Collection: The Tullie

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  Tullie has expanded its collections, buildings and ambition since it was established by the Carlisle Corporation in 1893. Now a significant resource of cultural material, variously of regional, national, and international significance, the collection comprises almost 1,000,000 objects. The collections were first registered under the former Museums Registration Scheme in 1989 (No. 160). Full Accreditation was achieved in 2006 and renewed in 2013 and 2018.

  Tullie’s Natural Science and Archaeology collections include material from the county of Cumbria. The Fine Art collection focuses on artists or landscapes relating to North Cumbria, and the Social History collection focusses specifically on Carlisle and district. From 1st April 2023 the county of Cumbria will be split into the two administrative counties of Cumberland, and Westmorland and Furness. The impact of these boundary changes will be covered in section 8.5.

  Tullie Museum and Art Gallery Trust also cares for the Guildhall Museum, Carlisle. The Guildhall was numbered 161 under the Registration Scheme but has no separate collections, drawing objects for display from the core collection held at Tullie. Full Accreditation of the Guildhall Museum was achieved in 2018.

  In 2008 a Collections Development Strategy was produced for Tullie, providing a comprehensive and forward-looking strategic plan for future development of the collections, set in the context of the Museum Association’s Collections for the Future report (2005). This Collections Development Strategy has formed the basis for the museum’s subsequent Collections Development Policies. This policy has also been informed by Tullie’s manifesto, the Project Tullie Masterplan (2017 onwards) and the priorities of Art Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation (since 2018).

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: Not known

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  Tullie’s collections fall into four main areas: Fine and Decorative Art, Social History, Archaeology and Natural Science.

  Fine and Decorative Art

  Tullie have a wide-ranging fine art collection consisting of c. 5,600 paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, photographs, sketch books and sculpture by mainly British artists dating from about 1650 to the present day. This collection is mostly of regional significance but also includes works of national importance. Notable elements include:

  Purchase Scheme 1933-75

  Set up by Maud Scott-Nicholson in 1933, the Purchase Scheme allocated yearly funds for the acquisition of young and little known artists. Key artists represented include: Stanley Spencer, William Rothenstein, Wyndham Lewis, Esmond Lowinksy, Vanessa Bell, Lucien Pissarro, Charles Ginner, L. S. Lowry, John Nash, Eric Ravilious, Carel Weight, Peter Blake and Roger de Grey.

  Emily and Gordon Bottomley Bequest 1949

  Collection of British art (1800-1900s) featuring works of national importance. Key artists represented include Pre-Raphaelites – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown and Arthur Hughes. Other key artists represented include Samuel Palmer, Charles Ricketts and Paul Nash.

  Carel Weight Bequest 1999

  Important collection of mainly British art (late 1800s-1900s). Key artists represented include Lucien Pissarro, Stanley Spencer, L. S. Lowry, Thomas Barclay Hennell and Carel Weight.

  Pre-Raphaelite collection

  Nationally important collection of works by the Pre-Raphaelites acquired from the Howard family, William Rothenstein, the Purchase Scheme and Gordon Bottomley. Key artists listed above.

  Local art and artists collection

  Important collection of works by local and visiting artists many of which relate to northern Cumbria. Key artists represented include Sam Bough, William James Blacklock, John Constable, Winifred Nicholson, Sheila Fell, Percy Kelly and contemporary artists Julian Cooper, Donald Wilkinson, Jem Southam, Keith Tyson, Lorna Graves, Charles Oakley, Lynn Dennison, Peter Davis and Martin Greenland.

  Decorative art

  Wide ranging collection, including ceramics such as the Williamson Bequest (1940) of 800 pieces of 1700s-1800s English porcelain, and a table clock by Joseph Knibb of London, c 1600s. The collection features Arts and Crafts furniture, ceramics and metalwork, complementing the textiles held in the Social History collection. A small collection of musical instruments, including strings by the Forster family and a decorated violin by Andrea Amati (1564) also feature in the collection. Contemporary acquisitions include pieces by Paul Scott, Natasha Daintry, Richard Slee and Michael Eden.

  Tullie was an early subscriber (1936) to the Contemporary Arts Society, which has allowed for the acquisition of fine and decorative art from artists including Stanley Spencer.

  Social History

  Social History objects collection

  A wide-ranging collection of objects and ephemera relating to personal, community and working life in Carlisle district. The boundary between archaeology and social history is 1485, the death of Richard III and widely regarded as the end of the Medieval period.

  The collection includes a good general representation of working, domestic and recreational activities. There is limited coverage of the Elizabethan period, including weights and measures and the nationally significant Carlisle racing bells. Material includes limited items from the Border Reiver period and 1745 Jacobite Rising, 1600s/1700s silver of the city and its trade guilds, coins and medallions from 1500-1900, Carlisle made watches, long case clocks and firearms, State Management branded pub material, traditional Cumbrian sports trophies and accessories, ephemera relating to 1900s Carlisle Pageants and fairs, tools, equipment and products of local industry and rural agriculture and the Blue Streak missile project archive. The collections also represent Carlisle based industries such as Textile manufacturers, Carr’s biscuits and Hudson Scott/Metal Box.

  Photographic collection

  A collection spanning the history of popular photography with images primarily focussed on Carlisle people and places, with a significant number from wider Cumbria.

  Significant collections include over 1,000 images by noted amateur photographer and archaeologist Mary Cicely Fair, the archive of Carlisle commercial photographer F. W. Tassell comprising over 1,500 images, and over 700 images from Carlisle photographer Jim Templeton. Early photography is represented with a number of locally taken Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes.

  Costume and textile collection

  This includes a large collection of women’s, men’s, children’s and infants’ costume and accessories dating from 1700 to the present; a significant collection of locally made quilts; and textiles from local artists. Significant costumes include those worn or associated with local resident Margery Jackson including a court mantua and the uniform of Polish Second World War Pilot Tadeusz Felc.

  The quilt collection represents work from around 1700 to the present day and includes a quilt incorporating the Friendly Association of Cotton Spinners apron from 1836. The textile collection includes work from local manufacturer Edinburgh Weavers, Morris and Company and rag rugs by noted local artist Winifred Nicholson.

  Oral History collection

  A smaller but significant collection of recordings dating from 1950s to the present. These recordings represent working life from Carlisle district industries including testimony from workers at Carr’s/McVities Biscuit Works, Hudson Scott/Metal Box and the Blue Streak missile project at Spadeadam RAF site.

  Born Digital collection

  In 2020, Tullie started to collect born digital objects, ensuring that we are able to remain at the forefront of museum collections management. The Born Digital collection currently is made up of photographs taken by the public during the first Covid-19 lockdown, as well as miscellaneous videos, zines, and audio recordings.

  Archaeology

  Tullie’s archaeology collection is c. 400,000 objects strong, and encompasses prehistory to the early modern period (not including the Border Reivers, which is included in Social History).

  The locally and nationally important collection includes extensive material from the significant prehistoric site at Stainton West CNDR, the Neolithic Langdale Axe factory and Bronze Age material including unique rock art and pottery. The collections relating to the Roman occupation include an internationally important collection of inscribed and sculptured stones, and domestic and military material from Carlisle. This comprises excavated material from Carlisle Archaeology Unit, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site Hadrian’s Wall, including Birdoswald Roman Fort. The post-Roman and Early Medieval period includes objects from Viking burials at Ormside, Hesket and Cumwhitton. The medieval life of the city is represented by finds from the Carlisle Archaeology Unit excavations across the city. In addition, there is a fine collection of British coinage of all periods.

  A notable point about the collection is that the waterlogged conditions that can be found in the archaeological layers of Carlisle allow the preservation of wood (e.g., writing tablets) and leather artefacts. Research carried out by Sapienza University suggests that Tullie holds the second largest collection of archaeological organics in the UK.

  The collection consists of material collected through the following methods:

  • Antiquarian collections (which includes the founding collections of the museum); e.g., R. Ferguson, Gilbanks, Harkness, Fisher.
  • Stray and single finds.
  • Amateur and modern collectors’ collections,
  • Objects acquired through the Portable Antiquities Scheme including the Treasure Act
  • Archaeological archives which include both objects and documentary archives (see Guidelines for Archaeological Depositions for further information). Most of the archaeology collection stems from the rescue material salvaged from Carlisle Archaeology Unit which folded in the early 2000s. This material also encompasses most of the archaeological documentation backlog.

  The collections have been published in multiple places; notably Wright and Phillips (1975), and the CWAAS Transactions, and the websites Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, and Roman Inscriptions of Britain.

  Recent excavations should all be published on OASIS V, and the grey literature on the Archaeological Data Service.

  Natural Science

  Tullie’s Natural Science collection totals almost 500,000 specimens. In 2018, the collection was Designated by Arts Council England due to its great geological and biological importance. The specimens mainly originate from the county of Cumbria, which has the most biologically diverse range of habitats of any English county. The collection has a considerable historical component (dating back to the early 1700s) and consequently provides an extraordinary and irreplaceable national resource for understanding the landscape and biodiversity of the region. The collection contains many specimens which have underpinned significant natural history volumes and scientific ecological studies, and continues to inspire and inform both the scientific community and the public, influence policy and deliver an enduring legacy.

  Zoology

  The nationally significant entomology collection is the largest component, comprising c. 200,000 specimens. It contains 10,000 British species, including type-specimens, specimens of species discovered new to Britain from the county’s rivers, and historically important specimens (i.e., those collected by E. B. Ford), which have provided the foundation of ground-breaking ecological works.

  Taxidermy includes 1,500 mounted specimens and 3,000 cabinet skins, representing most British species of bird (including the last indigenous Cumbrian Red Kite, 1840) and mammals as well as many important Cumbrian species of fish. For many mammal species, such as the Red Squirrel, collecting is continuous to present, allowing samples to contribute towards genetic studies of the species. The collection of mounted British birds and mammals, some exquisitely mounted and cased by Ernest Blezard, is unique in its outstanding representation of Cumbrian habitats: many specimens feature in Rev. Macpherson’s A vertebrate Fauna of Lakeland.

  There are 3,500 clutches of birds’ eggs in the collection representing most British species and largely deriving from Cumbria. It includes clutches collected by Ernest Blezard (mid-1900s), raptor eggs collected under license by D. Ratcliffe and a series of failed Golden Eagle clutches taken under license from what was, for many years, the only English pair at Haweswater. The bird egg collection has contributed to the studies of the impact of environmental pollution (e.g., D. Ratcliffe 1970).

  The Mollusca collection comprises some 2,000 specimens of terrestrial and marine mollusc shells, including a data rich collection of 1,195 non-marine species collected by Ernest and Dorothy Blezard in the mid-1900s.

  Additionally, the museum holds a taxonomically diverse collection of osteological specimens (c. 700).

  Botany

  Lakeland and British herbaria, including mosses and lichens. The botany collections have a strong historical element with significant material from the 1700s (for example, from S. Goodenough, Rev. J. Dodd and T. Heysham), 1800s (including C. A. Steves, J. Leitch, R. H. Williamson) and 1900s (for example, C. Winsome Muirhead, D. Blezard and D. Ratcliffe) and from a succession of nationally prominent local botanists. Data from the collections has underpinned contemporary distribution atlases such as A Flora of Cumbria (G. Halliday 1997). The collections have been greatly strengthened by the 2014 acquisition of the herbarium of Lancaster University (c. 35,000 sheets); an invaluable reference collection of vascular plant sheets from the British Isles and continental Europe. Most noteworthy are the contemporary 10,000 Cumbrian specimens, providing confirmation of published records of less common and critical species.

  Fungi

  An invaluable biodiversity resource collection of well-provenanced Cumbrian fungi. New acquisitions should focus on montane and grassland species in addition to providing voucher specimens for county biodiversity data. The contemporary collecting of fungi from the Cumbrian felltops has preserved material from a little studied community in a vulnerable habitat in a period of climate change which has great potential for future research.

  Geology

  The ‘Cumbria’s Past, Our Future’ project (2021-2023) funded by the Designation Development Fund significantly contributed to our understanding of this unique collection.

  The collection includes 10,000 specimens of minerals, fossils, and rocks. There are 3,000 mineral specimens in the collection, 2,500 of which come from Cumbria. They represent internationally important areas including the Caldbeck Fells, the West Cumbrian iron fields, and the Northern Pennines. The museum also possesses a unique collection of minerals including lead, gypsum, and aragonite. Noteworthy collections include that of R. Harkness, J. Goodchild, B. Young, J. W. Branston and J. Ingham. A further 500 specimens derive from locations around the world and are of particular use for comparative and educational purposes.

  The palaeontology collection consists of almost 6,000 specimens, consisting of mainly invertebrates (with a comprehensive component of Lower Palaeozoic invertebrates) and most groups are well represented. The collection has a wide stratigraphic range stretching from the Cambrian to the Pleistocene. There is a large geographic coverage from the British Isles (particularly Cumbria and Dumfriesshire) but also a small number of European specimens. This ensure that the palaeontology collection covers a range of specimens, as Cumbria palaeontology is only palaeozoic. Material from Cumbria is well represented and demonstrates the changing environments over a period of almost 300 million years, between the Lower Ordovician and the Lower Jurassic. The collection includes at least two type specimens and several figured specimens. The most important collection is that of R. Harkness, who used the specimens with his geological studies to unravel the complex stratigraphy of Cumbria and southern Scotland. Of particular scientific importance are the Permian vertebrate trackways, and a partial ichthyosaur skeleton from Great Orton, Carlisle, which may represent the oldest ichthyosaur from the United Kingdom.

  The petrology collection contains just over 1,000 specimens with a comprehensive range of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary specimens. Of particular note is the proportion from Cumbria comprising an excellent range of many different types of rocks found in the Lake District.

  Other

  The museum has a small collection of spirit specimens, and microscope (biological and geological) slides. The museum also holds an important archive of natural history notebooks and correspondence from prominent figures in the natural history of Cumbria including D. Ratcliffe, H. A. Macpherson, E. Blezard, and F. H. Day, to name a few.

  In 2014 Tullie collected the skeleton of a juvenile Fin Whale – named Driggsby – which forms an important basis for work on human interactions with and impact on our oceans.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date:

  Licence: CC BY-NC