Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery

from 1947 City of Stoke-on-Trent Handbook

"Stoke-on-Trent is fortunate in possessing no less than four public museums. These comprise large collections of pottery and porcelain produced in the locality as well as carefully selected examples of the ceramic arts of the countries of the world. Collections of Greek, Chinese, Amerindian and Near Eastern wares are available for study.

The city's collection of English slipware is world-famous. It may be safely asserted that to the student of Staffordshire pottery the museums of Stoke-on-Trent are indispensable. Modern commercial and "studio" pottery is well represented. These museums serve at once as sources of reference for the student of ceramic history and technology and sources of inspiration to the ceramic artist of to-day.

The Hanley Museum and Art Gallery, situated in Pall Mall, formerly known as the North Staffordshire Technical and Art Museum, was founded by the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce. It now forms the administrative headquarters of the public museums of the city.

It is the function of this museum, so far as ceramics are concerned, to illustrate the general subject, as an introduction to more specialized collections elsewhere. It contains pottery from all countries arranged, not on a chronological basis, but in a purely comparative way.

The Art Gallery, now housed in a separate room called the Russell Gallery, so named in memory of the late Dr. J. Russell, a generous benefactor of the collections, contains a small but growing Permanent Collection of pictures representative chiefly of modern British art. There is also a good collection of English water-colour drawings from the earliest times to the present day. Sculpture and etchings are also a feature of the Gallery. Six loan exhibitions are held annually. The museum includes a natural history collection, local in character, in which the North Staffordshire Field Club is jointly interested.

The vivarium, to which has been added a seasonal exhibit of living wild flowers, is a new section which attracts a good deal of attention. The Local History Collections are housed in a separate room and contain specimens and documents bearing on the history of the Six Towns.

The Burslem Museum in the Wedgwood Memorial Institute

The Burslem Museum in the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, Queen Street, ranks next in importance. The basis of this museum is the Hulme collection of ceramics, consisting almost entirely of Staffordshire pottery. Because of the associations of Burslem with Wedgwood and the fact that the Institute stands on part of the site of the Brickhouse Works—one of the works of Josiah Wedgwood (1765-73)—this museum specializes in Wedgwood pottery. It also contains a collection of pictures.

The Stoke-upon-Trent Museum is in the Public Library building

The Stoke-upon-Trent Museum is in the Public Library building, in London Road, and contains nineteenth- and twentieth-century pottery and porcelain, and may be said, historically, to commence where the other collections leave off. The exhibits here are not exclusively local, but a large proportion of them represent the Minton and Spode potteries on account of the definite association of these two great nineteenth-century firms with Stoke.

The Tunstall Museum is in the Library buildings at the Victoria Institute

The Tunstall Museum occupies a room in the Library buildings at the Victoria Institute, Station Road. The special feature here is salt-glaze ware, both Staffordshire and foreign, and examples of this have been transferred from the other museums and concentrated here so as to form as representative a series as possible. A second speciality at Tunstall is cream-coloured ware, which developed side by side with salt-glaze, and there is also a special collection of Adams ware given some years ago by Mr. P. W. L. Adams, the present head of the firm.

These three branch museums were closed on the outbreak of hostilities in 1939 and have not been re-opened. The contents of the museums are now in storage but can be consulted if notice is given to the curator."

from 1957 City of Stoke-on-Trent Handbook

"As one would expect, the City possesses large and important collections of pottery and porcelain, the earliest of which was acquired as long ago as 1846 by the Stoke-upon-Trent Athenaeum.

Later collections formed in Hanley, Burslem and Tunstall were finally absorbed into the permanent collection on the federation of the Six Towns in 1910. Until the outbreak of World War II these collections were exhibited in the museums of the town of origin. On return from dispersal to places of safety during the War, it became obvious that the old museums were no longer able to show these fine collections to advantage and the plans for a new Central Museum and Art Gallery, first mooted in 1929, were taken up with fresh vigour.

The result is the present simple building in Broad Street, Hanley, which was opened by the Chairman of the Committee, Alderman Horace Barks, O.B.E., on October I3th, 1956. This modern conception of what a museum should be, was designed by the City Architect, Mr. J. R. Piggott, F.R.I.B.A., and is the first entirely new building devoted to museum purposes to be erected in England since 1938.

The emphasis on light and space has been obtained at the expense of 'Period Style' which, too often in the past, has presented Curators with problems of display, storage and maintenance.

Sited on an open space in the centre of Hanley which allows for future extension and a new central Library, the building is easily accessible to the City as a whole. The adjoining car park which provides accommodation for visitors from afar has been tastefully laid out with shrubs and bedding plants.

At present the Museum consists of two floors, the lower devoted to ceramics and the upper to painting, sculpture and drawings; on this floor is the George Baskeyfield Music Library where music lovers are able to make use of the collection of 1,500 gramophone records and to consult the library of music scores. The schoolroom, also on the upper floor, is in use from Monday to Friday for organised school visits under the guidance of a qualified resident teacher. Under this scheme, which has the approval of the local Education Authority, children attend at the Museum for courses of study extending over a 12 week period.

Full use is made of the various collections for demonstration purposes in the courses devoted to natural history, local history including archaeology, pottery, history, art, etc. At other times the schoolroom is used for meetings of learned societies and for study courses in association with the Oxford University Delegacy for extra mural studies and the local Workers' Educational Association.

As it is not possible to show the Ceramic collection in its entirety a special type of showcase has been devised with undercarriage storage. This arrangement allows of immediate access to reserve material by students and others. The main storage in the basement can be consulted by arrangement with the Curator.

Main collections include:—

Staffordshire wares of all periods—the slipwares and salt glazed wares are justly famous ; English pottery and porcelain ; Continental porcelain ; German stoneware ; Italian maiolica ; Hispano-Moresque, Turkish, Islamic and Egyptian wares.

The pottery and porcelain of China, Korea and Japan form an impressive section and, together with wares from Hanoi, Siam and Tibet, give a fair representation of Far Eastern productions.
There are smaller collections of pottery from Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Mycene, Rome and South America.

A series of wares from Romano-British sites is supported by excavated specimens obtained at Trent Vale in the City.

The fine series of mediaeval English pots and tiles is similarly supported by discoveries made at the 13th century kiln site at Sneyd Green also in the City.

The Art Gallery, known as the Russell Gallery in memory of Dr. John Russell, a generous benefactor, contains a small but growing collection of paintings by British artists. Early English water colours are well represented together with some 20th century sculpture and a gathering of paintings by local artists, among whom James Holland, John Currie and Job Nixon are well known. There is a small but choice collection of prints and drawings and a well-nigh complete series of etchings by F. L. Griggs, R.A., given to the City by the family of the late J. T. Webster."

The enlarged City museum and art gallery was opened by Prince Charles in 1981