Little known facts about the Government Museum, Chennai

 


·        The first suggestions to start a museum for Madras were made by the Secretary of the Madras Literary Society in 1843. Since 1828, the Madras Literary Society had been accumulating a collection of geological specimens. In a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Madras government on November 10, 1843, the Secretary of the Madras Literary Society suggested that the government start a museum for economic geology.

·       In a letter to the Chief Secretary of Madras dated December 5, 1843, Major-General W. W. Cullen, the British Resident at Travancore,  also suggested the opening of a central museum at Madras city with branches in all the districts, if possible, at the district collectorates.

·       The next year viz 1844, Henry Chamiers, a member of the Governor’s executive council discussed the two letters and recommended the setting up of a museum linked to the proposed University of Madras. The recommendations were accepted by the Government of Madras which forwarded the proposals to the Board of Directors in England.

·       In 1846, the Board of Directors of the East India Company who generally took administrative decisions over the Company’s territorial possessions, sanctioned a museum to be opened in connection with the University of Madras.

·        The Government Museum was opened on April 29, 1851 at the College of Fort St George (present DPI Building) in Nungambakkam with Surgeon-General Edward Green Balfour as Part-Time Superintendent. The visiting hours were between 6 AM and 9 AM and 2 PM to 6 PM.  For reasons that aren’t clear, the University of Madras was kept out of the project. Till 1885, the post of Superintendent was a part-time job and the Surgeon-General had to manage the museum in addition to his other responsibilities.

·         By 1853, the museum had so many specimens that the building of the College of Fort St George couldn’t support the weight of the cases. Requests were made to move to a bigger and stronger building. In December 1854, the Madras government offered the “Cutcherry of the Madras Collector” which was then located in a building in Egmore called the “Pantheon”. The then Governor of Madras inspected the building in company of Surgeon Balfour and approved the building.

·       Towards the end of 1854, a live cheetah and a tiger were exhibited at the museum grounds (I’m not able to confirm whether this was the College of Fort St George or the Pantheon as the shifting was done around the same time).  This exhibition was a huge success and people thronged to the Museum to see these animals alone.  So, the museum started acquiring and exhibiting a collection of live animals. In December 1858, an albino elephant was exhibited. In 1861, the corporation planned to open a zoological gardens at People’s Park and from 1861 to 1863, most of the animals at the museum were moved to People’s Park. However, not so well known is the fact that the museum continued to exhibit some small animals till 1921.

·        In keeping with the museum’s aims, Surgeon Balfour got the support of the Madras government to start district museums that were under the administrative control of the Madras museum. By 1855, there were district museums at six places – Cuddalore, Coimbatore, Mangalore, Bellary, Ootacamund and Rajahmundry. By 1861, five of the six museums had been closed. The last surviving museum at Rajahmundry was closed in 1875.

·       In 1860, Balfour’s successor and the second Superintendent, Captain Jesse Mitchell wrote to the Madras government asking for funds to start a library. The museum library was opened to the public in June 1862 and access  was free. The library moved to a new Library and Lecture Hall building opened by the then Governor of Madras in 1876. In 1896, the Connemara Library was founded and the book collection was moved to the Connemara Library building where it formed the nucleus of the library’s collection.   From then on and until 1935, the Library and Lecture Hall building housed the Mackenzie collection of manuscripts. In 1935, the Mackenzie collection was moved to the University of Madras and the lecture hall building is now used to house exhibitions. The Superintendent of the Madras Museum was also the Superintendent of the Connemara Library from 1896 till 1939.

·         On February 1, 1866, Captain Jesse Mitchell changed the museum’s visiting hours from 6 AM to 6 PM to 9 AM to 6 PM.

·       Surgeon George Bidie, the third Superintendent of the Madras Museum, promoted cinchona and cocoa cultivation in the Madras Presidency. In 1873, the museum started giving free lectures and starting from the time of Henderson (1920-1940), tours of school students were organised.


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