Castle Museum and Art Gallery (1878)

The first public museum and gallery of art in Nottingham was The Midland Counties Museum of Art – a temporary exhibition which opened in the Exchange Buildings in the town square on 20th May 1872. Much of the collection was on loan from the South Kensington Museum (the forerunner of the Victoria and Albert Museum) and from local collections and stately homes. It included a wide range of fine and decorative art, in particular samples reflecting the local machine embroidery and lace industries, with the intention of educating both manufacturers and consumers in the finer points of design and craftsmanship. Its success (an average of 2,500 visitors a week over 6 years) encouraged the town council to establish a permanent collection and museum of its own. Accordingly a lease was obtained from the Duke of Newcastle on the gutted ruins of Nottingham Castle burned by rioters in 1831. The conversion to a museum and art gallery was overseen by the local architect Thomas Chambers Hine in consultation with the South Kensington Museum. The Exchange Buildings display closed on 30th March 1878 and the Castle Museum and Art Gallery was opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on 3rd July 1878 with a large exhibition of items on loan from many institutional and private collections. It was the first municipal museum and art gallery in the country. G. Harry Wallis, formerly of the South Kensington Museum, was appointed Director and Curator. It was a family business: his brother, Whitworth, ran Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and their father was curator at South Kensington. Harry’s son Leonard (born in the Castle Museum) went on to become curator of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.

The Nottingham Castle collection grew quickly through several spectacular donations in its early years. The strengths of the collections include many items of recent and ancient local origin including archaeological objects and information, numismatics (coin hoards and tokens),and works by local artists (Bonington, Sandby, Knight, Spooner, etc.) and craftspeople. Nottingham salt-glazed pottery and Medieval alabaster religious sculpture are specialities. Other highlights include:

• Archaeology & Antiquities: an internationally important collection of artefacts excavated from the Temple of Diana on Lake Nemi, Italy (1885); Greek Colonial pottery from Apulia and Campania, Italy (1921); local archaeological finds and coin hoards; Japanese arms and armour; an excellent collection of locks and keys; Peruvian pottery. The Antiquities and Archaeology section also maintain detailed records of Nottingham archaeology and the City’s extensive series of caves and rock-cut cellars.
• Ethnographical Collection: largely that of local dealer and collector Wellington J. Thompson; his combined gifts of some 2,500 items (he also gave a large collection of keys and other items) makes him the largest single contributor to the Castle collections.
• Ceramics: Felix Joseph Collection of Wedgwood (one of the finest collections of 18th century Wedgwood in the country, bequeathed in 1892); Lammin Collection (1890); Salt-glaze Stoneware made in Nottingham and elsewhere; Ballantyne Collection of Contemporary (late-20th century) Ceramics
• Paintings, Prints and Drawings: Oscroft gifts (1901, 1924); Holbrook Bequest (1901); Millns Bequest (1904); Local artists collection; local topographical collection of prints, drawings and oils. One of the world’s largest collections of works by Richard Parkes Bonington and a fine selection 15th century religious alabaster carvings made in Nottingham from local stone.
• Glass: Venetian glass (given anonymously in 1878); Holford Collection (1941)
• Silver: Richard Wagstaff Gibbs Collection (1968); Hopewell-Spencer-Fulton Collection (1985)