Collections Showcase

Our museums cover Dorset and Wiltshire, and hold world-class collections spanning archaeology, fine and decorative art, ethnography, social history, costume and textiles. Together we tell different chapters in the fascinating story of Wessex, from prehistoric times to today.

Here are just some of the amazing pieces we hold in our museums. 

The first work-to-home phone in Britain.
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Cape in suffragette colours thought to belong to women's rights campaigner, Millicent Fawcett.
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One of the most incredible Bronze Age finds in Britain. The dagger handle is decorated with thousands of microscopic gold studs.
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Tiny glass head tells a tale of revelry and ritual dating back to Roman times.
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Mysterious and menacing mask, part of traditional Dorset folk culture.
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Mystery boat carved from one massive tree trunk
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A beautiful Iron Age mirror decorated with mystical Celtic art.
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A hoard of 4,000 Roman coins, found with a little help from a cow!
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Buried with 18 arrowheads, but the mysterious 'archer' certainly wasn't a hunter.
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Find out more about the Fordington mosaic!
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Beautiful car that survived the scrap yard and rallying, before being lovingly restored.
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The skull of a pliosaur, the largest marine reptile that ever lived.
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The finest example of Bronze Age gold-working ever found - sheet gold intricately decorated with geometric lines.
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Alfred Russel Wallace's fascination with nature led him to develop theories of evolution, the birds of paradise played a part in supporting his ideas.
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Macabre and mysterious - the mouthpiece of a Bronze Age musical instrument made from a human femur bone.
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There is more to algae than meets the eye!
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Poole Museum's Bollan Cross was found during the excavation of a medieval boatyard in Poole during the 1980s.
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Find out more about the magnificent moustachioed man!
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Stunning orange and gold beads - but who was the Lady with the Amber Necklace?
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Discover the little-known story of Maria Ridout and her Express carrier.
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Search Dorset, Poole, Wiltshire and The Salisbury Museum’s collections, all in one place. 
From a fisherman's tool to a beachcomber's treasure!
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Find out how this large Roman storage jar was used.
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Made in Switzerland this tuneful box was owned by a pianist in Dorchester.
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This stylised and richly coloured painting of sunflowers in front of a window was painted by Elsie Barling.
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This beautifully illustrated log was kept by Thomas Dyke, a master mariner from Poole.
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In the 1920s women’s football was a flourishing sport, read about Swindon star Fanny Williams.
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Find out more about this oil painting by James Fry.
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This flint arrowhead was made thousands of years ago and discovered during excavations on the former Moortown Aerodrome site in Canford Park.
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An early piece by National Treasure Grayson Perry, a perfume bottle and four stoppers.
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A masterpiece of the high seas! Painted by Bernard Finnegan Gribble he is known as one of Poole’s most successful and prolific artists.
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Discover the spiraling 2 meter tusk from a male Narwhal whale. This mystical Arctic relic astonishes visitors at Poole Museum.
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Rex Whistler painted his friend Novelist Edith Olivier at her home, Day House, a few year before his death.
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Find out more about the extraordinary ninth century AD bejewelled aestel found by metal detectorists!
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Tucked into the corner of the Library of Lydiard House Museum is a small work by John Piper.
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The child’s coat was made in about 1916 from red material cut from the father’s tunic worn as a soldier in the Boer War.
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Giving employees a helping hand
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An ivory and ebony paper knife that once belonged to the GWR’s Chief Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
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In the 1920s women’s football was a flourishing sport, read about Swindon star Fanny Williams.
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Sawfish are also called carpenter sharks...but they are rays, not sharks!

There’s also a species called a sawshark, but that’s, well, a shark!

What the heck is a lek?

Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.

Road Runner!

The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.

Belly Buster!

The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!

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