Collections

Our collections at Bradford District Museums & Galleries.

Our Collections

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Bradford Photographic Archive

A large collection of photographs and negatives, comprising of over 450,000 items.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Social History

The majority of material is local social history, including agricultural and craft tools, and comprises some 57,837 objects.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

The museum’s botany collections comprise the nationally and internationally important F.A. Lees collection and W.A. Sledge collection of flowering plants and other nationally important lichen and bryophyte collections totalling approximately 60,000 specimens.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Natural Science: Geology

There are approximately 80,000 geological specimens. The fossil and rock collections come from world-wide and British sources and includes fossil collections.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Natural Science: Zoology

There are approximately 90,000 zoology specimens of which over 70% are invertebrate zoology including entomology and conchology.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Industrial

This collection began in 1966, and includes textiles, engineering, public and domestic transport, the history of science, motive power, printing, communications, crafts and professions, as well as technical information.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Decorative Art

This collection comprises some 5000 items, shared almost equally between furniture and ceramics.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Fine Art

The print collection includes works by master printmakers such as Francisco Goya, William Blake and Walter Sickert and by modern masters – Pop Artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Richard Hamilton.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Archaeology

The collection comprises some 38,000 items, the majority of which is excavated pot sherds.

Bradford District Museum & Galleries

Bradford District Museums & Galleries (BDMG)’s collections have developed over more than 150 years, even before a museum service existed in the district.

Exhibitions

We regularly host touring exhibitions by local and national community groups, artists and museums from across the UK.

If you would like your exhibition in one of our museum buildings please contact programming@bradford.gov.uk

Loans

If you would like to loan an object, photographs or art work from our collections please contact the registry registry@bradford.gov.uk.

Please note we are not currently taking on any more loan requests before February 2026.

Photography

Photography of the displays in our museum is permitted for personal use only.

Please contact our business team if you would like to use images of our displays and gallery spaces for commercial purposes.

Please visit our Photo Archive webpage for information about using images of our objects, photographs and/or artworks.

Useful Documents

This guide is for you as a first time visitor to help you discover the museum. The guide is for the first floor - if you are able, explore upstairs too

DesignLab Nation Bradford: Callout for designer

Visitor to Collection

Collection Development Policy

We work with our communities and partners to develop and care sustainably for our shared heritage so that everyone can have fun, learn, find their voice, create, be ambitious, connect with others and better understand their place in the wider world.