Yorkshire Museum - History

History

The Museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society to accommodate their geological and archaeological collections, and was originally housed in Ousegate, York, until the site became too small. In 1828 the society received by royal grant, ten acres (0.040 km²) of land formerly belonging to St Mary’s Abbey in order to build a new museum. The main building of the museum is called the Yorkshire Museum and was designed by William Wilkins in a Greek Revival style and is a Grade I listed building. It was officially opened in February 1830, which makes it one of the longest established museums in England. A condition of the royal grant was that the land surrounding the museum building should be a botanic gardens and one was created in the 1830s. The botanic gardens are now known as the Museum Gardens. On 26 September 1831 the inaugural meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was held at the Yorkshire Museum.

The Tempest Anderson Hall was built in 1912 as an annex to the museum, and is an early example of a reinforced concrete building. It is used as a conference venue and lecture theatre.

In 1960 the Museum, along with the Museum Gardens, were given in trust to York City Council, its successor the City of York Council in 2002 set up the York Museums Trust to manage the York Castle Museum, York Art Gallery, the Yorkshire Museum and the Museum Gardens.

The museum closed in November 2009 for a major refurbishment and reopened on 1 August 2010, Yorkshire Day. The £2 million scheme was largely carried out by the museum's own staff, who restructured the interior of the building and re-decorated it. The result is three major sections: "Eboracum: Face to Face with the Romans", "York: The Power and the Glory" (Anglian, Viking and Medieval York), and "Extinct: A way of life" a "fun, family-oriented gallery" featuring fossils, skeletons and animal specimens. There will also be a "History of York" section and "Enquiry - The Learning Level".