Marischal Museum was a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, specialising in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

and artifacts from cultures around the world. The museum was a part of the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

, situated at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on lon ...

, a grand neo-gothic building said to be the second-largest granite building in the world, displaying collections owned by the University. The museum is closed to the public, but now operates as the University of Aberdeen's museum collections centre.

Notable Collections

The museum most notably housed examples of Egyptian and Classical antiquities, non-Western

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

and pieces relating to Scottish

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The us ...

and

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inc ...

. The collections are part of the University of Aberdeen's museum collections which have been recognised as being of national significance by the Scottish Government.

Closure

The museum has been closed since July 2008 due to renovation work at

. Although part of Marischal College re-opened after renovation in Summer 2011 as the corporate headquarters of Aberdeen City Council, the museum remains closed to the public. It now operates as a museum collections centre, with conservation laboratory, research stores, offices and workshop, supporting the work of the University of Aberdeen's museums elsewhere. To allow the public to continue to view exhibits from its collections, in April 2011 the

opened

King's Museum King's Museum is a small university museum operated by the University of Aberdeen and located in the Old Town House in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. History The museum collection's origin was originally established in King's College in 1727. A ded ...

. This is a small museum (much smaller than Marischal Museum) located in the Old Aberdeen Town House, which is part of the King's College campus in

Old Aberdeen Old Aberdeen is part of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891. It ret ...

, King's Museum hosts a range of changing exhibitions, drawing on objects from the University's stored collections, primarily those formerly displayed in Marischal Museum.

External links

Marischal Museum website

King's Museum website
Museums in Aberdeen University of Aberdeen University museums in Scotland Egyptological collections in Scotland Ethnographic museums in the United Kingdom History museums in Scotland Museums established in 1786 1786 establishments in Scotland Anthropology museums in the United Kingdom Defunct museums in Scotland {{UK-museum-stub