The Royal Cornwall Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in the city of Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is the oldest museum in Cornwall and the leading museum of Cornish culture. Its exhibits include minerals, an unwrapped mummy and objects relating to Cornwall’s unique culture. It belongs to the Royal Institution of Cornwall

Royal Institution of Cornwall

The Royal Institution of Cornwall was founded in Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom, in 1818 as the Cornwall Literary and Philosophical Institution. The Institution was one of the earliest of seven similar societies established in England and Wales. The RIC moved to its present site in River Street...

 which was founded in 1818 for "the promotion of knowledge in natural history, ethnology and the fine and industrial arts, especially in relation to Cornwall."

Collections

The museum has collections in the following areas:

• Archaeology, both Cornish and non-Cornish: these include the Arthur stone
  Arthur stone
  The Artognou stone, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Arthur stone, is an archaeological artifact uncovered in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was discovered in 1998 in securely dated sixth-century contexts among the ruins at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall, a secular, high status...
  
  
• Art
  • Applied and decorative arts
  • Fine art (including Newlyn School
    Newlyn School
    The Newlyn School is a term used to describe an art colony of artists based in or near to Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early 20th century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminiscent of the Barbizon School in France, where artists...
    
     paintings and a recent bequest of works by Bryan Pearce
    Bryan Pearce
    Walter Bryan Pearce was a British painter. He was recognised as one of the UK's leading naïve artists.-Early life:...
    
    )
  • Numismatics
• Biology
• Geology
  • Mineralogy (including Philip Rashleigh
    Philip Rashleigh
    Philip Rashleigh FRS , antiquary and Cornish squire, eldest son of Jonathan Rashleigh, M.P. for Fowey in Cornwall , who married, on 11 June 1728, Mary, daughter of Sir William Clayton of Marden in Surrey, was born at Aldermanbury, London, 28 Dec.1729...
    
    's collection of Cornish minerals)
• Social history
• World cultures

The Courtney Library

The Courtney Library and Archive holds books, periodicals, archive material and ephemera relating to Cornwall and the South West of England. It commemorates the scholar William Prideaux Courtney. It includes the extensive written records collected by the historian Charles G. Henderson

Charles G. Henderson

Charles Gordon Henderson was a historian and antiquarian of Cornwall.Charles Henderson's only quarrel with Cornwall was that it had given him no more than a quarter of his blood. His father, Major J. S. Henderson, was half Scottish and half of the Irish family of Newenham: his mother was a...

 and Henderson's own papers. In addition, there is an extensive photographic collection which records the history of Cornwall from 1845 to date.

The Courtney Library, accommodated above the departments of the museum, currently holds c. 50,000 printed volumes, 35,000 manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s and documents, newspapers from 1798, printed map

Map

A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....

s, periodicals and engraving

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

s. It specialises in family history

Family history

Family history is the systematic narrative and research of past events relating to a specific family, or specific families.- Introduction :...

 and local history

English local history

Local history is the study of the history of a relatively small geographic area; typically a specific settlement, parish or county. English local history came to the fore with the antiquarians of the 19th century and was particularly emphasised by the creation of the Victoria County History series...

.

The building

The Grade II building which has housed the RIC since 1919 was built in 1845 as the Truro Savings Bank, and subsequently became Henderson’s Mining School. In 1986/7 the Institution acquired the adjacent Truro Baptist Chapel (1848). Together these substantial granite-fronted buildings (linked with a new foyer and shop in 1998) form an imposing street frontage at the centre of the historic city of Truro; both buildings were designed by the local architect Philip Sambell who was deaf without speech.

Access

Entry to the museum is free although there may be a charge for some exhibitions. Most of the museum and library is accessible to wheelchair users: it has ramps and a lift.

Secure parking is available at nearby Moorfield, Pydar Street and Edward Street car parks. There are no disabled parking on site, however with prior notice (date and time) a space can be reserved in public car park at the front of the museum. It is normally possible for coaches to stop immediately outside the museum.

Toilet facilities are located on both floors of the museum. There are baby changing facilities on the first floor and toilets for the disabled on both floors.

External links

• Official website
• Information from the 24 Hour Museum
  24 Hour Museum
  Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes two websites, Culture24 and Show Me, about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to other cultural websites including Engaging Places.It operates independently,...