Replica ceramic blue hippopotamus from the museum handling box   My name is Lydia and I am a Chip In volunteer here at Blackburn Museum. I have recently been running the object handling table here at the museum during the school holidays. One of the most popular handling boxes has been the Egyptian box which contains both real items from ancient Egypt and replicas of popular items from the period. The box contains lots of interesting items, but this replica blue hippo in particular has taken my interest and I have spent a bit of time researching the history and what it symboli ..read more

Icon with Saint Vsevolod, Grand Prince and Wonder Worker c.1575 10th October 2023 By Mike Millward, former Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Manager and Curator Of the 63 icons in the Blackburn collection, the most common subject is the Mother of God (Virgin and Child), and nearly half are of this subject or some aspect of the life of Christ. The rest almost all show saints and a few prophets. Many of the saints are familiar to us – Michael, George, Nicholas and John the Baptist – but some are not as they are mainly venerated in the Orthodox Church. These include St Vsevolod. Icons are religi ..read more

Belleek Ashtray, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery 17 March 2022 By Anthea Purkis, Curator of Art, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Mr John Caldwell Bloomfield inherited the Bloomfield estate in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland from his father. He was a keen mineralogist and after commissioning a geological survey of the area realised that it would be possible to make pottery from the raw materials found there. Other practical requirements also fell neatly into place – the factory was situated next to the fast flowing River Erne which was powerful enough to drive the machinery and Bloomfiel ..read more

THE MONOCHROME MUSEUM: Object No. 26 – Shaws of Darwen Vase   Vase made by Shaws of Darwen, Lancashire. Mid 1900s. Slip cast, glazed ceramic (Cer: 844). 4 February 2022 By Caroline Wilkinson, Curator of History, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery   In the first of our Monochrome Museum blogs we are looking at the Shaws of Darwen vase and how it relates to the development of architectural design during the 20th century. By the 19th century, Darwen was an important manufacturing centre. While industries such as paper making and cotton spinning accelerated the growth of the town; the re ..read more

THE MONOCHROME MUSEUM   While it is defined as an absence of colour, a black and white palette can make a strong statement. It can communicate function or symbolic meaning; create contrast and stir emotion. The artworks and objects featured in the The Monochrome Museum exhibition are a snapshot of how black and white has influenced art and design throughout history. Over the course of the exhibition, we will be expanding on the stories behind some of these pieces (in no particular order!). You can read about them here, or access them in the gallery via QR code.       ..read more

Selection of WW1 cards from the collection at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery 14 February 2021 By Stephen Irwin, Education Officer, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Valentine’s Day originated as a celebration of a minor Christian saint. Pope Gelasius I established the feast day of Saint Valentine as 14th February in 496 AD. Time passed and the date accreted various folk stories and by the Fourteenth Century, it had become to be associated with romantic love. By the Eighteenth Century Valentine’s Day was assuming the form that we know today; with an expectation that couple would exchange exp ..read more

View of one of our display cases. A tiddly winks set can be seen in the foreground with two more boxed sets behind. (If anyone has information on the Darwen Tower Games box in the background, we would love to hear from you) 19 Jan 2021 By Stephen Irwin, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Education Officer As a child I loved to play games with family and friends, perhaps you did/do too, and as we have several games on display in our Skill & Labour Gallery I decided to write a short series of blog posts exploring the history of some of the games we have in our collection. Okay, it is time fo ..read more

Selection of Victorian Christmas Cards from the collection at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery 1 December 2020 By Stephen Irwin, Education Officer, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery The way we celebrate Christmas today is very much a Victorian invention and Christmas cards are no exception. However, the style of Christmas card has changed a lot. The seven cards shown here date from the 1880s and there isn’t a snowflake in sight. The changes wrought in Britain by the Industrial Revolution changed Christmas forever. The “Penny Post” was first introduced in Britain in 1840. This meant that a pen ..read more

‘Portrait of Thomas Boys Lewis’, Hillary Coddington Lewis (1871-1936) by Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery 26 November 2020 By Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Thomas Boys Lewis was born at Billinge House, Blackburn, in 1869, the youngest child of Thomas and Ann Lewis.  Educated at Eton and King’s college, Cambridge, he graduated first class in the Classical Tripos, entering the cotton trade in 1892 with his brother Henry.  He guided the firm’s destiny for 28 years.  In his early days he attended at the Technical College as an unpaid teacher of Latin and Greek, but his largest ..read more

A ..read more