De-royalizing Scottish museums

THE Royal Museum in Edinburgh is Royal no more.

Buckingham Palace has agreed to a name change that will see the stately 19th-century institution lose the royal title it has carried since Queen Victoria died.

The museum, built in 1861, is to merge with its eight-year-old Chambers Street neighbour, the Museum of Scotland, to become the National Museum of Scotland.

From the Scotsman, which also notes:

Catherine Holden, the NMS's director of marketing and development, said . . . "There was a lot of confusion. We had people thinking it [the Royal Museum] was about the Royal family and the history of kings and queens". . .

The overhaul includes the Museum of Scottish Country Life, near East Kilbride, which becomes the National Museum of Rural Life - as some visitors confused it with Country Life magazine and assumed it was about stately homes.

I hate to think what else will be done if that is the population being catered to.

Posted by David on October 16, 2006 9:26 PM