Collectors & Collections

Like most museums established in the 19th Century, Bolton possesses material from many private collectors and fossil dealers.
These include Matthew Dawes, John Starkie Gardner, Allen Holden, Rooke Pennington, Phillip Brookes Mason, George Vine, William Pengelly, William Else, Caroline Birley and John Ward.

The museums first curator, William Midgley, collected many specimens in the 19th and early 20th Century, as did his son Thomas who also served as curator.

The museum has strong connections to James Lomax and the Lomax Palaeobotanical Company.
The museum has an excellent collection of models of Prehistoric animals, made in the 1930's by noted model-maker, Vernon Edwards.

James Lomax

James Lomax lived and worked his whole life in Bolton and, over a period of 35 years, sold and donated much material to Bolton Museum.

Vernon Edwards

Between 1930 and 1948 Bolton Museum purchased a series of models of pre-historic creatures from R.F. Damon & Co. of London. They had been created by the noted modelmaker, Vernon Edwards.

J. Starkie Gardner

Gardner had a keen interest in geology and botany and had written a great deal on these subjects. He began selling his collections around 1876, possibly to raise money to found a metalworks in London. Bolton purchased a portion of this collection in 1887.

Caroline Birley

Birley was a 19 century female collector who gained a great deal of respect in a male dominated discipline.