Collections to think with Collecting, scholarship and belonging in the R. E. Hart collection (Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery)

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery has a nationally significant coin collection, thanks mainly to two bequests in the early twentieth century. The donation by R. E. Hart, a local industrialist, was made along with all his accompanying notes and books. This collection offers unique insights into the habits and aims of Hart as a numismatist, his wider network and the intellectual community of collecting. Understanding Hart’s processes of acquisition, and his role as a learned society member and customer of major auction houses supplies the outlines of a shared endeavour that, in the early twentieth century, shaped social and personal, as well as economic and cultural identities. Collections and collecting like Hart’s were also fundamental in creating the resources and structures for numismatic study today, offering a reminder of the importance of preserving and understanding inclusive environments of knowledge curation, as well as context for the collections underpinning much current research.