The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and their Museum: Scotland’s National Collection and a National Discourse

Founded in 1780, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland began immediately to form a museum that has survived remarkably intact within the National Museums of Scotland. Their initiative marked a significant point in the evolution of material culture studies between the “cabinet of curiosities” of the Renaissance and the large public museums of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. An exploration of the Society’s work and ethos in its early years points to the emergence of a distinctive “Scottish History” of collections and a greater significance for the evidence of material culture than has been conventionally accorded it in conventional scholarly discourses.