The world's first industrial city

John Dalton was a Manchester-based scientist whose pioneering work greatly advanced our understanding in multiple fields of research, including atomic theory, colour blindness and meteorology.

James Joule is now rightly revered as one of the greatest scientists in the history of physics. However, in his younger years, Joule struggled to be taken seriously by the scientific establishment.

Boddingtons beer was brewed at Strangeways in Manchester for 227 years. The museum visited the site to photograph and record the last days of brewing in 2005, and now holds a collection of objects and archives from the brewery.

One of the most poignant objects to be added in to the Textiles Gallery is a tiny pair of leather children’s clogs dating from around 1870.

Ancoats in Manchester city centre was recently dubbed one of the hippest places in the world to live, but it hasn't always been that way...

Our colleagues at our sister museum in Bradford, the National Science and Media Museum, have unearthed a wonderful selection of images of life in early-to-mid 20th century Manchester.

161 years ago, on 26 August 1856, the world's first synthetic dye was patented by William Henry Perkin, whose archive is now part of our collection.

How did the life and observations of chemist John Dalton help us understand colour blindness?

Archivist Ceri Forster has been selecting shipper's tickets from our huge collection to be displayed in the Textiles Gallery.

Explore our Textile Industry collection and discover why Manchester, dubbed 'Cottonopolis', was once the international centre of the cotton industry.

Machinery and other objects—from carding engines and looms to printing blocks and fabric specimens—tell the story of Britain's role in textile manufacturing from the Industrial Revolution onwards.

Browse our Industrial Chemistry collection, containing materials that had a significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing.