American Museum In Britain
American Museum In Britain
Claverton Manor
Bath
Somerset
BA2 7BD
England
Website
All departments
Education and Group Visits
Telephone
General
01225 460503
Education and Group Visits
01225 823019
Fax
01225 469160
Founded in 1961, The Museum has the finest collection of American decorative arts outside the United States. Displayed in a series of period rooms, the collection illustrates how erly Americans lived between the 17th and 19th centuries. Interactive galleries offer an introduction to American history, while special collections highlight the finest examples of quilting, folk art, and early printed maps of the New World. The museum is also set in a spectacular, hillside setting including a formal garden, parkland, and nature trails.
Venue Type:
Museum, Garden, parklands or rural site
Additional info
Both the musuem and exhibition gallery are fully accessible to wheelchair users. Certain parts of the gardens and grounds are also accessible. Wheelchair available for loan for use inside main musuem only. Please note that mobility scooters are not permitted in the museum.
A series of period rooms display American furniture, woodwork, silver, glass & textiles which illustrate domestic life from 17th century to the eve of the American Civil War in 1860. The museum’s beautiful grounds at Claverton Manor overlook the stunning Limpley Stoke Valley, an include a replica of George Washington's Mt. Vernon Garden plus an aboretum of American trees and shrubs.
Collection details
Archives, Costume and Textiles, Decorative and Applied Art, Design, Fine Art, Social History, World Cultures, Architecture
Key artists and exhibits
- Shaker furniture
- American quilts
- Trade porcelin
- Native American Indians
- Early printed maps of the New World
- American Folk Art
End of Year Show: FdA Fashion and Textiles Design Skills, Bath Spa University
Showcasing the work of students from Bath Spa University's Fashion & Textiles Foundation Degree, this exhibition is the culmination of two years work. The course combines skills in garment design and construction with textile production. Expect a broad range of work beautifully displayed in the Museum's converted Stables.
Suitable for
Admission
Free with admission
Gangsters and Gunslingers: The Good, The Bad & The Memorabilia
Gangsters and Gunslingers brings centre stage two mythic moments in the history of the United States that shaped America’s national identity: the Wild West (mid 1860s to the late 1880s) and the wild years of the Prohibition/Depression era (1920s and early 1930s). Each epoch produced legendary characters, who have become famous and infamous – Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Bonnie and Clyde to name but a few. For the benefit of the inhabitants of America’s industrial eastern cities, homegrown ‘western’ heroes and villains performed acts of derring-do, penned by writers who had seldom (if ever) abandoned their urban comforts for the inconveniences of travelling to the frontier or even to small Midwestern towns.
The debilitating lives lived by many in squalid city sweatshops, unregulated factories, and cramped offices fuelled the mass market for ‘real life’ western adventure stories in dime novels, the pulps, and sensational newspapers. Individuals immortalised in print became victims of the popular fiction they inspired: their literary namesakes appeared more alive, even to them, than their all too frail corporeal selves. Just like the heroes in ancient tales, America’s gangsters an gunslingers showed hubris and began to act as if they were indestructible. Their ends, however, were often anything but heroic.
For Gangsters and Gunslingers, the Museum is again to showcase treasures from the comprehensive Americana collection and Hollywood archive of David Gainsborough Roberts. (Based in Jersey, Roberts generously partnered the Museum for its popular 2011 exhibition Marilyn – Hollywood Icon.) ‘I am delighted’, Gainsborough Roberts comments, ‘that so wide a range of items in my collection can be placed on view in such a magnificent – and appropriate – setting as the American Museum. The 'Marilyn' show was spectacular fun. I have never seen my collection better displayed. I have no doubt that Gangsters & Gunslingers will be as moving and memorable – especially for anyone, who like me, wanted to grow up to be a cowboy!’
In one of John Wayne’s most memorable collaborations with John Ford, the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a character observes: ‘When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.’ There has never been a better précis summing up how the history of the Wild West and the wild years of the Prohibition/Depression era has been represented and misrepresented in print and on film. Gangsters and Gunslingers – The Good, the Bad, & the Memorabilia investigates how facts gave way to the demands of popular fiction and how history became hearsay – the past imperfect.
Suitable for
Admission
Free with admission
War of Independence Camp and Drill Displays
His Majesty’s Crown Forces are back with their special blend of military prowess, scruffy recruits, good humour, and one, almighty loud, cannon. This year kids can join a drill and see if they have what it takes to join the regiment!
Drill Displays: 1:30 & 3:30pm
Kids’ Drill: 2:30pm
Suitable for
When
1:30-4pm
Admission
Free with admission
4th of July Picnic Night
What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with an evening of 50s and 60s classic rock ‘n’ roll and a BBQ!
Bring a picnic rug or some chairs and sit back to enjoy a great outdoor evening of music, food, and fun with 50s’ cover band Kabinrock.
BBQ, soft-drinks, and ice-cream available to buy.
Free Admission for All
Location: Terrace and lawns
Suitable for
When
5:30-8:30pm
Admission
Free with admission
Carving Greenwood Bowls and Spoons
In this workshop you will learn all the techniques and skills required to produce a carved wooden spoon or bowl. Using a Mocotaugan or an Indian Crook Knife, you will finish your piece with carving detail inspired by Native American designs of the Northwest Pacific coast and objects from the Museum’s handling collection.
Suitable for
When
10:30am-4:30pm
Admission
£50 (£45 for Museum members)
All materials included (and tools supplied).
Location: Coach House Seminar Room
All participants must register to take part in courses, workshops and lectures.
To register, phone 01225 820866 or use our contact form.
Family Fun: Wild West Crafts (Sheriffs and Can Can Dancers)
Drop in with Wiltshire Scrapstore to make fantastically creative things inspired by our exhibition Gangsters and Gunslingers: The Good, The Bad & The Memorabilia.
We'll be using recycled materials to make our own Wild West outfits: sheriff's badges, bandanas, and fake moustaches or fluttering fans and feathered headpieces.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free with admission
Family Fun: Prohibition Crafts (Gangsters and Gangsters’ Molls)
Drop in with Wiltshire Scrapstore to make fantastically creative things inspired by our exhibition 'Gangsters and Gunslingers: the Good, the Bad and the Memorabilia'.
Join us today to celebrate the glamour of the 1920s and make your own gangster’s moll headband or speedy getaway car.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free with admission
Family Fun: Hands on History (Native American)
Drop in to the Coach House Workshop to get up close and personal real museum objects!
Today you'll be able to explore some of our beautiful Native American objects, including beaded moccasins, woven baskets, tools and replica war bonnets.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free with admission
Family Fun: Wild West Crafts (Covered Wagons)
Drop in with Wiltshire Scrapstore to make fantastically creative things inspired by our exhibition Gangsters and Gunslingers: The Good, The Bad & The Memorabilia.
Join us today to create your own covered wagon and join the trail out into the Wild West.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free with admission
- About
- | Collections
- | Exhibitions
- | Events
- | Resources
- | Map
