North West Labour History Group

Industrial Revolutionaries
People who shaped the modern world

26 June - 6 November 2010
Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
Market Square, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2PPTel. 01772 258248; www.harrismuseum.org

Open Monday and Wednesday to Saturday, 10am - 5pm, Tuesday 11am - 5pm, closed bank holidays

'Engels and the Industrial Revolution' - a lecture by Dr Tristam Hunt

7 to 8.30pm, Thursday 22 July
at the Harris Museum - booking essential

"The eyes of the working classes are now fully opened, they begin to cry: Our St. Petersburg is at Preston!" Karl Marx, 1854

People in Preston created a new industrial world and then fought to redress the problems of inequality caused by industrialisation through radical social reform and political activism. Preston is a microcosm for understanding the North West of England's industrial pioneers and their ideas: ideas that shaped the modern world.

Industrial Revolutionaries is a major new temporary exhibition in Preston. It spans 150 years with the key personalities and the movements they created - its influence, its history and its global impact - revealed through over 70 objects including portraits, major loans and key collection items, some newly conserved and on display for the first time.

Exhibitions include:

Sir Richard Arkwright
Charles Dickens, who visited Preston during the lock-out and strike of 1853, no doubt influencing his novel Hard Times.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who were also writing about these events and asking: will Preston be a test case for proletarian revolution?
Elizabeth Gaskell, author with a social agenda, influenced by events during the lock-out and strike of 1853-54. She fictionalised Preston weaver and orator George Cowell in her novel North and South.
Henry Hunt, Preston's first radical MP and people's hero.
Annie Hill, half-time child mill worker and unusual in the fact that her portrait was painted by artist Patti Mayor.
John and Samuel Horrocks, industrial innovators who developed the Yard Works and created Britain's largest cotton-manufacturing company and factory with world-wide connections and influences.

For further information and images, please contact Catharine Braithwaite on 07947 644110 or cat@we-r-lethal.com

'Invisible Histories': Talks at the Working Class History Museum

No compensation Glen Atkinson
23 June, 2pm
Mining mishaps in the Salford coalfields during the Victorian period.

Re-tracing Salford Lawrence Cassidy
7 July, 6pm
A project using family snaps, oral histories and street maps to rekindle memories of urban life.

Salford Star Stephen Kingston
21 July, 6pm
The story of the independent magazine written and produced by people in Salford for people in Salford.

Trades union memorabilia Cliff Stockton
4 August, 2pm
Local badges, emblems and certificates from the Library's collections.

Greater Manchester Archaeology Unit

There will be a community archaeology dig at the site of a 17th-century building at Dunham Massey from 20-29th July. Visitors are welcome to view the site and speak to the archaeologists. Site located opposite the Carriage House.

The North West Regional Industrial Archaeology & History Conference will take place on the 25th September 2010 at Ellesmere Port Waterways Museum - see the Merseyside Industrial Heritage Society website, www.mihs.org.uk, for details.

Guided tours of Samuel Oldknow's Mellor Mill site, meet at Roman Lakes Leisure Park, Marple, Stockport, 17th and 18th July 2010. Contact mellordig [at] live [dot] com to book a place.