Haslemere Educational Museum
Haslemere Educational Museum, 2009
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 Location within Surrey
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| Established | 1888 |
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| Location | Haslemere, Surrey, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°05′24″N 0°42′43″W / 51.090°N 0.712°W |
| Website | Haslemere Educational Museum |
Haslemere Educational Museum was founded in 1888 by the eminent surgeon Sir Jonathan Hutchinson to display his growing collection of natural history specimens. After two moves it found in 1926 a permanent home in Haslemere High Street, in the town of Haslemere, Surrey, England.
The museum won a national award in 2012 and is an independent charity. It contains nearly half a million specimens, artefacts, papers and images.
Already a successful surgeon with homes in London and Haslemere, Sir Jonathan Hutchinson was also keenly interested in the full spectrum of science and nature. At the farm that was his home in Haslemere he had already amassed a large collection of specimens and fossils collected on his travels, and in 1888 he opened a museum in the outbuildings, encouraging a then-revolutionary 'hands-on' approach. By 1895 the expanding collection needed larger premises, and was moved to what is now Museum Hill. Hutchinson himself lectured at the museum and before he died in 1913 he left money for repairs and enlargement. The museum moved to its present location in Haslemere High Street in 1926.
A Museum Examination for children was established in 1899 and a primary function of the museum was always to be education.
The curator of the museum for more than 50 years from 1897 to 1948 was Ernest William Swanton. Swanton was a mycologist, and author of Fungi and How to Know Them (1909); he helped and encouraged many would-be mycologists.
John Clegg was curator from 1949 to 1962. He was a writer and photographer with a keen interest in pond life, and wrote the book on this topic for the Observer series of pocket guides. He also wrote The Freshwater Life of the British Isles.
Clegg was succeeded by his assistant curator Arthur Jewell. Jewell had joined the museum from school in 1974 and retired in 2008, and the museum's Education Room is named in his honour. Arthur, a stuffed Siberian bear and a museum mascot, is also named after him.
Among the many active members of the museum during the 20th century was naturalist Margaret Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan's granddaughter, who was some-time honorary librarian, committee member and trustee. Another volunteer, Penny Hollow, who celebrated 40 years at the museum in 2009 having started after leaving school, in a postscript to the centenary edition of Margaret Hutchinson's memoirs remembered:
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