Liverpool’s
Museum is the oldest of the museums and galleries operated by National Museums,
Liverpool, and is one of the great museums of the British regions. Its story
reflects Liverpool’s rise to become one of the world’s great trading cities and
an awesome dip in its fortunes during the twentieth century. The museum was
born in halcyon days of confidence when the British Empire straddled the globe
and Liverpool was a centre of worldwide trade. It suffered massive destruction
in the Second World War. After the war, years of increasing desperation were
followed by uncertain and painful recovery and nationalisation.
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13th Earl of Derby |
Thomas John
Moore was born in London in 1824 and inherited his father’s interest in natural
history. His father introduced him to the Zoological Society of London and the
teenage Thomas Moore was employed in their zoo on his father’s recommendation.
Opening in 1828, it was the first public zoo in the world, and it carries on
today as London Zoo in Regent’s Park. There Moore came to the attention of the
13th Earl of Derby. The Earl of Derby was an enthusiastic natural historian,
and was president of the Zoological Society. When he inherited his title on his
father’s death in October 1834, he set out on grand plans to create a menagerie
and zoological collection at Knowsley Hall, the family seat some eight miles to
the east of Liverpool. In 1843, when Moore was still a teenager, Lord Derby
invited him to work in the menagerie on his estate at Knowsley. Liverpool
Zoological Gardens was open to the public for profit. A guidebook of the time
listed some of its attractions:- two beautiful macaws ... a Peruvian Llama ...
a playful West Indian goat ... three
fine pelicans ... two American black bears ... two beautiful zebras ...an
American tapir ... the gnu, a lively but vicious animal ... two bears ... four
fine eagles ...
a large condor ... a couple of porcupines ... a choice collection of the
feathered tribe … and three elephants.
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14th Earl of Derby |
When the 13th
Earl of Derby died at the end of June 1851, his son, the 14th Earl, set about
clearing his late father’s collection of birds and animals from the family home
and the live exotic animals from the park. After the Earl had cleared of his
father’s menagerie from the grounds of Knowsley Hall, his father’s collection
of some 20,000 natural history specimens still remained in the hall. The
settlement of his father’s estate came, and he was anxious to transfer the
collections, and, if possible, Thomas Moore, to the council as fast as decently
possible. In Liverpool a small band of town councillors led by James Allanson
Picton, worked hard to oblige the Earl. The energetic Picton was an architect,
historian, and member of Liverpool town council for the Lime Street Ward. In
April 1850 Picton had proposed to the town council that a committee was set up
to prepare for a new library and museum. The town council set up a Library and
Museum Committee with Picton as the chairman. The committee suggested
amalgamating the new museum with an existing Royal Institution Museum and Art
Gallery on Colquitt Street near the middle of the town.
The Earl made it
known that his favoured candidate to become curator was Thomas Moore, who would
shortly be one of those ‘seeking further situations’. His powerful
recommendation was supported by a batch of testimonials from the British Museum
and the Zoological Society. The council responded eventually to the Earl’s
desires, and sometime early in 1852 both Thomas Moore and the natural history
collections of the 13th Earl of Derby were transferred to the care of the town
council of Liverpool. Moore became first curator of the new museum, and, like
the town’s new librarian, was paid £150 a year. The 13th Earl’s magnificent
natural history collections moved from Knowsley Hall to a hastily constructed
brick building behind the new library, on the corner of Slater Street and Parr
Street.
Even before it
opened the Derby Museum started to receive donations. Though the founding
collection was of natural history, model ships and the products of human
cultures from around the world started to trickle in. The donation of artefacts
into the museum included a collection of nearly 500 ‘weapons, donated by the
wife of Captain Savage and in 1856 Joseph Mayer, the owner and proprietor of
the Egyptian Museum, offered his collection to the town council. Mayer had
evidently heard about the plans that the town council was beginning to hatch
for a new larger museum. Even as the Derby Museum was opened, Picton and his
fellow campaigners knew that it was too small. Plans began for a larger museum
almost as soon as the Derby Museum opened in its hastily-built home on Slater
Street. At a council meeting on 21 September 1853, Liverpool’s Mayor, Samuel
Holme, announced that William Brown had come forward with an offer of £6,000 to
build a library and museum if the council would provide the site for it.
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Shaws Brow |
The council rapidly found a site for it in the north of the town on Shaw’s Brow. It was a steep difficult road fringed by dilapidated houses and dingy shops, with ‘low’ public houses on every corner. Here the council chose to develop an ambitious group of civic buildings to reflect the growing power and confidence of the town. Near the top of Shaw’s Brow was Lime Street Station where the railway arrived in Liverpool, and opposite the station, the council was building a concert hall, court house and assembly hall all in one – the magnificent St George’s Hall. It took over a decade for St George’s Hall to be built and it opened in September 1854
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William Brown
laying the foundation stone
for the new Museum and Library
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The new Museum and Library Building which was later extended. |
Thursday 18
October 1860, the eighth anniversary of the opening of the library in the old
building on Duke Street, was declared a public holiday on which William Brown
was to present the new Free Public Library and Museum to the Mayor of
Liverpool. All shops, banks and markets were closed. Flags were out on
buildings and on shipping in the docks. A procession marched round the town
from the Town Hall to the new library and museum, and the ceremony of handing
over the building took place on a platform in front of the new building. A
granite plaque commemorating the event was placed above the building’s
entrance.
“This building,
containing the Free Public Library, Museum and Gallery of
Arts, including
the Museum of Natural History presented by the Earl of
Derby, was
erected, on a site provided by the Corporation, at the sole cost
of William Brown
of Liverpool, Merchant, and by him presented to his
fellow townsmen,
October 18, 1860”.
On the night after the formal opening,
Friday 19 October, the Mayor held a grand soirée in the Town Hall for about 1,200
guests and William Brown was the guest of honour.
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The museum extension completed the run of civic buildings on the south side of William Brown Street. |
An extension to the museum was opened in
1906. It had two great ‘Horseshoe’ galleries, and beneath it were three floors
of Liverpool’s Central Technical School.
Links
Sources
Liverpool Museums
Liverpool Central Library
Liverpool Records Office
The National Archives
By Robert F Edwards