Kate Walter
Arundells Curator
I’m very pleased to share some long-awaited news about the Arundells collection.
For the first time, our collection catalogue is now searchable online. Making the collection publicly accessible in this way has been a long-term aim of mine, as online catalogues are an invaluable resource for researchers and museums, and increasingly for anyone with an interest in art, history, and the stories behind museum collections.
Just before Christmas, I uploaded the Arundells collection catalogue to the Museum Data Service (MDS). MDS is a free national database that brings together object records from nearly 2,000 museums across the UK, ranging from major institutions such as the V&A to much smaller museums like Arundells.
Being part of the Museum Data Service means that anyone can now explore the information we currently hold about our collection, whether objects are on display in the house or stored behind the scenes. Some of our older records, while perfectly adequate for administrative use, are not yet as complete or reliable as we would like. A small team is currently working to review and improve these records as time allows.
At present, the database will be of particular interest to researchers and other arts and heritage organisations, especially for sourcing works for exhibitions or comparative research. Images are not attached yet and many entries are necessarily factual in tone, but I hope it will also be of interest to visitors whose curiosity has been piqued by an object seen at Arundells, or to anyone keen to explore aspects of art and social history in more detail.
If you would like to explore the database, visit
https://museumdata.uk/
and click on ‘Explore Collections’, then search for Arundells.
I hope this new way of accessing the collection helps to open up the stories and objects in our care to a wider audience.
Kate Walter
Curator, Arundells