Dorman Museum facts for kids
Dorman Museum
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| Established | 1 July 1904 |
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| Location | Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough |
| Nearest car park | Street parking adjacent to museum |
The Dorman Museum is a cool museum in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It's right next to Albert Park in the area called Linthorpe. This museum is one of two museums run by the local council. The other is the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Stewart Park.
Sir Arthur Dorman started the museum. He owned a big engineering company called Dorman Long. He built the museum to remember his son, George Lockwood Dorman. George sadly passed away from a serious illness during the Second Boer War.
When the museum first opened on July 1, 1904, it was mostly about natural sciences. This meant it showed things like animals and plants. But over time, the museum added new exciting displays. These include local Linthorpe Art Pottery, designs by Christopher Dresser, and the history of Middlesbrough itself. You can still see some of the original animal displays from the early 1900s in the Nelson Room. These include stuffed exotic birds and colorful birds' eggs.
Contents
Visiting the Museum
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The Dorman Museum has eight main display areas that are always there. It also has special changing exhibitions on the ground floor. You can find smaller displays in the ground floor hallway too. To get to the upper floor, you can use the main stairs or a lift. The museum also has a lovely old-fashioned tearoom on the ground floor. It's called Dresser's Tea Room.
Original Collections
The museum's first collections had some really interesting items! These included a stuffed eagle owl catching a hare and a stuffed lion standing tall. There were also many birds' eggs, butterflies, and insects. These were kept safe under glass.
One special display case even had a model of a human head louse. It was huge, at least 100 times bigger than real life! The museum also had a fossil of an ichthyosaur, which is like an ancient sea reptile. And there was a stuffed ribbonfish, several meters long.
Henry Bolckow, who started Middlesbrough's biggest ironworks, Bolckow Vaughan, was one of the first people to give things to the museum. He paid for some stuffed birds way back in 1874.
Christopher Dresser and Linthorpe Art Pottery
Christopher Dresser was a very important designer in the Victorian era. He was closely involved with the Linthorpe Art Pottery. This pottery was located less than a mile from the museum. Because of this, the museum now has the main collection of Dresser's work.
A special grant helped to update this gallery in 2014. It shows over 160 pieces made from Dresser's own designs. You can also see items made by others who were inspired by his work. The museum keeps adding to this collection. Most of it was bought from one collector, with help from the Art Fund and the V&A. The Linthorpe Art Pottery gallery tells the story of the pottery's success. It also shows where its ideas came from and how it still inspires people today.
The museum also offers fun learning activities about these amazing collections.
Other Cool Artefacts
Elgee's Discoveries
The museum keeps journals and photos from Frank Elgee. He was a curator here from 1923 to 1932. He did many excavations, especially at the Bronze Age hillfort called Eston Nab. He also explored burial grounds at Loose Howe. You can see a dug-out canoe that was found in the River Tees in 1926. It was found about 8 feet deep! There's a green plaque at the museum entrance dedicated to Frank Elgee.
Bronze Age Tools
You can see copies of the Roseberry Topping Bronze Age hoard. This includes bronze axe heads, spear heads, and even a mould for making more axes. These are all displayed in a special case.
Coins and Medals
The museum has about 1,900 items in this collection. It includes old coins, special medallions, badges, and banknotes. There are also military medals. Some cool collections include the Yearby hoard of 16th and 17th-century coins. There's also the Thorpe Thewles hoard of silver pennies from King Henry II and King Henry III.
Old Clothes and Textiles
There are 2,400 items of women's fashion from the 1900s. This includes shoes, hats, and other accessories. The museum also has a small collection of uniforms, children's clothes, and men's suits. There are 130 more items, mostly from the Victorian era.
Decorative Arts
This collection has 340 items, mostly from the Middlesbrough Pottery. There are also pieces from other local potteries and glass makers. You can see some items from the Bretby Art Pottery and Ault Pottery. This is because they had connections to the Linthorpe Pottery. There's also a collection of 19th-century Japanese figures called okimono. These might be carved from walrus ivory.
Rocks and Fossils
The museum has a collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils. These show the natural history of our planet.
Photographs
This collection has about 3,500 prints, old glass negatives, and carte de visite photos. Plus, there are 2,190 lantern slides.
Life from the 1930s to 1980s
There are about 16,000 everyday objects in the social history collections. The museum started collecting these items in the 1930s. They knew that society was changing fast and old ways of life were disappearing.
World Cultures
The museum has about 1,500 items from different cultures around the world. These collections started a long time ago. Sir Alfred Pease gave beadwork from North-East Africa. George Lockwood Dorman, Sir Arthur's son, also collected items from places like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These items were a big part of the museum's first collections.
Animal Collections
These collections are still a huge part of the museum, with over 150,000 specimens! Most of them are small creatures like molluscs (snails, slugs) and insects. A popular display used to be a beehive in a clear case. You could watch the bees working as they went in and out through a window.
Archives and Old Papers
The museum keeps archived materials related to its collections. The collection of old papers and printed items is very wide-ranging. It includes posters, invoices, and newspaper clippings about Middlesbrough events and people.
Permanent Display Galleries
20th Century Woman – This display looks at how big social and political changes shaped the lives of women in Middlesbrough over the last century.
Earth in Space – Learn how our planet was formed and how it's still affected by space, geology, and living things.
Four Corners – Discover where the museum's collections came from and the people who found them. You'll see natural science, cultural items, and archaeology grouped by their country of origin.
H2O – This is a fun, hands-on area all about water! There are lots of things to touch and explore.
Linthorpe Art Pottery – A small pottery in Middlesbrough made some of the most famous art pottery in the late 1800s. Even Princess Alexandra bought a turquoise vase! Many pieces were designed by Christopher Dresser. In its short 10-year life, the pottery made over 2,000 different shapes. It also won two bronze medals and one gold medal at big exhibitions.
The Nelson Room – This room has a collection of mounted birds and eggs from the 1800s. It was put together by Thomas Hudson Nelson, a famous local bird expert. He wrote a book called The Birds of Yorkshire (1907). The room has been kept in its original style since Nelson's wife gave it to the museum in 1918.
Town in Time – Middlesbrough officially became a town in 1853, but its history goes back thousands of years. This gallery has two rooms full of objects and stories about the town and its people.
Lordship of Acklam Plan – Hanging in the museum's new extension is a truly special old map. It's about 13 feet square and painted on sailcloth! This map shows all the details of the Lordship of Acklam Estates.
