Captain Cook Birthplace Museum is a public museum located in Stewart Park in Marton,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

within the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of

North Yorkshire, England North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

. It is one of two institutions managed by

Middlesbrough Council Middlesbrough Council, formerly known as Middlesbrough Borough Council, is a unitary authority based in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. The authority has combined some duties with its nearby councils to form the Tees Valley Combined ...

, along with the

Dorman Museum Dorman Museum is a local and social history museum on the town centre side of Albert Park, Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of two museums operated by the local borough council, along with the Captain Cook bir ...

. The museum opened on 28 October 1978, the 250th anniversary of the birth in the same spot of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

naval

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

and

circumnavigator Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...

Captain James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

. It is a

biographical museum A biographical museum is a museum dedicated to displaying items relating to the life of a single person or group of people, and may also display the items collected by their subjects during their lifetimes. Some biographical museums are located ...

that surveys Cook's life and journeys. Captain James Cook Birthplace Memorial

] Prior to the museum's establishment, there was a granite urn in Stewart Park commemorating the grounds of Marton Hall, Cook's residence. The urn was erected in the 1850s by local industrialist and

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...

Henry Bolckow Henry William Ferdinand Bolckow, originally Heinrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Bölckow, (8 December 1806 – 18 June 1878) was a Victorian industrialist and Member of Parliament, acknowledged as being one of the founders of modern Middlesbrough. In a ...

. Marton Hall was destroyed by fire in 1960 during demolition, with only a stone

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

surviving. The museum itself comprises some of the modest Cook-related collections outside of the ownership of the major national and international collections, including household items and a speculative reconstruction of Cook's birthplace cottage that was swept away amid the landscaping process for the Marton Lodge, home to the Rudd family, which stood here until 1793. There are a series of interactive displays and temporary travelling exhibitions as well as a cafe, gift shop, education suite and resources and archive room. A second major refurbishment was undertaken in 1998, which included the commission of two modern works of art by

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

nominee Simon Patterson. The museum was reopened to the public by

Sir David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

. Outside the museum is an information board in deference to Marton's position as the starting point for the Captain Cook Country Tour, a product of the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

-wide Captain Cook Tourism Association.

References

External links

Official website

Captain Cook Country
Biographical museums in North Yorkshire Cook, James Maritime museums in England Middlesbrough Monuments and memorials to James Cook Museums in North Yorkshire {{UK-museum-stub