OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTIONS

The collections currently contain approximately 188,000 objects. An indication of the number of objects in each of the main collections is given in square brackets after each section. There is a written Acquisitions Policy available as a public document.

SOCIAL HISTORY

A wide-ranging collection reflecting everyday life and local industries in and around Carlisle c1800 to present day. These include good representation of rural life and activities. Material of earlier date includes items from the 1644-5 Civil War, the 1745 Jacobite Rising, and17th/18th century silver of the City and its Trade Guilds. Other important aspects of the collection include: banners relating to the Trades Guilds, Trades Unions and political movements; British coins, all periods; a local photographic archive and a range of oral history recordings. [20,000]

ARCHAEOLOGY

• Cumbrian Prehistory
  
  
• Roman Cumbria (especially Carlisle and the Hadrian's Wall area)
  
  
• Dark Age and
  
  
• Medieval Cumbria.

There are a number of important excavation archives, including several from recent work in Carlisle itself, in which organic materials - especially wood and leatherwork - are notable.

Important items within the collections include:

• Bronze Age stone spear-mould from Croglin
  
  
• gold neck-ring from Greysouthern
  
  
• Roman inscribed and sculpted stones from Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall
  
  
• Dark Age objects from Viking burials at Ormside and Hesket
  
  
• Saxon sword
  
  
• Medieval city bell, chest and stocks
  
  
• Elizabethan weights and measures. [16,000]

WILDLIFE AND GEOLOGY

Zoology

The bulk of the collection consists of c.100,000 insect specimens from Cumbria and Britain. The collections of F.H. Day, G.B. Routledge and J. Murray make up the bulk of the material held. Other invertebrate material includes British and foreign Mollusca. A large collection of British birds and mammals (mounts and skins) and birds eggs, together with some skeletal material and a few preserved fish make up the vertebrate collections. [109,000]

Botany

Cumbrian and British herbaria, including mosses and lichens. Some of the earliest material dates from the mid-nineteenth century. Notable collectors represented in the Cumbrian collections include G. Adair, H. Britten, J. Curwen, E. Glaister, T.S. Johnstone, Dr.J. Leitch, C.W. Muirhead, J. Murray, Dr. D.A. Ratcliffe, Rev. C.A. Stevens and R. Young (Brathay Hall). [24,000]

Geology

Substantial holdings of minerals, rocks and fossils include an important collection of some 2000 Cumbrian and north Pennine mineral specimens. The fossils collection of some 6,000 specimens includes some type material within the Robert Harkness Collection. [10,000]

Local Biological Records database a Local Records Centre for the Cumbria area based on RECORDER software. The database now holds around 200,000 records, which include some deriving from the existing collections material. A Cumbria Biological Data Network was formed in 1999: within this, Tullie House is the main database for biological field records. (Geological site records are currently held but remain the property of the Cumbria Regionally Important Geological Sites Group of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust).

FINE AND DECORATIVE ARTS

Fine Art

A collection of 4300 mainly British paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, sketchbooks and sculpture dating from around 1650 to the present day.

Special strengths include:

• Local artists 18th century to present day

• 19th century artists including Pre-Raphaelites

• 20th century artists

Decorative Art

A collection of around 1500 items including ceramics, metalwork, furniture and musical instruments dating from around 1564 to the present day. Special strengths include:

• 18th and 19th century English porcelain
  
• Joseph Knibb table clock c.1680
  (Robert Hardy Williamson Bequest 1940)
• Art pottery
• Simpsons of Kendal furniture
• Foster family stringed instruments
• Andrea Amati violin c.1564

Costume and Textiles