Collection: Kendal Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Social History Collection

  Local history of Kendal and the former county of Westmoreland including personal, domestic, working, civic and community life.

  Subjects

  Social History

  Biology Collection

  Local and non-local natural history including the Dr Parker collection of birds and birds eggs and the hunting trophies of Colonel Edgar Harrison and Major Cooper, acquired whilst they were serving abroad as military officers. Animal heads donated by Col. Harrison in the 1930s include Antelope, Bison, Gazelle, Pumas, Rhinos and a Tiger. The collection also features African animals such as a lion, aardvark, springbok and a great flamingo donated in 1860 and one of the oldest specimens in the collection. The Arctic specimens include a Musk Ox, Snowy Owls and a fully-grown adult polar bear formerly part of the Earl of Lonsdale’s collection at Lowther Castle. From South America there is a three-toed sloth, an armadillo and several exotic birds including Toucans and a Quetzal. Australian mammals are represented by marsupials such as a Red Kangaroo, Spiny Anteater and a Duckbilled Platypus. There is also a rare specimen of a Thylacine, a large carnivorous marsupial also known as a Tasmanian Wolf or Tasmanian Tiger and thought to have been extinct since the 1930s. This specimen was donated in 1939 by a Dr Parker, and was cased by H. Murray of Carnforth. Asian wildlife covers the wide range of habitats with species such as the Orang-utan of the rainforests and lowland species such as the Peacock. Europe specimens include a Great Bustard (extinct in England since the early 19th Century), an Otter, Badger, Waxwing and Spoonbill.

  Subjects

  Biology

  Geology Collection

  Geological collections include fossils, local shales, flags, grits and slates, and also local minerals and rock types.

  Subjects

  Geology

  Personalia Collection

  Alfred Wainwright was involved with the museum for many years and amongst the collections are some of his personal items such as his walking jacket, spectacles, rucksack, heavily darned socks and pipe. There are also many of his original pen and ink drawings including original pages for his famous ‘Pictorial Guides’, maps drawn when he was a child, his original map of Westmorland, hand-written accounts, and drawings of items from the Museum of Lakeland Life, Kendal.

  Subjects

  Personalia

  Archaeology Collection

  The archaeology collections range from Prehistoric to Post-Medieval. The majority of material relates to excavations from the same horizons including a large collection of Neolithic axe heads and stone tools from the “factory” at Great Langdale, Cumbria and Mesolithic tools from Westmoreland Uplands. Roman finds from Watercrook Fort, Kendal includes domestic and military items, coins, jewellery, shoes, altars, funerary stone and a sculpture of the classical god Bacchus. Other local Roman sites at Ambleside and Tebay are also represented. A 10th Century Hiberno-Norse Cross and a pattern welded sword found near Kendal in 1898 are included in the Viking collection, whilst various Medieval items include a coin hoard from Grasmere dating from the reigns of Edward I to Henry VII. The museum also has an original key from Kendal Castle, built in the mid-13th Century and home to the family of Katherine Parr, together with other items such as leather drinking jugs, a silver coin hoard, weaponry including cannonballs and chain mail. The Egyptian collections include funerary objects, scarab seals, shawabti figures, and numerous necklace beads, some acquired from excavations in the early 1900s. There is also a selection of foreign Roman finds and some 5th century BC Greek pottery.

  Subjects

  Archaeology

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 250 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: coffins; coins; faience figures; furniture; jewellery; metal figures; animal remains (mummies); human remains (mummies); offering tables; papyri; pottery; ‘Ptah-Sokar-Osiris’ figures; scarabs; shabtis; stone figures; stone vessels; textiles; toilet articles; tomb models; 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): Abydos (Garstang; there is no further information in the records but this may be Garstang excavating the El Arabeh area of Abydos with the Egyptian Research Account, 1900); Beni Hasan (Garstang with Liverpool University, 1902-1904); Esna (Garstang and Jones with Liverpool University, 1905-1906).

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC