Whitby Museum in Whitby, Yorkshire, United Kingdom | Museum

The Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society was founded in 1823 by a group of leading citizens in Whitby, England, United Kingdom, led by the Rev. George Young, the author of the classic nineteenth century "History of Whitby" (1819) and minister at the Presbyterian Church. The chief object of the Society was to setup and maintain a Museum, specialising in fossils, since "Whitby is a chief town of a district abounding with petrifications and containing not a few Antiquities". Ever since Whitby Museum has been run for the people of Whitby by the people of Whitby, England.
Whitby Museum opened in 2 rooms over a shop in Baxtergate, moving within four years to the top floor of the waterfront building now known as Fusco's Quayside Fish Restaurant. On the ground floor were the public baths with a subscription library on the first floor. This strategic site on the fashionable promenade of the Victorian resort brought in many famous visitors : Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Wilkie Collins.
In the last quarter of the 19th century collections of local plants, shells and butterflies, beetles and fishes were assembled. The same period saw the addition of many exhibits illustrating the history of Whitby, England, some of sizeable models of buildings and ships.
By the end of the 19th century the main anxiety of the Society was how to provide more space for the ever-growing collections. Various proposals for achieving this were considered over the next 25 years and the final decision was to build a completely new Museum building in Pannett Park adjoining the municipal Art Gallery.
As exhibits have continued to come in, there have been several major additions to exhibition and storage space over the last 60 years. The Chapman wing and Kendall Library were added later. In 2005, thanks to local fundraising and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a new wing has increased our capacity to meet what is required of a Museum today, without spoiling the valued 'Edwardian' character of the main Museum. The new wing contains a modern lecture theatre, galleries for Costumes and Exhibitions, a range of modern workrooms and a tearoom.