Where did scientific/artistic material from the Festival go to after 1951?
Information on scientific/artistic material is currently held by these museums/art galleries would be appreciated; where such information has been received, the name or location of the museum/art gallery is highlighted in red.
martin@packer34.freeserve.co.uk
(The web sites of all the relevant museums/art galleries can be accessed by clicking on their underlined names.)
Gifts of scientific and artistic material produced for the Festival of Britain, 1951 (in the U.K.) :
Scientific material: (£ @ 1951)
Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (£6,550) nb John Cobb's Napier-Railton Land-Speed Record Car held by them.
(The Napier-Railton Land-Speed Record Car is currently displayed at the new Discovery Centre, Millennium Point, Digbeth)
Bristol City Museum (£550)
Cardiff Museum (£2,000) See note 1 below.
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum (£3,800)
Glasgow, Art Gallery and Museum (£600)
Leeds City Museum (£3,300)
Liverpool Museum (£18,050)
London:
* London Museum (£2,000)
The Museum of London holds the original model of the 1951 South Bank Exhibition, together with the model of the 1851 'Crystal Palace' Great Exhibition building made by "Cockcade" for the 1851 Centenary Pavilion on the South Bank site.
Natural History Museum , South Kensington (£6,000)
National Maritime Museum , Greenwich (£2,200)
Science Museum , South Kensington (£15,050) nb The Rover Turbocar JET 1 is held by them. See note 2 below.
* Victoria and Albert Museum , South Kensington (£300) See note 3 below.
Newcastle upon Tyne Museum (£350)
Norwich, Castle Museum (£600) See note 4 below.
Oxford, History of Science Museum (£200)
Reading Museum (£6,400) see also Reading Museum under 'Artistic Material'
Southampton, Tudor House Museum (£600)
Whitby Museum (£150)
The only scientific material donated to Whitby Museum from the Festival of Britain was the full-size model of Dr. George Merryweather's "Tempest Prognosticator" of 1851 (click for the full article on it from the latest "Festival Times" newsletter.)
York, Railway Museum (£1,300)
Note 1: According to page 28 of the Official Book of the Festival of Britain (HMSO) there were "exhibitions of scientific and artistic material at the National Museum of Wales". (Interestingly this split in material is reflected in the material's disposal.)
Note 2: The Science Museum was the home for the Festival of Britain's Science Exhibition from May 4 to September 30.
Note 3 : The Victoria and Albert Museum was the home for the Festival of Britain's 1851 Centenary Exhibition and the Books Exhibition: 1851 Centenary Exhibition from May 1 to October 11, Books Exhibition between May 5 and September 30; the V. & A. also held an exhibition of English Decorative Arts 1851 to 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations.
Note 4: The Castle Museum, Norwich held Norwich School of Artists and East Anglian Contemporary Art exhibitions and another exhibition "One Hundred Years of Archeological Discovery in East Anglia" (page 39 of the Official Handbook)
Artistic material: (£@1951)
Aberdeen Art Gallery (£900) See note 4 below.
Bideford Art Gallery? (£100) nb currently no trace of Bideford Art Gallery as a North Devon Museum?
Brighton Art Gallery (£650) nb last known location of Lynn Chadwick's lost Tower Mobile!
Bristol Art Gallery (£1,100) nb John Matthews' "Grace" painted plaster sculpture destroyed in 1972!
+ Letchworth Art Gallery (£150) nb they hold Georg Ehrlich's "Recumbent Boy" bronze cast
+ Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery (£500) nb they hold Karin Jonzen's "Dancing Figure" plaster See notes 5/6 below.
Reading Museum (£850)
Swansea, Glyn Vivian Art Gallery (£550) See note 7 below
Note 4: Aberdeen Art Gallery is referred on page 53 of the Official Book of the Festival of Britain for "two art exhibitions."
Note 5: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool held an exhibition of the work of the artist George Stubbs, born in the city in 1724; it had opened for the first time since 1939. (See page 51 of the Official Book of the Festival of Britain, for more information.)
Note 6: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool hold Lucien Freud's "Interior near Paddington", from 'Sixty Paintings for '51'; nb Rodrigo Moynihan's "Portrait Gallery" is held by the Tate Gallery, while Claude Rogers' "Miss Lynne" is held at Southampton City Art Gallery, according to "A Tonic to the Nation", published 1976 for the 25th anniversary of the Festival of Britain..
Note 7. Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea is referred to on page 60 of the Official Book of the Festival of Britain.
KEY
Note: Of all the cities and towns listed above, the following received visits from the Festival of Britain's Travelling Exhibitions: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool (at nearby Birkenhead), Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Southampton; not forgetting that London was also the home to the South Bank Exhibition, on which the Travelling Exhibitions were based.
In the same way of all the cities and towns listed, the following held Arts Festivals which were officially part of the Festival of Britain: Brighton, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Norwich, Oxford, York and Swansea, plus the "Season of The Arts" in London.
* = Lenders to the "A Tonic to The Nation" exhibition, V. & A. in 1976; others included: Bath, Museum of Costume; Leicester Museums and Art Galleries, and Bedfordshire County Council and the G.L.C. among many others.
+ = Lenders to the "Symbols for ‘51" exhibition, R.F.H. in 1996; others included Manchester City Art Galleries, for Jacob Epstein's "Youth Advancing" sculpture, as well as Harlow, for Barbara Hepworth's "Contrapuntal Forms".
From the Treasury Minute dated 29th January, 1952 by M.D.Packer of The Festival of Britain Society; this was part of a survey to establish the whereabouts of Festival of Britain material for the 50th anniversary in 2001.
The above is not the complete list but more details of U.K. National Institutions, U.K. Government Departments, Teaching Establishments, and Other Public Bodies (quote "not established or conducted for profit") who received scientific/artistic material from the Festival of Britain can be supplied on application to martin@packer34.freeserve.co.uk
first issued on 11.1.01; last updated 7.2.02 with a link to the article on Dr. George Merryweather's "Tempest Prognosticator".