3-053-832 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bradford Merchants' Institute, 1873. 'With reference to the fine building of which a view is now given, we observe that, on the evening of Tuesday week, a conversazione was given in the Mechanics' Institute, the directors of that establishment having kindly thrown open the exhibition to the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. There was a very large attendance, and not the least popular room was one which had been made available as a refreshment-room, belonging to the Central Liberal Club adjoining. An entrance to this had been effected from the gallery of the lecture hall, and the addition proved a welcome relief to the almost crowded rooms of the Institute. The Mayor lately opened the Art-treasures and Industrial Exhibition in these rooms...The exhibition is on a scale of considerable magnitude, including works of art and industry to the number of upwards of a thousand. The collection of oil-paintings and watercolours forms the most prominent feature of the exhibition. The first room devoted to such works contains productions of local artists to the number of about fifty. Along the walls of seven or eight other rooms are arranged paintings by masters of the modern English and foreign schools'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.