part of APPENDIX F
Edinburgh, Great Britain
Royal Museum
Royal Museum and Museum of Scotland
Chambers Street
Edinburgh EH1 1JF
Scotland, Great Britain
Tel: +44 01 31 247 4422
Fax: +44 0 131 220 4819
E-mail: info@nms.ac.uk
This double-Museum houses collections of Decorative Arts, Science and Industry, Archaeology and the Natural World. Thirty-six galleries of varying sizes present artefacts from around the globe and natural history specimens. While the Museum of Scotland deals with Scottishhistory, the Royal Museum is the museum of of direct interest to Andamanologists.
The National Museum of Antiquities collections at the Royal Institution on the Mound, Edinburgh, 1890 was established in 1985 by the National Heritage (Scotland) Act. The National Museums of Scotland brought together two separate institutions, the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, with its origins in the foundation in 1780 of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and the Royal Scottish Museum, founded in 1854 as the Industrial Museum of Scotland.
The early collections were not confined to archaeology or to Scottish material but covered a range of disciplines represented by objects from all over the world. The Society's collecting policy was later refined to take account of the collections of the Royal Scottish Museum; thereafter the Museum admitted largely antiquities and archaeological material relating to Scotland.
With no permanent home, the Society's collection led a peripatetic existence until 1826 when Government provided accommodation in twhat is now the Royal Scottish Academy. Throughout this period the Society was dogged by financial difficulties and, following a sojourn at premises in George Street from 1844, petitioned Government for a permanent home for its Museum. In 1851 accommodation in the Royal Institution was offered rent free conditional on the Society's collections being made over in perpetuity for the use and admission of the public. This marked an upturn in the Society's fortunes followed shortly by the publication of the first of the annual Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, an invaluable record of additions to the collection and research on them. A growing realisation of the importance of archaeological excavation resulted in more finds entering the collections. This process was aided by rapid industrial development, particularly in the construction of railways, which meant that occupation sites and individual finds were frequently uncovered.
The Royal Museum's ethnological collections comprise some 20,000 items, most of it collected by Scottish missionaries, traders and explorers. It is especially strong on Oceania (Micronesia, Polynesia, Melanesia), Papua-Newguinea, Indonesia, New Zaland, and Australia.
The Museum has some material from the Andaman islands, presented to it by E.H. Man, Col. Th. Cadell and T.R. Buchanan.
No list of Andamanese items held by the Royal Museum is available.
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Last changed 6 December 2003