The Wilson

This is home to the Wilson Family collection. On the second floor a small gallery provides a display of artefacts, documents and photographs associated with the Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions. Among these are an Emperor penguin and other scientific specimens from the Discovery collections brought back in 1904, and the prayer book used by Surgeon Atkinson to read the burial service over the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers on the Ross Ice Shelf in 1913.

The display also includes another book that Wilson took with him to the Pole, a copy (annotated with his margin notes) of Letters by Samuel Rutherford, the seventeenth-century Scottish theologian and preacher. There is also an ever-changing display of Wilson’s drawings and watercolours as part of the museum’s ‘Paper Store’ gallery.

It was Ted’s father, Dr Edward Thomas Wilson (1832–1918), who was instrumental in establishing the museum. In 1891 he put forward proposals for ‘A Museum for Cheltenham’ and sixteen years later his hopes were realised when he officiated at its formal opening. When some of Wilson’s paintings were exhibited here in 1914, the opening hours had to be extended until ten o’clock at night to cope with the huge number of visitors.

Turn left after leaving the museum and then right into Crescent Place. Turn left and proceed to the end of Crescent Terrace, then turn right into The Promenade.