Exhibitions

“Pilchards! Whose bodies yield the fragrant oil and make the London lamps at midnight smile!” Peter Pindar 1783. Cornwall once relied upon the sea for nearly everything: food, transport, trade, defence and contact with the outside world. Fishing was always a vital part of the Cornish way of life and in the 18th and 19th…

Where we introduce you to some of the stories behind objects in the Museum… This model is a scale replica of Slippen, a Cornish pilot gig built in 1830. Gigs were used in the Cornish harbours to row a pilot out to the incoming ships. The pilots knew the local waters and could navigate the ships…

Claes-Göran Wetterholm gives insights into our exhibition Meet collector and guest curator Titanic Stories Claes-Göran Wetterholm as he introduces major new exhibition Titanic Stories. The exhibition examines the stories of the Titanic’s momentous sinking on 15 April 1912, re-appraising many of the myths, controversies and assumptions that still linger around one of the most well-known…

Watch Dan introduce his installation In addition to the many historic objects in the major exhibition Titanic Stories, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall commissioned a visually-stunning representation of the iceberg suspended over the lifeboat by Cornwall based Dan Arnold. The sculpture is formed from 2208 monkey’s fist knots, each hand made by members of the…

Introductions from our guest curators A video introducing our major exhibition Titanic Stories examining the Titanic’s momentous sinking on 15 April 1912, re-appraising many of the myths, controversies and assumptions that still linger around one of the most well-known historic events of the 20th century. Here guest curators Dr Eric Kentley and Claes-Göran Wetterholm introduce…

As part of the Titanic Stories exhibition, we’ve launched a concurrent exhibition exploring the subject of migration past and present.

A genuinely ground-breaking and comprehensive history of British tattooing, featuring cutting edge designers, leading academics and major private collectors. This is the largest gathering of real objects and original tattoo artwork ever assembled in the UK featuring over 400 original artworks, photographs and historic artefacts.

Step into the sights and sounds of one the greatest survival feats in British maritime history. This exhibition tells the story of Captain Bligh, challenging the Hollywood depiction of the famous mutiny on HMS Bounty.

A sneaky peak at this unique installation Tattoos are a living and uniquely three dimensional form of art. The museum responded to this by commissioning an innovative installation which literally brings the art off the gallery wall to create a ‘sculptural map’ of British tattoo art today. The ‘100 Hands’, curated by Alice Snape of ‘Things and…