CHENNAI: The Danish Fort Museum at Tarangambadi, an Offering Museum at the Besant Nagar Annai Vailankanni Shrine and the Zoology Museum at Madras Christian College — these are among the 99 museums listed by the Government Museum, Chennai, in an exhibition to mark International Museums Day. Besides the list with names of all the museums in the States, the week-long exhibition has a collection of objects and photos from the listed museums as well. The exhibition was inaugurated by K C Veeramani, Minister for School Education.
“At the exhibition, we can see objects like medals from Kabul to Kandahar, paintings and sculptures. We hope that school students and teachers will come to the museum for a ‘touch and feel’ experience,” said R Kannan, Commissioner of Museums. The exhibition has on display images from various museums in Tamil Nadu like the ones at Nagapattinam and Salem, and also a large collection of museum publications that could take one through history. Handbooks for the Bird Gallery and Reptile Gallery, conference proceedings of museum activities and ethnographic studies are part of the book collection.
The architecture of Chennai is also brought out in some of the books, with the lesser-known buildings like the Government Ophthalmic Hospital and the Madras Literary Society, and common buildings like the Egmore Railway Station whose heritage value is often forgotten.
May 18 is celebrated as International Museums Day every year, and this exhibition is on till May 24 at the Government Museum, Egmore campus.