Dartmouth Museum is a local museum in Dartmouth, Devon, which displays and chronicles the history of the port of Dartmouth. It moved to its current location in the 1950s and is housed in a merchant's house which, in 1671, entertained Charles II and where he held court during a storm which forced him to stay in the port.[1] The museum is run by the Dartmouth Museum Association, a registered charity.[2]
The museum was refurbished during the winters of 2010 and 2011[3] and has a large collection of models of sailing ships, and of ships in bottles.[4] The latter is referred to as the Dawe Collection. The museum building itself is part of the exhibition[5] which includes local records and photographs, and a plaster ceiling believed to be unique showing the Tree of Jesse. The museum also houses the Henley Collection, a collection of artefacts and scientific material collected by William Henley (1860-1919), all of which were previously part of a separate museum on Dartmouth's Anzac Street.[6]
The entrance to the museum is in Dartmouth's Butterwalk, via a spiral staircase built counterclockwise around a ship's mast.
