Description

[NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND]

Catalogue of Industrial Department

Edinburgh: Neill and Company, 1867

8vo in paper-covered boards with a leather spine; 218 x 137mm; pp. [folding plate; frontis.], [2], iv, 88

Very good condition: recent binding in excellent condition if somewhat tight; internally very good throughout

The first catalogue of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art – now known as the National Museum of Scotland, published a year after the opening of the Chambers Street building, shown in detail in a frontispiece and folding plan.

The catalogue details the extensive collection of industrial artefacts, including machine models, examples of industrial design and finished products.

The National Museum of Scotland can trace its history back to Robert Jameson’s Natural History Museum, formed in 1812, which was combined in 1854 with a new ‘Industrial Art Department’, modelled in part on the Museum of Practical Geology in London. The Chambers Street building was begun in 1861, to the design of Francis Fowke; the renamed Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art was opened by Prince Alfred on 19 May 1866.

The catalogue is preceded only by a short guide to the Museum published in 1858; it is the first in a series of catalogues that eventually covered the Mineral collection (1870), the Natural History Department (1872), and Scottish geology (1892).

Very rare indeed: we can locate only 5 institutional holdings (National Museums Scotland Library; Science Museum; V&A; University of Glasgow; NYPL).