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Buxton Museum and Art Gallery



OS Grid Ref:- SK059735

Buxton Museum and Art GalleryThe Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, housed in the former Peak Hydropathic Hotel, was founded in 1891. The museum holds regionally important collections of geology and archaeology, including archives and fossil records.The museum's permanent collections include:-

* Carboniferous limestone fossil record of the Peak District collected between 1900 and 1950;

*Pliocene mammal evidence from caves and quarries throughout the Peak District;

*The archives of archaeologist Sir William Boyd Dawkins and geologist Dr John Wilfred (J.W.) Jackson.

*Randolph Douglas 'House of Wonders' collection from Castleton which includes a large collection of locks and keys and some unusual Houdini material

*A Buxton photographic collection, a collection of local social history and ephemera, and a collection of Houdini material.

*A fine art collection dominated by 19th and 20th century works in watercolours, oils and prints, including works by Sir Frank Brangwyn, Marc Chagall and Edgar Chahine.

*Amongst the minerals are Blue John, carved limestone, local specimens, and cave deposits. In 2006, the Buxton Museum purchased a rare collection of decorative Ashford Black Marble wares, together with tools used to work the stone collection left by John Michael Tomlinson.

*Other collections relating to Derbyshire, also managed from Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, include a Derbyshire Police Collection.

The Museum's exhibition galleries include the Boyd Dawkins Study and the fascinating ‘Wonders of the Peak’ gallery. Dawkins bequeathed to the Museum a complete Victorian study containing his furniture, scientific instruments, books, Oriental ware and fossil collection. The ‘Wonders of the Peak’ gallery explores Peak District history from the Big Bang to the Victorian era. Items include a bear in its Ice Age cave, a hyena above a Devensian bone hole, a Neolithic burial chamber and remains of a Roman soldier.

The fine art collection is dominated by nineteenth and twentieth century watercolours, oils and prints and includes works by Sir Frank Brangwyn, Marc Chagall and Edgar Chahine.

Admission is free.

Directions

The museum is located at Terrace Road, Buxton.

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