Records of the Manchester and Salford Society of the Friends of Art

This appears to have been a short-lived society, lasting less than two years. Its stated aims were to form an art buying fund; to hold conferences; to educate the public and to encourage local efforts. Notable members included, industrialist, Sir William Houldsworth (1846-1917) , architects, Edgar Wood (1860-1935) and Alfred Derbyshire (1839-1908) and newspaper editor, C. P. Scott (1846-1932). The volume contains manuscript minutes of conferences and meetings with some pasted-in letters and newspaper cuttings. When the society was dissolved, in 1908, this was in part because its aims and membership were found to overlap too much with the long-established Royal Manchester Institution.