The Sarawak State Museum is the oldest museum in Borneo. It was founded in 1888 and opened in 1891 in a purpose-built building in Kuching, Sarawak. It has been said that naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace encouraged Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah of Sarawak, to establish the museum. Indeed, naturalists Beccari, Doria, and Horna…
The Sarawak State Museum is the oldest museum in Borneo. It was founded in 1888 and opened in 1891 in a purpose-built building in Kuching, Sarawak. It has been said that naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace encouraged Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah of Sarawak, to establish the museum. Indeed, naturalists Beccari, Doria, and Hornaday are more likely to have encouraged the Rajah, in 1878, to ask his officers to collect specimens throughout the state, with a view to building a museum in the future, and he asked for land from the Anglican Mission in 1880. As the collections began to increase, the specimens were put inside a clock tower at a government office. Then, the specimens were moved to a room above an old vegetable market when Hugh Brooke Low's collections arrived from the Rajang River. The room above the old vegetable market acted as a temporary museum and was open to the public. Finally, the proper Sarawak museum was built in 1889 and opened on 4 August 1891. The museum extended a new wing in 1911. However, the brick work steps outside the old wing was demolished in 1912. The building was built to permanently house and display local indigenous arts and crafts, and collections of local animals.
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