Collections Overview | Dartmouth Museum

Major collections:

To visit the dedicated item on the collections, click the small picture in the section that interests you. Even better than that, visit the Museum. Make a firm plan to come and see us when you visit Dartmouth. A visit to the museum, however brief, will give you a new perspective on the town. It's a place where even we locals learn something new each time we come.

The King's Room

The King's Room has a nautical theme - hardly surprising since the port of Dartmouth has been significant in both naval and trading history - but most people overlook the room itself when looking at the nautical timeline running clockwise around the cases. While studying the nautical artefacts, take the time to look at the ceiling, to look at the important frieze, shown in the thumbnail on the left, and to imagine yourself back in the time of Charles II while he was stormbound in Dartmouth.

To gain entry to the King's Room, perhaps to an audience with King Charles II, click the picture.

The Henley Collection

William Cumming Henley lived at the time of Charles Darwin. He was an ironmonger in Dartmouth, and his shop is very close to where the museum is today. If you come in from the river end of Duke Street and look up you'll see the clock facing you where the street narrows. That was William Henley's shop.

During his lifetime he not only taught himself to be a scientist, he made his own scientific instruments. He collected a great number of things from around the world, quite a Victorian habit. Today we'd think that was environmentally unsound.

We've housed The Henley Collection in a recreation of a Victorian era study. And the table in the centre has a hands on environment for young and old hands alike. To enter William's study, click the picture.

The Holdsworth Room

The Holdsworth Room reopened at Easter in 2011 after an extensive renewal which was covered in By The Dart, our local monthly magazine. The article's in our press clippings, and we're very proud of this part of our refurbishment. apart from displaying a wide collection of artefacts, some ancient, some modern, there's a dedicated area for Dartmouth at War, and we have a continuous rolling display of relevant videos, both local memories and newsreel, with soundtrack, running in the room.

The exhibits show so much about Dartmouth it's hard to put it all into a synopsis. Our full description of the room and collection doesn't do it justice either. The picture shows the kitchen on the Oldstone Dolls House, a marvel in its own right. When you come, why not see if you can find our elephant?

The Jesse Room

Unfortunately we can't have The Jesse Room open all the time. The great thing about it is that it has the most amazing ceiling, a world class unique plaster rendition of The Tree of Jesse.

We open it up by request. Sometimes we can do that when you visit with no notice, but we can't do that when the museum is likely to be busy. So click the ceiling (so to speak) and see more details about it here, and then ask us to arrange to open it for you.

So, what is The Tree of Jesse?

It is said to be the family tree of Jesus of Nazareth

Picture Archive

The collection that merits a long study, and the one you can 'take home with you' is the Picture Archive.

We hold pictures of Dartmouth in the Past, with reprints in a set of folders in the Lobby. Take the folders down and start to browse.

Further Collections, Reserve Collections

This page will be updated as we bring more information on our other collections to you. Follow our Twitter Feed to get early information. We have a number of collections in our reserve collections that we will document as time permits.