Interested in borrowing something from the Tullie collection?

Thank you for considering borrowing an item from Tullie’s collection. We are always looking for opportunities to develop and nurture new partnerships, both nationally and internationally and share the incredible stories held within the objects we care for.  All requests to borrow from the collection should sent in writing to our director, Andrew Mackay. These must include your completed UKRG Facilities Report and Supplement along with a report showing the last six months’ environmental readings at your venue.

The Senior Leadership Team consider all requests, which may then need to be approved by the Tullie Trustees and Cumberland Council depending on the object valuation. For this reason, we do ask that you give at least six months’ notice of any request. All borrowers must agree to our conditions of loan, including payment of insurance and transport costs, and in some cases payment of a loan fee and/or essential conservation work. If you have any questions about borrowing from Tullie please contact curatorialenquiries@tullie.org.uk and we’ll be very happy to talk things through.

Want to come to Tullie on a research visit?

We are happy to host research visits free of charge. If you’d like to access the collection, we do usually ask that you can demonstrate a research need (in the form of affiliation to an educational institution or evidence of independent scholarship), although we are happy to talk things through on a case by case basis if collections access is required for other reasons.

To make the collection as accessible as possible, most research visits are limited to a maximum of two days. It may also be necessary to limit the number of objects that can be viewed – if this is the case, we will be sure to explain this in advance of your visit.

To arrange a research visit contact curatorialenquiries@tullie.org.uk.

Got a general enquiry or a burning question?

Our team can only respond to enquiries relating to our collections. Unfortunately, due to the high number of messages we receive, we are not able to help with general enquiries that do not relate to our museum or collections. For these, we suggest contacting other organisations in the area, who will likely be far better placed to help. Some suggestions…

• Cumbria Archive Service (https://cumbriaarchives.org.uk/) holds church records, wills, electoral registers, maps and plans, poor law records, title deeds, and photographs, as well as the archives of many families, businesses, local authorities, solicitors, societies and schools.
• Websites (such as www.ancestry.com and www.findmypast.com) supply information about family history and the history of properties (these are subscription sites).
• If you are interested in history relating to areas outside of Carlisle, other museum and heritage services may also be able to help. Details on other museums and heritage organisations in Cumbria can be found at https://www.visitcumbria.com/go/museum/.

As a registered charity, our resources are limited. While we are always keen to help with enquiries, we are unable to carry out detailed research free of charge. Simple enquiries which require less than 30 minutes of research (for example, confirming basic details of a small number of objects, locating a collection etc.) will be responded to free to charge. However, enquiries which require more than 30 minutes of staff time will be treated as research requests and will be charged accordingly. If we feel that your enquiry will need more than 30 minutes of our time, we will contact you to ask if you would like us to go ahead at the standard research rate of £25 per hour.

Any revenue from research will go straight back into collections care, access and engagement.

Interested in using an image from the collection?

All digital images in the collections are available for commercial and personal use. This includes provision of high-quality digital images for publications, marketing, and merchandise, or for use in your teaching and exhibitions. We also offer a print on demand service, so you can own a copy of a work from our collection for your enjoyment or as gift.

More information is available via the button below, or contact our helpful team at images@tullie.org.uk who will be happy to work with you to meet your needs.

Extra info on costs

• All research requests that take over two days of the curatorial team’s time will incur a £100 research admin fee.
• Any dedicated curatorial team member’s time will incur a fee of £16 per hour.
• Loans from the museum are charged at £250 per object.
• If the research involves the use of a curatorial team member’s vehicle, the cost of mileage will be £0.45 per mile.

Fees can be waived or adjusted at the team’s discretion.
If costs are waived in exchange for an output, and the output isn’t delivered by an agreed date, then waived costs will be charged.

If accessing the objects needed for your enquiry requires the rent of a forklift or other lifting equipment, there will be a charge towards this cost.

Any income from these fees will go towards the care of the collections at Tullie.