The year is 2025. It’s January, and the museum has been in transformation internally for almost 12 months. The Mineral Gallery was first to undergo a face lift, with the heavy doors closing away the nationally significant mineral collection for four months.
Later the Heart of Cornwall Gallery, the Nature Gallery and the upper balconies, all carefully packed away, closed off and re-worked before later re-opening, refreshed, renewed and ready for a new generation of visitor.

The museum, Royal Cornwall Museum as the year opened, by the end of January had become Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery. Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery’s new name was designed and chosen to be reflective of the new offer and visitor experience. But why did the museum change from Royal Cornwall Museum?

Why were we called Royal Cornwall Museum anyway?

The Royal Institution of Cornwall, the charity behind Royal Cornwall Museum, was founded in 1818. It’s founding mission, which still holds true, comprised the following:

1. To establish and share collections and archives that celebrate Cornwall and Cornish culture.
2. To create a space at the heart of Cornwall society where ideas can be discussed and challenged.
3. To be a place for sharing knowledge, learning, creativity and ambition.

In 1818, education wasn’t for everybody. It was reserved for the wealthy and the well to do. The Royal Institution of Cornwall became a type of intellectual club for men to gather to discuss and share science, culture and knowledge.

Over time, the Royal Institution of Cornwall wanted to open opportunities to access education to a wider group of people. The first iteration of a museum was born, with mineral, scientific and art collections on display for all to see and learn from.

Royal Cornwall Museum

In 2024, the Royal Family held a review of its Royal patronages, with a need to reduce the volume of charities and organisations that held patronage. The Royal Institution of Cornwall sadly did not maintain Royal patronage, and neither the charity nor the museum now has a member of the royal family as patron.

200 years of names

In the same way that a number of different buildings have been home to the collections, the museum has also existed under a number of different names. At times it was known as Cornwall County Museum and Art Gallery, Cornwall County Museum, and The County Museum and Art gallery.

When the museum surveyed audiences, the majority of people didn’t call us Royal Cornwall Museum, preferring to shorten to to simply Cornwall Museum.

The return of the Art Gallery

Part of the re-imagination of the museum was to be the return of an Art Gallery. Despite being the region’s capital, Truro doesn’t have an Art Gallery, and it was about time that was corrected. The museum had also become guardians of an impressive collection of art over the years, much of which had rarely been on display.

To bring the art collection back into the heart of the museum, meant an opportunity to also once again bring art back into the organisation’s name. Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery began to come to life.

Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery

Royal Cornwall Museum was always fondly known by the team in the museum and some of our partners as RCM. It wasn’t without a pang of sadness that Royal Cornwall Museum as a name was retired and added to the list of former identities. But with a building re-shaped around a new visitor experience, and the ambition to welcome more and more visitors, users, speakers, partners and participants into our cool, airy architecture, Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery was the right name to join us in the future.