About Muse

The Holburne Museum of Art is Bath's University Museum. This interactive catalogue is the latest stage in a major project to document and digitise the Museum's collections. It is also an innovative extension of the Holburne's relationship with the University of Bath's Computing Services (BUCS) and the Universities of Bristol, Bath Spa and the West of England (UWE). It has been funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Board's Special Projects Fund for Higher Education museums, galleries and collections.

Muse combines the Holburne Museum’s expertise with the technological skills and network capacity of BUCS.

Initially, Muse contained just over 100 items, selected to illustrate two themes, Art & Culture in Georgian Bath, and The History of the Holburne Collection. These themes were chosen in consultation with the History departments at Bath Spa University and UWE, and the History of Art department at Bristol University, to provide a resource for study and research that relates closely to their BA and MA programmes.

Since then, a further 250 items have been added to the database, including the whole collection of oil paintings, using data compiled for the Public Catalogue Foundation, and the whole collection of Italian Maiolica, using research by MA students at the University of Bristol.

Muse has been designed as a learning resource for identified courses at the University of Bristol, UWE and Bath Spa University.

As it grows, it will also provide the public with a way of exploring the Holburne's collections online.

Although its primary aim is to serve students of History and History of Art at local universities, we hope that Muse will be useful to everyone with an interest in art and history, from scholars and students to visitors to the museum.

Muse is intended to be used by students as a supplementary research resource providing material for essay and presentation research. The collections-based material will also provide a resource for tutors either in lieu of a visit to the Museum with their students or as the introduction to such a visit.

Eventually, we hope to extend Muse with further themes and more items from the collection, which contains about 8,000 objects. This will be subject to further funding.

1. Read text pages on the two Muse themes: Art & Culture in Georgian Bath, and The History of the Holburne Collection. Each chapter is illustrated with thumbnail images of items in the Holburne Museum relating to the text, and you can link directly to catalogue entries on these items by clicking on the thumbnail.
2. Search Muse:
   1. All Fields: a simple search of every catalogue page in Muse. Muse will search for the exact word or phrase you have typed. You can therefore search for every item in the catalogue that contains, for example, references to a particular place or person anywhere in its text.
   2. Advanced Search: A more focussed search that allows you to search within specific fields: for example, you can search for objects by a particular maker, or made during a particular period, in a particular place, and so on, or in any combination of these. You can also search the notes and description for references to places, people, or any phrase you wish to search on. You may also search by Museum Number, if you know it: you may have spotted a particular item on display in the museum, and want to find out more about it.
1. Browse: Allows you to browse through lists of all the materials, artists, etc available on Muse. For example, you could browse through all the items depicting a particular type of subject. This facility also includes biographies of the artists and makers.

The Muse website is hosted and maintained by the University of Bath.  The website and underlying database have been developed for the Holburne Museum by the Web Development  Team, University of Bath Computer Services (BUCS), in consultation with the Holburne's curators.

Technical problems: BUCS contact page.

Comments or queries relating to the content of the site: holburne@bath.ac.uk