Palace Green Library - Durham University Library

Fax.: 0191 334 2942

Info Telefon: 0191 334 2932
Besucher-Email: pg.library@durham.ac.uk
http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/asc/...

Library Term time 
Mon 9.00-18.00 
Tues 9.00-18.00 
Weds 9.00-18.00 
Thurs 9.00-18.00 
Fri 9.00-18.00 
Sat CLOSED 
Sun CLOSED 
Bank Holidays: see library  

Library Vacation time 
Mon 9.00-17.00 
Tues 9.00-17.00 
Wed 9.00-17.00 
Thurs 9.00-17.00 
Fri 9.00-17.00 
Sat CLOSED 
Sun CLOSED 
Bank Holidays: see library  

Gallery (Term and Vacation) 
Mon CLOSED 
Tues 10.00-16.45 
Wed 10.00-16.45 
Thurs 10.00-16.45 
Fri 10.00-16.45 
Sat 12.00-16.45 
Sun 12.00-16.45 
Bank Holidays 12.00-16.45 h.

Founded in 1833 and occupying listed buildings within the Durham World Heritage site, the Palace Green Library of Durham University houses archives, early printed books and other special collections. There are:

Over 70,000 books printed before 1850 including 300 incunables
Over 100 Medieval manuscripts
3,400 metres of archives and artefacts
Over 30,000 maps and prints and 100,000 photographs
 

The Bowes Museum

Fax.: 01833 637163

Info Telefon: 01833 690606
Besucher-Email: info@thebowesmuseum.org.uk
http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk...

Daily 10.00 - 5.00
Closed only 25 & 26 Dec and 1 Jan.

Purpose built in the 19th century by John and Joséphine Bowes, the Museum has a wonderful story to tell.

John Bowes was a successful businessman who travelled to Paris in 1847 to explore his interest in the arts. It was here he bought a theatre and met the Parisian actress Joséphine Coffin-Chevallier whom he married in 1852. Joséphine was a talented amateur painter who was interested in a whole range of art forms including paintings, ceramics, furniture and textiles. Soon the couple began to develop the idea of creating a world-class museum back in John’s ancestral home of Teesdale in order to introduce the wider world of art to the local people.

John and Joséphine envisaged a museum of enormous scope, dedicated to European fine and decorative arts from the Middle Ages into their own time. In the age of the great international exhibitions their project would cover pictures, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, sculpture and items of historical interest. In many ways they were trying to rival the great national museums that were being formed in London and Paris, albeit with the means of private individuals.
From 1861 they employed an art dealer, Benjamin Gogué, to identify acquisitions, and act as curator and conservator. Two other dealers, M. Lamer and Mme Lepautre, were also engaged to hunt for suitable purchases. John or Joséphine approved every object. They themselves purchased over two hundred items at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867, and about eighty at the London International Exhibition of 1871. In Paris they frequently bought from the jeweller M. Briquet and the dealer M. Bassett, whose daughter, Amélie, took over as curator of the collections in 1874.

John and Joséphine made many outstanding purchases. They were willing to take their agents’ advice and often bought against personal taste. In 1862 the collection of Spanish pictures of the Conde de Quinto appeared on the Parisian art market. Whilst Spanish paintings were in vogue in Paris at the time, they were hardly recognised in England. Their dealer Gogué wrote to them ‘Although these two masters do not appeal to you, I think you might well take one of each of them for your collections’. The Bowes thus became the owners of paintings by Goya and El Greco.

The Bowes Museum continues to acquire objects and works of art to this day, through gift or by purchase. In 2005 the Museum purchased a painting by Impressionist artist Paul-César Helleu of a young woman, which immediately became the central theme of a critically acclaimed exhibition.
 

The North of England Open Air Museum (Skanzen)

Fax.: 01207 290933

Info Telefon: 01207 231811
http://www.merlins.demon.co.uk/beamish...

Timothy Hackworth Victorian & Railway Museum

Fax.: 01388 777999

Info Telefon: 01388 777999

Weardale Museum at High House Chapel

Info Telefon: 01388 517 433
Besucher-Email: dtheatherington@ormail.co.uk
http://www.weardalemuseum.co.uk...

Bank Holidays, 1 May-30 September:
Wed-Sun 1400-1700 h.

August:
Daily 1400-1700 h.

Closed: Oct 1st to April 30 except by appointment

Wheatley Hill Heritage Centre

Info Telefon: 820 01429 824402

ATTENTION: OPEN ONLY Tuesdays and Thursdays 10-12 and 2-4 h.

Saturdays 2-4 h.