Blog / Collections

Posted on by Alice Bush.

Reassessing the Agricultural Collection

by Amber Druce, Curator of Social History One of the biggest challenges facing museums is a lack of storage space for expanding collections. For the past 10 years, we’ve been rehoming some of the agricultural objects in our collection that don’t have a lo…

Posted on by Fay Curtis.

Black Lives Matter Placards at Bristol Museums

by Amber Druce, Curator of Social History During protests against police brutality and racial inequality on 7 June 2020, people left placards at the base of the Colston statue plinth. This began before the statue was pulled down and continued af…

Posted on by Fay Curtis.

200 years of amazing collections and stories

By Deborah Hutchinson (Geology Curator) and Kate Iles (Archaeology Curator) Bristol Museums’ forerunner, The Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, officially opened 200 years ago on 6 January 1823. We’ve bee…

Posted on by Lauren MacCarthy.

Women’s work: Making discoveries in the Australian collection

By Polly Bence, University of Bristol, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology My research focuses on cultural objects from Oceania – an understudied part of the collection at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Earlier in 2022 I undertook a fou…

Posted on by Alice Bush.

The unknown story of Te Whiti, a Māori chief from Hauraki, New Zealand

by Polly Bence, PhD student at the universities of Bristol and Exeter. Polly is researching material culture collected from Australia and the Pacific Islands in Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. Sensitivity warning: Some of the details in the blog r…

Posted on by Alice Bush.

First impressions of the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection

by Eve Andreski, Documentation Assistant Hello! I am a long-term volunteer and previous museum front-of-house team member. I began working with the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection (BECC) at the end of January. This is when generous funding f…

Posted on by Lauren MacCarthy.

Decolonising Language

by Ray Barnett, head of collections and archives In our efforts to address decolonisation, one major piece of work is around our use of language. In everyday speech, many people are now more aware of terms that may be offensive to different com…

Posted on by Lauren MacCarthy.

Tony’s drawing by William James Müller

by Martha Robbins, Development Officer On 14 February, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery welcomed friends of the late Tony Merriman for a celebratory tea party. Last year Tony’s wife, Anne launched a fundraiser to acquire a drawing by William Jam…

Posted on by Lauren MacCarthy.

The story of Saint Blaise

by Kate Iles, curator of archaeology The Blaise Estate is named after Saint Blaise and today (3 February) is his feast day. Saint Blaise was the Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia (modern Turkey) around 1,700 years ago. There are many versions of his life but…

Posted on by Lauren MacCarthy.

Next steps in our repatriation journeys…

by Lisa Graves, curator of World Cultures Updated April 2023. The good news is we have been able to return the Cree coat to Canada. We first told you about this in early 2020 but on 13 October 2021 it finally left Bristol on its journey home. Read more…