Harris Museum  The Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Preston Free Public Library is a Grade I-listed museum building in Preston, Lancashire, England. Founded by Edmund Harris in 1877, it still operates as a local history and fine art museum. In the 19th century, it became legal to raise money for libraries by local taxation, and the town of Preston wanted a grand museum and library for its inhabitants. From 1850, local people held fund-raising events; and in 1877 Edmund Robert Harris, a Preston lawyer, left in his will £300,000 to establish a trust and support a public library, museum and art gallery with Preston Corporation. In 1879, the first Preston lending library was set up in the Town Hall basement, while a public museum was set up on Cross Street, opening 1 May 1880. Success led the council to erect a new building for both. Work started on the museum in 1882 during the Preston Guild, and it officially opened in 1893. The building was designed by a local architect, James Hibbert, who chose a Neo-Classical style. For the 1880s, this was in some ways contrary to the Gothic Revival style which was popular at the time and features in numerous contemporary buildings in Preston, including the old Town Hall which stood on the western side of the Harris. The building's exterior reflects Hibbert’s vision of a neo-classicism through "“simplicity, symmetry of plan, truthfulness of expression and refinement of detail”. Unlike other public buildings designed in this style (such as the British Museum in London and the Konzerthaus in Berlin), Hibbert's design does not feature steps leading up from the Flag Market but instead has ground-level entrances om each side of the building. A pediment dominates the front of the building and features a sculpture based upon Raphael's painting "The School of Athens". Interpreting Hibbert's design fell to London sculptor Edwin Roscoe Mullins and features the central figure of the Ancient Athenian general Pericles, surrounded by twelve other men arranged symmetrically to either side. The sculpture is considered Mullins' principal work. Beneath the pediment is the inscription "To Literature, Arts and Science". There are further inscriptions along the sides, and on the lantern tower a quotation in Ancient Greek from Pericles' Funeral Oration. Supporting the pediment are six Ionic fluted columns leading down to a raised portico overlooking the Flag Market. The building's interior is dominated by a central hall rising over 120 feet from the ground floor to the ceiling of the lantern tower.