{{Short description|National museum of Sierra Leone}} {{Infobox museum | name = Sierra Leone National Museum | image = National Museum of Sierra Leone at Cotton tree in Freetown - Mapillary (Yp2BPDsT7TyNtrN6lZ4z9Q).jpg | established = {{Start date and age|1957|df=yes}} | location = Freetown, Sierra Leone | map_type = Sierra Leone Freetown Central | map_caption = Location of the National Museum in Freetown | map_size = 300 | map_dot_label = Sierra Leone National Museum | coordinates = {{coord|8.4867|-13.2358|display=inline, title}}, | type = | visitors = | director = Josephine Kargbo<ref name="Mus">{{cite web |title=Sierra Leone National Museum |url=https://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum |website=Sierra Leone Heritage |access-date=13 November 2021}}</ref> | curator = | public_transit = | website = {{URL|https://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum|www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum}} }}
The '''Sierra Leone National Museum''', previously known as the '''Sierra Leone Museum''' and the '''Museum of the Sierra Leone Society''', is the national museum of Sierra Leone. it is located at the junction of Siaka Stevens Street and Pademba Road in central Freetown.<ref name=SLH2>{{cite web| url=http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum/ | title=Sierra Leone National Museum | website=Sierra Leone Heritage | accessdate=15 August 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://plus.google.com/111518729751582425785 | title=Sierra Leone National Museum | publisher=Google+ | accessdate=15 August 2014 }}</ref>
==Origin== The origin of the Sierra Leone National Museum in Freetown dates back to before the country's independence. The Monuments and Relics Commission, chaired by the retired Creole doctor M. C. F. Easmon, was set up by a 1946 ordinance "to provide for the preservation of Ancient, Historical, and Natural Monuments, Relics, and other objects of Archaeological, Ethnographical, Historical or other Scientific Interest".<ref name=SLH>{{cite web |url=http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org/museum/history/ |title=A Brief History of Sierra Leone National Museum |website=Sierra Leone Heritage}}</ref> In 1953, Governor Sir Robert Hall encouraged the formation of the Sierra Leone Society and then challenged its members, mainly colonial expatriates and the Creole elite of the city,<ref name=BM/> to establish a museum.<ref name=SLH/> In 1955, he offered the old Cotton Tree Telephone Exchange as a temporary location for the museum for a nominal rent.<ref name=SLH/> The place was refurbished, and the Sierra Leone Museum<ref name=SLH/> or Museum of the Sierra Leone Society<ref name=BM>{{cite web |url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/skills-sharing/africa_programme/sierra_leone.aspx |title=Africa Programme: Sierra Leone |publisher=British Museum}}</ref> was officially opened on 10 December 1957 by Sir Milton Margai, the chief minister.<ref name=SLH/>
==History since independence== Sierra Leone gained its independence from the UK in 1961. The Sierra Leone Society ceased to exist in 1964.<ref name=SLH/> In 1967, the year the Sierra Leone Museum became the national museum, the Monuments and Relics Commission was granted the authority to "acquire, maintain and administer the Sierra Leone Museum founded by the Sierra Leone Society".<ref name=SLH/>
The government has rarely provided much support, and the museum still occupies its original, "temporary" location.<ref name=SLH2/> The German embassy in Freetown provided funds for an extension, opened in 1987, to mark the bicentennial of the founding of Freetown.<ref name=SLH2/> The acting chief curator is Josephine Kargbo.<ref name=SLH2/><ref name=BM/>
==Collection== thumb|Bored stones on display at the museum In 2013, the museum displayed the only known photograph of the Temne guerrilla leader Bai Bureh, who in 1898 started a war against the British.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mrcsl.org/baibureh/ |title=Bai Bureh's Grave |publisher=Monuments and Relics Commission}}</ref>
University College London's "Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone" project, in conjunction with the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the National Museum and other organizations and museums, has digitised 2000 objects from the museum, along with objects from other sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/impact/case-study-repository/cultural-heritage-in-sierra-leone |title=Reanimating cultural heritage in Sierra Leone |publisher=University College London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/casestudies/cultural-heritage-in-sierra-leone/ |title=Reanimating cultural heritage in Sierra Leone |date=18 April 2024 |publisher=Arts and Humanities Research Council}}</ref>
==See also== * List of museums in Sierra Leone * List of national museums
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== {{Commons category|Sierra Leone National Museum}} * {{cite book |last1=Basu |first1=Paul |editor1-last=Coombes |editor1-first=Annie E. |editor2-last=Phillips |editor2-first=Ruth B. |title=Museum Transformations: Decolonization and Demoncratization |date=2015 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |location=Chichester |pages=|chapter=15 Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Curatorship, Knowledge Networks, and Social Transformation in Sierra Leone |isbn=978-1-119-64204-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmfLDwAAQBAJ |ref=none}} * {{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=Kathy-Anne Gabrielle |title=Reviewed Work: SierraLeoneHeritage. org, 'Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone' |journal=Journal of Museum Ethnography |date=2013 |issue=26 |pages=196{{ndash}}201 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43915855 |ref=none |publisher=Museum Ethnographers Group|jstor=43915855 }} * {{cite encyclopedia |last1= |first1= |author-link= |editor-last1= Kent|editor-first1=Allen |editor-last2= Lancour |editor-first2=Harold |editor-last3=Daily |editor-first3=Jay E. |encyclopedia= |title=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science |trans-title= |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofli0027unse/page/n3/mode/2up?q=sierra |access-date= |language= |edition= |date=1979 |publisher=Marcel Dekker Inc. |series= |volume=27 |location=New York; Basel |id= |isbn=0-8247-2027-X |issn= |oclc= |doi= |pages=377{{ndash}}379 |archive-url= |archive-date= |url-status= |quote= |ref=none |url-access=registration }}
{{Authority control}} Category:1957 establishments in Sierra Leone Category:Museums established in 1957 National Museum Category:National museums Category:Buildings and structures in Freetown