Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a major regional museum, art gallery and archives service. We manage a collection of nine museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear. We are supported by the four local authorities in Tyneside and Newcastle University. TWAM is also a National Portfolio Organisation funded by Arts Council England.
We hold collections of international importance in archives, art, science and technology, archaeology, military and social history, fashion and natural sciences. See the range of collections below. We have conservation services, research services and image licencing.
TWAM has funding from Arts Council to act as a Bridge organisation. The only museum service to take on a Bridge role, TWAM is one of 10 Bridge organisations across the UK using their experience and expertise to connect children and young people with art and culture.
TWAM also delivers the Museum Development programme for the North East. The programme is a comprehensive, effective and collaborative response to the needs of museums in the North East and the communities they serve. As a result TWAM supports a total of 55 museums operating in the North East. TWAM also connects around the world to enagage and support other museums and heritage intiatives.
Collections:
- Archaeology: The archaeology collection is based around finds and archives from excavations taking place at Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort and Segedunum Roman Fort from the 19th century right up to the present day. We also hold finds from modern archaeological fieldwork that has been carried out within the Tyne and Wear region, a large prehistoric collection from Wearside and archaeological material from elsewhere in Britain, Ireland, Europe and Egypt.
- Archives: Tyne & Wear Archives hold documents relating to Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland, dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries.
- Ethnography: Our ethnography collections are concerned with human cultures and help us to understand different societies through the things they have made and used. The ethnography collections at the Great North Museum: Hancock include material from Africa, Asia, the Pacific and America.
- Fine art: TWAM’s collection of oil paintings, watercolours and drawings, prints and sculpture ranges in date from the 15th century to the present day. It is particularly strong in British paintings from 1800 to 1950, and includes work by Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, and Stanley Spencer. The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is also home to one of the world’s most important collections of artwork by 19th century artist John Martin and a selection of his paintings can often be seen on show in the Laing’s 18th and 19th century gallery. There is also an important collection of 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish works, and continental paintings include masterpieces by Tintoretto and Gauguin (Tintoretto’s Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet (1548-9) can be seen at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead). The collection of watercolours are of international significance, and the extensive print collection includes work by Thomas Bewick.
- Decorative art: The wide-ranging decorative art collections are mainly 18th to early 20th century in date. Key areas are glass, silver and ceramics, focusing on works made in the North East. These include 18th century Beilby glass, the 1824 Londonderry Glass Service, pottery produced on Tyneside and Wearside and a collection of Newcastle silver. Non-European collections include Chinese and Japanese ceramics, metalwork and lacquer.
- Maritime History: The maritime collection reflects the pre-eminent role of the North East shipbuilding industry from 1800 -1980 and includes Turbinia, the world’s first turbine-powered vessel. There is also an internationally significant collection of more than 500 models of ships built in famous Tyneside and Sunderland shipyards.
- Science and Industry: The science and industry collection celebrates the region’s vibrant history of innovation, enterprise and achievement and includes several world ‘firsts’. For example, the invention of the light bulb by Joseph Swan is marked at Discovery Museum by a collection of historic electric lamps. There are also examples of the steam turbine, pioneered on Tyneside by Charles Parsons for electricity generation, and of the Doxford marine diesel engine, developed on Wearside and used for ship propulsion worldwide.
- Costume and Textiles: Costume and textiles covers adult and children’s wear, accessories and textiles, mainly from the locality from the 4th century AD to the present day.
- Social History: The social history collection represents life in Tyne and Wear from the 17th century to the present. It focuses on communities, personal and family life, popular culture, and work.
- Contemporary Collecting:We collect objects from the present as well as the past including clothing, technology, toys, retail equipment and household goods. Modern objects capture the history of today for future generations and preserve it for the future so that people can understand what life was like in the 21st century.
- Natural Sciences: TWAM’s largest natural science collection can be found at the Great North Museum: Hancock and is owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria. It includes most groups of animals, plants, rocks, fossils and minerals, mainly from the British Isles but also from all over the world. Some of the more important collections include rare fossil amphibians and plants from the coal measures of Northumberland collected by Thomas Atthey and William Hutton, African mammals collected by Abel Chapman, pressed plants (some from the late 18th century), huge bird and birds’ eggs collections, beautiful sea slugs collected by Albany Hancock and Joshua Alder, and a large collection of tiny sea creatures collected by George Brady, many from the famous round-the-world Challenger expedition of 1872-1876. Many items from the Great North Museum: Hancock collection are housed in the Resource Centre in Discovery Museum. There are over 600,000 specimens in the natural science collections managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. They are Designated as nationally important and are amongst some of the finest collections of their kind in the UK.
