Our Collection

Centre for British Romanticism - the finest literary museum in the world

The Wordsworth Museum and Art Gallery holds and conserves one of the world's great literary collections. Nowhere else can more than 90% of a great writer's manuscripts be seen in the very place where they were composed. In addition to Wordsworth's verse drafts and letters, we also hold for the nation the journals and letters of his sister Dorothy, other members of his family, and friends and correspondents, notably Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas De Quincey. As well as manuscripts, the Library has rare first editions by the major Romantic poets, such as Byron, Shelley and Keats.

The Wordsworth Trust collections began in 1891, when a selection of Wordsworth's furniture and memorabilia was displayed in Dove Cottage, and a collection of books was donated by the first Trustees. In 1935 the poet's grandson, Gordon Graham Wordsworth, bequeathed his collection to the Trust, a collection that included some 90% of the poet's working manuscripts. With this presentation the Trust became a major archive, and in 1950 a research library was established. The collections have grown steadily since then, and in 1997, the Wordsworth Museum Collection was 'Designated' by the British government as a 'pre-eminent collection of national and international importance'. Our Collection was one of the first in the country to be given this status, and it is the only Designated Collection in Cumbria.

Our fine art collection helps to provide a context for their work, and contains drawings and paintings by artists including Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Joseph Wright of Derby. Our Collection also contains artefacts relating to Wordsworth and his family and aspects of Lake District life and history. Altogether, it features original work by over two thousand writers and artists, and tells the story of a profound cultural moment in British and world history.

The essential story of the Romantics coincides with the spread of English all over the world. Hence, an international audience recognises links such as those of Wordsworth and the French Revolution, Coleridge and Germany, Byron and Greece, Shelley and Italy, Southey with both Spain and Portugal. The United States itself is founded on Romantic aspirations and an awareness of the Far East feeds the imagination of the writers.

Click here to search the Manuscript Collection
Click here to search Verse and prose manuscripts
Click here to search Printed books and pamphlets
Click here to search Fine art

Click here to find out more about The Designation Scheme of pre-eminent collections of national and international importance held in England's non-national museums, libraries and archives.

Help us care for our fragile Collection.
A regular gift by Direct Debit will help to support the care and conservation of our fragile Collection - and enable us to plan for the future more effectively. Donors to the Collection Fund will receive public acknowledgment of their gift and an annual update on the work their support has helped us to achieve. For more information on how you can help, please contact Sally Robinson, Individual Giving Officer, on (015394) 63520 or complete the contact form.