馬偕在淡水設立的私人博物館，無疑是臺灣第一間博物館。初來臺灣時的馬偕，原本在外租屋宣教和居住。1874年加拿大母會決定派華雅各醫生到淡水「滬尾偕醫館」工作，因此匯款給馬偕興建住家和宣教士宿舍。馬偕1875年在淡水興建了二間白色西班牙式南歐建築風格的建築，分別做為馬偕住家和其他傳教士的居所（大家暱稱為「小白宮」）。

馬偕後來在住家後面加蓋一間兩層樓書房兼做研究室，稱為「讀書樓」，也他是存放和展示標本收藏品的小型博物館。由於這間淡水博物館的藏品豐富，而且展示陳列許多難得一見文物，因此名聲遠播。許多知名人士來臺灣都曾慕名拜訪馬偕的淡水博物館，當年甚至吸引過日本總督乃木希典等貴賓慕名而來。

 

The private museum MacKay set up in Tamsui was undoubtedly Taiwan’s first. When he first arrived in Taiwan, he rented a house to live in and perform his missionary work. In 1874, his Canadian Church decided to send Dr. J. Y. Ferguson to work in MacKay’s Clinic, so they wired money to MacKay to build a residence for him and dorms for missionaries. MacKay built two white southern European style Spanish buildings – one for himself and one for other missionaries. The locals nicknamed these buildings the "little white houses.”

Later, MacKay built a two-story building behind his own house to be his study and research rooms, called “Study Hall,” which was also a mini museum that stored and displayed his collections. This Tamsui museum had rich and abundant collections, and also displayed many rarely seen cultural objects, so it became famous. Many well-known people heard about MacKay’s Tamsui museum and came to visit it. It even attracted the Japanese Governor at the time, Nogi Maresuke, who came to visit.

馬偕故居小白宮（胡家瑜拍攝，2015）

馬偕故居後棟原書房與博物館（胡家瑜拍攝，2015）