Adam Arbuthnot, a Peterhead merchant, left his private museum to the town of Peterhead after his death in 1850. The present museum building was opened in 1893 and is today the largest branch museum of Aberdeenshire Museums Service. The newly opened Mr Arbuthnot’s Gallery showcases ethnography and natural history to illustrate wide-ranging topics such as travel and integration, other cultures, conservation and species extinction. The temporary exhibition gallery is the largest art gallery space in Aberdeenshire (outside of Aberdeen City) and holds a variety of differing temporary exhibitions during the year, including paintings from the Service's collections.