Museum & Gallery

The Wordsworth Museum and Art Gallery

'Nowhere is the fusion of English literature and English art - one of the triumphs of our culture - given more attention than at the Wordsworth Trust'

^{Robert Harding, The British Art Journal (autumn 2004).}

The first Wordsworth Museum was opened by the Poet Laureate, John Masefield, in 1936, in a converted barn opposite the Cottage. In 1950 the books and manuscripts were relocated to a converted smithy close to the cottage, and in 1981, due to the growth of the collection, a new and larger Grasmere and Wordsworth Museum was established in its present location, a converted two-storey coach house adjacent to Dove Cottage garden.

Now, as the well-respected Centre for British Romanticism, the Trust is able to give the public an idea of the quality and scope of its collection by presenting books, manuscripts, paintings, watercolours and portraits - some of the greatest treasures from the age of Romanticism.

The museum also has a busy exhibition programme, every year mounting major shows on cultural themes. All these exhibitions draw, first of all, upon our own collection, and are an opportunity to consider less-familiar material, as well as to take a fresh approach to the familiar. They are also collaborative, in that they borrow from a large number of different sources.

View our current exhibitions.

The Jerwood Centre Reading Room is now open to researchers by prior appointment. Researchers wishing to use original material are requested to provide an outline of their study, provide the names of two referees, and complete an application form confirming agreement to follow the Reading Room rules of behaviour. Enquiries and applications should in the first instance be made to the curator, Jeff Cowton (015394) 35544 or via our contact form.