National Museums Scotland Explained

Agency Name:	National Museums Scotland Taighean-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba
Type:	Non Departmental Public Body
Formed:	1 October 1985
Preceding1:	National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland
Preceding2:	Royal Scottish Museum
Jurisdiction:	Scotland
Headquarters:	Chambers Street Edinburgh EH1 1JF
Employees:	401
Minister1 Name:	Fiona Hyslop
Minister1 Pfo:	Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs
Chief1 Name:	Bruce Minto OBE
Chief1 Position:	Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Chief2 Name:	Dr Chris Breward
Chief2 Position:	Director of National Museums Scotland
Child1 Agency:	National Museum of Scotland
Child2 Agency:	National Museum of Flight
Child3 Agency:	National Museum of Rural Life
Child4 Agency:	National War Museum
Footnotes:	Charity registered in Scotland (No.SC01113)

National Museums Scotland (NMS; Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: Taighean-tasgaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. It runs the national museums of Scotland.

NMS is one of the country's National Collections, 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 National Museum of Scotland, comprising two linked museums on Chambers Street, in 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 trustees. It is a non-departmental public body, funded by the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate of the Scottish Government.

Notable items in the national collections

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

• Assyrian relief of 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)
• Calcite crystal, found in 1927 at the New Glencrieff mine at Wanlockhead on the 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
• Qurneh burial collection, discovered by Flinders Petrie on 30 December 1908, the only complete ancient royal Egyptian burial collection held outside Egypt
• Seringapatam sword, presented to David Baird by his field officers after the 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

External links

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Notes and References

1. National Museum of Costume to close . National Museums Scotland. https://web.archive.org/web/20130812002333/http://nms.ac.uk/about_us/about_us/press_office/press_releases/2013/national_museum_of_costume.aspx . 4 February 2013 . 12 August 2013. dead.
2. Web site: Our collections - Highlights. National Museums Scotland. 2009-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20100212172701/http://www.nms.ac.uk:80/our_collections/highlights.aspx . 12 February 2010. dead.