2021 marks 200 years of Leeds Museums & Galleries.
To celebrate the last 200 years as as a civic museum service, we’ve been working with volunteers and communities in Leeds on a programme of events and an exhibition.
Did you visit the exhibition at Leeds City Museum?
We’d be grateful if you let us know what you thought of it by filling out a short survey.
a timeline
The Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society is formed to promote the advancement of science, literature and arts in the city of Leeds. These busts from our collection show the founders: Henry Denny, Benjamin Gott, William Hey, William Hey Jr, Edward Baines, Edward Baines Jr, John Marshall and Richard Reynolds.
On 6 April the Philosophical Hall opened and served as a museum, lecture hall, meeting place, and office. It was even used to monitor and record Metrological Observations in Leeds which would be published in local journals. The Museum was initially open to members only and then in the 1840s it was opened to the public for a charge, which was dropped in the 1850s.
Nesyamun was a priest, incense-bearer and scribe at the Egyptian temple at Karnak in Thebes, who died in around 1100 BC. His remains are considered one of the best preserved in the UK, and are still on display in Leeds City Museum today.
This report shows the types of objects that were first collected by the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. The initial collection focused heavily on natural science objects.
This newspaper cutting from the London Illustrated News shows the Central Court Gallery at Leeds Art Gallery on its opening in 1888, originally built with money raised in honour of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The Victorian staircase was renovated in 2017, when the original glass ceilings were also uncovered and restored.
Sir John Savile Lumley was British Ambassador to Italy from 1883 to 1888. He led the excavations at Lanuvium and brought his discoveries back to England, where he split them between Leeds and the British Museum. Recently, volunteers have worked on a project to transcribe a notebook found after the 1941 bombing, listing objects from the Savile collection that were recovered.
The LPLS transfer the Philosophical Hall and its entire collection to the Council to provide a public museum for the city.
Temple Newsam was acquired by Leeds City Council in 1922. Together with Leeds City Art Gallery, it formed an Arts Partnership. During the war, Sir Phillip Hendy (later the National Gallery Director) was Director of the art galleries and moved the art collections to Temple Newsam for protection.
Abbey House Museum was built opposite Kirkstall Abbey and opened in 1927, as a dedicated centre for Leeds social history.
During the Leeds Blitz of 1941, a bomb hit the Philosophical Hall and destroyed many of the objects. The museum worked to repair the building and restore its functions and collections. But in 1969, the damage to the museum had taken its toll and the decision was made to shut the Park Row building for the safety of its staff and the objects.
In the 1950s, Leeds Museums took over the running of Kirkstall Abbey from Leeds City Council.
Lotherton Hall was gifted to the people of Leeds in 1968 by its owner, Sir Alvary Gascoigne.
In 1969, the contents of Leeds City Museum took up residence in the Municipal buildings on The Headrow in the city centre.
Armley Mills was built and occupied by Benjamin Gott, a leading figure of the industrial revolution in the field of textiles. The mill was shut as a factory in 1969. The Curator of Leeds Museums at the time, Maynard Mitchell, realised the opportunity the mill could hold, initially as a storage area for the services’ industrial objects and eventually as a museum itself. He wrote to the City Engineer in 1970, and the museum was opened to the public in 1982.
As the collection began to grow, a dedicated storage space became necessary for non-displayed collections for the future growth of the service. Leeds Discovery Centre was built in the Leeds Dock area of the city and opened in 2008. Leeds Discovery Centre now provides free store tours on Thursdays and has education spaces for school groups and community groups to enjoy and use.
Leeds City Museum reopens at the Mechanics Institute, where it stands on Millennium Square today.
Inventions and innovation
Practically Theatre is a theatre group for performers with learning difficulties and disabilities. Since April 2020, they have moved to online sessions and created a film responding to the Leeds to Innovation exhibition at Leeds Industrial Museum, in celebration of 200 years of Leeds Museums & Galleries.
The project involved online and offline workshops to develop the films, which will become part of the Leeds To Innovation display. This project was funded by the Leeds Inspired small grants scheme.
The two films created by the group are now available to view online, by clicking the buttons below. One was created by an adult group, the other by a young persons group. To access each, please use the password invent when prompted by vimeo.
city-wide poster campaign
Earlier this year we asked the people of Leeds to tell us their favourite objects in our collection. We used the responses on a poster campaign across the city.
I first saw one of these on Planet Earth and remember them only eating once a month, poor things.
David, Chambered Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius)
I love it because it shows a museum that cares about celebrating inclusivity and the spectrum of sexuality. It gives you such a picture of the 1980’s and is a lovely piece of social history.
Hazel, Lesbian Line exclusive knitting pattern, 1980s
Maybe too fancy for my morning porridge!
Jefferey, Leeds Fireclay Company Ltd. bowl, 1890-1899
Blog
A notebook containing lists of objects unearthed from the rubble left by the Leeds Blitz in 1941 was recently discovered in our collection. A team of volunteers have been transcribing the handwritten notebook, and have written a fascinating blog about their experience and findings.
Find out more in this blog post written by the transcription volunteers, and explore the rest of our Bicentenary project blogs.
Google Arts & Culture
Over the last 200 years, we’ve been collecting objects from, about and for Leeds.
In 2020, we began putting our collections online in partnership with Google Arts & Culture, where they’re accessible to everyone.
To find out more about how to get involved, drop us an email.
Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where we’ll be sharing updates of the project.
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