Collection: Panacea Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection history (Collection development policy)

  The Panacea Museum and the objects on display within it, are owned and managed by the Panacea Charitable Trust. The Museum opened in 2012 and achieved Accreditation first in 2014 and again in 2023.

  During the period 2012 to 2022, the Panacea Charitable Trust reviewed its collections to identify which items to allocate for the purpose of exhibition and display in the Panacea Museum. These items were formally accessioned to the museum. These items are classified as part of the museum’s collection and fall in line with the Panacea Museum’s policies, procedures and plans relating to collections management, care and documentation.

  Those items which the charity retain as separate from the museum collections comprise the archives relating to the Panacea Society, and items located in the offices of The Panacea Charitable Trust including items previously used by the Society but not approved for Museum purposes. These items do not fall under the remit of the Panacea Museum’s policies, procedures and plans. The buildings are owned and managed by the Trust and are outside of the Museum’s remit.

  The Panacea Museum tells the stories of the Panacea Society, a twentieth century Christian community founded and led by women. The Society’s headquarters were in Bedford and the Museum is based in their campus of 19th century houses, chapel, outbuildings and gardens. Members of the Society came to believe their leader was the daughter of God and their garden the Garden of Eden, they also believed they had found the ‘panacea for all ills’ which gave the name for the Society. The Society began in 1919, first registered with the Charity Commission in 1926 and came to an end in 2012. Further details are on the website: www.panaceamuseum.org

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC

• Collection overview (Collection development policy)

  The Museum Collections consist mainly of 19th and 20th century domestic items associated with members of the Panacea Society or are associated with the houses owned by the Society. The Society also collected a number of items relating to the prophet Joanna Southcott and these are also in the collections. Archival material relating to the Society, Southcott and other modern prophets is held by the Panacea Charitable Trust Archive and is made available to the Museum. A small number of important items are on loan to the Museum notably the Southcott Cradle which has been on loan from the Salford Museum & Art Gallery since 1924.

  The society had their own private museum where they accumulated items they considered important, this ceased before 2012. In 2001 the Society held a sale of items with a high market value under the direction of the Charity Commission. Since then further items belonging to the Society were disposed of, the criteria and methods for this is not documented. In 2012 all items used in the new Museum displays were accessioned, since then many other items have been transferred into the Museum collections as relating to the Panacea Society.

  The Museum rarely acquires new items for the collections, in 2023 an exception was made for two items sold at auction in 2001 offered back to the Museum. It is anticipated that a similar exception might be made in the future. Currently only items known to have a connection with the Panacea Society are accessioned into the collections.

  Source: Collection development policy

  Date: 2024

  Licence: CC BY-NC