"Now & Then" - Monuments Edition - National museum2

NOW THEN Monuments Edition

naTiOnal Museum SingapOre The oldest Museum in Singapore

Now...

useum m e h t w o H ies? r e l l a g r i e present th pg1-2

Then...

How did this Mu seum started? pg 3-4

Design and architecture

res of What are the main featu the museum? pg 5-6

THEN

How did this museum started?

The museum was established in 1849 by the then Singapore Institution Committee where it was an idea from a meeting convened. It was called the Raffles Library and Museum and it exhibited items of historical and archaeological value in Singapore and Asia. The museum was a part of the formation of a public repository of knowledge of Malayan in a school, museum and library. Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore had an objective that can be traced. They discuss on a revival of the region’s cultural heritage. The museum have a section of the library of the Singapore Institution that later became the Raffles Institution. In 1874, the museum moved to the Town Hall known as the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. The collection grows rapidly where they have to move back to the Singapore Institution in 1876 situated at the new wing of the institution.

The Raffles Library and Museum later moved to Stamford Road in a new building that was instructed by the colonial government in 1882. On 12 October 1887, the museum was opened officially which also marked the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The museum designed by Sir Henry McCallum was rejected by the Colonial Office but a scaled down version was used and Major J.F. McNair co-designed the later version.

For the first few years the museum was well known for its zoological and ethnographic collections of Southeast Asia especially Malaya and British Borneo before the World War II. The museum was a centre of research and knowledge, directors and curators. The museum was the centre of the editorial office of the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, it was visited by scholars who were traveling to Malaya and Indonesia. The collections included a selection of northern Nias objects from the field trips of Elio Modigliani, as well as the basketwork gifted by Dr William Abbott, who collected them during the 1900s for the United States National Museum, later the Smithsonian Institution.

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Then

Extensions and upgrades were carried out in 1906, 1916, 1926 and 1934 due to the limitation of space for the growing number of artefacts and books. During the Japanese Occupation, the place was left untouched by the Japanese occupying army due to the reputation of its Raffles collection and research integrity.

The museum split from the library, with the latter forming the National Library adjacent to the museum building in 1960 which was demolished and relocated to Victoria Street in 2005, the former was housed in the Stamford Road building.

After Singapore's independence in 1965, the museum focused its collection to nation-building and the history of Singapore and was renamed the National Museum. Its zoological collections have to be moved to the biology department of the National University of Singapore and to some museums such as in Kolkata in India and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where it happened in 1969.

Its most iconic artefact was the blue whale’s skeleton found in Port Dickson in 1893 and was displayed from 1903 to 1969. The museum then featured exhibits on history, ethnology and arts of Singapore and the region.

The first idea of a museum in 1823

Zoological artefacts

The Raffles Library and Museum’s building was opened on 12 October 1887

Japanese Occupation

Hawpar Group donated a jade collection in January 1980. Renovation of the building were carried out in 1985 which included a repainting of the building and restoring some of the original features. After restoration, the museum was gazetted as a national monument on 14 February 1992.

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nOw

nOw How the museum present their galleries?

With a history dating back to its inception in 1887, the National Museum of Singapore is the nation’s oldest museum with a positive and progressive mind. It is custodian of 10 National Treasures, Singapore History and Living Galleries adopt cutting-edge and variety ways of presenting history and culture to revaluate conventional museum experience. As Singapore is a cultural and architectural landmark, the Museum hosts contemporary festivals and events every year like the dynamic Night Festival, visually arresting art installations, as well as amazing performances and film screenings. The museum present not only provoking exhibitions involving critically important collections of artefacts. The programs is supported by a wide range of facilities and services including F&B, retail and a Resource Centre.

Picture Gallery

There are 3 galleries in the museum. They are the Singapore History Galleries, Singapore living galleries, and Goh Seng Choo gallery. As years goes by, technology was involved in the upgradetion and improvement made for the galleries. Today the galleries are presented in high technology where they use Ipad mini for the interactive audio-visual guide.

The Singapore History Gallery adopts a story-telling approach, discover different perspectives as you travel through the past. To let you realise and appreciate the sufferings that early settlers had to overcome, you will be taken through the dramatic journey of major national events as well as the personal stories of individuals. You can select your own ‘path’ into the past. The events path traces the major events and values that were part of Singapore’s history, while the personal path tells stories through the eyes of a person on the street. With our audio-visual companion that comes in four languages, listen to interesting histories and quips of your choice to complete this refreshing and educational journey.

The wide Screens

An Exhibition celebrates the arrival and development of the television and how it has shaped entertainment and lifestyle habits in Singapore from 1963 to today.

History Gallery

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Design and architecture

DESIGN and

What are the main features of the museum?

National Museum was designed in Neo-Palladian and Renaissance style and subsist of two rectangular parallel blocks, with a dome at the front of the building. The architects behind this beautiful architecture were Henry McCallum who designed the original version and J.F. McNair who designed the reduce version of the building. The building has two rotundas, a new glass-clad rotunda at the rear area of the building. Its glass rotunda is a cylindrical shaped building which is made up of two drums, with the outer one made of glass which sheathes an inner one made of wire mesh. Black out curtains has the same length of the inner drum with images projected on sixteen projectors in the day. The curtains will be drawn after sunset, and projection can be light out through the glass to get a nice view of the city.

New Rotunda

The Rotunda stained glass restoration work started in late 2004 and was completed in mid 2005. There are 50 pieces of stained glass, each about nine feet long. The Victorian style glass patterns were carefully authorised on site, and their condition assessed by a professional stained glass artist in Singapore. All 50 pieces of stained glass were removed and delivered to the artist's workshop to be restored. The reinforcement system as well as most of the joints and lead work also required to be rectified. As the stained glass was curved in shape, timber moulds following the profile were constructed for the restoration process. Specially made timber boxes were also made to house the delicate glass works, for the delivery to the workshop.

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archiTecTure

Design and architecture Glass Passage The Glass Passage rises at a height of four storeys off the floor and is one of the world’s largest outdoor self-supporting glass structures ever constructed. It was built entirely of glass, it allows visitors to have a clear view while walking through the corridor of the elegant Palladian motifs. The Glass Passage brings the experience of viewing the old building in an art gallery setting. It is visually simple but the engineering behind this structure formed from glass alone is extremely complex. Engineers from four different countries took more than a year to design this structure. To appreciate visual transparency, optical glass is used in various parts of the Glass Passage.

Glass Rotunda

Designed as a modern interpretation of the old Rotunda Dome, the Glass Rotunda is the main feature of the new Museum extension. Standing at 16 metres high and 24 metres in diameter, the Glass Rotunda built as the main entry into the Singapore History Gallery.

Concourse

Its simple modernism dominates the extension wing. Visitors are usually reminded of where all this came from, as the old facade forms the atrium backdrop, linking the old with the new.

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sINGAPORE nATIONAL mONUMENTS

CREDITS www.nationalmuseum.sg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Singapore