Indian Museum, Kolkata
A miniature sheet consisting of 3 nos of commemorative postage stamps on the 200 years of the Calcutta Museum (Zadughar) :
Issued by India
Issued on Feb 2, 2014
Issued for : Department of Posts is happy to release a Souvenir Sheet comprising of three Commemorative Postage Stamps on Indian Museum, Kolkata.
Credits :
Souvenir Sheet/FDC : Sankha Samanta
Cancellation : Alka Sharma
Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint Condition
Colour : Multi Colour
Denomination : 4500 Paise
Souvenir Sheet Printed : 0.61 Million (0.1 Million for proponent)
Printing Process : Wet Offset
Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad
About :
- The foundation of the Indian Museum is an important milestone in the cultural heritage of India and heritage preservation. The museum grew out of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
- The idea of establishing a Museum acquired a tangible form in the beginning of 1808 when the society occupied the premises erected at the corner of Park Street on a land granted by the government. It appointed Dr. Nathanial Wallich, a Danish Botanist, to be the Honorary Curator and then Superintendent of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. The Society decided to establish a museum which would be divided into two sections; one of which would be concerned with archaeological, ethnological and technological artifacts, while the other devoted to preservation of geological and zoological specimens. Wallich was not only the enthusiastic under and the first Curator of the Indian Museum; he was one of the largest donors to the museum at its inception. Out of one hundred seventy four items donated to the Museum till 1816, he had donated forty-two botanical specimens.
- Dr. Nathaniel Wallich took charge of the museum on 1st June, 1814. The Museum thus inaugurated, thrived rapidly under the guidance of its enthusiastic founder Wallich and individual collectors. The Museum moved to the present building designed by Walter R. Granville at Chowringhee Road, Kolkata in the year 1878 and was thrown open to the public with two galleries on 1st April, 1878. In 1879, it received a portion of the collection from the India Museum (South Kensington) when that collection was dispersed. Though in the beginning the Indian Museum was opened with two galleries, it was transformed later into a multipurpose Institution, where multi-disciplinary objects have been displayed in its six sections viz, Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Geology and Botany.
- The museum, known in the beginning as the “Asiatic Society Museum“, subsequently came to acquire the elevated status of the “Imperial Museum“. The familiar name of course was the “Indian Museum” described by the ordinary visitors as “Jadughar” or a ‘House of Wonders‘. Since 1878, at its present edifice, the Indian Museum has been rendering its services to the people of India as a centre of art and culture in India.
- Text : Based on the material furnished by the proponent.
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