The Swansea Museum in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the C ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, UK is the oldest

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

, created for and by the

Royal Institution of South Wales The Royal Institution of South Wales is a Welsh learned society founded by George Grant Francis in Swansea in 1835. Prior to its establishment, the Royal Institution was known as the Swansea Philosophical and Literary Society, which maintained t ...

in 1841 to house its collections and provide research and learning facilities.

History

Swansea Museum is the oldest museum in Wales. It opened in 1841, founded by the

(RISW), a group of art and science enthusiasts, six years after the organisation's establishment. The museum is housed in a Grade-2* listed building that was commissioned by the RISW, built in the neo-classical style and completed in 1841. The building was designed to house the RISW's array of collections as well as provide research and learning facilities. In 1990, guardianship of the Museum was transferred to City & County of Swansea. Under threat of closure, the Swansea City Council saved the building and its collections in 1996. Swansea Museum now provides free access to six galleries with a variety of exhibits from an ancient mummy's tomb to temporary exhibitions on current issues and modern interests. In 2015, the museum's future was uncertain, with a 50% budget cut announced in 2015. In 2016, the BBC4 television programme ''

Britain's Lost Masterpieces ''Britain's Lost Masterpieces'' is a factual BBC Four documentary television series that aims to uncover overlooked art treasures in British public collections, in conjunction with Art UK. It is presented by Bendor Grosvenor, along with art hist ...

'' uncovered a lost study for the

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading ...

painting '' Meleager and Atalanta'', at the museum, which was evaluated at more than £3 million. In 2019, the

Swansea Devil The Swansea Devil, also called Old Nick, is a wood carving of the Devil in Swansea, Wales. It was carved by an architect whose designs for St. Mary's Church had been rejected by a committee. Some years later when designing an office building acr ...

carving was donated to the Swansea museum by the owners of the

Quadrant Shopping Centre The Quadrant Shopping Centre is the principal under-cover shopping centre in Swansea, Wales. The centre opened in 1979. From the 1980s to 2019 it was home to the Swansea Devil, a controversial carved wooden statue of the Devil. The centre an ...

Collections

The Museum operates four sites: the Landore Collections Centre, the Marina, the Tramshed on the Dylan Thomas Square and the Museum itself.

Landore Collections Centre

The Landore Collections Centre is located in the former rolling mills building of the former Hafod/Morfa Copperworks, parts of which date back to the 1830s. For most of its industrial life, it was used as a rolling mills, but was in use as a warehouse before the Local Authority acquired the site in 1980. The building provides nearly of open-plan storage space for the reserve collections of both Swansea Museum and the former Maritime and Industrial Museum. Side rooms provide office and additional environmentally controlled storage space. Plans to further develop and regenerate the surrounding area into a focus for Wales’ copper history will complement the Collections Centre as a heritage venue.

Marina

Access to the maritime section is available in June, July and August. The museum has three boats in its collections: *Lightship ''Helwick'' *Tug boat ''Canning'' *1909 Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter ''Olga''

The Tramshed

The Tramshed in the Marina displays memorabilia from the former street trams of Swansea and the Mumbles tram that ran around the edge of the bay from Swansea town centre to Mumbles pier. Originally part of the former Maritime and Industrial Museum, the Tramshed on the Dylan Thomas Square is now run by Swansea Museum. This conservatory-style gallery displays memorabilia from the street trams of Swansea, including the famous Mumbles train. Large windows illuminate a double-decker tram as well as a reconstruction of the original 1804 horse-drawn Mumbles train, the first passenger railway service in the world.

References

External links

Swansea MuseumPhoto and map at Geograph
{{authority control History of Swansea Museums in Swansea Grade II* listed buildings in Swansea Infrastructure completed in 1841 Transport museums in Wales City museums in the United Kingdom Maritime museums in Wales Tram transport in Wales Railway museums in Wales 1841 establishments in Wales