Hotels and accommodation, activities and attractions in Somerset, Bath and Exmoor

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Additional Features

Buildings
Exhibition
Gardens
Costume
Overseas History

Description

The museum shows, largely by way of period rooms, how Americans lived from the early New England Settlers to the eve of the Civil War. Other attractions include an 18th Century Massachusetts Tavern. There is a wonderful collection of quilts and a gallery of Native American objects. There are extensive gardens and an arboretum of North American trees and shrubs.

The museum opens from March - October. Opening times 12pm - 5pm last entry to the main collection 4pm.

Facilities
Accessible to Wheelchair Users
Bus Route
Car parking
Cater for groups
Celebrity connection
Delta accepted
Facilities for children
Facilities for the Disabled
Groups Accepted
MasterCard accepted
Max group size
Of historic, literary or architectural interest
Picnic Site
Restaurant
Special group rates
Switch accepted
Visa accepted

In the late 1950s two American citizens, Dallas Pratt (1914-94), a psychiatrist, and John Judkyn (1913-63), an English-born antiques dealer, had the idea of establishing a museum of American decorative arts on British soil; the American Museum in Britain opened its doors to the public in July 1961.

With extraordinary dedication and sense of purpose the two founders had travelled throughout the US collecting objects intending to show how Americans lived in the past, to illuminate the present and to encourage international understanding. The founders, who lived near Bath, chose Claverton Manor as the location of their museum.

Designed by Jeffry Wyatville in 1820, and built on a hill above the River Avon, the large, thirty-room mansion seemed ideally able to accommodate the host of artefacts they had collected. Now, over forty years since its opening, the American Museum in Britain is still the only museum of Americana outside the United States.

The American Museum is a non-profit organisation dedicated to furthering the understanding of American culture and history to deepen and strengthen lasting ties between the two nations.