimens with associated collectors, many through the Lichen Exchange Club, such as James Glover, Thomas Hebden, Edward Morrell Holmes, Arthur Reginald Horwood, the Rev. D. Lillie and Henry Franklin Parsons). The Museum has a wide-ranging collection of over 35,000 vascular plants from most areas of the UK, particularly South Lancashire, plus some foreign specimens. The bird collection includes both mounted specimens and study skins. The latter is a generally representative British series containing contain significant numbers of local voucher specimens. There are also some accidental and rare vagrants, plus some tropical species. The museum also holds large numbers of bird eggs from Britain and abroad. The insect collections comprise about 16,000 British and 1,200 foreign butterflies and moths and an extensive collection of 70,000 British beetle specimens and some European examples plus c. 3,000 non-European beetles. Other insects include 25,000 flies, predominantly British, over 8,000 ant specimens, plus bees and wasps, sawflies, around 10,000 bugs of mainly British origin and insects such as dragonflies and mayflies and many other insect orders. Most groups have some type material and focus is on developing local voucher specimens through further collecting.

  Subjects

  Chemistry; Plants; Birds; Insects; Biology

  Archives Collection

  A collection of engineering drawings, catalogues, manufacturers’ leaflets, text books and other technical publications.

  Subjects

  Archives

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC