Miss Porter’s House is a free-standing Edwardian terrace, built by Herbert Porter in 1909. Located at 434 King Street, it is the only National Trust property in Newcastle. Following Herbert’s death in 1919, his widow and her two daughters lived in the house until their deaths and it was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1997.

Miss Porter’s House survives as a living snapshot of life in twentieth-century Newcastle through the collections cared for on its premises. These encompass three broad thematic areas: domestic life textiles; craft; and documentary heritage, amassed by the family over a century.

There are 1878 items in the documentary heritage collection which provides the context for the other collections in the House. This material documents the history of the lives of the Porter and Jolley families (Mrs Porter’s family) over more than ten decades. It ranges from film scrapbooks, photographs illustrating changes in fashion to documents relating the Newcastle earthquake in 1989.

There are early photographs, genealogical lists, medical records and wills. Documents relating to household management include water bills, electricity and telephone bills and documentation relating to the rebuilding of the fernery in 1975.

Lists were kept of trips out of Newcastle, of telephone calls and when light bulbs were changed. Other documents shed light on the lives and interests of the family through such things as knitting patterns, garden plants information, school exercise books and shopping lists, postcards illustrating places that the family visited, personal and business letters to predominantly Newcastle companies, funeral and wedding documents (for example invitations, thank you cards), collections of live theatre programs and newspaper reviews of live theatre in Newcastle.

There are some rare items in the documentary heritage collection, including radio and movie scrapbooks from the 1930s. However, the collection in its entirety is rare because it captures the lives of the Porter family, to a degree that is seldom seen in documentary collections relating to women.

The Miss Porter’s House documentary heritage collection records and captures all aspects of the lives of Mrs Porter and her daughters. It is historically significant because it sheds light on women’s lives at a period of social change, and includes the impact of catastrophic events such as the Newcastle earthquake of 1989. The changing patterns of life and culture are reflected in the radio/film scrapbooks, garden plant choices/design, knitting patterns, scrapbooks and photographs illustrate changes in fashion. Styles and patterns of communication such as postcards, letters, funerary and wedding documents show the changes in print technology and customs. The significant national event of the 1919 pandemic is documented in the story of the Porter family, and the collection provides important evidence of how the women coped financially following the death of Herbert Porter, as a result of the pandemic.