Collection: Bradford District Museums and Galleries

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  BDMG’s collections have developed over more than 150 years even before a museum service existed in the district. Early collections belonging to the Mechanics Institute and local amateur enthusiasts were collected from late 18th through 19th centuries. In 1974, when Bradford Metropolitan District Council was established the main museums of Keighley (founded 1899), Ilkley (1892) Cartwright Memorial Hall (1904) and Bolling Hall (1915) and the newly founded Bradford Industrial Museum (1974) were united as a single service. The new metropolitan district was serving a wider community. Each site was allocated as the districts site for a specific collection, Archaeology at Manor House, Ilkley, Art at CMH, Natural Sciences at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, Social History at Bolling Hall, Industrial Collections at BIM.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2019

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Archaeology Collection

  The collection comprises some 38,000 items, the majority of which is excavated pot sherds. The core of the collection, some 5500 items, is of local provenance. This in turn divides into approximate thirds, for Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval/Post medieval material. There is a small collection of Egyptology, acquired during the early years of the last century through subscriptions to the Egypt Exploration Fund. A large part of the Roman collection was derived from the excavation of the Roman Fort, at Ilkley.

  Art Collections

  Fine Art

  The Fine Art collection comprises of approximately 15,922 items and was begun in 1879 when the first public museum and art gallery opened in Bradford. Oil paintings mainly dating from the mid-nineteenth century onwards form 23% of the whole, and another 27% is watercolours, to date mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The largest part of the collection is made up of prints, 50% of the total, and half of these date from 1868 or later. There are fewer than 100 items of sculpture.

  In the 1980s the service began actively collecting the work of South Asian and Black artists to better reflect the contemporary population of Bradford. Examples include textiles, paintings, calligraphy, prints and decorative objects.

  Decorative Art Collection

  This collection comprises some 5000 items, shared almost equally between furniture and ceramics. The ceramic collection is the kind found in many larger provincial museums. Of note within this collection are the North Country English Furniture, mainly of 17th century oak, Stained Glass and South Asian material including crafts, calligraphy from the Muslim world, gold and silver, garments and textiles.

  The World Cultures Collection includes a modest but significant collection of material representing cultures of the South Pacific, Australasia, Africa, North America, Japan and China.

  Industrial Collections

  This collection began in 1966 and now contains over 36,000 individual and groups of items. The main sections include textiles, engineering, public and domestic transport, the history of science, motive power, printing, communications, crafts and professions, as well as technical information. All have a strong bias towards material from, or are closely associated with the present Bradford Metropolitan District and its environs.

  The textile collection, relating to the production of worsted textiles in the district, is a Designated collection. This means it has been accreditated as a collection of National and International significance by ACE and that it is the most significant and comprehensive collection of material relating to the worsted industry.

  Natural Science Collections

  The Natural Sciences comprise three separate collections; zoology, geology and botany.

  Zoology Collection

  There are approximately 90,000 zoology specimens of which over 70% are invertebrate zoology including entomology and conchology. Approximately 8% are vertebrate specimens comprising study skins and taxidermy mounts.

  Geology Collection

  There are approximately 80,000 geological specimens. This collection is the subject of a paper in Naturalist: 104 pp 17-23 (1979), which details the scope of the collection in some detail.

  Botany Collection

  The museum’s botany collections comprise the nationally and internationally important F.A. Lees collection and W.A. Sledge collection of flowering plants and other important lichen and bryophyte collections totalling approximately 60,000 specimens. These important reference collections are based on those made by local naturalists, and have a strong local emphasis.

  Social History Collections

  The vast majority of material is local social history, including local agricultural and craft tools and comprises some 61,073 objects. Notable sections with it are Costume and textiles (14%), collected primarily on the basis of Bradford’s history in textile manufacturing, and domestic material (16%). There is also a small but significant collection of material relating directly to Cliffe Castle and the Butterfield family (3%)

  Photographic Archive

  A large collection of photographs and negatives, comprising of over 500,000 items, the largest part of this collection, approximately 350,000, was acquired by the service in 2004 from C.H. Wood Ltd. Another significant part of the collection is the Belle Vue Studio collection which consists of over 17,000 glass and film negatives and prints produced by the studio throughout its life. The bulk of the collection covers the period from 1950 until the studio closed in 1975, and predominately contains images of migrants that move to the Bradford district post World War two. The studio was particularly popular with the Ukrainian, South Asian and Caribbean communities living and working in the Bradford district.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2019

  Licence: CC BY-NC