ABSTRACT
A museum is made a museum by its collections, so that its collecting policy, past and present, helps define its very role and identity. Yet that policy itself depends on how the museum sees its mission. The explicit aim of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) is to bring 'the world to Scotland, Scotland to the world', and this is indeed closely reflected by its collecting policy.1 Bringing the world to its public by acquiring, for instance, German pterosaurs or Chinese porcelain, is of course a standard aim for any large multidisciplinary museum. But to bring Scotland to the world, the NMS has to collect Scottish objects, from killer whales and coalfield fossils to Celtic quaichs and beam engines. Yet what is Scotland that it can be displayed in a museum?2 A potential political and cultural morass, this question was barely discussed in the museum literature till planning began for the new Museum of Scotland, and even today little has been said on collecting policy.3
