Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

The Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery is the local museum service for the borough of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.[1] It is a museum with collections of Christian icons, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and local history, as well as those of the former Lewis Textile Museum.

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Museum on the corner of Museum Street and Richmond Terrace
Location within Blackburn town centre
Established1874 (1874)
LocationBlackburn
Coordinates53.7501°N 2.4841°W / 53.7501; -2.4841
CollectionsJapanese Print, Cotton Town the Manuscript, Numismatic
OwnerBlackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Websiteblackburnmuseum.org.uk
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameBlackburn Museum
Designated1 August 1995
Reference no.1223411
The original gate to the building

The building

The museum is in a Grade II listed building, on the corner of Museum Street and Richmond Terrace.[2] It was originally opened as an art gallery and library in 1874,[3] with the library occupying the ground floor and the art gallery on the first floor. The building was enlarged in 1893. In the 1970s, the library moved to Town Hall Street, occupying the former premises of the Co-operative Central Store, providing more space for the display of the local and social history collections which formed Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery.

Lewis Textile Museum

The museum service was also responsible for the Lewis Textile Museum before it was closed. The contents of the Lewis Textile Museum have now been moved into the main museum building on Museum Street and the gallery which houses the collection of looms renamed Cottontown. The Lewis Textile Museum was bequeathed by Thomas Boys Lewis, a local cotton industrialist.[4]

Collections

The most notable collections include the Japanese Print Collection[5] which was amassed by Thomas Boys Lewis. The Manuscript[6] and Numismatic [7] Collections, both of which were bequeathed by Edward Hart [8] and the Icon Collection.

It also holds the Victoria Cross of Marcus Ervine-Andrews, the last Irish man awarded the VC, who was educated at Stonyhurst College.

Exhibitions

In 2006, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery took part in the touring exhibition, C21, which was part of the Fukuoka Asian Art Trinennale. Reviews of the exhibition were reported by agencies such as the BBC.[9]

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References
  1. "Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council". Blackburn.gov.uk. 2010-05-23. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  2. "Blackburn Library". Cottontown. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Archived from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  3. Timmins, Geoffrey (1993). Blackburn: A Pictorial History. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. ISBN 0-85033-865-4.
  4. "Thomas Boys Lewis". Cottontown. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  5. Kirman, Andy. "Japanese Prints". CottonTown.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  6. Kirman, Andy. "The Hart Gallery". CottonTown.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  7. Kirman, Andy. "The Edward Hart Collection". CottonTown.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  8. "Edward Hart". CottonTown.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  9. Dowd, Vincent (24 January 2006). "Asian art show lights up UK". BBC. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
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