Sarawak State Museum
Encyclopedia
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
. It was established in 1888 and opened in 1891 in a purpose-built building in Kuching
Kuching
Kuching , officially the City of Kuching, and formerly the City of Sarawak, is the capital and most populous city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is the largest city on the island of Borneo, and the fourth largest city in Malaysia....
, Sarawak
Sarawak
Sarawak is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Known as Bumi Kenyalang , Sarawak is situated on the north-west of the island. It is the largest state in Malaysia followed by Sabah, the second largest state located to the North- East.The administrative capital is Kuching, which...
. Sponsored by Charles Brooke
Charles Brooke
Charles Brooke may refer to:* Charles Brooke , surgeon and inventor* Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak , head of state of Sarawak, Borneo*Charles Brooke -See also:* Charles Brook...
, the second White Rajah of Sarawak, the establishment of the museum was strongly encouraged by Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
.
History
The Sarawak Museum was built in 1891 and was extended to its present form in 1911. The building was especially built to permanently house and display local native arts and crafts and collections of local animals as mainly encouraged by the famous naturalist, Alfred Wallace, who was then collecting specimens in the state.During the Japanese Occupation
Japanese occupation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak
Throughout much of World War II, British Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak were under Japanese occupation.The Japanese Empire commenced the Pacific War with the invasion of Kota Bahru in Kelantan on 8 December 1941 at 00:25, about 90 minutes before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii at 07:48 on 7...
, the museum was put under the direction of a sympathetic Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Officer. As a result, the museum suffered very little damage and remarkably little looting.
Today, with carefully planned renovation and proper maintenance, this old building is used as the centre to exhibit collections on the natural history of Sarawak.
Architecture
Since its inception, the building has undergone several renovations and alterations. It is rectangular, 44’ × 160’ with walls and pillars of bricks and roof of belian and concrete. It has European architecture of imposing edifice in Queen Anne styleQueen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
(Victorian period). The galleries are lighted by dormer windows on the roof which thus allow a great area of wall space.
Layout
The ground floor of the museum holds the natural history collection and specimens of Sarawak fauna — reptiles, mammals, birds, etc., all expertly prepared and mounted for display. The west wing of the museum houses Shell exhibition — petroleum industries of Sarawak.The first floor displays exhibits of ethnographic artifacts such as models of longhouses of the various ethnic groups in Sarawak, musical instruments, various kinds of fish and animal traps, handicrafts, models of boats and others.
Museum Journal
The Sarawak Museum Journal is the journal of the Sarawak Museum. It was first published in 1911, with John MoultonJohn Coney Moulton
John Coney Moulton OBE was born in St Leonards, Dorset, England, and died in London. He was an officer in the British Army, as well as an amateur zoologist who spent many years in South-East Asia. He was Curator of the Sarawak Museum from November 1908 to January 1915, and founding editor of the...
the inaugural editor, making it one of the oldest scientific journal
Scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
s of the South-East Asian region. Topics covered include the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
of the island of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
.
List of curators
- E.A. Lewis — Pro tem Curator acting from 25 June 1888 – 1902
- Dr George Darby HavilandGeorge Darby HavilandDr George Darby Haviland was a British surgeon and naturalist. He was born at Warbleton, Sussex in England. He served as Director of the Raffles Museum in Singapore as well as being a medical officer in Sarawak and Curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching from 1891 to 1893...
— Curator, 26 February 1891 – 1 March 1893 - Edward BartlettEdward BartlettEdward Bartlett was an English ornithologist. He was the son of Abraham Dee Bartlett.Bartlett accompanied Henry Baker Tristram to Palestine in 1863-64, and collected in the Amazon basin and Peru in 1865-69...
— Curator, 1 March 1893 – 22 July 1897 - Robert Walter Campbell ShelfordRobert Walter Campbell ShelfordRobert Walter Campbell Shelford , was a British entomologist and museum administrator and naturalist, with a special interest in entomology and insect mimicry; he specialised in cockroaches and also did some significant work on stick insects.-Biography:Robert Walter Campbell Shelford was born 3...
— Curator, 22 July 1897 – 2 February 1905 - John HewittJohn Hewitt (herpetologist)John Hewitt was a South African zoologist and archaeologist of British origin. He was born in Dronfield nearby Sheffield, England, and died in Grahamstown, South Africa. He was the author of several herpetological papers which described new species.He graduated with a first-class in natural...
— Curator, 2 February 1905 – Nov 1908 - John Coney MoultonJohn Coney MoultonJohn Coney Moulton OBE was born in St Leonards, Dorset, England, and died in London. He was an officer in the British Army, as well as an amateur zoologist who spent many years in South-East Asia. He was Curator of the Sarawak Museum from November 1908 to January 1915, and founding editor of the...
— Curator, November 1908 – 22 January 1915 - Mr Erman & Mr K. H. Gillan — Officers in charge, 22 January 1915 – May 1922
- Dr Eric Georg MjöbergEric MjöbergDr Eric Georg Mjöberg was a Swedish zoologist and ethnographer who led the first Swedish scientific expeditions to Australia in the early 1900s, and worked in Indonesia. The plant Vaccinium mjoebergii J.J.Sm...
— Curator, May 1922 – 19 December 1924 - Gerard T.M. MacBryan — Acting Curator, 20 Dec 1924 – 24 January 1925
- Edward BanksEdward BanksEdward H. Banks was a British administrator, amateur naturalist and museum curator.-Life:Banks was born in Newport, Wales. He studied at Oxford University....
— Curator, 20 February 1925 – 1945 (1942–1945 interned) - Tom HarrissonTom HarrissonMajor Tom Harnett Harrisson DSO OBE was a British polymath. In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, guerrilla, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeologist, documentarian, film-maker, conservationist, and writer...
— Curator, June 1947 – November 1966 - Benedict SandinBenedict SandinBenedict Sandin was an Iban ethnologist, historian, and Curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. He also served as Government Ethnologist to the Government of Sarawak.-References:* Accessed 17 January 2007...
— Curator, December 1966 – March 1974 - Lucas Chin — Director, 1 April 1974 – December 1991
- Dr Peter M. Kedit – Director, December 1991 – April 1996
- Sanib Said — Director, May 1997 - December 2008
- Ipoi Datan - Director, January 2009 - Present