[5] In 1841 the curator, Captain Schulz R.N., was advertising for an attendant to supervise the museum for three hours a day for a salary of £25 and a residence on the premises.
Originally designed to house both the Museum (founded in 1835) and Literary Society (founded in 1781), these merged in 1877 and after obtaining all the shares the Museum and Literary Society trustees became the sole owner, with the curator living on site [7] Now a Grade II* listed building, it was designed by architect George Buckler, son of John Buckler.
The museum opened with a lecture from Professor Adam Sedgwick, Vice-Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 27 July 1847.
[11] The museum houses several important collections relating to local history and the anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson.
A significant exhibit is the original manuscript of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, the bequest of the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend in 1863.
[12] Other notable artefacts include reputedly Napoleon's Sèvres breakfast service, said to have been captured at the Battle of Waterloo, and Thomas Clarkson's chest containing examples of 18th-century African textiles, seeds and leatherwork, which he used to illustrate his case for direct trade with Africa.
[14] In 1947 the Museum Committee recommended to the trustees that the manuscript of Dickens' Great Expectations, valued at thousands of pounds, be sold.
The manuscript had been bequeathed by Chauncey Hare Townsend "for the benefit of the town and neighbourhood of Wisbech" with the proviso that it “should never be sold or exchanged but deposited in the same museum for ever.
The visit marked a new partnership between Cambridge University Library and W & F, who are working together to shine a light on the collections and develop projects of mutual interest.
[24] The W&F collection includes agricultural implements, drainage tools and pipes, shooting and fishing equipment and as such reflects the culture and economy of the Fens up until modern mechanisation developed in the 20th century.
This collection includes Hours of Idleness by Lord Byron, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Monk by Matthew Lewis.
[26] W&F has a collection of local, British and international geology (rocks & minerals), paleontology (fossils), conchology (shells) including specimens from the barrister William Metcalfe (1804–1873),[27][28][29] 19th-century bird, mammal and fish mounts, lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), coleoptera (beetles) and a herbarium (botanical specimens) particularly William Skrimshire's (1766–1829) early nineteenth-century collection.
[32][33][34] The extensive archaeology collection of the W&F enables visitors to understand the development of Fenland life from the pre-historic through medieval times to the recent past.
The jewel of the Museum's Celtic material is a highly decorated Iron Age Wisbech Scabbard (c.300 BC), found locally by Samuel Smith.
Pottery and other artefacts recovered in the soils of the Welle Stream (an extinct Fenland river) give an insight into life in the Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Periods.
Other items include a mummified cat, idolets of Osiris, Isis and Horus and canopic jars and several stelae (gravestones).
It also has some of the earliest examples of photographs of Madagascar taken in the 1850s by William Ellis (1794–1872), a prominent member of the London Missionary Society.
The W&F is an important venue for widening interest in Wisbech and Fenland and regularly participates in Fenland-wide events and Twilight at the Museums.
The Life and Times of Chauncey Hare Townshend, a Victorian Collector (1998), The Trade of a Farmer: John Peck of Parson Drove by Dian Blawer was published in 2000.
In 2019 a series of books of photos by Geoff Hastings and Andy Ketley were published; the first print run of 100 copies of Images of Wisbech no.1 sold out in a week and was reprinted the same month.
More recently a 'Supporters Circle' scheme using monthly Direct Debits of £5 Clarkson, £10 Peckover or £20 Townsend has been launched by the museum.