History of William Hesketh Lever and his Gallery

© Pete Carr

Map of William Hesketh Lever North West England • William Hesketh Lever was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1851 and was the son of a grocer. He worked at the family shop from the age of 16. • Lever founded Lever Brothers in 1886 and decided to sell pre-packaged which was a new idea at the time. • Did you know that Lever’s original factory was in before he moved it to a new site at Warrington in 1888? • Lever moved the factory from Warrington to uncorn Port Sunlight to expand the business. In Port Sunlight, which he named after his soap, Lever built a factory and village to house his workers between 1888 and 1914. On the map mark where Bolton, Port Sunlight and your school are located.

FREE ENTRY liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever

@leverartgallery William Hesketh Lever Famous for • Sunlight Soap • Lever Brothers • Port Sunlight Village • The Lady Lever Art Gallery • Being a philanthropist who is someone who gives time and money to help make life better for other people • Collecting Not as well known for • Sleeping in the open air • Getting up at 4:30am every morning • Only liking cold baths • Having a zoo with animals from all around the world at his home in Rivington Pike How did Lever make his fortune? • Making and packaging Sunlight Soap • To advertise his soap he collected Victorian William Hesketh Lever by Samuel Luke Fildes paintings and added images of soap and text Room 10 (Main Hall) to make them into advertisements to help sell his products

Find this painting. The artist who painted Imagine you were an artist and Lever had this was very unhappy when his painting bought one of your paintings before changing was changed into an advertisement for soap. it without asking for your permission. How would you feel? Why?

The New Frock by William Frith, Room 26 The Lady Lever Art Gallery • William Hesketh Lever built the Lady Lever Art Gallery to honour his wife. • He worked closely with local architects to help design the Gallery. Lever would have liked to have been an architect when he was younger. • Did you know that the original plans had a library and a musician’s gallery but these were dropped from the final design?

W.H. Lever (1900) by Edward Onlsow Ford and Mrs. W.H. Lever (1900) by Edward Onslow Ford Room 10 (Main Hall)

1914 - World War 1 begins 1918 - World War 1 ends

1914 1922 1925 Building of the Lady The Lady Lever Art Gallery is Lever dies Lever Art Gallery begins completed and opens to the public

© Pete Carr

What do you think the Lady Lever Art Gallery is made from?

A: Concrete B: Marble C: Brick Answer: Concrete structure encased in Portland stone. Portland in encased structure Concrete Answer: Lever collected over 20,000 objects for the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Draw one example of an object Lever collected for each theme below.

Wedgwood - Room 3 Furniture - Room 10 (Main Hall)

Paintings - Room 30 Sculpture - Room 2 (South Rotunda)

Chinese - Room 7 Greek or Roman - Room 19 (North Rotunda)