Museum sights in Bath
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A
Museum of Costume
In the basement is the Museum of Costume, which houses a huge wardrobe of vintage outfits including some lavish 18th-century embroidered waistcoats, a collection of 500 handbags and several whalebone corsets which are, frankly, alarming.
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B
Jane Austen Centre
Bath is known to many as a location in Jane Austen's novels. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both largely set in the city; the writer visited it many times and lived here from 1801 to 1806. The author's connections with the city are explored at the Jane Austen Centre, where displays also include period costume and contemporary prints of Bath.
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C
Herschel Museum of Astronomy
In 1781 astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus from the garden of his home, now converted into an intriguing museum. The house is decorated as it would have been in the 18th century; an astrolabe in the garden marks where Herschel would have placed his telescope.
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D
American Museum
Britain's largest collection of American folk art, including Native American textiles, patchwork quilts and historic maps, is housed in a fine mansion a couple of miles from the city centre; catch the number 18/418/U18 from the bus station.
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E
Building of Bath Museum
This architectural museum details how Bath's Georgian splendour came into being, tracing the city's evolution from a sleepy spa town to one of the centres of Georgian society. There are some displays on contemporary construction methods, and the museum also explores the way in which social class and interior decor were intimately linked during the Georgian era; heaven forbid should you use a wallpaper that outstripped your station…
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F
Museum of East Asian Art
Bath's Asian arts museum contains more than 500 jade, bamboo, porcelain and bronze objects from Cambodia, Korea and Thailand, and substantial Chinese and Japanese carvings, ceramics and lacquerware.
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G
Vaults Heritage Museum
On Bath Abbey's southern side, the Vaults Heritage Museum contains fine stone bosses, statuary and other archaeological artefacts.
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H
Fashion Museum
In the basement of the Assembly Rooms, this museum displays costumes worn from the 16th to late 20th centuries, including some alarming crinolines that would have forced women to approach doorways side on.
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