Keswick Museum has a new display called ‘Peter Crosthwaite’s Museum in Miniature’, organised by Leela, a volunteer from Portinscale.

In 1781, Peter Crosthwaite, a local man who had worked for the East India Company, opened the first museum in Keswick. It was also one of the first public museums in Britain. He later moved it to a new site which, as a result, is now called Museum Square.

Crosthwaite’s Museum was a ‘cabinet of curiosities’—a display of unusual objects from around the world, including things Crosthwaite had collected on his travels and finds from the local area. Keswick was a growing tourist destination and the museum was its star attraction until it finally closed in 1870 and the collection was sold at auction. The modern Keswick Museum was founded in 1873.

Leela went through an 1826 inventory of Crosthwaite’s Museum and found similar objects in the modern museum’s collection to put on display. This interesting and eclectic range of objects, including ancient coins, local fossils and a taxidermy toad, allows visitors to step back in time and see what it was like to visit Keswick’s first museum.

Assistant curator Joseph Massey said: "It’s incredible that there have been museums in Keswick going all the way back to 1781, but museums were very different back then compared to how they are today. Visitors to Crosthwaite’s Museum could see objects from all over the world, including a lion’s skin from Africa and a live snake from America. Today we focus on telling the story of the local area."

It will be on display until Sunday, November 10.