| Description | Minute volumes indexed. The minutes are printed and signed by the committee Chairman. The minutes are in uniformly titled minute volumes. The minutes include copies of the printed monthly reports of the committee to Council; details of bequests, gifts and purchases of objects for various collections; reports of the Keeper (Curator) of the Museum and Art Gallery; reports and some tenders relating to building and maintenance works carried out on museum and gallery buildings; information relating to the day-to-day running of the Museum and Art Gallery and other buildings that fell under the care of the committee, visitor numbers and the like; information relating to exhibitions held, including loans of items in Birmingham collections to other museums; details of lectures held at the Museum and Art Gallery; occasional reports of visits by committee officials and Museum and Art Gallery staff to similar institutions elsewhere in the country; information relating to staffing; accounts and statements of income and expenditure, with particular emphasis on the institutions that fell under the care of the committee (i.e. Aston Hall). The minutes covering the First World War (1914 - 1918) include information relating to the impact of the war on resources and staffing at the Museum and Art Gallery (see BCC/1/BQ/1/1/1 - 2), whilst the minutes of 1 July 1918 also include a report detailing the impact of the requisition of the Museum and Art Gallery building for national purposes (see minutes 791 - 793 in BCC/1/BQ/1/1/2). The minutes covering the Second World War (1939 - 1945) include some detail on the impact of the war on the work of the committee and the institutions in its care, the evacuation of collections and details about buildings damaged by wartime bombing (see BCC/1/BQ/1/1/6 - 7). The minutes of 10 May 1943 also include an interleaved copy of a memorandum issued by the Central Institute of Art and Design, the National Gallery, London entitled 'A National Art Policy', which emphasised 'the importance of the work of the artist, craftsman and designer in the rebuilding of our economic and social structure, and to make practical proposals as to their employment in the general scheme of reconstruction and as to their place in the new society which will emerge after the war' (see minute 5416 in BCC/1/BQ/1/1/7). |