English Heritage are calling for donations to care for more than 1,000,000 historic objects
The organisation say that Rising costs and pressures on funding have put a strain their ability to maintain and research this invaluable and internationally significant historic collection, and they are now calling on the public to support our vital work.
From a prehistoric stone ‘core’ from Stonehenge, a Roman baby bottle, a 9th-century grave marker, a cannon gifted to the 11-year-old Elizabeth I, to the Duke of Wellington’s false teeth and Queen Victoria’s stockings, English Heritage has one of the largest and most varied collections of historic objects in the country.
Spanning thousands of years from prehistory to the Cold War, the mammoth collection is also spread across the nation; whether housed in one of the charity’s storage facilities, or on display to the public in its hundreds of museums or historic sites.
But costs are growing. Each year, they spend at least £600,000 simply to care for and store this huge number of historic objects.
This doesn’t leave much in the way of additional funds, be that for objects which urgently need extra care or for vital research projects which could shape the collective understanding of England’s history.
For example, of the thousands of unassuming animal bones in the collection, some being worked on now could hold the key to identifying the country’s last known wolf; 7,000 Roman glass shards need examining and cataloguing to build a map of the empire’s trade routes; and many paintings, by artists such as Titian and Reynolds, could benefit from infra-red and x-ray scanning to reveal their methods and techniques.
Kevin Booth, English Heritage’s Head Collections Curator, said, ‘It is near impossible to imagine a million of anything, it’s such a gargantuan number – but at English Heritage, when we took on the 400 historic buildings in our care, a million and more historic artefacts came with them. That is our reality.
‘As the guardians of England’s heritage, we take our job of looking after these objects very seriously as not only are they priceless, they’re also an irreplaceable portal to the past.
‘From storage to caring for, cataloguing, discovering, acquiring or putting on display, it’s a huge and expensive undertaking, and we need the public’s help.
‘Today, we are launching our Million and More Appeal and asking for urgent donations to allow us to continue caring for the jewels in the crown of England’s history and ensuring that we can unlock their stories long into the future.
‘English Heritage is a charity, and every penny donated will go into looking after our collections – from fragments of pottery to the finest art. We’re relying on your support.’
