NML home > World Museum Liverpool > Human World > World Cultures > Africa > Chief collector

Our venues

World Museum Liverpool
Walker Art Gallery
Merseyside Maritime Museum
International Slavery Museum
National Conservation Centre
Lady Lever Art Gallery
Sudley House
Museum of Liverpool

Chief collector

Portrait of Arnold Ridyard. Photographer unknown.

Arnold Ridyard (1853-1924), a chief engineer with the Elder Dempster shipping line, donated half the African artefacts in the World Cultures gallery between 1895 and 1916. A quarter were given to him by West African chiefs, members of the British-educated African elites, traders, and colonial administrators who he knew.