Owned and managed by the Wangaratta Historical Society Inc, the collection includes a wide range of over 2000 objects and historical artefacts from the Wangaratta District: household, commercial, industrial, agricultural and military, showcasing the lives of the districts’ people in peace and war, on the farms and in the towns. A specially constructed cabinet houses our Aboriginal artefacts collection.

There are also over 10,000 photographs from the local area, both recent and historic, including a incredible collection of 3000-4000 glass-plate negatives bequeathed by former Wangaratta photographer, Mr. Andrew Vine who captured the images from 1898 to 1940.

Archival holdings include histories, centennial publications of small towns, schools and churches in the area, letters and cemetery records. Books and other documents on historical subjects related to Wangaratta and the district (including prints from the files of the Chronicle newspaper) are held in a research library.

A highlight of the collection is the Heritage listed Marianne Gibson Quilt; the world’s finest unfaded example of crazy patchwork quilting made by local woman, Marianne between 1891-1896. Depicting her life story, the quilt is housed in specially controlled atmospheric conditions in the Wangaratta Art Gallery and displayed periodically.

More recent acquisitions to the Museum include the Parliamentary regalia of Sir John Bowser and from North-East Health, the amazing historical Medical Collection covering over 150 years of the Wangaratta Hospital.