National Museums Scotland

National Museums Scotland
Taighean-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba

Charity registered in Scotland (No.SC01113)

National Museums Scotland (NMS;

of Scotland.

NMS is one of the country's

, and holds internationally important collections of natural sciences, decorative arts, world cultures, science and technology, and Scottish history and archaeology.

List of national museums

• The
  Old Town of Edinburgh
  :
  • The Museum of Scotland - concerned with the
    history and people
    of Scotland
  • The Royal Museum - a general museum encompassing global geology, archaeology, natural history, science, technology and art
• The National Museum of Flight, at East Fortune, East Lothian
• The National Museum of Rural Life, at Wester Kittochside farm, in South Lanarkshire (previously the Museum of Scottish Country Life, previously the Scottish Agricultural Museum)
• The National War Museum, at Edinburgh Castle

Other collections

The main storage building at the National Museums Collection Centre, at Granton in Edinburgh, opened in 1996. It is open to the public for guided tours. A new storage building has been constructed, which houses the textile and costume collections, including the Jean Muir Collection of 20th century costume and accessories.

The National Museum of Costume was located at Shambellie House, in New Abbey, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. In January 2013, National Museums Scotland announced that the National Museum of Costume was to close and the site would not reopen for 2013.^[1]

Trustees

National Museums Scotland is Scotland's national museum service, governed by a board of

.

Notable items in the national collections

The official website lists the following exhibits as being the highlights of its collections:^[2]

• King Ashurnasirpal II and a court official, from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud, excavated by Austen Henry Layard in the 1840s; the medical pioneer James Young Simpson gave the panel to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  , who passed it into the national collection
• Boulton & Watt engine
• Bute mazer (also referred to as the Bannatyne mazer)
• Leadhills ore field, "an excellent example of a complex doubly terminated scalenohedral crystal" (see Dogtooth spar
  )
• Concorde G-BOAA
  (Alpha Alpha)
• Dolly the sheep
• Galloway Hoard
• Hunterston Brooch
• Lewis chessmen
• One of the three skins left of the Mauritius blue pigeon
• Monymusk reliquary
• Queen Mary harp
• Egyptian burial
  collection held outside Egypt
• Battle of Seringapatam
  , in May 1799
• Silver travelling canteen of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
• Talnotrie Hoard
• Tea Service of the Emperor Napoleon

See also

• Museums in Scotland
• National Museums of the United Kingdom
• National Museums Northern Ireland

References

External links

• Official website

55°56′49″N 3°11′20″W / 55.947°N 3.189°W / 55.947; -3.189