The museum holds exhibitions each year to bring the collection to life and tell new stories. These exhibitions are often curated by people from the community, bringing fresh, and sometimes challenging, perspectives and insights.
We aim to put information about current and past exhibitions online to create a lasting legacy and provide a resource for people who are unable to visit us in person.
Scroll down the page to find out about our exhibitions.
PLEASE NOTE: 1 JULY 2024, due to urgent building preservation, this display will not be open to the public. Bodmin Keep is working hard to reopen the display for our visitors. Please ring 01208 72810 for information.
Bodmin Keep’s latest exhibition opened on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Carclew: A House at War looks at the important role played by one of Cornwall’s grand country houses, Carclew Mansion, in the Second World War. Swept up in world events, it became a home for refugees, then a communications centre and camp for British and American soldiers. The story is told through the documents and photographs researched by the team at Carclew and the many artefacts discovered during their painstaking preservation. Opening on Thursday 6 June, the display is a collaboration between the team at Carclew Mansion and Bodmin Keep, Cornwall’s Army Museum.
Click here to find out more about the Carclew: A House at War exhibition
The ‘Dealing with Disaster’ exhibition investigates one of the four core roles of the British Army, to Deal with Disaster and how they deal with the aftermath of natural disasters. It unpicks the response process, what is done and when, and how the army works collaboratively with partners across the world.
Click here to find out more about how the British Army reponds to natural disasters
From 1942 onwards, three million American GIs passed through the UK on route to Europe, some 240,000 (8%) of these were African-American. The majority of black GIs were conscripted to non-combat support units. Social spaces such as pubs and dances were segregated too and naturally relationships formed between GIs and local women.
The title of the exhibition comes from the name given to British mixed-race babies by the African-American Press. ‘Brown Babies’ gives voice to some of the 2000 mixed-race children born from these relationships and explains what happened afterwards.
Click here to find out more about the Brown Babies - a living history exhibition‘Suited & Booted’ explores the fabric, patterns and design of British Army uniform from the construction of tailor-made frock coats, to the science behind camouflage and explains soldiers’ responsibilities for the care and maintenance of uniform, some of which remain unchanged to the present day.
Click here to find out more about uniform and the military
1857 was a turning point for British colonialism in India, when Indian soldiers rebelled against British rule. They were supported by Indian civilians and nobles across northern India who set about besieging and reclaiming various cities under British control. In the city of Lucknow, around 3,000 British supporters were held under siege for 148 days. This exhibition explores the reasons behind the rebellion and examines what life was like for the British and Indian defenders of Lucknow.
Click here to find out more about 1857War leaves mental scars as well as physical ones. But the impact of combat on the mind has been a contested topic. Since the 19th century, military medics have made diagnoses ranging from ‘Soldiers Heart’ to ‘Shell Shock’. Psychiatric understanding of the causes, symptoms and treatment of mental trauma has been wide-ranging and often influenced by military priorities.This exhibition explores the development in understanding and treatment of mental health conditions caused by the impact of conflict.
Click Here to View the Exhibition
This exhibition looks at the circular relationship between military and civilian clothing, each borrow elements from the other. Over time military uniforms have moved from glamour to practicality due to changes in warfare and technology. Learn about some of the clothing you wear today which originally used by the military, and what was copied from fashion by them.
Click here to find out more about fashion and the militaryThis exhibition is all about the Territorial Army, the military volunteer force that has played an important part in our county’s history.
Click here to find out more about Cornwall's Citizen Army
As part of Cornwall’s First World War commemorations, we mounted a major immersive theatre and exhibition project. Two years of research and planning culminated in a month of performances in June and July 2018.
Find out all about The Trench hereTo bring to life the role of the Light Infantry and the collections held by the museum, we have created galleries in the museum and accompanying films with veterans of the Light Infantry.
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Thanks to a grant from Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP) we were able to produce 10 3D scans of objects from our museum displays.
Find out all about our 3D objects hereIn 1951 the abandoned Second World War Walker Lines military camp in Bodmin suddenly became alive with activity again. Because of the Cold War and the political uncertainty between the West and Soviet Russia, it was decided that National Servicemen should be taught Russian so that should it be required, they could undertake monitoring and espionage work. Students were taught many military terms alongside the more common day-to-day vocabulary, so that they could listen in on Russian conversations.
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How do we create, collect and display objects to remember our history? What can souvenirs (objects collected by soldiers to remember places they have served), and trophies, also known as spoils of war (objects taken from a campaign by a regiment and used to commemorate it), tell us about the experiences of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI) and Light Infantry (LI) regiments deployed abroad?
Find Out More HereBodmin, like all towns was hugely affected by the impact of the Second World War, both from a military and civilian perspective. This photography exhibition gives an insight in to life at this time, from the departure of the Regiment for military service to the arrival of the Americans at Bodmin Keep. From the devastation of the bombing of Bodmin to the celebration of victory in 1945, and the granting of the Freedom of the Town in 1946.
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A research project bringing to light the many fascinating, and often neglected, Second World War defensive structures around the coast of Cornwall.
Find out more about Cornwall's Second World War Coastal Fortifications