Collection: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The collection at Keswick Museum and Art Gallery was founded by the local Literary and Scientific Society in 1873, with a particular focus on Natural Sciences. The collection of random, chance finds of local, natural and antiquarian interest was quickly focused under several local naturalists and geologists, including James Clifton Ward, to active systematic collecting. A number of pieces were bought including Flintoft’s model of the Lake District, while the bequest of James Edmonson’s butterfly collection forms a focus of the entomological collections today. The important literary collections were begun when Canon H D Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust, became a Fitz Park Trustee in the early part of the twentieth century. His fame brought donations and bequest from many quarters including members of the Southey family. The collection is largely provenanced to Keswick and the North Lakes.

  The Museum was governed by the Fitz Park Trust until it ran into financial difficulties in 1994, at which time the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Trust was formed, with Allerdale Borough Council as Trustee. In 2003 the Museums collections were formally acknowledged as existing and the collection was transferred to the trust.

  In 2007 the management of the Museum was delegated to Keswick Museum and Art Gallery Management Limited from Allerdale Borough Council.

  A major building refurbishment was completed in 2014, allowing more space for exhibitions as well as being able to develop more commercial activity to support the sustainability of the museum.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Archaeology

  The small collection comprises mainly Cumbrian artefacts, deriving from a number of sources including bequests, excavations and casual finds. This material can be placed in three categories: Pre-history, Roman, and Medieval.

  Pre-history

  There is a significant collection of worked Neolithic axes from the Langdale axe making sites including rough outs and finished axes, all found within the North Lakes area. Additionally there are several bronzes weapons and two Iron Age bangles from the west of Thirlmere.

  Roman

  The Roman collection is a small number of ceramic sherds from Samian to lower wares, including some from different local sites, and a few unprovenanced coins.

  Medieval

  The collection is a small number of ceramic sherds from key local sites such as Lords Island, seat of the Earls of Derwentwater, and a recently acquired lead seal and crucifix mould. Tullie House Museum in Carlisle holds the premier collection of archaeological material from Allerdale, ranging from excavation archives through to specific pieces such as the Cockermouth gold neck ring.

  Social History

  Costume & Textiles

  The collection includes little costume material except for the Flather costume collection, comprising non-local 1920s and 30s daily wear and accessories. Also John Ruskin’s court suit; Robert Southey’s shoes; wedding and may queen outfits.

  Domestic: leisure/pastimes

  This collection includes pastimes, sport and music, especially the famous Musical Stones. The Museum has three sets of stones and a significant archive of associated material.

  Work: industrial, commercial, maritime, agriculture

  This area of the collection concentrates on pencil and bobbin manufacture; Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway; Keswick Gas, Light & Coke Company; tourism & hospitality; shops; quarrying & mining (very little material).

  Community: schools, religion, political/military

  The collection includes local primary and secondary schools; churches; Keswick Convention; festivals; celebrities such as Sir J G Woodford. The collection features a significant model – Flintoft’s relief map of Cumbria, made in 1834 and material relating to the Keswick Convention.

  Natural Sciences

  Vertebrate Zoology

  The collection includes the display collection of mounted British birds and mammals, some not found in Cumbria today, some osteological material, and several hundred clutches of birds eggs and nests. This collection at Keswick Museum and Art Gallery formed the original basis of the Museum and most specimens date from the nineteenth and twentieth century. Most is of local and regional significance with some specimens of national interest, such as the Vendace, a local relict of the ice age, together with published examples of taxidermy, for example, Greenwell Blackett’s Buzzard. Most have close associations with notable local naturalists such as Joseph Flintoft, and Linneas Eden Hope who helped develop the collections.

  Invertebrate Zoology

  Keswick Museum houses a large entomological collection of mainly British Lepidoptera and Micro-Lepidoptera, and a comprehensive collection of local Coleoptera. The collection includes fish, reptiles, and amphibians, preserved wet, dried and mounted, with a significant collection of freshwater and marine shells from Britain and the world.

  Botany

  The herbarium at Keswick Museum and Art Gallery includes over 1000 sheets of pressed material.

  Geology (rocks, minerals and fossils)

  Keswick Museum and Art Gallery contains an important collection of rocks, minerals and fossils including the collection assembled by James Clifton Ward who surveyed the geology of Keswick for the British Geological Survey. The size and information associated with elements of this collection makes it of regional significance. The geology collection contains a good balance of rocks, minerals & fossils, mostly from local sites and well representing the complex local geology, industrial activity and the work of important nineteenth century collectors. A large proportion of the mineral and rocks are from named collections, including those of Ward, Robert Harkness, John Postlethwaite and Jonathan Otley, all early geology pioneers. The Museum also holds a small collection of minerals collected by John Ruskin, the great Victorian author, artist and social reformer and has specimens donated by twentieth century geologists such as Edgar Shackleton. Cumbria has the greatest number of mineral species in the country and the minerals of the Caldbeck Fells, an internationally important mineralogical area, now collecting restricted, are well represented, including many irreplaceable specimens. Local commercial exploitation and use of stone is also documented in the collections. Graptolites and other marine fauna of the Skiddaw Slates are well represented in the fossil collection, with some type and figured material of national importance. Plant fossils of the Coal Measures are also well represented and the Museum has one specimen of reptile footprints in Eden Valley Sandstone.

  Fine and Decorative Art

  Fine Art (Oils, Prints, Watercolours)

  A collection of prints, watercolours, oils and drawings covering the period c.1700 to the present day, with the majority of the works dating from the nineteenth century. The collection is primarily of works on paper, of regional significance. The exceptions are nationally important works by Nash and Westall, primarily of nineteenth century Southey family portraits and contemporary views, and a significant collection of watercolours and etchings by Brangwyn. Other notable artists include Sir Charles Holmes, Collingwood and Longmire. The easel paintings are again mainly nineteenth century in date and of regional importance, though the collection does include a number of works by James Durden; a portrait of Robert Southey by Opie; a Redpath oil; a large oil of Waterfall at Keswick by Joseph Farington.

  Metal and Glass

  The collection mainly consists of Arts & Craft metal work from the Keswick School of Industrial Arts (KSIA), founded by Canon H D and Edith Rawnsley in 1884. The collection includes some early pieces of repousse and chased copper articles, by named artists including W H Mawson and a portrait of Rawnsley in bronze relief by Edith Maryon, and various sporting trophies and shields, some silver, but the bulk is later stainless steel commemorative ware. There are also some KSIA fixtures and fittings in the building itself. The Goldscope Cup is a fine piece of silversmithing, but its main importance lies in the locally sourced silver. There is a nationally important bust of Hugh Walpole by Epstein.

  Ceramics

  The collection holds a very small collection of ceramics: Robert Southey’s tea service; a cup & saucer from Peter Crosthwaite’s museum reputedly made for Napoleon.

  Furniture

  A small eclectic collection includes a large parish trunk; John Peel’s chair; Southey’s chair and writing desk; Wonderful Walker bobbin chair; Radcliffe arms chair.

  Archive Material

  The core of the archive is the literary collection of manuscripts; letters, poems and prose and associated material of the Lake Poets and writers, especially Robert Southey who lived in Keswick for 40 years, and, to a lesser degree his contemporaries; William Wordsworth, De Quincey, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Later authors Hugh Walpole, Canon H D Rawnsley and John Ruskin are also well represented. The Southey collection has been built up over several decades primarily from donations and bequests made by members of the Southey family, including a recent bequest of many unpublished letters and early manuscripts of published poems. It is an internationally important archive, in the top 10 repositories of Southey material in the Country. The Museum also holds a quantity of correspondence and manuscript material from Peter Crosthwaite. The Museum has an important collection of geological maps associated with James Clifton Ward, who surveyed the area for the British Geological Survey, and other locally significant archives, including that of the Fitz Park Trust who used to own and manage the Museum. The strengths of the library lie in the areas of early tourism and nineteenth century guidebooks, and geology, and the Museum holds a run of the weekly newspaper, the English Lakes Visitor & Keswick Guardian, from the 1870s to 1910. The photographic archive details the work of important local photographers; the Abrahams, Maysons and Pettitts. The Abrahams firm in particular holds national significance as photographers of pioneering mountaineering climbs locally and elsewhere.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2022

  Licence: CC BY-NC