About Markree Museum
Combining permanent exhibitions of Tasmanian history and period rooms with a series of changing exhibitions featuring art and decorative arts, Markree Museum is a historical gem, located in central Hobart.
Markree Museum is open to the public and its many treasures can be explored during guided tours. Visitors are treated as houseguests as they discover the stories, collections which bring to life the art, decorative arts and social history of early 20th century Tasmania.
Markree was built for the Baldwin family in 1926. The house is a fine example of early 20th century domestic architecture, it was designed by well-known Tasmanian architect Bernard Ridley Walker (1884–1957), whose work was inspired by the English Arts & Crafts movement.
Visitors to the museum are invited to enjoy the beautiful grounds and garden at Markree. The romantic, rustic landscaping designed by Henry's father Cecil Baldwin (1887–1961) also displays the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement with its low stonewalls, winding pathways and naturalistic planting.
Henry Baldwin and his remarkable bequest
In 2008 the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) received a substantial bequest of property and money from Henry Graham Baldwin (1919–2007), the largest single bequest in the museum's history and one of the largest ever made to an Australian museum. The significant gift included over 4,200 items of fine and decorative arts, historical memorabilia, documents and ephemera. Henry also gifted his family home Markree, built in 1926, to be developed as a house museum for the ongoing benefit and enjoyment of the people of Tasmania.
Henry Graham Baldwin was born in Hobart in 1919. He was educated at the Hutchins School and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a degree in engineering science in 1943.
Henry was a proud third-generation Tasmanian, descended from the Maning, Knight, Hone and Fletcher families who first arrived in Van Diemen's Land in the 1820s, and included a number of individuals who went on to play significant roles in the state's history.
During his professional career, Henry worked as an engineer with the Tasmanian Government Railways in Launceston and counted his involvement with the assembly of the new Y class locomotives in the early 1960s as a major achievement. One of these cherished locomotives (Y2) was later restored for service on the Derwent Valley Railway and named the Henry Baldwin in his honour.
TMAG is delighted to honour Henry's wish and welcomes you to explore Markree Museum.
