Tenby Museum

Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, founded in 1878, is an independent, charitable trust, run partially by volunteers. The Museum is one of the oldest independent Museums in Wales, and is situated in part of the mediaeval castle, overlooking Castle Beach and Caldey Island.

Permanent displays include archaeology, geology, the natural, maritime and social history of Tenby and South Pembrokeshire from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century. 'The Story of Tenby' exhibition traces the history of Tenby from the ninth to the twenty-first century, illustrated by artifacts, text and pictorial representations.

The Library and Archives held at Tenby Museum are extensive, containing between 30,000 and 40,000 items, covering material relating mainly to Tenby and South Pembrokeshire. These include books, journals, newspapers, postcards, photographs, prints & drawings and a vast paper archive. The library books total approximately 4,000, and are predominantly English language. The subjects covered include social history, archaeology, palaeontology, natural history, geology, maritime history, fine art, marine and freshwater biology, zoological sciences and local history. The Library holds research papers connected with published articles of local interest, as well as current specialist journals.

The Library has its own collection of rare books, selected items from which are on display in the Wilfred Harrison Art Gallery, and also has a considerable amount of general reference material to support research into local and family history. Family histories (Tenby area only) can be traced by the Family History Researcher at the Museum for a set consultancy fee. The paper archive includes Town Clerks papers, municipal papers, parish records, Census returns, electors lists etc. dating from the eighteenth century. Local history publications are produced in-house, as well as teacher's packs supporting the curriculum.

The postcard and photographic archive of Tenby and South Pembrokeshire dates from the late nineteenth century to the present day. This archive is a comprehensive collection of approximately 13,000 items. The Museum has strong links with the Tenby Lifeboat and has a collection of photographs and memorabilia from the first Tenby Lifeboat to the present day. The Museum also has a collection of guidebooks from 1810 to the present times.

A newspaper archive holds local newspapers dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, reflecting 150 years of publishing; important holdings are an almost complete set of the 'Tenby Observer' (est. 1853) from 1865 to 1914. The Museum also possesses historic maps of Pembrokeshire (16th-19th century) and local coastal charts (17th-19th century).

The Museum has a large collection of pictures, representing a few hundred artists, with a limited number of these exhibited in the Wilfred Harrison Gallery. The strength of the collection is local artists of which Charles Norris and Stephen Rigaud, both early nineteenth century artists, feature prominently. Most of the collection consists of scenes of Tenby and the surrounding area, as depicted by artists over the past 200 years. The extended Art Gallery's permanent collection contains works by Augustus John, Gwen John, Nina Hamnett, Charles Norris, E.J. Head and other artists with local associations. There are also annual changing exhibitions. A large number of prints are also held by the Museum, many derived from the guide books and itineraries of the first half of the nineteenth century when relatively large numbers of such books were published. They were illustrated with engravings, the earliest of which date back to 1740.