Telling the tale of a unique museum

E fascinating story of Swansea Museum – the rst public museum in Wales – is told in a major new book, writes Jenny White

SWANSEA Museum – Wales’ oldest public museum – is also one of its nest, not least because of its graceful architecture and the fact that it retains the feel of the Victorian golden age that birthed it. Now a new book documents the history of the museum and the group that founded and funded it – the Royal Institution of South Wales (RISW).

Swansea’s Royal Institution and Wales’s First Museum is a mighty 600-page tome featuring essays by 23 contributors covering the full story of the museum and the RISW, which started life as the Swansea Philosophical and Literary Society in 1835.

Its founders included leading Swansea gures such as copper-smelting pioneer John Henry Vivian; Lewis Weston Dillwyn, a respected botanist who also ran the Cambrian Pottery; and Henry De la Beche, Britain’s rst professional geologist, who brought the Geological Survey of Great Britain to south Wales.

“Initially, they wanted a forum where they could all get together and discuss research,” says Andrew Green, the RSIW member who chaired the steering committee for the book project. “ey also wanted to spread the word about the latest developments in science and technology in the period – so, for example, they wanted to put on lectures which would be open to the public. e RISW was, in those early, early decades, a kind of proto research institution or mini university.”

From its outset, the institution kept a museum in which leading gures displayed specimens relating to their areas of expertise, but in time they realised a larger venue was needed and so funded the creation of Swansea Museum, which opened in 1841.

“It was quite eccentric,” says Andrew. “It had Lizzie the elephant who stood in the entrance for years because somebody had donated her – but eventually she rotted away and was burned in the back garden.

“e museum was, and is, really important – it houses the nds from caves on Gower, Swansea

Pottery, photographs by John Dillwyn Llewellyn from the very earliest periods of photography.

ese are collections of international importance that need to be celebrated.”

With that in mind – and because no full history had been published before – the RISW set in motion a project to create a book about the history of the institution and of the museum.

“In 2019, we formed a working ‘History Project Group’ comprising Andrew Green, Karmen

omas, Elizabeth Belcham, Gerald Gabb and myself,” says contributor and lead editor Helen Hallesy. “Once authors were recruited, we held a brie ng meeting in October 2019 to outline our plans, with an expected publication date for the book of late in 2020. How optimistic were we! Covid struck and we had a major setback.

“Restrictions on movement meant we were unable to meet, but more importantly we had no access to archive and library material for

nd research. However, we were fortunate in having specialist authors, historians and museum sta who worked with enthusiasm and did deliver their papers in 2021.”

After that, the book underwent extensive editing, over 350 photographs were added, and it was nally completed at the end of 2023.

“e result is an important historical record spanning over 180 years which charts the achievements of past historians, scientists, artists and scholars who developed Swansea’s Royal Institution and Wales’ rst museum,” says Helen.

Today the museum, with its striking neoclassical design, remains a key Swansea landmark. It survived the Blitz and now welcomes over 100,000 visitors a year, who ock to see its famous Egyptian mummy and exhibits detailing everything from Gower’s prehistory to Swansea’s