Collections and Research

It is said that a picture tells a thousand words and this is certainly true in light of the ongoing research into the people and places associated with the boats in the collection at the Museum.

The Lakeland Arts Trust has many glass plate negatives from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in its photograph collection. Scanning the glass plates at high resolution reveals images of startling clarity which allow us to zoom in and read the names of boats, the trade signs on passing carts and even the price tags in a Bowness draper’s shop window set out for ‘Spring 1889’.

Included in the collection are original negatives for well-known photographs. One such image is of the 1845 steamer Lady of the Lake, which was the first passenger steamer on Windermere. Others show a rural Waterhead at the north of Windermere with the 1871 cargo steamer Raven at her mooring. Barrels are lying on their sides and baulks of timber lie along the deck, whilst carts are busy in the foreground. This dynamic and irreplaceable information on how Raven was used and how cargo was arranged on her deck will directly influence her display in the future.

With the help of our volunteers we are continuing this extremely rewarding re-discovery of images in our own collections and others held locally to paint a vivid and accurate picture of the history of boating on Windermere.

James Arnold
Assistant Curator Social History