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Fitzwilliam Museum

History of the Fitzwilliam Museum

General information about the Fitzwilliam Museum can be found on Wikipedia.

Fitzwilliam Museum circa 1840

Fitzwilliam Museum circa 1908

The museum’s own web site can been reached on this link:

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

The following picture from March 1904 shows King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra leaving the Fitzwilliam Museum.

King Edward VII & Queen leaving museum

Trumpington Street, 26 December 1906 (photo H A Chapman)

Fitzwilliam Museum (MoC)

1907

CDN 20.6.1907: A University Report: The Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum should be present at three hours a day when it was open, keeping a diary recording his hours. His salary should be decreased from £300 to £250 and the money used to pay for anther member of staff.

Fitzwilliam Museum c.1917

Information about the decorative lions at the museum can be found here:

http://www.creatingmycambridge.com/history-stories/lions-fitzwilliam-museum/

Susan Gaisford was born in Cambridge in 1943 and lived at 35 Trumpington Street. She reminisced about her childhood in 2020 and wrote this:

I can tell you that the lions who lived at the Fitzwilliam Museum didn’t go to drink in the conduits.  They went at midnight to the Cam.  I was told that if I saw them at midnight, they couldn’t go.  As a child, you can imagine, I couldn’t resist this, so went to a front window overlooking the Fitzwilliam, and they were still there.  So – the story was real.  I always hoped that the lions saw the light go off and were able to go to the river.

Dear Visitor,

Thank you for exploring historical Cambridgeshire! We hope you enjoy your visit.

Did you know that we are a small, independent Museum and that we rely on donations from people like you to survive?

If you love Capturing Cambridge, and you are able to, we’d appreciate your support today.

Every donation makes a world of difference.

Thank you,

The Museum of Cambridge