Catalogue description Records of the Predecessors of The Bristol City Museum and Not Gallery

The formal records of:

The Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts;

The Philosophical and Literary Society, attached to the Bristol Institution;

The Bristol Library Society;

The Bristol Museum and Library;

British Association for the Advancement of Science and

Miscellaneous historical documents deposited with the City Museum and Art Gallery

The miscellaneous historical material was deposited with the museum at various times and consists mainly of letters, signatures, sale particulars and odd election papers.

Bristol Institution for The Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts, c 1808-1871

Bristol Institution, Philosophical and Literary Society

Bristol Library Society, 1772-1871

Bristol Museum and Library, 1871-1903

The City Museum and Art Gallery in 1972 and 1973

The Library Society was established in 1772 to set up a subscription library. It took over the premises in King Street and the collection of books belonging to the old City Library. The society flourished, with a full-time librarian, increasing stock, and such distinguished members as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sir Humphrey Davy. It built a new wing to its premises in 1786 but again lacking space in 1808, it formed an undertaking with the Philosophical and Literary Society to erect a building for their joint use, with a committee to supervise and members of both societies buying completed, the Library Society, feeling its independence threatened, withdrew from the project. When the new building was finally completed in Park Street, in order to utilize it fully the shareholders decided in 1823 to establish an institution for the advancement of science, literature and the arts, which would have its own museum and library. The Philosophical and Literary Society continued as a separate body, but associated to the Institution.

In 1867 the proposal for the Library Society and the Institution to merge their resources and erect a new building was again raised; the Institution building in Park Street was too small and the Library Society was at this date in rented accommodation in Queen's Road. This time the plan was effected, a new building was put up in Queen's Road and in 1871 the two organisations amalgamated, becoming the Bristol Museum and Library. In a number of cases the records of the latter are continued in volumes formerly used by the Institution. On 1 July 1893, under the Museums and Gymnasiums Act, the Museum and Library ceased to be a private organisation and was transferred to the authority of the City and County of Bristol. In 1905 the Library was incorporated into the city's public library system.

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