Discover more about our amazing objects through stories, films, games and resources.

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.

Our collections are divided into four sections: Earth Systems, Invertebrates, Palaeobiology and Vertebrate Biology.

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.

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

National Museums Scotland has been awarded a grant by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) with the National Maritime Museum, London to enable organisations around the UK to work with community groups to explore experiences of empire, migration, and life in Britain through their collections.

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.

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.

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

Our collection covers all the major groups of fossil invertebrates, vertebrates, plants and trace fossils.

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

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

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

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

The 1897 invasion and looting of the west African Kingdom of Benin resulted in the sale and dispersal of thousands of artworks into European and American museums.

Our collections comprise more than 200,000 vertebrate specimens from around the world.

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.

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.