The elevation of Henry Willett

Abstract

Henry Willett (1823–1905) was a wealthy Brighton brewer who, funded by a large inheritance, became a nationally renowned collector and one of the founders of Brighton Museum. This article focuses on Willett as a ‘collector of collections’ and investigates the eclecticism of the artefacts that he accumulated in a wide range of areas: archaeology, books, curiosities, ethnography, fine art, fossils, furniture, minerals, natural history, ‘objects of vertue’ and pottery. It argues that collecting (and exhibiting) objects, for Willett, was partly a strategy for collecting people, a means of elevating himself into cultural and intellectual circles in both Brighton and London. It also speculates on the idea that Willett’s serial collecting reflected a desire to create his own private museum referencing the totality of human knowledge – an ‘imaginary museum’ whose specimens remained hidden away in premises in Brighton and Hove, only occasionally seeing the light of day.