Natural History Museum (1867)

In 1867 the Town Council of Nottingham was petitioned by rate payers to adopt the Free Public Library and Museum Act of 1855; the Nottingham Naturalists' Society offered their collection to the town as the foundation of a museum; and the Nottingham Artizan’s Library offered their books at a knock-down price to establish a public library. The town immediately established the Free Library and Museums Committee to investigate the suggestion. As a result the Free Museum–Nottingham’s first publicly owned museum-–was established on 29th May 1867. The committee also recommended the long-term aim of "a Technological Museum as will illustrate at least the art and industry of this town and neighbourhood." It was to be 100 years before this dream was realized. The Free Museum opened to the public at 25 Wheeler Gate in 1871 and despite its cramped premises was an immediate success.

The museum’s accommodation problems were resolved in 1876 when the town established University College (which later became the University of Nottingham) and began building imposing Gothic-style premises to house the college along with both the Free Public Library and the Free Museum. The museum was removed to its new home in 1881 and the college site was opened on June 30th by HRH the Duke of Albany. In its first year the new museum had 323,884 visitors. The first Curator was the well-known geologist the Reverend Professor John Frederick Blake (1839-1906). He was appointed on 31 May 1881 in the dual roles of curator and Professor of Natural Sciences at UC. Although continuing as Professor until 1888, he was replaced as curator by John W. Carr (formerly Assistant Curator of the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge) who was appointed on July 1st 1886– a post he was to retain for 45 years until November 1931.

After W.W.I. so many demobilized servicemen sought admission to the courses at University College that the College Council was given permission to occupy the ground floor room used by the Natural History Museum. The museum was closed to the public on 20 August 1919 and the Vertebrate Collection was removed to the Carlton Road Branch Library where it opened to the public on 3rd November. The Invertebrate Museum remained at the College, but was closed to the public except by appointment. At the library site visitor numbers crashed to an all-time low and the collections suffered severely from the unsuitable accommodation. In 1925 the City purchased Wollaton Park from Lord Middleton and Wollaton Hall became the new home for the Nottingham Natural History Museum. It opened to the public in the autumn of 1926. Despite occasional moves by the museum committee and others to remove the collections from the site, the natural history museum was to remain at Wollaton Hall until the early years of the 21st century. Moves are now afoot to remove much of the collection from the site and focus attention on the building itself. George the Gorilla, one of the museum’s most famous exhibits and a feature of the collection since 1878, will remain along with other highlights of the collections as representatives of 75 years as a natural history museum.

The natural history collections contain some three-quarters of a million specimens in geology, botany and zoology. They were reviewed by independent experts from the Natural History Museum, London in April 2003. The following is a brief summary of some of the most important specimens and names represented in the collections:

Fossils: 45,000 specimens, recently described by experts from the Natural History Museum, London as “a superb example of a provincial museum collection.” Includes the Samuel Carrington Collection of Lower Carboniferous fossils (acquired 1870); the J. Magens Mello collection of Pleistocene mammal fossils from the Creswell Crags caves on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border (1875); E.J. Hollier’s superb collection of Silurian fossils from the West Midlands (1896); Edward Wilson’s fossil fish from the Triassic of the Nottingham area (1883); and significant suites of plants from the Nottinghamshire Coal Measures and fossil footprints from local quarries.

Minerals and Rocks: 5000 specimens including some from the original Nottingham Naturalists Society collection and fine suites of classic minerals from the North of England (early 20th century) and Cornwall and Devon (19th C). The F. Gillman collection of rocks and thin sections (1926)

Insects: Well over a quarter of a million insects are housed in the collections which are particularly strong in British beetles and Ichneumon Flies and both British and foreign species of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). The Lepidoptera collections number over 70,000 specimens including the Becher (1914), Crowfoot (1920), Kershaw (1955), Leivers (1946), and Pearson (1928) collections. The beetles include the superb collection of the renowned expert Canon W.W. Fowler (1923) and that of the Rev. Thornley (1908). Curator Hugh Parry Jones donated his personal Hymenoptera collection in 1932; and the excellent ‘Lichfield’ collection of Ichneumonidae was acquired from L.A. Carr in 1926. Alongside Fowler’s beetles, the local insects collected by curator J.W. Carr and the flies collected by David Hunter are of national importance.

Plants: 80,000 specimens including thousands collected by museum staff or acquired from many historic herbaria including the Fisher Herbarium (1887-1896), which contains many plants collected on early explorations in the Arctic, and the large Holmes Collection of British Lichens (1906). The curator J.W. Carr and his associates made many additions of local and other British plants and the collection also contains large suites of foreign material including a fine selection of European plants from the herbarium of French botanist Pierre Alfred Déséglise (b. 1823, d.1883). Unusual items include 17th and 18th century bound herbaria.

Invertebrates: includes a fine selection of glass models of marine invertebrates by the world-famous firm of Blaschka of Dresden (purchased 1887 and 1890); Theodor Verkrüzen molluscs (20,00 specimens) (purchased 1873); J.T. Marshall Collection of British land, freshwater and marine shells (1883-84).

Vertebrates: a local and international collection of 6,000 birds, mammals, reptiles and fish, many of which were mounted by the museum’s own taxidermists. Described in the 2003 review as “a very fine collection of display mounts and taxidermy.” Includes the Becher Collection of stuffed birds and eggs (1914-15). Mansfield Parkyns’ Abyssinian birds donated in 1926-27 including one of the first pair of Shoebills to be brought out of Africa (its mate is in the Natural History Museum, London). Birds’ eggs collected by Henry and Charles Pearson (1931). The Duke of Portland’s Collection of British Birds from Welbeck Abbey (1945-46). Leavesley Collection of birds eggs (1957). Mammals include the Birkin Collection of South African game trophy heads (1902-03) and the Cockburn big game heads (1934). Important individual specimens include “George” the Gorilla (1878), an Indian Lion (1960) and a Giraffe (a rarity in museums) originally on loan from Leicester Museum (1969) which was permanently transferred to Nottingham Museums in 2002. The fish dioramas made by Museum Taxidermist Leonard Wilde at Wollaton Hall in the 1940s are among the finest in the country. Mammal and bird mounts made by his successor Don Sharp are renowned. The fish collection contains several rarities including salmon and burbot from the River Trent and many other specimens of particular interest to anglers.

The museum also runs the Nottinghamshire Biological and Geological Records Centre (NBGRC) which holds a database and other records of Nottinghamshire plants, animals and the geology “from the 17th century right up to this morning!” Contact nbgrc@ncmg.org.uk