Displaying antiquities in the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1849 to 1870

This article will analyse the mid-19th-century classification and display strategies of the museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and consider the ways in which this changed between 1849 and 1870. This was a key period in the development of the museum when it changed from a private antiquarian collection to a state-funded national museum. The development of material-focused methods of research by archaeologists had a noticeable impact on the way that collections were displayed, described and arranged in Scotland, with comparable developments found in England and Ireland but also some interesting differences. Museum displays ‘perform’ meaning through labels, catalogues and physical arrangements. An analysis of such displays reveals the priorities informing the ways in which antiquities were presented in the mid-19th century and how this developed in Scotland compared to England and Ireland. I argue that a literary engagement with people and events from the Scottish past promoted by the novels of Sir Walter Scott influenced the arrangement of museum displays in Scotland in the early to mid 19th century. However, by the 1860s this was overtaken by archaeological approaches with greater emphasis on scientific language and arrangements. To provide a broader context the display practices at the Antiquities Museum in Scotland will be compared with the approaches of the British Museum and the museum of the Royal Irish Academy to demonstrate how these ideas were shared across antiquarian networks in Britain and Ireland.