Collection: Museum & Art Swindon

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Fine Art Collection

  The Swindon art collection was established in 1944 and important benefactors have contributed substantially to it. Most notably, H J P Bomford, gave 20 works including pieces by Ben Nicholson, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and L S Lowry and this material still forms the core of the collection. The collection consists mainly of works in oil and drawings; there are a few prints and very few sculptures. Artists of national reputation and of local distinction and works both traditional and avante garde are represented. There are particularly good examples of the work of Bomberg, Hitchins, Wadsworth, Collins, Hilton, Hamilton, Turnbull, Hodgkin, Hoyland, Hambling and Milroy. The Swindon art collection is the great strength of the museum.

  Subjects

  Sculpture; Paintings; Fine Art; Prints; Drawings

  Decorative and Applied Art Collection

  There is a studio ceramics collection which represents the major traditions in British ceramics over the last 50 years. The collection includes works by Kathrine Playdell-Bouverie, Ivan Martin, Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Ray Finch, David Leach, Sara Radstone, Riona Salazar, Carol McNicoll and Jennifer Lee.

  Subjects

  Decorative and Applied Arts

  Science and Industry Collection

  The Gerrard Manufacturing and Engineering Company collection consists of approximately 100 examples of production models of record player turntables and associated equipment made by the company in Swindon between 1919 and 1982.

  Subjects

  Science and Industry

  Medals Collection

  There are campaign medals and miscellaneous medals relating to local events and clubs.

  Subjects

  Medals

  Ethnography Collection

  There is some general ethnographical material, mostly from Africa and including the Longland collection given to the museum in the 1920s; also ethnographical and antique musical instruments, the Winslow collection. SubjectsEthnography

  Numismatics Collection

  The museum has assembled a representative collection of British coinage which includes 17th and 19th century local traders tokens and checks.

  Subjects

  Numismatics

  Agriculture Collection

  The agricultural collection is a substantial and wide-ranging collection of horse and tractor drawn farm machinery, barn and dairy equipment and hand tools, most of local provenance.

  Subjects

  Agriculture

  Geology Collection

  The museum has significant collections of fossils from the Kimmeridge Clay, Oxford Clay and Purbeck and Portland Beds all represented in the Swindon area. There are largely complete skeletons of the ‘Welcome Avenue Ichthyosaur’ and the ‘Cambria Bridge Pliosaur’. There are also reference fossil collections and a small mineral collection.

  Subjects

  Geology

  Social History Collection

  Among items of local and social history significance are a group of Swindon public house pewter mugs; a series of local naive paintings of local buildings and the Wiltshire and Berkshire canal; and a collection of medals and collars belonging to Bruce, the ‘collecting dog’ of Swindon. There is a large group of stoneware and glass bottles and jars of local mineral water manufacturers and general traders; and also a selection of fine china, particularly teapots, china produced for local chapels and souvenir wares including a large quantity of Swindon Borough crested china. There is also a substantial collection of ephemera relating to local companies and traders, leisure activities (sport, theatre and cinema) and amateur societies and organisations such as churches. There is also a comprehensive group of Swindon postal material, the Eade Collection.

  Subjects

  Social History

  Photographic Collection

  The museum has a collection of about 3,500 local postcards and two significant collections of glass negatives, the work of professional and amateur photographers (the Woodfield collection, c.1915-39 and the Harris collection, c.1910-14).

  Subjects

  Photographic equipment

  Biology Collection

  There are historic collections of natural history material including mounted specimens of mammals and birds; two cabinets of butterflies and moths; the Philpott collection of shells, mainly comprising sea shells and collected prior to 1912; the Todd herbarium, numbering several thousand specimens; and a representative collection of Wiltshire mollusca collected by C D Heginbotham.

  Subjects

  Biology

  Costume and Textile Collection

  This collection features local uniforms and general costume and accessories, mostly female and child. There is a notable group of shoes dating from 1948 to 1978 which were given by Morses, a local mail order company.

  Subjects

  Costume and Textile

  Archaeology Collection

  The archaeology collection spans the period from the palaeolithic to AD 1700. A small amount of foreign archaeology is held, consisting of Egyptian, European, Near Eastern and African artefacts. The majority of the collection derives from local excavations, the remainder is from fieldwalking and chance finds. The main strengths of the collection are in the Romano-British and early medieval periods, notably: Groundwell Farm iron age farmstead site; Wanborough Roman town on Ermine Street; Purton and Whitehill Farm Romano-British kiln sites; Swindon House, early Saxon settlement of Swindon including weaving combs and remains of sunken-floored houses; Minety late medieval pottery kiln site; the Wiltshire section of the M4 (finds only); Purton Romano-British cemetery, with wealthy burials and a unique cremation; and Foxhill, Wanborough, grave goods from the Saxon cemetery (on loan from Devizes Museum).

  Subjects

  Archaeology

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 31 ancient Egyptian objects which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: coffins; flints; jewellery; human remains (mummies); pottery; shabtis; stelae (material unknown); textiles; other.

  Subjects

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

  Arms and Armour Collection

  There are some antique firearms.

  Subjects

  Arms and Armour

  Oral History Collection

  Since 1990, the museum has been gathering an archive of oral history recordings based on local themes, such as the cinema in Swindon.

  Subjects

  Oral history

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC