Inverness Museum’s 200-year journey
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of Inverness Museum, now Inverness Museum and Art Gallery (IMAG).
Over the last 200 years, the collections have been moved, transferred and found different homes throughout Inverness but its story began at a meeting in Inverness Town Hall on March 4, 1825 with the case for a museum being put forward by George Anderson, solicitor.
The Inverness Courier reported: “A meeting of gentlemen, desirous to form an institution in this quarter for the promotion of Science and Literature, and for the establishment of a Museum, was held in the Town Hall on Friday last…Mr George Anderson…concluded by moving that the gentlemen present should form themselves into an association, to be called, ‘The Northern Institute for the Promotion of Science and Literature’.”
• Sign up for our free newsletters
Within six months of this initial meeting, a museum was set up in Inglis Street in the heart of Inverness. Donations of objects and artefacts flooded in with over 150 contributions during the first 10 years. These included a polar bear’s skull, specimens of cloth from South Sea Islands brought home by Captain Cook, American Indian daggers, lava from Mount Etna, giant hairy spiders of the West Indies and a land turtle (alive at the time of acquisition).
Financial difficulties and lack of support led to the break up of the Northern Institution in 1834 which saw the museum move premises to Inverness Royal Academy. Most likely initially considered a temporary measure, the IRA Directors Minute Books, reveal that the museum remained at the school for the next 30 years. Not an ideal home, there were further temporary stays for the museum collections at the Mechanics Institute and the Town Hall but a lack of proper storage facilities led to ‘many specimens having been lost, stolen or allowed to decay’.
In 1873, a proposal was put forward to revive the museum once again by creating a building for a Library, School of Art and Museum. Around the same time, prominent engineer Joseph Mitchell had presented Inverness Town Council with a gift of £500 to assist in the establishment of a Free Library and it was decided to combine the two schemes and so make use of Mitchell’s gift.
The recently established Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club took over management of the care of the museum collections and land in Exchange Place was donated by the Town Council. Further fundraising allowed for the construction of a new building, designed by Alexander Ross, opened on October 11, 1881 by Joseph Mitchell. Just a year later, the School of Art needed more space and moved out to leave the museum and library in the new building.
In the early 1960s, Exchange Place and Bridge Street underwent major redevelopment which led to the creation of the current home of Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. The library and museum co-habited until the library moved to Farraline Park in 1981.
Next time you are visiting IMAG, think of the journey the museum and its collections have gone on over the last 200 years.
