Beamish visionary’s possessions to go under the hammer
MUSEUM FOUNDER FRANK’S COLLECTION TO BE AUCTIONED
HISTORY-LOVER Dr Frank Atkinson’s passion for collecting led him to found Beamish Museum.
But as well as amassing items for his County Durham museum, he also had his own collections- starting with his first fossil which he acquired at the age of 10.
Dr Atkinson, who lived in Ovingham in Northumberland, died in December 2014, aged 90.
Now items from his collections are to be sold by Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland in their three- The Corbridge sampler. day sale from Tuesday to Thursday.
They include fossilised teeth from Megalodon - the biggest prehistoric shark which ever lived and the largest marine predator in the history of the planet, which grew up to 60ft, plus a large collection of various other fossils.
A 19th century miner’s lamp, by John Mills of Newcastle, still has the original nail used to hammer it into the pit wall and is valued at £300-£400.
A sampler completed in 1854 by Jane Baty, aged 13 of Corbridge in Northumberland, is priced at £100£200, while an 18 th Century German crossbow is £300-£500.
Nine paintings are on offer, including several which reflect Frank Atkin- son’s industrial interests.
Works by artist Douglas Pittuck include a study of industrial machinery and a painting titled The Drilling Machine, estimated at £300-£500.
Furniture includes a George III and two Victorian cabinets.
In tribute to his father after his passing, Neil Atkinson, the youngest of Dr Atkinson’s three sons, said: “When Beamish was only an idea, he went on this merry-go-round of village halls, Women’s Institutes and factories, asking for anything they could spare.”
On the items for sale, he said: “The family and I are pleased that the collection is going up for auction.
“It’s a shame in many ways and obviously difficult but we have all taken what we want to remember him by and all the other items will go to a good new home or become part of someone else’s collection.
“The most important thing to my dad was the fact that everything offered to Beamish must be kept.”
Auctioneer Fred Wyrley-Birch said “We are very proud to a part of this sale. We knew Frank for many years and always enjoyed his help and Fossilised prehistoric sharks’ teeth The Drilling Machine by artist Douglas Pittuck expertise when it was needed.
“He has managed to encapsulate the North’s love of nostalgia and interest in history.”
In 1952, while touring Norway and Sweden, Frank Atkinson saw the success of folk museum and was inspired by the way they demonstrated a way of life that was dying out.
He decided England should have such a museum.
He became director of Halifax Museums and Art Gallery, then in 1958 he successfully applied for the curatorship at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle in County Durham.
He suggested there should also be a museum about the everyday recent past, and adopted a “you offer it, we’ll collect it” policy to gathering the everyday objects and photographs the new museum would need.
In 1970, he started work as director of Beamish Museum. Three staff, along with many of the social history and industrial collections, moved into Beamish Hall.
An introductory exhibition, showing the “Museum in the Making”, opened at Beamish Hall in 1971.
In its first year, the museum attracted more than 50,000 paying visitors.
Frank Atkinson retired in 1987 and Beamish was also named European Museum of the Year.