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[[File:Leadenhall Street Museum.png|thumb|300px|The museum in 1841. On the left is [[Tipu's Tiger]].]]<br />
The '''India Museum''' was a [[London]] museum of [[India]]-related exhibits, established in 1801. It was closed in 1879 and its collection dispersed, part of it later forming a section in the South Kensington Museum.<br />
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==History==<br />
The museum, of the [[East India Company]], was established in 1801, in [[East India House]] in [[Leadenhall Street]], London. The first curator was Sir [[Charles Wilkins]], an orientalist.<ref name="bm">[https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=140125 "India Museum (Biographical details)"] British Museum. Retrieved 9 July 2019.</ref><ref name="textiles">[https://www.trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/collections/europe/india-museum-london "India Museum, London"] Textile Research Centre. Retrieved 9 July 2019.</ref> He had lived in India from 1770 to 1786, in the service of the East India Company; he was said to be the first Englishman to gain a thorough grasp of [[Sanskrit]].<ref>{{cite DNB|first=Cecil|last=Bendall|authorlink=Cecil Bendall|wstitle=Wilkins, Charles|volume=61|page=259–260}}</ref><br />
[[File:The New India Museum, Whitehall-Yard. ILN 1861 (14799675223) (cropped).jpg|thumb|The New ''India Museum'', in Whitehall-Yard, 1861]]<br />
When the East India Company was disbanded in 1858, the [[India Office]] was established, and the museum collection was moved in 1861 to [[Fife House, Whitehall|Fife House in Whitehall]]; East India House was demolished in 1863. The director of the museum was [[John Forbes Watson]]. In 1869 the collection was moved to the India Office, and in 1875 it was moved temporarily to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]).<ref name="bm"/><ref name="guardian">[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/sep/25/heritage.art "Fugitive pieces"] ''[[The Guardian]]'', 25 September 2003. Retrieved 9 July 2019.</ref><ref name="nature">[https://www.nature.com/articles/012192a0 "India Museum, South Kensington"] ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' volume 12, pages 192–193 (1875). Retrieved 9 July 2019.</ref><br />
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The India Museum was dissolved in 1879. Most of the collection went to the [[British Museum]], [[Kew Gardens]] and the South Kensington Museum, where the Indian section was opened in 1880; it was known as the India Museum until 1945.<ref name="bm"/><ref name="textiles"/><br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* Ray Desmond, ''The India Museum, 1801-1879'' (London: HMSO, 1982)<br />
* Arthur MacGregor, ''Company Curiosities. Nature, Culture and the East India Company, 1600–1874'' (Reaktion Books, 2018). {{ISBN|9781789140033}}<br />
* [https://www.vam.ac.uk/research/projects/the-india-museum-revisited V&A Research Project: The India Museum Revisited]<br />
* [https://www.vam.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/259918/Guide-to-the-India-Museum-and-Indian-Objects.pdf Guide to records in the V&A Archive relating to the India Museum and Indian objects]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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[[Category:Defunct museums in London]]<br />
[[Category:1801 establishments in England]]<br />
[[Category:Museums established in 1801]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company]]</div>>Dexbot