Bust of Frank Atkinson, the founder of Beamish Museum, Co.Durham
Frank Atkinson CBE (13 April 1924 – 30 December 2014) was a British museum director and curator. Atkinson is best known for creating the Beamish Museum near Stanley, County Durham, an open-air ‘living’ museum on the history of the north of England with a focus on the changes brought to both urban and rural life by the industrialisation of the early 20th century.
Atkinson began his working life at a coking plant. However, he spent his weekends and days off as a volunteer worker at Wakefield Museum where he successfully gained employment as a museum assistant. At the age of 25 he became the institution’s director; he was the youngest museum director in the country. In 1952, Atkinson became Director of Halifax Museums and Art Gallery with responsibility for Shibden Hall, Bankfield Museum and Belle Vue. In 1958, he was appointed curator of the Bowes Museum, an art museum in Barnard Castle, Teesdale. Here, he first began to realise his vision of creating an English version of the open-air museums he had seen on a trip to Scandinavia in 1952.
In 1966, Atkinson was instrumental in the setting-up of the working party that resulted in the creation of Beamish with him as its first director. The aim was to create an “Open-Air Museum for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and the way of life of the North of England”. He said of the creation of Beamish Museum: “It is essential that collecting be carried out quickly and on as big a scale as possible. It is now almost too late.” To this end, Atkinson initiated a policy of “unselective collecting”, saying: “you offer it to us and we will collect it”. This method of building up the collection proved highly successful and in addition forged links between the institution and the surrounding community. Beamish was also innovative in its operational arrangements, receiving funding and administrative assistance from a consortium of four neighbouring county councils – Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, and Durham; it was the UK’s first museum to be run in this way.
Under Atkinson’s direction, Beamish was named the National Heritage ‘Museum of the Year’ in 1986, and the following year was awarded the title ‘European Museum of the Year’. Atkinson attended the latter award ceremony despite having recently had cancer surgery. He retired the same year, although his association with Beamish continued; he served as President of the Friends of Beamish until his death. Following his retirement, Atkinson was Commissioner with the Museums and Galleries Commission (MGC) and Chairman of the Commission’s Registration Committee, until December 1994. He had previously worked as an advisor for a number of national bodies in the museums and galleries sector. He also acted as an advisor to the Thomas Bewick Birthplace Trust, overseeing the handover of its archives to the National Trust in 1991.