The National Museum () is a museum located in Jalan Damansara, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The museum is situated in close proximity to the Perdana Lake Gardens and it provides an overview of Malaysian history and culture. Its facade comprises elements from both traditional Malay and modern features. It was inaugurated on 31 August 1963, and it serves as a repository of Malaysia's cultural and historical heritage.
The National Museum is a three-story structure, long and wide, which is high at the central point. The museum houses four main galleries allotted to ethnology and natural history (geology). The displays range from free-standing tableaux showing cultural events like weddings, festivals and costumes; to traditional weapons, musical instruments, arts and crafts, ceramics, and flora and fauna.
History
The Old Selangor Museum
Selangor Museum was the de facto national museum pre-independence. Selangor Museum was established in 1887 as an amateur affair by colonial civil servants. It was taken over by the colonial government, and following the formation of the Federated Malay States in 1896, in 1904 it was administratively merged with the Perak Museum in Taiping as the Federated Malay States Museums under director Leonard Wray Jr. A purpose-built museum building designed by prominent architect Arthur Benison Hubback opened in 1907.The Selangor Museum collection grew rapidly under curator, then director, Herbert Christopher Robinson. Other notable staff at Selangor Museum included Cecil Boden Kloss and Eibert Carl Henry Seimund. The museum also hired hunters and collectors from Sarawak, including Charles Ulok.
Much of the museum collectors’ zoological field work focussed on the hills and mountains of the peninsula's central states, Fraser's Hill, Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands, laying a foundation for the prominence of these hill resorts in Malaysia today. The museum had a major expedition to Gunung Tahan in 1905. They also collected in Southern Thailand and Indonesia. The expeditions and collections were written about in the Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums. Collected specimens were routinely transferred to the British Museum (Natural History), some were sent to Liverpool Museums in 1914, and the vertebrate collections were fully transferred from Selangor Museum to the Raffles Museum of Singapore in 1926.On 10 March 1945, during the end of World War II, the right wing of the museum was bombed and destroyed by the US B-29 bombers, from the Allied Forces. The remaining museum collection was then moved to the Perak Museum in Taiping.
After World War II, the left wing of Selangor Museum was still in use as a historical site. On the brink of independence of the Federation of Malaya, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman conceived the idea to build a museum to house national historical and cultural treasures as well as specimens of flora and fauna. The old museum structure was completely demolished to make way for the new museum. The new National Museum, Muzium Negara, was established on the site of the former Selangor Museum.
Design and construction
Construction began on the new museum in 1959 and was complete in 1963. The National Museum was officially opened on 31 August 1963 by Tuanku Syed Putra Ibni al-Marhum Syed Hassan Jamalullal, the 3rd Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
The museum was design by architect Ho Kok Hoe, which was inspired by the architecture of the Malay royal palaces and vernacular Malay architecture. The design incorporated the need for exhibition and activity spaces. The large mosaic murals spanning the entrance depict the history and culture of the country. The floor of the central section of the main building is decorated with special tiles which were gifts from the government of Pakistan. In addition, UNESCO facilitated consultancies by museum experts from other museums around the world.
On 4 April 1996, the building was gazette under the Antiquities Act 169/1976 as an ancient monument and historical site.
Museum Volunteer Malaysia (MVM) In 2007 cultural and history enthusiasts residing in the greater Kuala Lumpur area formed, with the support of the Department of National Museums, a group of volunteer museum tour guides to accommodate the growing number of international tourists. At any time, between 20 and 100 volunteers of many nationalities provide tours in English, Korean, Japanese, and French. A related group was established for Malaysian visitors, operating primarily on weekends.