Dorchester Museum tells the story of Thomas Hardy's Wessex
A new exhibition's opened, backed by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes
Last updated 27th May 2022
A huge new exhibition is opening at Dorset Museum, charting the story and inspirations behind Thomas Hardy.
It's thought to be the biggest collection dedicated to the writer that's ever been displayed together - spanning four museums in Wiltshire and Dorset through until October.
The whole project has taken 6 years of planning and preparation to get to this point.
Lord Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey is also the President of the Hardy Society.
He says it's an important exhibition:
"The emphasis is very much on Hardy the man, and not necessarily on Hardy the writer. How he thought, what he felt strongly about, what got his goat, what made him angry, what he was fighting for.
"He was a great animal rights, I don't know about activist, but certainly a believer. He was against hunting, he was against shooting, which in the 1880s can't have made many friends!
"He had these very 'out-of-the-crowd' thoughts and philosophies. It shows him as a layered person, with complicated thought processes, and I think it makes his novels all the more rewarding really."
Harriet Still, curator of the exhibition for Wessex Museums, said:
“It is so exciting to share this amazing collection across our museum partnership. We hope the exhibition will encourage visitors to see Hardy in a different light – for example, how he used his writing to campaign for rural workers’ rights, women’s equality and animal welfare, or his conflicting interests in superstition and science. Each exhibition sheds light on different aspects of Hardy’s life, work and character.”
The Hardy's Wessex exhibition spans Salisbury Museum, the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, Poole Museum and the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.
It's on until 30th October, with more information on the Wessex Museums website.