Explore stories, films, games and resources from the museums’ collections.

The Collections Services department manages and cares for our collections.

Within our collections departments, our staff hold a wealth of knowledge and can provide expert advice on collections, their identification, care and management.

Research is core to our activities as a Museum. Fnd out more about current research projects and opportunities, contact our curatorial staff and search our collections database.

Loans and touring exhibitions ensure our collections reach as many people as possible.

The wealth of objects in the national collection represent everything from Scottish and international archaeology to applied arts and design, from world cultures and social history to science, technology and the natural world.

We have a variety of other collections that cover all vertebrates, including archaeological bone, anatomical preparations and tissues.

National Museums Scotland aims to develop, manage, conserve and interpret the national collections, to ensure their preservation and benefit to the public.

Our online database contains a selection of the 12 million objects and specimens in our collections.

Explore Pacific collections through this partnership project focusing on objects from across the region housed in Scottish museums.

This small display highlighted a selection of the recent acquisitions at National Museums Scotland.

Find out more about how colonial collectors gathered a broad range of objects from areas that were, and still are, considered ethnically and culturally Tibetan to some degree, including areas of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh and West Bengal.

The Introduction to Pacific Collections is a resource for anyone interested in working with material culture from the Pacific.

We lend objects from our collection to museums around the world.

Some of the other Scottish museums home to Pacific collections.

An exciting new discovery from the TW:eed Research project.

Collections in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Collections in Edinburgh, including National collections.

Explore the Pacific collection at National Museums Scotland in more detail.

Collections in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders.

Find out more about our review of Pacific material.

Our Indian collections encompass a wide range of objects and reflect various aspects of Indian life.

Collections in Argyll and Bute, Eilean Siar, Highland, Orkney and Shetland.

Find out more about East Asian collections in museums across Scotland

Discover how the advent of the Younghusband Expedition resulted in the collection of Tibetan objects directly from Tibet by British military collectors.

Until March 2021 we will be working with museums across Scotland to increase engagement with natural science collections, with generous funding from the John Ellerman Foundation.

This earthcreeper was one of thousands of specimens collected during a voyage that Charles Darwin joined on the HMS Beagle.

Collections in the west of Scotland from Inverclyde to East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire to East Dunbartonshire.

Collections in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray.

Collections in City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.

Within the walls of Edinburgh Castle, the National War Museum tells the story of Scotland at war.

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

Collections in Argyll and Bute, Eilean Siar, Highland, Orkney and Shetland.

Wherever you are, there are lots of ways to explore and learn about our amazing collections online.

Collections in the west of Scotland from Inverclyde to East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire to East Dunbartonshire.

Find out more about artefacts at Glasgow Museums from the Pacific.

A closer look at University of Aberdeen museums Pacific material.

Collections in Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders

Visitors discovered the diversity of life in Scotland’s seas and the many threats facing our marine life.

In 1971, over 300 beautiful scent bottles were donated to National Museums Scotland. The scent bottles were collected by Ida Pappenheim. Discover the story behind this charming collection.

The Natural Sciences department houses more than 2,000 shells, insects, bird skins and bats from the collections of the legendary naturalist John George Williams.

Discover how these amazing glass models have been educating and inspiring visitors for almost 150 years.

Delve into the diverse collection of pioneering ethnomusicologist Jean Jenkins.

National Museums Scotland’s Ancient Egyptian collection comprises around 6,000 items. Explore its rich treasures here.

Our Classical collection unlocks a window to a ‘birthplace of civilisation’: ancient Greece and Rome.

These carved wooden sculptures from West Africa represent the souls of deceased twins.

Navajo and Pueblo jewellery from the Southwest United States is denoted by its use of turquoise and silver.

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.