Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele University holds a small but strong collection of 20th Century Modern British Art, based around over fifty artworks gifted by Sir Barnett Stross (1899–1967), Labour MP for Stoke for nearly twenty years. Stross, who also generously donated art to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, built up a collection through personal contact with a number of artists, notably Jacob Kramer, Rowley Smart and Michael Ayrton, all of whom are well represented in the collection. A stand out Stross donation is L.S. Lowry's The Mill Gates. The collection continued to expand after his death and includes works by Duncan Grant, Jacob Epstein, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.