Harris Museum

Harris Museum

The Harris Museum
Harris Museum Location in Preston city centre
Established	1893
Location	Market Square, Preston, England
Coordinates	53°45′33″N 2°41′54″W / 53.75911°N 2.69825°W / 53.75911; -2.69825Coordinates: 53°45′33″N 2°41′54″W / 53.75911°N 2.69825°W / 53.75911; -2.69825
Type	Art Gallery and Public Library
Website	Harris Museum & Art Gallery website
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Harris Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery
Designated	12 June 1950
Reference no.	1207306

The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Preston Free Public Library is a Grade I listed museum building in Preston.

In the 19th century, it became legal to raise money for libraries by local taxation, and the town of Preston wanted a grand museum and library for its inhabitants. From 1850, local people held fund-raising events; and in 1877 Edmund Robert Harris, a Preston lawyer, left in his will £300,000 to establish a trust and support a public library, museum and art gallery with Preston Corporation.

In 1879, the first Preston lending library was set up in the Town Hall basement, while a public museum was set up on Cross Street, opening 1 May 1880. Success led the council to erect a new building for both. Work started on the museum in 1882 during the Preston Guild, and it officially opened in 1893.

The Harris collections cover fine art, decorative art, costume, textiles and history including collections on archaeology and local history. The museum has a permanent history gallery called Discover Preston which covers Preston's history but also includes a Discovery Room featuring the wider collections. Highlights of the Discovery Room include a display of the complete skeleton discovered in 1970, of the 13,500-year-old Poulton Elk, a skeleton of an Ice Age elk with two embedded man-made barbed points, the earliest relic of human occupation of Lancashire.

The fine art collection includes over 800 oil paintings featuring work by Richard Ansdell, George Frederick Watts, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Ivon Hitchens and Graham Sutherland as well as local artists Anthony Devis and Reginald Aspinwall. The decorative art collection includes collections of British ceramics and glass, highlights of which include the largest scent bottle collection in the country and are displayed in the Ceramics and Glass Gallery. In addition there is a contemporary art programme of national and international artists, touring shows and in-house exhibitions.