Finely decorated household items of solid silver were a status symbol under the Pahlavi dynasty.

Discover our Ancient Egypt, East Asia and Ceramics galleries which opened in February 2019.

These sumptuous galleries showcase the best of decorative art, design, fashion and style.

A giant T.rex guards our Natural World galleries, where we ask the big questions: how does the world work? What do we know about it? What is our place in the universe?

Our Scottish galleries guide you from the Palaeolithic era to the present day, from the earliest cultures to space age science, prehistory to pop culture.

How can you travel around the world without leaving Scotland? By visiting our World Cultures galleries.

Communications, transport, industry, engineering, energy and medicine: how have scientific and technological inventions changed our lives?

Your journey from Scotland to the world begins in the Grand Gallery, one of Scotland's most beautiful spaces.

This beautiful 19th century woodblock print by the acclaimed artist Utagawa Kunisada features the actor Kawarasaki Gonjūrō I.

Explore our collection of wonderful miniature Japanese sculptures that served functional and aesthetic purposes.

This 19th century writing box displays the height of the Japanese lacquer artist's skill.

This delightful 18th-century Japanese hanging scroll celebrates the New Year.

National Museums Scotland is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Sam Alberti as its new Director of Collections.

Wing your way to one of Scotland's top days out at East Fortune Airfield.

This training resource focuses on the basics of caring for museum collections. It offers practical advice, shared good practice through case studies and demonstrations, and provides resources and links for further learning.

Investigate the Pacific material in Perth.

The Making Circles schools project invited children to be inspired by National Museums Scotland’s collections to create new Circular Economy products.

Explore highlights of our Japanese collection, from tiny netsuke to cutting edge designs, superb ceramics to Ainu artefacts.

This project brought together specialists from the fields of anthropology and military history to appraise the state of research into non-European military collections.

This partnership project uncovers stories of Pacific collections in Scotland.

Ours is one of the most important collections of scientific and technological material in Britain.

Explore how missionaries made a significant impact on gathering the materials featured within the Tibetan collections at the National Museum of Scotland, with their materials peaking between 1890-1904.

The Invertebrate Biology collections date from the mid-1800s and have been growing ever since thanks to donations and a strategic sample collecting programme.

Andrew Ross is the head of the Palaeobiology Section which includes all the fossil collections.

Sarah Worden is Curator of African Collections with a particular interest in textiles and the role of clothing and dress in the expression of identity.

This collaborative research partnership with the National Army Museum reappraises motivations for military collecting. It investigates cultures of collecting by members of the British armed forces while on campaign and garrison duty in Africa and India during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Dr Qin Cao is Curator of the Chinese collections, including those of the Himalayan and Mongolian regions, and the Korean peninsula..

At National Museums Scotland we aim to share our collections and expertise as widely as possible through research, loans, advice and training.

Our World Cultures collections include internationally important material from across the globe.

This creative project opened up our African collections as an inspirational resource for students at Edinburgh College of Art.

Our archaeological and Scottish collections cover Scottish material culture from the earliest times to the present day.

Our Art, Design and Fashion collections provide a broad picture of European, including British, achievements from AD1100 onwards.

Collections in Moray, Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen.

At National Museums Scotland, we care for collections of national and international importance, preserving them, interpreting them and making them accessible to as many people as possible.

Explore past research projects at National Museums Scotland.

A fascinating example of a military relic can be seen in the collections of the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent.

National Museums Scotland offers a range of research facilities.

Touring exhibitions are a great way to share collections across the country and develop partnerships between venues.

Explore the legacies of the British archaeology in Egypt and the dialogue being created around these collections.

On 11 September 2018 we held our first knowledge exchange workshop at the National Army Museum with a group of curators from different regimental museums across the United Kingdom.

The scope of the library collection reflects the strengths and variety of the Museums’ collections.

Our reach across Europe reflects the multi-disciplinary nature of our collections.

Collections in East Lothian, West Lothian and Edinburgh.

Gill Murray-Dickson is a Biobank Research Fellow with the BBSRC funded CryoArks initiative. She is coordinating biobanking activities at the National Museums Collections Centre and EAZA biobank UK hub at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo.

We have around 50,000 mammals in our scientific collections. Most of these are skeletons, skins and specimens preserved in alcohol. In addition we have extensive collections of animal bone from archaeological sites and about 2,200 Quaternary fossil specimens.

Collections in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders.

Collections in Stirling, Perth and Kinross, Dundee, Angus, Fife and Falkirk.

Collections in Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee City, Falkirk, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Stirling.

There are many opportunities for undertaking research with our staff and our collections.