The Manchester Museum

The Manchester Museum

The Manchester Museum
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
Greater Manchester
M13 9PL

Tel: 0161 275 2634
E-Mail: museum@manchester.ac.uk

Web: The Manchester Museum

About The Manchester Museum

The origins of The Manchester Museum lie in the collection of the Manchester manufacturer and collector John Leigh Philips (1761-1814). After his death, a small group of wealthy men banded together to buy his 'cabinet', and in 1821 they set up the Manchester Natural History Society.
The museum was the major focus of the Society, and it was housed from 1835 in grand premises on Peter Street. The collections continued to grow as members and others donated object from around the world. In 1850 the museum absorbed the collections of the Manchester Geological Society.
By the 1860s the Natural History Society had little money and the building was full. The museum was transferred in 1868 to Owens College, which later became the University of Manchester. The College asked the famous architect Alfred Waterhouse to design a museum building, which was opened to the public in 1890. Waterhouse also designed Manchester's Town Hall and the Natural History Museum in London.
Now known as the 'Manchester Museum', the collections were used by many people, from Owens College professors to schoolchildren. Many more objects were donated and the Museum was extended in 1912-1913 and again in 1927. These new buildings, designed by Waterhouse's son and grandson, displayed new ethnographic and E