page_title: Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Former operating theatre at Peterborough Museum in July 2017.
context_page_description: Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery houses the historical and art collections of the city of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, England. Managed by Vivacity on behalf of the city council, it is part of the Greater Fens Museum Partnership.
context_section_description: The building, originally a private house dating from 1816 (though parts of the cellar date back to a house that was built in the 16th century), was acquired and donated to the Peterborough Natural History, Scientific and Archaeological Society in 1931 by Sir Percy Malcolm Stewart; the art gallery was added in 1939.
  The Priestgate mansion had been sold to Earl Fitzwilliam in 1856, who allowed it to be used as a public dispensary and infirmary – the city's first hospital – from 1857 until the opening of the War Memorial Hospital in 1928. In 1968, it was presented to the city by the Peterborough Museum Society.
  Since 2010, the museum has been managed on behalf of the city council by Vivacity, an independent not-for-profit organisation with charitable status, which also runs the Key Theatre and the city's libraries.
caption: Victorian operating theatre
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