Collections

The COVID-19 Collection

Tullie House Museum has collected the history of Carlisle and Cumbria for over 125 years. Our collections tell the stories of the people who have lived, loved, worked and died here. We collect to remember what has happened, so that we learn from our past and use it to inform our future.

To find out how to get involved and collect material relating to the COVID-19 crisis click here

Galleries

Tullie House has three permanent galleries and two temporary spaces that host a programme of changing exhibitions throughout the year. All galleries and exhibitions are included with your general admission ticket.

An average visit takes about 3 hours.

To find out more and familiarise yourself with the galleries at Tullie House click here

Art

Tullie House has extensive and important art collection including Fine Art, Decorative Art, and Costume and Textiles.

Our main priorities are:

To maintain, record and interpret special collections of fine and decorative art of national importance.
To record and interpret artistic activity in Carlisle and northern Cumbria from the eighteenth century onwards.
To collect leading contemporary artists and makers working in Carlisle and Cumbria.
To record and interpret decorative art and textiles made in, used or associated with Carlisle and northern Cumbria from the eighteenth century onwards.

To find out more about the art collection at Tullie House click here

History

The human history collections at Tullie House record and interpret the lives and activities of the people who have lived in northern Cumbria over the last 10,000 years. The collection includes objects, ephemera (printed material), photographs and associated information files.

The collection is divided into Archaeology, containing excavated finds from prehistoric to medieval times, including roman and viking finds. Later history artefacts are held in the Local History collection, including local industry and agriculture, the Border Reivers and State Management.

To discover more about Tullie House's history collections click here

Nature

Tullie House Museum collects and preserves objects and information concerning the wildlife and geology of Cumbria. The museum holds large and important collections of zoological, botanical and geological material. The nature collection holds the smallest and largest items in the museum, from microscopic insect specimens to a partial Fin whale skeleton.

Tullie House Museum also maintains a local biological records database with over 200,000 records of wildlife sightings in Cumbria.

To find out more about the nature collections at Tullie House click here

THe Collection

THe Collection is a website designed to provide access to some of the wonderful, interesting and dynamic objects from Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery.

Click here to explore THe Collection

Collection Puzzles

If you're looking for some quick entertainment, we have a number of different online puzzles and activities for you.

Click here for a range of attractive jigsaws of varying difficulty, created using our popular and unseen art pieces.

Complete sliding puzzles, memory games and other word puzzles covering a range of images and history.

Tullie Treasure

The Tullie Treasure specially-commissioned films shows what staff and volunteers really like about the museum. The three films show funny, touching or real-life stories told by 30 staff and volunteers.

To view the Tullie Treasure films click here

Other stories you may also find interesting:

'The Spirit of the Cracker Packers' which brings together images, oral histories and documents revealing stories past and present, that tell us about what life was really like inside the factory.
'Queer Museum Trail' - We've taken another look at the museum’s collections on display and considered them from a gay perspective.