Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery
Encyclopedia
Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery in Brunswick Road is the main museum in the City of Gloucester
. It has recently been extensively renovated following a large National Heritage Lottery Fund grant and it reopened on Gloucester Day
, 3 September 2011.
The Gloucester Folk Museum
is a smaller museum in Westgate Street
, dealing with the social history
of Gloucestershire
.
, is Grade II listed by English Heritage
. It was originally the Price Memorial Hall of the Gloucester Science and Art Society, built for Margaret Price as a memorial to her husband William Edwin Price in 1893, and designed by F.S. Waller. The Corporation of the City of Gloucester took over the building as the City Museum & Art Gallery in 1902.
Originally only on the ground floor, a first floor was added in 1958 which was opened by the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler
.
and Thomas Gainsborough
as well as a painting of Oliver Cromwell without his famous warts.
In 1977, the collection acquired a landscape of Newnham-on-Severn from Dean Hill by William Turner of Oxford with help from The Art Fund.
yielded important new finds relating to the Saxon minster founded by Æthelred, Ealdorman
of Mercia
and his wife Æthelflæd in the 890s.
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
. It has recently been extensively renovated following a large National Heritage Lottery Fund grant and it reopened on Gloucester Day
Gloucester Day
Gloucester Day is a recently reinstated annual day of celebration of the City of Gloucester's history and culture.The day was first held in the modern era on 5 September 2009 but originally dates from the lifting of the Siege of Gloucester in 1643, during which the city held out against Royalist...
, 3 September 2011.
The Gloucester Folk Museum
Gloucester Folk Museum
Gloucester Folk Museum is housed in two of the oldest buildings in the City of Gloucester, a Tudor merchant's house and a 17th-century town house...
is a smaller museum in Westgate Street
Westgate, Gloucester
The Westgate area of Gloucester is centred on Westgate Street, one of the four main streets of Gloucester and one of the oldest parts of the city.-Notable buildings:...
, dealing with the social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
.
Origins
The museum opened on 12 March 1860 as a private venture in three rooms at The Black Swan, provided rent-free by the poet Sydney Dobell. In 1896 the Corporation of the City of Gloucester took over the venture.The building
The Victorian building, in the early Renaissance style, inspired by the work of T.G. JacksonThomas Graham Jackson
Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, 1st Baronet RA was one of the most distinguished English architects of his generation...
, is Grade II listed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. It was originally the Price Memorial Hall of the Gloucester Science and Art Society, built for Margaret Price as a memorial to her husband William Edwin Price in 1893, and designed by F.S. Waller. The Corporation of the City of Gloucester took over the building as the City Museum & Art Gallery in 1902.
Originally only on the ground floor, a first floor was added in 1958 which was opened by the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler
Mortimer Wheeler
Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA , was one of the best-known British archaeologists of the twentieth century.-Education and career:...
.
Collections
Objects in the museum include:- Dinosaur skeletons.
- Archaeology, including the Rufus Sita TombstoneRufus Sita TombstoneThe Rufus Sita Tombstone is the marker of the grave of Rufus Sita, a Roman soldier from the mid 1st Century AD, found near London Road, Gloucester, in 1824...
and the Iron Age Birdlip Mirror found in 1879. - Natural history objects.
- Roman and mediaeval artefacts.
- Fine and decorative art items, including DelftwareDelftwareDelftware, or Delft pottery, denotes blue and white pottery made in and around Delft in the Netherlands and the tin-glazed pottery made in the Netherlands from the 16th century....
, Staffordshire figurines and Arts and Crafts BowlsArts and Crafts movementArts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
by Alfred and Louise PowellAlfred Hoare PowellAlfred Hoare Powell was an English Arts and Crafts architect, and designer and painter of pottery.-Career:Alfred Powell was born in Reading, Berkshire, on 14 April 1865 , the son of Thomas Edward Powell by Emma Corrie.He was the architectural pupil of John Dando Sedding, working in the 'crafted...
. - Queen Anne furniture.
- Local history items including items relating to the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company and a bust of local Methodist preacher George Whitfield.
Art collection
The art collection includes about 300 paintings including works by J. M. W. TurnerJ. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
and Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough was an English portrait and landscape painter.-Suffolk:Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the youngest son of John Gainsborough, a weaver and maker of woolen goods. At the age of thirteen he impressed his father with his penciling skills so that he let...
as well as a painting of Oliver Cromwell without his famous warts.
In 1977, the collection acquired a landscape of Newnham-on-Severn from Dean Hill by William Turner of Oxford with help from The Art Fund.
Activities
In 1976, excavations by the Museum's Excavation Unit at St. Oswald's PriorySt Oswald's Priory, Gloucester
St Oswald's Priory was founded by Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great, and her husband Æthelred, ealdorman of Mercia, in the 890s. St Peter's Abbey had been founded in Gloucester about 679 by Osric, ruler of the Hwicce, and at the end of the ninth century Æthelflæd and Æthelred founded a new...
yielded important new finds relating to the Saxon minster founded by Æthelred, Ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
of Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
and his wife Æthelflæd in the 890s.
Selected publications
- Sovereigns Of England Elizabeth I - Elizabeth II an Exhibition Held In The Wheatstone Hall Gloucester 1953. 1953.
- Ten treasures of the City Museums Gloucester, 1860-1960. 1960.
- Rhodes, J.F. Catalogue Of Romano-British Sculptures In The Gloucester City Museum. 1964.
- Wellington, Robert. Hubert Wellington memorial exhibition: An exhibition of paintings & drawings by Hubert Wellington, 1879-1967. 1968.
- Frith, Brian. Twelve Portraits of Gloucester Benefactors. 1972. ISBN 0903340003
- Taylor, John Neufville. Fishing on the Lower Severn. 1974. ISBN 0903340011
- Whiting, J.R.S. Gloucester Besieged: The story of a Roundhead city 1640-1660. 1975. (2nd edition 1984)
- Heighway, Carolyn M.Carolyn M. HeighwayCarolyn Mary Heighway MA FSA is an Archaeological Consultant to Gloucester Cathedral and the owner, with her husband Michael, of Past Historic, a company which specialises in the design and production of archaeological books and journals as well as exhibitions...
Ancient Gloucester: The story of the Roman and medieval city. 1976. ISBN 0903340046 - Heighway, Carolyn M. The East Gate of Gloucester. 1980. ISBN 0903340062
- The Golden Age of Richard III: City Museum & Art Gallery, Brunswick Rd., Gloucester: 2 July-1 October 1983: An Exhibition on the Twin Themes of Richard III and the Mediaeval Town. 1983.
- Morris, Christopher. Farming in Gloucestershire, 1800-1914. 1984. ISBN 0903340070
- Collins, Chris. Robinswood Hill Geology Trail. 1985.
- Watkins, Malcolm J. Golden Age of Richard III. 1985. ISBN 0903340100
- Watkins, Malcolm J. Gloucester: The Normans and Domesday. 1985. ISBN 0903340097
- Morris, Christopher. Gloucester Folk Museum. 1986. ISBN 0903340119
- Watkins, Malcolm J. March of Rome: Roman Soldier AD.50-150. 1987. ISBN 0903340135
- Cox, Nigel G. Gloucester Folk Museum: A Guide to the Buildings. 1987. ISBN 0903340127
- Atkin, Malcolm. History Under Our Feet: Work of the Gloucester Excavation Unit. 1988. ISBN 0903340143
- Dartnall, D.L. The great Gloucestershire dinosaur discovery. 1990.