Botany

The botanical collections consist of about 60,000 items.

From the start the curators forged strong links with the Borough of Bolton Botanical Society, later to become the Bolton Field Naturalists’ Society.

After a few small, but very significant donations of collections, Thomas Midgley started to actively purchase botanical collections. Midgley’s desire was to provide “the Bolton naturalists of this and future generations with superior reference collections”.

After the purchase of the large Mason Collection in 1907, the museum went back to mainly acquiring botany by donation, often from Bolton Field Naturalists’ members & also staff collection.

The summary below is of major acquisitions in date order of receipt.

Mrs Fanny S. Bennett (1846 - ) Collection

c. 500 higher plant specimens. She was married to a Bolton bank manager but was born but grew up in the Cheshire area. Her specimens are higher plants from Cheshire gathered 1860-77.She donated her collection in 1896.
This collection is especially of note because it was collected by a woman.

James Sims (1836-1905) Collection

c. 300 specimens of mosses from the Bolton area collected 1882 to 1898 which he donated to the museum in 1898. Sims lived all his life in Bolton and was a French polisher by trade. Sims was acquainted with Keir Hardy, Tom Mann and Ramsey Macdonald.

Pierre Alfred Deseglise (1823-1883) Collection

c. 2000 higher plant specimens purchased in 1899. Deseglise was a notable French botanist & his collection is from all over Europe. He worked at the Geneva Botanical Gardens in Switzerland & was a founder member of the Botanical Society of Geneva.

Brendal Plant Models

c. 40 models purchased in 1904 with the help of a grant from the Natural History Museum in London.
These models were made by R. Brendal of Berlin. They are made from wood, metal and an early form of plastic. They are accurate scale models of the plant species they represent and are useful aids to teaching botany in the museum. This was especially so before microscopes were widely available.

Dr. Philip Brookes Mason (1842-1903) Collection

This is one of the largest (natural history) collections in the museum consisting of c. 40,000 specimens representing all plant groups. The collection was purchased for £100 in 1907. It contains specimens collected both by Mason and many other famous nineteenth century botanists. Mason had a career as distinguished surgeon. He had a private museum attached to his home in Burton-on-Trent. His personal collection was gathered from as all over the UK from as far apart as Shetland and the Channel Isles and was “as complete as he could make it”. He was president of the Burton-on-Trent Natural History and Archaeological Society and was a co-writer of The Flora of Burton-on-Trent and Neighbourhood. His collection contains specimens cited in this publication.

Thomas Greenlees ( 1865 - 1949) Collection

c. 1500 specimens of higher plants all collected in the Bolton area between 1887 and 1937. His specimens were acquired in several lots in the majority by donation. T.G. was the co-author of The Flora of Bolton (1920). He lived his entire life in Bolton and was a shoe-maker by trade, later running a herbalist shop. He was a founder member of the Bolton Botanical Society, later to become the Bolton Field Naturalists’ Society.

Book of Ferns

The book with polished wooden covers was donated to the Museum in 1909 by Alderman W. Smith of “Eastwood” on Radcliffe Road, Bolton.
A large and unusual souvenir of New Zealand and is thought to date from 1887.

Rev. Herbert Mann Livens (1892-1946) Collection

c. 1500 specimens of both higher and lower plants collected in the north-west and southern England between 1860 and 1914. He lived in Bolton 1892-1900 & was a minister of the Unitarian church. Both William and Thomas Midgley were teachers in his Sunday School. He went on to become the chaplain at Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. His list of lichens was published in Guide to the History of The Isle of Wight (1909). He donated his collection in 1945 in his 85th year.

Edward Jacob (1710-1788) Collection

10 higher plant specimens. The earliest natural history collection at Bolton Museum, dated 1724. This collection was transferred from Kendal museum in 1976. Jacob was a surgeon in Faversham in Kent. He wrote Flora Favershamiensis, a study of plants of the area.
Although a very small collection it is very important because of its extreme age.

Prof. Brian William Fox (1929 – 1999) Collection

c. 1000 higher plant specimens which he donated in 1984. He collected plants widely across the British Isles but many specimens are from the local area gathered in the 1950-60’s. He contributed to Travis’s Flora of Lancashire (1963) & his collection contains specimens cited in this volume.
He moved to Lancashire with his family as a boy and stayed in the north-west during his working life & retirement. He had a distinguished career in cancer drug research at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. He was a member of the Bolton Field Naturalists’ Society.

Microscope and 440 Microscope Slides belonging to Thomas Kaye Holden (c. 1866-c1933)

These objects were given to the museum in 1982 by his niece. T.K.H. studied with H.G.Wells and they maintained contact throughout their lives. He was also a correspondent of the American romantic authoress Gene Stratton Porter. He lived in Bolton and was a manager of a vinegar works. He was co-author of The Flora of Bolton (1920) with Thomas Greenlees above. He was president of the Bolton Field Naturalists’ Society.

Illustrated Volumes

c.40 books. These books are valuable in their own right and were transferred to the museum from Bolton Libraries in 2004.The illustrations complement the herbarium collections.

The value of the collections

The botanical collections have an obvious scientific value in terms of recording biodiversity but these specimens also reflect many personal stories. Many current family members of the collectors mentioned above, whilst pursuing their family history, have made contact often through the web-site and have visited these collections in the museum.