| AdminHistory | Prior to the involvement of the Council, museum and art collections (as in the case of libraries) within Birmingham were in private hands, such as those held by the Birmingham Society of Arts and the School of Arts. It took ten years for the Town Council to even start to implement Ewart's Museums and Libraries Act of 1850, mainly due to the fact that the halfpenny rate (later increased in 1855 to a penny) that the Councils were allowed to levy was not enough. However, in 1860, the Council established a Free Libraries and Museums Committee, though the 'Museums' aspect in the title was dropped somewhat unofficially within a year or two, to compile a report of the on the subject of free libraries and museums and present it to the main Council Committee.
The committee's recommendations were to establish a Libraries Department, under an appointed Chief Librarian, with branch libraries and a central reference and lending libraries. This was achieved, with work commencing on the Central Reference Library and the Central Lending Library in 1862, with the Lending Library opening in Ratcliffe Place in 1865, followed by the Reference Library in 1866. The committee looked after staffing issues, stock (including manuscripts and archives) and building issues, accounts, public lectures, rules and regulations, as well as the fledgling Museum and Art Gallery.
The fledgling Art Gallery and Museum, holding some 56 paintings, was housed in the Lending Library. It was formally opened in 1867, in response to several gifts of paintings offered by the School of Art and other donors, the first of which had been as far back as 1864. In 1877, the collection was moved to Paradise Street, then to Aston Hall, and an Art Gallery Purchase Committee was formed in 1881 to look for a permanent home (see BCC/1/AZ). The Birmingham Corporation Act, 1883, increased the funding for this function, allowing the Art Gallery and School of Art to be completed. The Art Gallery was opened at its present location in 1885, enhanced by further donations of paintings and decorative movables, such as a collection of Wedgwood pottery and other wares.
The 1883 Act had a significant impact upon the provision of a museum and art gallery in Birmingham. The Act not only supplied more revenue, but required the setting-up of a committee by the Council specifically for the provision of a museum and art gallery service. This came about the following year and consisted of eight members of the Council and eight representatives from the School of Art and the Birmingham Society of Arts. The committee was responsible for the care and acquisition of objects and paintings, the housing of them (building issues), their display to the public, public events, finance (including a museum shop), staffing issues and the running of the Birmingham School of Art. They were supported in this by a Science and Art Department, headed by the Keeper, Mr Whitworth Wallis and the existing structure at the School of Art was maintained. Towards the end of 1885, the Baths and Parks Committee requested that the committee take over the care of paintings and objects within Aston Hall and the Keeper set about an overhaul of their arrangement.
In 1899, the Art Gallery Purchase was formerly wound up and its remaining duties were transferred to the Museums and School of Art Committee. The museum and gallery had always attracted huge numbers of visitors and had accumulated so much more material through gifts and purchase that in 1904, after a detailed study, an extension to the Gallery was proposed. In 1912 this extended Art Gallery was opened, now with the addition of the Feeney galleries and the Natural History Museum, which had been moved from Aston Hall. Finally, in November 1912, the committee was split up, with a new Museum and Art Gallery Committee (see BCC/1/BQ) and Department and with the School of Art and its Department being passed to the Education Committee (see BCC/1/BH). |