A wide-ranging collection reflecting everyday life and local industries in and around Carlisle c1800 to present day. It contain approximately 188,000 objects. These include good representation of rural life and activities. Material of earlier date includes items from the 1644-5 Civil War, the 1745 Jacobite Rising, and17th/18th century silver of the City and its Trade Guilds. Other important aspects of the collection include: banners relating to the Trades Guilds, Trades Unions and political movements; British coins, all periods; a local photographic archive and a range of oral history recordings. [20,000]
ARCHAEOLOGY
There are a number of important excavation archives, including several from recent work in Carlisle itself, in which organic materials - especially wood and leatherwork - are notable.
WILDLIFE AND GEOLOGY
The bulk of the collection consists of c.100,000 insect specimens from Cumbria and Britain. The collections of F.H. Day, G.B. Routledge and J. Murray make up the bulk of the material held. Other invertebrate material includes British and foreign Mollusca. A large collection of British birds and mammals (mounts and skins) and birds eggs, together with some skeletal material and a few preserved fish make up the vertebrate collections.
FINE AND DECORATIVE ARTS
A collection of 4300 mainly British paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, sketchbooks and sculpture dating from around 1650 to the present day.
A collection of around 1500 items including ceramics, metalwork, furniture and musical instruments dating from around 1564 to the present day. Special strengths include:
