In 2016, the National Museum of Scotland will unveil ten new galleries. The £14.1 million project will showcase internationally important collections of science and technology, decorative art, design and fashion. The opening will coincide with the 150^th anniversary of the magnificent Victorian museum building in Edinburgh.

 

The science galleries will tell stories of discovery, invention and innovation in engineering, manufacturing, transport, telecommunications, energy, chemistry, physics and the life sciences. Displays will highlight the contributions of eminent Scottish scientists such as Sir James Black, Sir David Jack, James Clerk Maxwell, Sir David Brewster and Professor Peter Higgs. Objects will include Dolly the Sheep, the world’s first pneumatic bicycle tyre invented by John Boyd Dunlop in 1888 and the Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Sir James Black.

 

National Museums Scotland’s internationally significant science collections represent over a thousand years of invention from around the world, up to the present day with recent developments in communications, prosthetics, transport, renewable energy among many other disciplines.

 

The roots of the national collections lie in the Victorian origins of the Museum. It was originally built to display the collections of the Industrial Museum of Scotland, and opened as the Museum of Science and Art in 1866.

 

The new design galleries will include work by famous artists and designers with Scottish connections such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Jean Muir, Bernat Klein and Eduardo Paolozzi alongside a host of treasures with global associations from the 13^th century to the present, including a silver tea service which belonged to Napoleon, shoes designed by Alexander McQueen and a spectacular section of an interior from Hamilton Palace, seat of one Scotland’s most famous noble families before being demolished in the early 20^th century.

 

Showcasing over 3,000 objects, display space for these exhibits will increase by over 40%, with three-quarters of them not having previously been on permanent display for generations.

 

Also in 2016, the transformation of two hangars at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian will be completed, with new objects and displays devoted to both civil and military aviation.

 

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For further information and images please contact Bruce Blacklaw, Alice Wyllie, Esme Haigh or Susan Gray, Press Office, National Museums Scotland, tel 0131 247 4165, b.blacklaw@nms.ac.uk.

 Meet the National Museums Scotland team at VisitScotland Expo , stand K20 in the Scotland’s Heritage Aisle

www.nms.ac.uk