The Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery

The Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery houses the historical and art collections of the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England. Managed by Vivacity on behalf of the City, it is part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership.

History

The building, originally a private house dating from 1816 (although parts of the cellar date back to a house built in the 16th century), was purchased and donated to the Peterborough Natural History, Scientific and Archaeological Society in 1931 by Sir Percy Malcolm Stewart; the art gallery was added in 1939.

The Priestgate mansion had been sold to Earl Fitzwilliam in 1856, who allowed it to be used as a public dispensary and infirmary - the city's first hospital - from 1857 until the War Memorial Hospital opened in 1928.

In 1968 it was donated to the city by the Peterborough Museum Society. Since 2010, the museum has been managed on behalf of the City by Vivacity, an independent non-profit organization with a charitable status, which also manages the Key Theater and the city's libraries.

Collections

The Peterborough Museum has a collection of around 227,000 items, including local archeology and social history ranging from products of the Roman pottery industry to a collection of internationally important marine fossil remains from the Jurassic period. The museum also contains the original manuscripts of John Clare, the "Northamptonshire peasant poet" as he was commonly known in his day, and the Norman Cross collection of items made by French prisoners of war.

These prisoners were held at Norman Cross, on the outskirts of Peterborough, from 1797 to 1814, in what is believed to be the first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp in the world. The art collection contains a variety of paintings, prints and drawings dating from the 17th century to the present day.

Map: The Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery