The Brunel Institute officially opened its doors on November 29.
The Brunel Institute sits alongside Brunel’s ss Great Britain, the great Victorian engineer’s masterpiece and only surviving ship – now at the heart of a multi award-winning museum and visitor attraction in Bristol.
Admission to the Brunel Institute, which is also managed by the ss Great Britain Trust, is free of charge to all.
The Brunel Institute rendering © ss Great Britain Trust
Staff and volunteers anticipate the Brunel Institute, with its National Brunel Archive and David MacGregor Library, to appeal to researchers and enthusiasts, those with a passion for the Brunel’s work and for maritime history, and local residents.
Rare items include the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s drawing instruments, his diaries, and photographs of the Clifton Suspension Bridge during its early build.
An innovative collaboration with the University of Bristol sees the important Brunel holdings of that institution also joining the Institute to form the National Brunel Archive.
The Brunel Institute holds around 45,000 items, including 4,500 maritime, engineering and ship-building books; 2,000 ship plans; 100 ship models; 35,000 maritime photographs; passenger and crew diaries and letters; 50 films; and the Lloyds Register dating back to the 1700s, and the Illustrated London News.
As well as the Brunel Archive, specialist maritime David MacGregor Library, the Viridor Theatre and Great Western Room, which will be available for venue hire, there are important and popular education programmes ranging from ‘Sea Hear’ storytelling and ‘Future Brunels’ for teenagers, to the ‘Brunel Badge’ and schemes.
The ss Great Britain Trust is a registered charity, which runs the independent museum, and receives no central or local government funding.
Funding for the Brunel Institute has come from Heritage Lottery Fund, Viridor Credits Environmental Company, Foyle Foundation, Medlock Charitable Trust, Kirby Laing Foundation, Wolfson Foundation, J. Paul Getty Jnr. Charitable Trust, Biffaward, The Lloyds Register Educational Trust (LRET), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the estates of David MacGregor and of April Thornton, Linden Homes, plus a members’ and supporters’ appeal backed by the Bristol Evening Post.
For further details, including details of identification required to use the library, please visit www.brunelinstitute.org