The Dartmouth Museum Picture Archive

Photographs

At the Dartmouth Museum we have a huge archive of pictures and photographs of Dartmouth, some from years ago, some far more modern.

If you want to see what the old gas works looked like, with the coal transporter crane, we have the archives. Want to see Coombe Mud before it was turned into Coronation Park? We have the archives.

All you have to do is to drop in and ask to see the picture archive. We usually have a rolling slide show of a selection on the screen just under the pictures.

Sometimes people have pictures for us that add to the story. If you have a picture and ideally some background documentation you'd be willing for us to have or to copy, please Get In Touch and we'll do the rest.

As an example of the type of pictures we hold, this small selection may be useful. We opened two folders at random. One shows early pictures of the mouth of the river Dart, the other shows the awful fire in the centre of Dartmouth in 2010.

Photograph Collection

When you come to visit the Museum you will find that the Photograph Collection is housed in folders in the lobby. To make life easy and to tell you what we hold, we thought you might like to see a list of the topics to be found in this amazing collection, and to see some sample pictures. Each box has several samples online for you to enjoy.

Contents of the archive boxes

• Box A - views of Dartmouth and some major construction events
• Box B - views of Dartmouth, continued
• Box C - views of Dartmouth and some artefacts, too
• Box D - the people and events of Dartmouth and the surrounding area
• Box E - ships and boats

There will be further picture collections added over time.

You should also have a look at the sources for the Henley Trail, where we used our own archives as resources.

Paintings

In our collections we have a number pf paintings, two of which have appeared on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. The BBC in partnership with The Public Catalogue Foundation has also recently started a national programme of cataloguing paintings. Dartmouth Museum features in the catalogue.

Research Access

If you want some detailed time with the archive it's better to plan in advance and make a booking. Ideally please try to narrow down your area of interest when you make a booking. If you prefer you may book by telephone or letter.