Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Notes on Completion What is your project title? Bolton Egyptology Gallery You should read the help notes when filling in this application form. Keep your answers as brief as possible. Unless specified we do not have a word limit. However, as a guide, we would not expect your answers to any of the seven sections to be more than 1,000 words (about two sides of typed A4). We support projects that relate to the national, regional or local heritage of the UK. To receive a grant your project must: · Help people to learn about their own and other people's heritage. Your project must also do either or both of the following: · Conserve the UK's diverse heritage for present and future generations to experience and enjoy. · Help more people, and a wider range of people, to take an active part in and make decisions about heritage. Once your application is complete you should print out the declaration, ask the appropriate person to sign it, and send it, along with hard copies of any supporting documents you cannot send electronically, to your regional or country HLF office. The official date we receive your application is when we have received your correct supporting documents and correctly signed declaration after submission of this online form. We will not assess your application if you have not: · Answered all the questions. · Provided the correct supporting documents (do not send more than we ask for). · Included the correct signature on the declaration. Reference number HG-11-06377 Date we received your form 28 Aug 2014 1 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants Section Two - The Heritage 2a What is the heritage your project focuses upon? Bolton has one of the most significant collections of ancient Egyptian material in the UK; probably the largest held by any local authority-run service. The collection is notable not only for its size (around 12,000 items) and range - from jewellery and everyday items right up to mummies and granite columns from ancient temples - but the fact that it spans over 12,000 years of Egyptian history from Prehistory to the Arab Conquest. This makes it a collection of international importance. Egyptian linen has been renowned since antiquity for its quality and a core element of the collection are ancient textiles. This includes the oldest known fragment of woven cotton ever discovered - over 7,000 years old. The most spectacular examples of textiles in the Museum’s collection date to the Coptic period, from about 300AD onwards, and reflect cultural changes such as the spread of Christianity in Egypt and the importation of silk from Asia. This collection is ultimately a legacy of the textile industry in Bolton. Famously the place where the spinning mule was invented in the 1780s, within 100 years Bolton had become internationally known as a centre for spinning and weaving of fine quality cotton. By the later 19th century much of this raw cotton came from the Nile Valley; a trade important enough to see King Faud of Egypt visit Bolton in person in 1927. One of the largest and most successful local mill companies was the firm of Barlow and Jones, founded by James Barlow of Edgworth. Annie Barlow (1863-1941), James’ daughter, became interested in Ancient Egypt while accompanying her brother on a trade visit. She began to support the Egypt Exploration Society (EES), a group set up to promote interest in the monuments of Egypt. She was soon appointed as "Local Secretary" for Bolton, responsible for raising funds for the EES. The Egypt Exploration gave objects to institutions or collectors who had funded their work. Annie Barlow asked for her share of the finds to be given to the Chadwick Museum, the Victorian forerunner of today’s Bolton Museum. Bolton Museum was a major supporter of the Egypt Exploration Society for the next century, and a large proportion of our Egyptian collection derives from EES excavations. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Museum also directly supported the excavations of Flinders Petrie in Egypt and Palestine. The first two curators of the Chadwick Museum, William Midgley (curator 1883-1906) and his son Thomas Midgley (curator 1906-1934), were specialists in the study of ancient textiles. In some cases, they provided excavators with an assessment of the textiles found at a particular site in return for a share of the finds. As a town whose prosperity depended on the textile trade, Bolton was especially interested in collecting samples of textiles. These could be displayed to illustrate the history of spinning and weaving, and also studied by local designers trying to improve their products. Linked with the service’s significant collection of 19th and 20th century pattern books, design samples and textiles, the broad textile collection today represents an outstanding resource; ranging from the oldest identified piece of woven cotton in the world through the earliest known sample of Lancashire-spun cotton to the latest in cutting-edge 'smart' materials developed at the University of Bolton. 2b Why is your heritage important and who is it important to? This collection has three key significances: 1) Local identity - Generations of local people have grown up visiting Bolton Museum (and its Victorian predecessor, the Chadwick Museum) and the Egyptian displays have consistently been a core favourite and this has become part of local identity. The story of how the collections came to be in the town are also closely woven into the fabric of the history of the Borough. 2) Regional educational resource & visitor attraction - The quality of the collections within the dedicated Ancient Egypt gallery space makes the museum a key Bolton attraction, particularly to schools and for families. Visitor analysis indicates 40% of museum visitors come from outside the Borough and feedback (relating both to general visits and specifically about the gallery) indicates that the Egyptian collection is a key draw and closely associated with the public image of the service as a whole. 3) International academic study - Despite the limitations of access and lack of a public database, the 5 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants collection is already a valued resource for study. This ranges from serious academics to the more casual interest of amateur Egyptian enthusiasts, many of whom are members of one of the numerous Egyptology clubs and societies in the North West. As well as the nature of the objects themselves, crucially the vast majority of the collection was formally excavated. This means that (in contrast to collections such as the Whitworth in Manchester) the collection represents a rich resource of reliably datable evidence. For example, in the last study to identify a date for the famous Turin shroud, a sample was taken from a textile in the Bolton collection as a control. For decades the collection has been somewhat overshadowed by a geographic proximity to the Manchester University and National Museums, Liverpool collections (it was mainly in these grounds that it was narrowly turned down for Designated status in the late 1990s), exacerbated by a relative lack of profile and ease of access. However, in recent years there has been a growing understanding from academics and public alike that the collection has been significantly under-appreciated. This is reflected in the growing number of serious academic research enquiries from around the world and also by the use of the collection as the basis of a major award-winning international touring exhibition since 2011. 6 Version 11 Second Round Application For Heritage Grants 2c How do you manage your heritage today? The Egyptian collection is part of a larger Bolton museum collection of around 400,000 objects. Responsibility for the care and management of this collection is shared by members of the collections access team and Conservator, with the Team Leader: Museums Development taking a lead in setting policies and procedures and overseeing projects. The Team Leader: Museums Development is managed by a senior manager of collections and access who is part of the service senior management team under the Head of Service. As a result of budget challenges and service reorganisation, the officers of the collections access team have a more generic and less subject specialist function than at any time since 1974. However, because of the particular significance of the Egyptian collection, the service has retained a curator of Egyptology post. This officer deals with day-to-day enquiries, academic research requests (including destructive sampling requests) and associated management of the often complex documentation. At present they are also leading on the curatorship of the international touring exhibition with a commercial partner. The curator works with other staff (for example officers devising and delivering education sessions) and manages volunteers when appropriate. In recent months this has included an international museum exchange organised by the French government. There are various challenges relating to the Egyptian collection: Documentation - The outstanding issue for the collection is the lack of a complete database (including images). The collection has been built up over 125 years and has gone through two world wars, a closure of the original museum and numerous staff changes. Inevitably the collections have suffered in terms of retaining their association with their original provenance. Since the mid 1970s the service has employed a sequence of three professional Egyptologists who have undertaken a great deal of work to reassociate the collections with their original accession records and facilitate relevant academic research. Unfortunately this work is still largely limited to paper records of various kinds. As a result, the use of the collection has reached a natural limit, making it difficult for other officers or the public to understand or engage with the collection.