Location : Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata
Established in : February 1814
The Indian Museum of Kolkata is a versatile and multi disciplinary establishment of national importance. The founder curator of this Museum was Dr. Nathaniel Wallich. The museum was established on 2nd February 1814, at the Asiatic Society in Kolkata and later transferred to its present building, at Jawaharlal Nehru Road, in 1878. Started merely with two galleries, the museum now owns more than sixty galleries, which include Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Botany sections. Due to its interesting collection of rare and unique objects, it is one of the most interesting places in Calcutta.
Spread over an area of ten thousand square feet, Indian Museum museum is an autonomous body that is fully funded by the Department of Culture, Kolkata. The Museum Directorate consists of seven different coordinating services i.e. Preservation, Publication, Photography, Presentation, Modeling, Education and Library. The administrative power over the cultural sections of Art, Archaeology and Anthropology is vested in the hands of the Board of Trustees, while the administrative authority of its three scientific sections viz Geology, Zoology and Botany lies with Geological Survey of India, Zoological Survey of India and Botanical Survey of India.
Various ancient Paintings, sculptures, ammunitions, biological evidences, texts coins and other such items are preserved in the Indian Museum of Calcutta. Amongst the earliest contributors to the anthology of this museum were Ram Kamal Sen, Raja Rajendralal Mitra - the then Secretary of Asiatic Society, and Sir John Anderson. Today, the museum has more than 1 million exhibits in its premises, including rare exhibits like ancient Egyptian mummies. Indian Museum, with its architecture done by the famous architect W.L.Granvil, is the ninth oldest museum of its kinds in the world and the oldest of its kinds in the Asia Pacific.