The Tweeddale Museum and Gallery is located in the Chambers Institution on the High Street in Peebles. The building was given to the people of Peebles by the publisher Dr. William Chambers (1800-83) and opened in 1859. The Tweeddale Museum houses exhibits highlighting the history of the area, as well as displaying a collection established by Chambers.
The Chambers Room houses the extraordinary friezes commissioned by Chambers; namely a copy of the Triumph of Alexander which was created for the Quirinal Palace in Rome in 1812 by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 - 1844) and a cast of an 18.9-m (62-foot) section of the Elgin Marbles (from the Parthenon in Athens). Further casts were unfortunately destroyed in the 1950s.
A hoard of 282 Roman denarii dating from 32 BC to 222 AD, which was found at a nearby hill-fort by a metal detectorist, was acquired by the museum in 1994.
The Picture Gallery, with its coved and ribbed ceiling, is located on the top floor and is home to works by Sir John William Ashton (1881 - 1963), William Hole (1846 - 1917) and William Fleming Vallance (1827 - 1904), together with portraits primarily of local interest featuring artists such as E.A. Walton (1860 - 1922), Sir James Guthrie (1859 - 1930) and Stanley Cursiter (1887 - 1976). The collection includes portraits of William Chambers and Sir Walter Scott, and a watercolour of the funeral of poet Robert Burns in Dumfries by William Ewart Lockhart (1846 - 1900).
There is also a programme of temporary exhibitions.
