Collection: Dorman Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Natural Science

  The museum’s founding collections in 1904 were strong in natural history and included specimens from Sir Alfred E Pease (1857-1939) and collection of the Cleveland Literary and Philosophical Society. Past curators , also naturalists, include Baker Hudson (1854-1925) and Frank Elgee (1880-1944). The collections includes 800 mounted birds, some mammals, a few fish and reptiles. The TH Nelson (-1905) of Redcar collection of cased birds, particularly Yorkshire specimens, is important; 5,000 birds eggs with good data; 49,500 insects, mainly Lepidoptera and Coleoptera; 65,000 molluscs, which is the region’s largest collection; other invertebrates c. 260 includes crustacea, echinoderms and corals.

  Ethnography

  The collection consists of 272 African objects, mainly from the north and south; 249 Oceanic with 91 from Australia, 78 Polynesia, 77 Melanesia and 3 Micronesia; 24 mixed Asian, 31 American, mainly north; and 18 European objects; donated by GL Dorman in 1904, Dr AE Weatherill also in 1904 and 1900 and the Wilfred Dodds Collection after 1960. The Oceanic material forming the basis of the Capt Cook displays was collected in 1900-20 and has few original Cook items; original material is mainly on loan. Generally the collection includes African spears, South African beadwork, Uganda and Far Eastern musical instruments and weapons from the Dodds collection. A few of national and international importance such as woven drinking tube from Uganda, wooden spear from the Sepik tribe of Papua New Guinea, a churinga carving from Australia, carved monster dish from Alaska typical of North Western Indians, wooden ancestral figure from Ibibo of Nigeria and double sided Chinese drum donated in 1941.

  Social History

  Usual collection of everyday objects collected from 1930s as society was changing. It shows the domestic, working and leisure environment of the people of Middlesbrough.

  Archaeology

  Dr Frank Elgee excavated locally in the 1920s while Curator of the Dorman. Many of his finds including those from the Bronze Age hill fort at Easton Nab and a burial mound at Loose Howe are housed here. Other notable collections include artefacts from the Anglian cemetery at Hob Hill, medieval fragments from Kilton Castle and Kildale Manor and Egyptian and Romano-British items purchased from a selection made by Flinders Petrie. Publications include The Romans in Cleveland; The archaeology of Yorkshire; Early Man in North East Yorkshire by Frank Elgee. The Dorman Museum holds the largest collection of prehistory from the Tees Valley. Highlights include the collections of Frank Elgee, who worked extensively across the Tees Valley and Yorkshire, and the Bronze Age dug out canoe found at Thornaby High Wood. There are also some particularly fine jet artefacts found at Handale Priory near Scawton. The Swiss Neolithic settlement at Robenhausen is also well represented in th collection, with small amounts of material from elsewhere in the UK.

  Ancient Egyptian and Sudanese Collection

  The museum holds 250 ancient Egyptian/Sudanese objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: amulets; coffins; faience figures; flints; furniture; glass vessels; jewellery; metal figures; musical instruments; offering tables; pottery; ‘Ptah-Sokar-Osiris’ figures; relief sculpture; scarabs/sealings; shabtis; cosmetic palettes; stone figures; stone vessels; textiles/leather; toilet articles; tomb models; tools/weapons; 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): Alexandria; Oxyrhynchus (Grenfell and Hunt with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1903); Beni Hasan (Garstang with Liverpool University, 1902-1904); Ehnasya (Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904); Gurob (Currelly and Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904); Saqqarah (Petrie, year(s) unknown); Sedment (Currelly and Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1904); Tarkhan (Petrie with the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1911-1913); Thebes; Sudan. Objects from Alexandria and an unknown location called Ibrahimich appear to have been previously owned by L.H. Rickards in 1905. The museum has two plaster casts of Egyptian wall reliefs: one of the head and shoulders of ‘Cleopatra’, and one representing a pharaoh.

  Subjects

  Ancient civilizations; Antiquities; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC); Archaeological excavations

  Costume

  Consists primarily of about 2,400 items of women’s clothing and accessories from the 20th century including shoes and hats. There is a small collection of uniforms and other costume including military, children’s wear, under garments, sportswear and men’s suits. An additional collection of 130 costume items transferred from Tubwell Row Museum in Darlington.

  Numismatics

  A collection of 1,900 items including commemorative medallions, badges, banknotes, coins and military medals. Important collections include the Yearby Hoard of 16th and 17th century coins, the Thorpe Thewles hoard of Henry 1 and Henry III silver pennies and the Midderidge hoard of Edward I coins.

  Ceramics- Linthorpe Pottery

  Collecting started in the 1920s and 465 out of 2,350 different designs are represented by 1,070 objects and of these 150 have the impressed signature of Christopher Dresser. Major collections within include 100 pieces from Capt. H Val Jackson as a memorial to his son who died in India in 1943; 168 pieces purchased from Morris Roberts in 1970; 84 items form the family of Richard William Patey, one of the original members of staff at the Pottery and 40 items transferred from Darlington Tubwell Row Museum in 1998.

  Photography

  The collection consists of about 3,500 prints, glass negatives and carte de visite, plus 2,190 lantern slides. The prints include views of Middlesbrough, aerial photographs, various industrial sites especially Iron and Steel works, health, transport, Local government and Community Services.

  Thomas Hudson Nelson Book Collection

  A collection of works on ornithology and natural history collected by Thomas Hudson Nelson. 19th and 20th centuries.

  Subjects

  Natural History; Ornithology; Science

  Lord Bottomley Collection

  A collection of works on foreign policy and by Commonwealth politicians, many signed by the authors and given as gifts to Arthur, Lord Bottomley.

  Subjects

  Foreign Relations; Politics; Social Sciences

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC