Friends of the Museum of Farnham
The Friends exists to support the Museum. To do that we organise a number of events each year ranging from small meetings held in the Museum's garden gallery through to a major quiz attracting over one hundred entrants and an annual concert held at Farnham Castle.
Our first event of 2012 will be a talk on Heraldry by John York who has recently been looking into the heraldic symbols in St Andrew's Church.
New microfilm reader/printer for the Museum Library
The Friends have been instrumental in acquiring a new reader/printer for use in the Library. The machine (a Canon MP90) is able to view all of the Museum's collection of local newspapers as well as coping with microfiche. Unlike the previous machines used, you can actually make a copy of the displayed page to take away with you.
The Library holds the Farnham Herald from 1898 to 1930 on microfilm as well as a few years of the Surrey and Hants News. Some other local census information is held as microfom as well.
The Library holds the Farnham Herald from 1898 to 1930 on microfilm as well as a few years of the Surrey and Hants News. Some other local census information is held as microfom as well.
New Pottery bought for the Museum
The Friends were able recently to help the Museum acquire two items from the Wrecclesham Pottery. One a nice large greenware bowl and the second item a commorative jug. The picture shows the two items in question flanked by our new curatorial assitant Emma Treherne and Curator Anne Jones.
Farnham Library Display
The picture on the left is of our recent display in Farnham Library. It was mounted on our behalf by Cyril Trust and illustrated our recent and future activities.
New seats for the Museum garden
The Friends bought four new hardwood benches for the garden at the Museum. The picture shows Rosemary Wisbey from the Friends with Anne Jones the Museum's curator. The benches allow visitors to relax in the pleasant and quiet area of the garden next to the new Garden gallery.
Stephen Elmer drawings purchased
The Friends bought a set of pen and ink drawings and a watercolour at auction in July 2010 for the Museum. Stephen Elmer (c 1715 - 1796) was a significant artist specialising in pictures of game. He lived in the building now occupied by the Museum and had a studio in Farnham. The Museum already owns a number of oil paintings by Elmer, but his works do not come on the market very often. To some extent this is due to a fire in London in 1801 that destroyed a lot of his unsold work. The chance to acquire these drawings for the Museum was too good to miss and a bid of £700 was successful. Elmer was famous for his paintings of game and the present drawings are of game birds. Several are dated 1769 and this adds to the Museum’s knowledge as none of the paintings already owned are dated. Moreover some drawings are marked as for Fancesco Zuccarelli a prominent painter of the Rococo era.
