Fine Art

This collection encompasses Oil Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings and Prints. The core of the Fine Art collection largely comprises the former burgh collections of Peterhead, together with the Dora Scott bequest. While there are 18th century portraits, the greatest concentration is on 19th century and early 20th century Scottish painting, particularly portraits, maritime paintings, and a few landscapes, and some contemporary 20th century material by North East artists.

Numismatics

This is a representative collection which includes Greek, Roman, English, Scottish and British coins, and 18th century and 19th century commemorative medals.

Maritime

The maritime collections relate to the whaling trade and harbour development in Peterhead and the Aberdeenshire area.

Social History

The Social History collection covers a wide range of material from bicycles to prams, shop fittings, industrial and agricultural machinery to ship models, medical, musical and scientific instruments, commemorative and ornamental items, toys and games, weights and measures, photographic and textile equipment.

Natural Sciences

This collection is composed of (1) Vertebrate Zoology, including mounted birds, bird's eggs and other vertebrates such as mammals, reptiles and fish; (2) Invertebrate Zoology, comprising mainly mollusc shells, which are mostly foreign, and insects; (3) Botany, consisting of a single small herbarium of Arctic plants; (4) Geology, including rocks from Aberdeenshire, Britain and Europe, mineral specimens and fossils such as the Old Red Sandstone fish material.

Archives

This collection contains local material such as some Customs Records from Peterhead.

Photography

This collection holds some 14,000 photographs, as glass negatives, original photographs, postcards and copy negatives. Over half this material relates to the Peterhead area. The glass negatives are primarily the Shivas collection from Peterhead and provide a record of the area between about 1860 and 1910. Original photographs and postcards provide a record up to the 1960s, supplemented by copy negatives.

There are also two large uncatalogued accessions from the Banff area: the Bodie collection of glass plates and the Ritchie collection of early to mid 20th century roll film negatives.