Exhibition for a changing nation

Charles Douglas looks in on the museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

It is now 10 years since the Museum of Scotland, the core of the National Museums of Scotland, first opened its doors.

Built in 1988 to complement its next door neighbour, the Royal Museum of Scotland which is currently closed for a major refurbishment, the Museum of Scotland on its corner site of the Old Town of Edinburgh, is of immense significance for anyone in search of that emotive and sometimes contradictory maxim, a Scottish identity. Not only does the building feature Scotland's prehistory, and the passage of time to the present day, but it intelligently and without bias analyses the soul of the Nation.

Displayed on nine floors, generations of collecting have amassed items ranging from Viking brooches and the clarsach of Mary Queen of Scots to Dolly the Sheep, the first ever clone of an adult mammal, preserved in formaldehyde. You need a full day to digest all that there is to be seen.

Certain levels are a must. The exhibition entitled Early People, in the absence of knowing what these ancestors looked like, ingeniously employs sculptures by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. Their story is of a generous land, their Gods, and the Viking and Roman incursions into their territory.

Kingdom of the Scots illustrates the arrival of Christianity, the Gaelic heritage and the emergence of national identity until the union of the Scottish and English parliaments in 1707. The entrance to Scotland Transformed on level three is adorned with the Royal Arms of Scotland, an emblem of the Unio...

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• By : Charles Douglas
• In : Art and Antiques
• Issue : 40
• Page : 61
• Words : 842