Harris Museum

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Coordinates: 53°45′33″N 2°41′54″W / 53.75911, -2.69825

Harris Museum

Established	1893
Location	Market Square, Preston, England
Type	Art Gallery and Public Library
Website	Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Free Public Library information

The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Preston Free Public Library is a Grade I listed museum building in Preston and has the largest gallery space in Lancashire, England.

1 History
2 Collections
3 External links
4 References

[edit] History

In the 19th century, a Public Library boom hit the United Kingdom. The City of Preston wanted a grand museum and library for its inhabitants. Since 1850, locals had held fund-raising events to get enough money to build a Museum and Public Library. In 1877, a Preston lawyer called Edmund Robert Harris, finally made the dream of Preston into a reality. He left the Preston Council with a sum of £300,000. In 1879, the first library of Preston was set up in the Town Hall basement, while a museum was set up to house the Dr Shepherd Collection on Cross Street. The popularity of this made the City council to make a purpose built building to house the Public Library and Museum. Work started on the museum in 1882 and it officially opened in 1893.

[edit] Collections

The collections include important local history and archaeology collections, highlights of which are displayed in the Story of Preston, which gives a historical account of the city. There is also a fine art collection including work by Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud, Ivon Hitchens and Graham Sutherland and a decorative art collection that holds the largest scent bottle collection in the country. In addition there is a varied contemporary art programme of national and international artists, touring shows and in-house exhibitions.

Amongst the fine works of art and historical artifacts there is a nationally important prehistoric elk skeleton, known as the Poulton Elk.

A Foucault pendulum hangs in the central foyer, through all the floors, over a butterfly-shaped plate marked with the hours of the day. As a result of the rotation of the Earth, this functions as a decorative and reasonably-accurate clock.

This monumental building also houses Preston City's Free Public Library^[1], which is run by Lancashire County Council, and the building was initially built with funds donated by Edmund Robert Harris.