Top 10 Remarquable Facts about the Ulster Museum

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Top 10 Remarquable Facts about the Ulster Museum

The museum is located in the  Botanic Gardens in Belfast. The museum has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography.

The Ulster Museum was founded as the Belfast Natural History Society in 1821 and began exhibiting in 1833. It has included an art gallery since 1890. Originally called the Belfast Municipal Museum and Art Gallery.

In 1962, courtesy of the Museum Act (Northern Ireland) 1961, it was renamed as the Ulster Museum and was formally recognized as a national museum.

A major extension constructed by McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd was done with designs by Francis Pym.

It was published in several magazines and was until recently the most important example of Brutalism in Northern Ireland.

David Evans praised it for the almost barbaric power of its great cubic projections and cantilevers brooding over the conifers of the botanic gardens like a mastodon.

It also comprises of  treasures from the Spanish Armada, local history, numismatics and industrial archaeology. Of importance to note is that, similarly, it has botany, zoology and geology.

It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland, and one of the components of National Museums, Northern Ireland as well.

However, the museum moved to its current location in Stranmillis in 1929. The new beautiful building was designed by James Cumming Wynne.

1. Has a Good Collection of Art

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Since the 1940s the Ulster Museum has built up a good collection of art by modern Irish, and particularly Ulster-based artists. However, the building is one of the most outstanding in Ireland.

2. Merged with the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

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In 1998, the Ulster Museum merged with the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster-American Folk Park to form the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.

3. The Largest Museum in Northern Ireland

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It is the largest museum in Northern Ireland, and one of the components of National Museums Northern Ireland.

The outstanding part about the museum is the galleries covering the history of Northern Ireland from the earliest times to the very recent past, collections of art, mostly modern or ethnographic, historic and contemporary fashion and textiles, and also holds exhibitions.

4. Massive Collections

The scientific collections of the Ulster Museum contain Irish birds, mammals, insets, molluscs, marine invertebrates, flowering plants, algae and lichens, as well as an archive of books and manuscripts relating to Irish natural history. 

Similarly, it maintains a natural history website named Habitas. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s it had a permanent exhibition on dinosaurs which has since been scaled back considerably. There is also a collection of rocks, minerals and fossils. 

5. The Irish Archaeology

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Furthermore, it contains significant findings from Northern Ireland. In earlier years, these were often sent to the British Museum or later known as Dublin, the Broighter Hoard, now in the National Museum of Ireland.

Objects in the museum include the Malone Hoard of 19 polished Neolithic axe heads, the Moss-side Hoard of Mesolithic stone tools, the important Downpatrick Hoard of Bronze Age gold jewelry.

Others include, part of the Late Roman Coleraine Hoard, the Viking Shanmullagh Hoard, and the medieval coins in the Armagh City Hoard and Armagh Castle Street Hoard.

Likewise, there are other significant objects of the Bronze Age gold jewelry for which Ireland is notable, including four of the 100-odd surviving gold lunulae.

Also,  it includes some important early Celtic art, including a decorated bronze shield found in the River Shannon,  and the Bann disc, bronze with triskele decoration.

6. Zoology Department with Wildlife Art

The Zoology Department also maintains collections of wildlife art. Works by great British ornithologist, conservationist and painters like Peter Scott, Joseph Wolf, Eric Ennion, John Gerrard Keulemans, Roger Tory Peterson, Charles Tunnicliffe, Robert Gillmor and Archibald and Thorburn.

 The Department include British Entomology being illustrated and the descriptions of the genera of insects found in Great Britian and Ireland. The works of entomology by John Curtis and Niccolò Gualtieri’s Index Testarum Conchyliorum, quae adservantur in Museo Nicolai Gualtieri 1742.

7. It contains a section of Fashion and Textile

The Ulster Museum’s Fashion & Textiles Collection aims to reflect the history of fashionable dress from as early as the 18th century, as well as contemporary international designer and high street fashion.

It comprises approximately 5000 objects including garments, accessories, historic and contemporary jewelry, and a collection of dolls and toys including pieces by Armand Marseille.

The museum’s policy is to collect clothing and accessories as an Applied Art. Thsi has an emphasis on acquiring pieces that are of high design quality and/or representative of significant changes in fashion history.

The collection includes eighteenth-century Spitalfields silk gowns, early 20th century Parisian couture, and contemporary international fashion .

Designers represented in the collection include Chanel, Dior, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood and JW Anderson.

Other important textiles collections includes pieces by female Irish embroiders, such as the ‘Lennox Quilt’ of 1712 by Martha Lennox, and a bedcover by the renowned eighteenth-century letter-writer and artist, Mrs Mary Delany.

The Antrim bed furniture, a complete set worked by or under the supervision of Lady Helena McDonnell, 1705–83, daughter of the 4th Earl of Antrim was purchased in 1982.

8. Controversy at the 132nd Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition

In 2013, at the 132nd Royal Ulster Academy exhibition at the Ulster Museum “The Kiss” by artist Paul Walls was not displayed following discussions between the museum and the academy.

It was decided as the subject matter, two women kissing, was inappropriate for school visits. 

9. Collecting Contemporary Fashion

Since 1984 the Ulster Museum has acquired both International Designer Outfit, High Street Outfit every year.

This policy has enabled the Ulster Museum to build a comprehensive overview of late 20th and 21st-century fashion.

Recent acquisitions include a ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ t-shirt by Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior, pieces by JW Anderson, and pieces by Raf Simons for Calvin Klein.

The Ulster Museum holds work by most important 20th century Paris designers and very many post-war English and Irish designers.

High Street labels such as Wallis and Etam are also represented. Magazines and contemporary photographs are systematically kept to complement actual specimens

10. It has the Best Rail Access in the North

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Botanic is the nearest station on Northern Ireland Railways. Regular trains ply between Belfast Great Victoria Street, City Hospital, Botanic and Belfast Central.

This is one of the most informative museums in the world.