Music at the Horniman Museum

In 1901, towards the end of a full life, Frederick Horniman, the Victorian tea merchant, Liberal politician, collector and public benefactor gave his newly built museum to the people of London for their ‘recreation, instruction and enjoyment’. Horniman was a lifelong collector who reputedly began collecting butterflies when he was still a schoolboy. By the end of his life his collection included over 7,000 objects spanning the human and natural worlds.

Among the objects Horniman donated in 1901 was a collection of 200 musical instruments. One hundred years later, this number has grown to over 7,000 instruments and the collection is now considered to be the most comprehensive in the UK, with certain aspects of it ranked alongside major American and European collections such as that of the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Brussels Musical Instrument Collection.