Watercolourist John ‘Warwick’ Smith was born in Irthington, Cumberland on 26 July 1749.  He was one of the most famous watercolourists of his day. In the 1790s he was commissioned by the 4th Duke of Atholl, John Murray (1755-1830), then Governor-in-Chief of the Isle of Man, to complete a series of watercolour drawings of the […]

You may be wondering what happened to all those blogs that I promised on the papers of the 4th Duke of Atholl, in my last post, all the way back in May 2022 (a promise I’ve now sneakily erased)? Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to explore the 4th Duke’s era with you, the size […]

October 2022 saw the opening of MUSEUM 100, an exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Manx Museum, home to an extraordinary collection of artefacts and archives that help tell the story of the Isle of Man and its people. Our curators carefully selected over 100 objects to display in the exhibition and the Digital Collections […]

The 200th anniversary of the loss of HMS Racehorse on 14th December 2022 saw a number of local groups collaborating to share the story and significance.  The tragic events surrounding the loss are thought to have been a catalyst for Manx resident Sir William Hillary to galvanise his efforts to persuade the UK Government to […]

Students Leo and Myles joined the team of the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives in late April and May 2022 for work-based experience as part of their University College Isle of Man degree course.  One task was to gain experience blogging using the Platinum Jubilee as inspiration.  They take up the story. Queen’s Silver […]

At the end of the last Revestment blog, the 3rd Duke and Duchess of Atholl had been forced to sell their lord proprietary rights over the Isle of Man to the British Crown, with the Atholls’ brief reign as the Lords of Mann coming to an end on 17th May 1765. This came about because […]

I make no claims of being well-versed in Manx history. But I do know that the Atholl-era witnessed one of the Isle of Man’s defining moments; the first step upon a path that would eventually lead to the island’s current status as a self-governing nation. I am talking about the Revestment; when in 1765 the […]

How the past ten months have flown by! It only feels like ten minutes ago that a not-so-gentle nurse, with her trusty nasal swab, gave me an eye-watering introduction to the Isle of Man. But as the half-way point in the project fast approaches, it acts as a stark reminder that time is very much […]

Smuggling! If there was one thing that the Isle of Man was famous for in the eighteenth century, it was its major role as an entrepôt (think modern-day ‘fulfilment centre’) that serviced the illicit trade throughout the British Isles. There were numerous reasons why the island and its merchants, native and foreign, were able to […]

The Atholl family and the wider members of Clan Murray have a complicated relationship with Jacobitism; one of divided loyalties, which saw family and clan members pitted against one another in all three risings (1715, 1719 and 1745), in the name of either a Hanoverian king or the ‘Pretender,’ James Francis Edward Stuart. William, Marquess […]

I must confess that I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, back in May, when I first came across correspondence and others papers relating to the apparent abduction of a 13/14-year-old Irish heiress, Carolina Elinora Mahon, by members of the Corry family of County Monaghan, Ireland, in October 1749. But what I initially […]

For the poor souls amongst you that managed to get through my first blog post and, having decided you hadn’t suffered enough, have come back for more, we turn to the rather dry (but very important!) topic of how a Scottish noble family came into possession of the Isle of Man. It is here that […]

It was, perhaps, with some trepidation that I stepped aboard the Steam Packet for the Isle of Man, back in March, possibly making a foolhardy decision to relocate to an unfamiliar land to start a new job whilst the world was, and still is, in the grip of a pandemic. It also did not help […]

Nicola Tooms, Assistant Curator at Manx National Heritage, explains more about the Foillan Films Archive now available to watch on iMuseum: Click to Watch The Film Archive (part of Manx National Heritage Library and Archives) contains a number of films made by Manx language filmmakers Foillan Films. These films have been recently digitised and I’ve […]

Around 600 sound recordings, carefully selected from Manx National Heritage (MNH) Library and Archives, are set to be digitised and made available online thanks to the ‘Unlocking Our Sound Heritage’ (UOSH) project, a UK wide project to preserve and provide access to thousands of rare and unique sound recordings. These recordings have become at risk […]

Katie King, Community Learning Officer for Manx National Heritage, explains more about the Manx Museum’s latest exhibition: I have been working with our fabulous Manx Press Pictures archive for a number of years, having curated our This Is Summer (2017) and This Is Winter (2019) exhibitions and associated digitisation projects. Manx National Heritage holds over […]

“Out With The Flags and Bunting!” Newspaper headline from Mona’s Herald, 11/05/1948 Manx National Heritage Library and Archives holds original amateur film footage of “Monty’s” 1948 visit to the Isle of Man, which is now digitally available for the first time on iMuseum. Click here to watch! Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein spent two […]

This article is the last in a four part series about Civilian Internment on the Isle of Man during the Second World War.  Rushen Camp The second camp to be opened on the Isle of Man was very different from all the others on the Island as it was run by the Home Office rather […]

This article is the third in a four part series about Civilian Internment on the Isle of Man during the Second World War.  Hutchinson Camp Just off the Douglas Promenade is Hutchinson Camp now probably the most well-known of the Manx internment Camps. It opened in June 1940 and held 1,100 internees in boarding houses […]

This article is the second in a four part series about Civilian Internment on the Isle of Man during the Second World War.  Following the opening of the Mooragh Camp and the arrival of the first male internees on the Island, several more camps were created around the Island in rapid succession. The greatest concentration […]

This article is the first in a four part series about Civilian Internment on the Isle of Man during the Second World War.  Why were people interned? Many things may have been different on the Isle of Man from the rest of Britain during the Second World War – there were no nightly air raids, […]

Over 300 charming, informal photographs of children and young people of Ramsey and the north are now available for viewing.  These were taken in the 1950s and ’60s by Ramsey Grammar School teacher Ernest Webb (1899-1974).  A keen amateur photographer, Webb specialised in pictures of children and landscapes. His images show his skill in putting […]

Twenty sculptures from the Isle of Man’s National Art Collection have been photographed and recorded as part of a major project to photograph sculptures across the UK and British Islands. The sculptures are now available to view on iMuseum. Search #imuseumsculpture on the homepage or click here. The new release is part of the Art […]

Folklore and traditional folk beliefs are not just about ‘witches and fairies’ or about quaint old customs or irrational superstitions. Instead they are evidence of the different belief systems which have evolved over the centuries. These helped communities make sense of life in a pre-scientific and pre-literate world and are often about how to be […]

Manx National Heritage’s TT Who’s Who Digital Volunteers have gone full pelt during the COVID-19 lockdown by publishing nearly 400 biographies of riders from the 1940s and 50s on imuseum.im.    Volunteering entirely online, the team has copied potted biographies from the original TT Special newspapers (already digitised by Manx National Heritage) and added them to […]

The Manx Museum may be closed during the Coronavirus lockdown, but it’s still possible to discover more about some of the objects in the National Collections and the fascinating stories behind the objects themselves and the people who made and used them in the past. Here are a selection of some of the objects from […]

‘This is “V” Day, the day which marks the end of the war in Europe; the day for which we have waited for five and a half bitter years’.  That’s how the Isle of Man newspaper Mona’s Herald gleefully reported VE Day to its readers on Tuesday 8 May 1945. This year marks the 75th […]

The following text comes from a series of newspaper articles which were written for the MNH exhibition ‘John Miller Nicholson – A Manx National Artist’ held at the Manx Museum, Douglas – the articles were extended versions of the text on the exhibition graphic panels. One of the aims of the exhibition was to provide […]

The following transcription is from an informal talk delivered in November 2019 by Sarah Christian, Library & Archives Assistant at Manx National Heritage. Sarah delivered this talk as part of Explore Your Archives, a national campaign designed for archives of all kinds throughout the UK and Ireland. Sarah’s talk explores themes of crime and punishment […]

A Place to Nurture Manx Art From 1880, a common thread has linked the work of many of the Island’s artists – their connection with the Douglas School of Art, either as tutors or students and in some cases both. So why was an art school so important? During the 19th century, Britain was seen […]

With its origins heralding back to the Victorian era, Christmas Cards were first designed by Sir Henry Cole and his friend, John Callcott Horsley. They were sold for 1 shilling each, which was expensive at the time. In 1840, after the introduction of the ‘Penny Post’, cards were easier to send and the tradition grew. […]

Manx National Heritage is delighted to have received the ribbon presented to Mona Douglas (Manx cultural activist, folklorist, poet, novelist and journalist) when she was inaugurated into the Gorsedd of British Bards at the 1917 National Eisteddfod. The item was one of Mona’s most prized possessions for the remainder of her life; the event was […]

Library staff member Sarah Christian sheds light on the process of selecting images to digitise for a new exhibition and iMuseum resource.  Following the success of the 2016 exhibition This is Summer at the House of Manannan, Peel and the release of digitised press photographs onto the iMuseum website, this year we celebrate This is […]

Osruth’s Cross has stood in the porch of the Royal Chapel in St John’s since the church was built in the mid nineteenth century. The cross itself is one thousand years old and was originally much taller, possibly with round cross head on top. This cross is just one of over two hundred that have […]

Those who visit Castle Rushen in Castletown may well know that it served as a prison for many years.  In 2019 a team of dedicated library volunteers completed a project to extract names and details of prisoners recorded in the gaol registers which span 1825 until the close of the gaol in 1891.  These prisoner […]

Manx National Heritage, the national heritage organisation for the Isle of Man, has teamed up with Official Isle of Man TT Races website to deliver the definitive archive of every TT Race since the event’s inception in 1907. The results of every competitor who has ever started a race around the TT Mountain Course are […]

One of the newest items to be added to the Manx National Heritage collections is a circular cream cardboard badge, with Castletown (I.O.M.) Metropolitan Regatta Official embossed in gold on it. The Castletown Metropolitan Regatta was an annual event from c.1858-9 onwards with a series of sailing races around the Castletown bay. These sailing races […]

We have just expanded some of our stores so that our natural history collections, which are currently dispersed over numerous locations, can be kept in one place. One of the groups I am working on at the moment is the egg collection, which seems very fitting for Easter! Believe it or not, egg collections themselves […]

Over 300 watercolours from the Isle of Man’s national art collection have joined other public and private collections from around the world to create a free online website of watercolours painted before and around 1900. Watercolours of the landscape, buildings and people of the Isle of Man by artists including Archibald Knox, Robert Evans Creer […]

Who would choose distance learning? Who would choose to study in the evenings for twenty hours a week, alongside a full-time job? That person would be me. I am addicted to two things in life, heritage and knowledge. If the heritage sector is the bread and butter I eat; my thirst for knowledge is the […]

Names from a petition containing over 2,000 signatures are now published to iMuseum. The petition was circulated in 1916 by the War Rights Union, who was unhappy with the government’s failure to deal with the decline in tourism and its impact on the Manx economy. Visitors arrive at Victoria Pier at Douglas during the hey day […]

Explore Your Archive is an Archives and Records Association (ARA) initiative, which aims to connect more people with their local archives service. www.exploreyourarchive.org Each November Archives services across the British Isles are invited to join in by hosting their own special events. At Manx National Heritage Library and Archives, we are always been keen to […]

Officially opened in advance of the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, Mann at War is a new gallery at the Manx Museum commemorating the role of Manx men, women and children in conflict from the 1700s to the present day. Explore Mann at War is a digital interactive which tells the stories of people who have […]

The names of 1,300 Manx individuals who gave up their lives in the First World War and 180 Manx individuals honoured for bravery and exceptional service are now recorded on iMuseum. The names have been transcribed from a roll of honour in book form; originally published in 1934 by the War Pensions Committee. The roll […]

Nearly four hundred fascinating Isle of Man related diaries, memoirs and travel journals are lodged with Manx National Heritage. We value these for the insights, opinions, anecdotes and information they contain, even when simply recording everyday life and routine.  Perhaps you know of other such material still in private hands that might be made available to us […]

In mid June 2018 I joined the Library and Archives team at MNH and since then I have enjoyed finding my feet and helping practically in this varied role. One way to learn about the printed collections is to jump in at the deep-end of the collections management pool. I was given the task of […]

Arguably the worst incident of labour unrest ever to occur on the Isle of Man came in the summer of 1918. This was the so-called ‘Bread Strike’ (or Manx General Strike) and it was the product of simmering resentment over a number of uniquely Manx issues. Captain Moughtin (Image ref: PG/8655/3296)   It affected virtually the […]

We were recently contacted by iMuseum user Dr Anthony Manning, who uncovered his family history using Newspapers Online. Dr Manning’s research focused on the Mills family, who owned a series of businesses in Ramsey. The last of these was the Joke Shop on Ramsey’s West Quay which closed its doors for the final time in 2018. […]

Cathy Clucas, Library & Archive Assistant at the Manx Museum (2011-2017) recently completed a four-year project to create an online catalogue of Manx National Heritage’s historical maps and plans. Iron Drill Hall erected at ‘Hermitage’ Peel Road, Douglas, I.O.M. for Major Stephen (1895-1896). Ref: P.6095 Now searchable on iMuseum, the collection includes commercially published maps, […]

The identity of the painter of ‘Bradda Head, Isle of Man’ has long been a mystery at Manx National Heritage, until March 2018, when all was revealed by Art Detectives from Art UK . The painting shows in the foreground a number of people in an open boat (believed to be the Port St Mary […]

Who remembers Saturday afternoons spent in Toymaster or Colebourn’s Computers? Take a trip down memory lane at the House of Manannan’s exhibition Playful Pasts: Our journey with Toys, a celebration of toys and play on the Isle of Man. Image ref: L22854/6. Presentation of popular Scalextric set and cars to prize winners in Toymaster toyshop, […]

Ahoy there! For Explore Your Archive week at the Manx Museum (18 to 26 November) the Manx Museum Library and Archive opened up its nautical archive. The theme was Mann on the High Seas and visitors were able to get up close to items such as historic Isle of Man Steam Packet Ledgers, customs records and […]

Manx National Heritage’s collection of musical instruments is now included in a major new virtual museum, MINIM-UK (www.minim.ac.uk) featuring sound, pictures and information about the UK’s most important musical instruments. 5,000 years of musical heritage from 200 UK collections is brought together for the first time in a major new website documenting 20,000 historically significant […]

Back in the 90s I did my PhD on the rocks of the Isle of Man. Since then I’ve been working as a geologist in London so it was great to have been given the opportunity to get reacquainted with some of the Island’s rocks through the geology collection held at the Manx Museum. Dr […]

Did you know the Manx people have always been great travellers? One such place they travelled to was the Transvaal. The South African Republic often referred to as the Transvaal, was an independent country in Southern Africa from 1852 until 1902, lying north east within South Africa and just north of the Vaal River. The […]

Manx National Heritage Library & Archives hold the archive of a small family business called Teare and Sons, Sail Makers and Ship Chandlers. The business was established in 1866 by John Teare (a rope maker) and his son William Edward Teare (a sail maker) – interesting fact – William Teare was the brother-in-law of folklorist […]

Thanks to the work of Andree Dubbeldam of the Wildflowers of Mann and volunteer Joyce Quilliam, Manx National Heritage has over a thousand herbarium records on iMuseum, many of which include photographs captured by Andree and Joyce. The photographs show an historic herbarium (a collection of preserved plant specimens) collected from around the Isle of Man. […]

Manx National Heritage, the national heritage agency for the Isle of Man, wants you to discover what made the Island’s news in days gone by with the re-launch of the iMuseum Newspapers & Publications website, www.imuseum.im/newspapers/. Image: Robin Hall and Jimmy MacGreggor, reading Holiday News, June 1961 (ref: PG/13633/1/1961/195/1) Hundreds of subscribers both on Island […]

Want some help navigating newspapers online? Here’s our step-by-step guide to login: 1. Click the ‘Login’ button on the homepage: 2. You will be directed to Government Online Services. Please enter your username and password and click Login. Please be aware that once you’ve logged in, Government Online Services (for security reasons) will time-out a […]

A project to investigate prehistoric “round mounds” on the Isle of Man began this autumn, led by Dr Rachel Crellin at Leicester University and Dr Chris Fowler at Newcastle University.  The mounds were built over human burial sites and are found throughout the British Isles and in Continental Europe.   First appearing in the Neolithic, round […]

From December 2016 people can browse through references for over 550 dissertations, theses, essays and academic reports with Manx subject matter, available for study in the Reading Room at the Manx Museum. Topics chosen for undergraduate, postgraduate and post-doctoral work are far ranging and include studies within marine biology, archaeology, politics, geography, history, musicology, Manx […]

In defiance of winter, This Is Summer sees the release of 1,000 new images onto iMuseum which we’re sure you can tell us more about.  From the thousands of Manx Press Pictures photographic negatives held by Manx National Heritage, one thousand have been selected and digitised from the 1960s to 1970s.  Together they give a […]

Project Archivist Eleanor Williams worked on an exciting project with the Manx manuscript archives. Here Eleanor tells us more: I have been researching, writing and promoting top level archive descriptions to Manx National Heritage’s iMuseum  and Archives Hub – a website which brings together descriptions of thousands of the United Kingdom’s (and now the Isle […]

Stunning black and white images of Isle of Man people and places, taken by Manx-born photographer Chris Killip between 1970 and 1973, have been added to iMuseum. Our hugely popular exhibition ‘Chris Killip’s Isle of Man Revisited’ recently closed at the Manx Museum – the evocative images featured are now available to view online. PG/14734 Chris Killip © Kent Rodzwicz Here’s what […]

From the miniscule to the massive, we’ve got it all in our new Cabinet of Curiosities at the Manx Museum. Have a peek at a puffer fish, or measure your hand against that of a Manx giant. See an electric shock machine or compare a tiny sugar sculpture to an oversized humbug. Chosen by our […]

Generations of visitors to the Manx Museum have enjoyed the Giant Deer Skeleton. In fact the skeleton is a significant and very complete example that has not been conserved since it was put on display over one hundred years ago. In 2015, as part of refurbishment work encompassing the deer display, the skeleton was removed for […]

What was a typical day for a First World War Internee on the Isle of Man? The recently digitised – and for the first-time complete translation into English – of the German First World War Internment Camp Newspapers onto iMuseum offer a rare insight into what life was really like at Knockaloe Camp (on the outskirts of Peel) for internees of the Great War over a century ago. But back to this question of what was a typical day in the life of an internee. I got to thinking about this when I chanced on this small, illustrated article from Lager Ulk, 18 November 1917. From daybreak to sunset here’s how one internee, W. Heinen, thought to describe (and draw) ‘A Day In The Life of a P.O.W’.

Cap worn by Illiam Dhone (William Christian) This kind of cap would have been worn in the evening at home, and was probably very comfy.  It isn’t the same cap as depicted in the famous portrait of Illiam Dhone (1954-6561) but it is of the same age.  It is made from fine linen and is […]

I’ve just returned from a lovely reminiscence afternoon at a Douglas care home with one of our memory boxes on the theme of ‘Entertainment and Leisure’. The box is full of fabulous artefacts and archives from our collections – including a selection of playbills and leaflets from the Palace Ballroom and Derby Castle in the […]

The stone crosses that can be found in many of the parish churches across the Isle of Man provide us with some of the earliest depictions of people.  These fantastic artworks were recorded in pen and ink by the first Director of the Manx Museum, PMC Kermode, in the early 1900s.  This drawing is of […]

First World War Internees inside an Internment Hut, Douglas or Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man (© Manx National Heritage PG/7870/41784) The addition of over 12,000 First World War Internee records onto iMuseum was particularly significant to me, having spent an extended period collating, checking and adding to the existing database. Unfortunately, many of the records […]

The Victorians were not only the inventors of photography but the first to experience it.  Over 70 years they used it to define themselves and their world, the first in a long line of generations to do so.  The Manx National Heritage Library & Archives Photographic Archive contains some of the earliest known photographs of […]

© Manx National Heritage (1959-0317) Archibald Knox, Art Nouveau artist and designer for Liberty & Co., London (1864-1933) iMuseum gives online access to our entire Archibald Knox collection.  Funds, including an Island of Culture 2014 grant, has enabled Manx National Heritage to commission the best and latest in digital photography, capturing high-quality digital masters and easy-to-access […]

© Manx National Heritage (PG/13633) I received a very interesting letter recently which tells an interesting story about this photograph from the Manx Press Pictures archive.  The car to the foreground is Tony Pond’s famous Manx Trophy Rally winning Triumph TR7 V8  from 1978. In May 1979, Mylchreest Motors held a Motor Fair at Summerland, […]

Manx National Heritage has worked closely with ArtUK in recent years, encouraging greater public access to the National Art Collection. At the Manx Museum we care for a rich and varied collection of art, but we don’t have the space to display the collection in its entirety – only a small percentage of our art […]

© Manx National Heritage (PG/8224/18/40) The Lahmers family story: Jacob and John Lahmers were a couple of Bavarian musicians that came to the Isle of Man in the 1800s, they were both married to Manxwomen and their families were born and brought up on the Isle of Man. Unfortunately when WW1 broke out the by […]

Manx Newspapers are available online from 1792 to 1960 and can be used by family historians to find out more detail about the lives of your ancestors. Details of births, marriages and deaths may be found that give more information than in the parish registers of the time, such as addresses and names of other […]

The letters of the Quayle family of Bridge House, Castletown fascinate archivist Wendy Thirkettle (Manx National Heritage Library and Archives) who is coordinating a project to release descriptions to iMuseum.  Wendy is concentrating on correspondence written during the lifetime of George Quayle (1757-1835), owner of the historic vessel Peggy. Information about George can be gained […]

We’ve recently commemorated the centenary of the First World War, revealing through service records, photographs, objects and real life stories the Island lives caught up in the turbulence of war. Men and women across the Island served their country from 1914-1918. One such individual was Second Lieutenant Robert ‘Roy’ Corlett from Douglas. Manx National Heritage […]