Picture Library

Around 50,000 prints, 20,000 negatives, 12,000 slides and 5,000 glass plates offer a photographic record of Dorset from the 19th century onwards.

Images include views of landscapes, towns, villages, buildings and people. They represent the lifestyles and traditions of Dorset over time. Significant photographers featured include Harry Pouncy, Francis Frith and Charles Cornish-Browne. We also hold photographs within our Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Townsend Warner collections.

We are now digitising and cataloguing these collections and can license images where digitised versions are already available. For an additional fee, it is also sometimes possible to commission the digitisation of images identified through research.

Below is a selection of images that are on permanent display in the TASTE café at Dorset Museum.

Important Announcement

Friday 22 September 2023, The Victorian Hall will also be closed all day for a private function. The Fine Foundation Dorset Story Space, next the the Thomas Hardy's Dorset Gallery will also be closed for an hour around Midday.

Opening hours:

Daily: 9.00am - 4.30pm
Sunday: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Bank Holidays: 10.00am - 4.00pm
Admissions:

10% discount for Adult and Young Person Unlimited Ticket booked online using discount code DM01
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Dorset Museum
High West Street
Dorchester DT1 1XA

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01305 262735
For more information
[email protected]

Picture Library

Important Announcement

Highlights

Thatching at Grove House

Thatching at Grove House

Thatching at Grove House

Thatching a rick a rick at Bredy Farm

Milking time at Herrison Dairy

Edgar Hawkins milking at Burton Bradstock

Drink More Milk or from Producer to Consumer

Carey & Grimsdell butter factory, Dorchester

Collecting milk from Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

Vegetable seller at The Conduit, Sherborne

Courtney’s Fruit and Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

Fruit and Vegetable Stall, South Street, Dorchester

Demonstration of Debenham’s patented hay sweep and tractor driven baler, Affpuddle

Picking watercress at Lawrences’s Farm, near Shaftesbury

Cutting hay with scythes

A sheaf of wheat

Hauling in the sprat harvest, West Bay

Woman selling plaice at Burton Bradstock

Purbeck Fisherman, Lulworth Cove

Fishing, Bournemouth Pier

Fishing from Chesil Beach

W. J. Parsons Wine and Spirit Merchant, Boscombe

Bottling at Victoria Wine Co. High East Street, Dorchester

High West Street, Dorchester

Hall and Woodhouse Brewery Wagons outside The New Inn at Blandford St Mary

The Old Brewery at Netherbury

Loading a wagon at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

A convoy taking a lunch break on a journey from Sherborne to Hardy’s Monument

A Whit Monday breakfast at Tregonwell Lodge

Staff cafeteria at Herrison Hospital

Staff Social Club at Herrison Hospital

Sheep Shearing

Sheep Washing

Shearing Sheep

Shepherd with his flock of Dorset Down sheep

Shepherd with a lamb

Higgins Butchers, 51 High East Street, Dorchester

Jubilee Day hog roast at Piddle Valley Carnival

The Roasting of the Ox, Celebration of the Coronation of King George V

Roast Pig at Stoborough Fayre

Wareham & Dale Ltd., Butchers & Poulterers, Parkstone

A rest from haymaking on Lenthall’s Farm, Burton Bradstock

Making a hayrick

Picking watercress at Hollow Oak, Bere Regis

Thatching at Grove House

Learning kitchen skills at Summer Hill House, Herrison Hospital

Breadmaking at Rendalls Mill, Burton Bradstock

Bryant Bakery, Broadmayne

Loading dough into the oven at Rendalls Mill, Burton Bradstock

Staff coffee break at Herrison Hospital

Picnicking at Ringstead Bay

Staff cafeteria at Herrison Hospital

Taking a break during archaeological excavations at Eggardon Hill

Milking, Burton Bradstock

Milking in farmyard, West Stafford

Hauling Milk at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

Pigs and dairy cattle in the yard at West Stafford

Milking at Manor Farm, Burton Bradstock

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