Fort St George Museum Chennai - Timings, Entry Fee, Location, History

Fort St. George Museum Chennai

Vital Information for Visitors

Address:

Fort St George Museum, Rajaji Salai, Fort St George, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Open & Close:

Open on all days except FRIDAY: 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM

Entry Fees:

INR 10 – for Indian

INR 100 – for Foreigner

Duration:

2 - 3 hour

Significance:

Rich collection of British colonial era artefacts

The Fort St. George Museum holds special place in tourist attractions in Chennai. Mostly Chennai tour packages do comprise the Fort St. George Museum as a major highlight. The museum, a three storey building housing ten galleries, is adorned with a statue of Lord Cornwallis that welcomes a visitor. This museum, located in Fort St. George, was organized in 1948, shortly after the independence of India, for housing relics of the British period in South India. It is located in an ancient building which is itself a monument constructed in 1792. The museum, as it has now developed, offers great scope for the study of the growth of Fort St. George, the first British settlement in India and the history of South India during the last three centuries. The scope of the Fort St. George Museum includes arms, manuscripts, paintings, prints, coins, medals, textiles, porcelain, etc. There are ten galleries composing the museum, portraits, prints, arms and miscellaneous antiquities like coins, medals, records, silver communion vessels, etc. The Fort St. George Museum is a great source of information regarding various aspects of social life in Tamil Nadu.

The richness of the collection can be understood by the range of arms including breast plates, helmets, baton, cannon shots, rifles, swords, pistols, petard, daggers, mortars etc; the range of porcelains including table wares of the British officers and ‘nawabs’ of Arcot; large variety of portraits including paintings displaying George III and his consort, Queen Victoria and Robert Clive, Sir Arthur Havelock and the earliest depiction of Fort St. George in 1738 and a gamut of miscellaneous articles comprising silverware from the churches and tranquebar etc. The portrait gallery contains oil paintings of former governors of Madras ( Chennai), kings and queens of England and nawabs of the Karnataka. The prints section contains 18th century views of Fort St. George, Mount St. Thomas, Tanjore, Tirunelveli and other historical places. The Armoury Section contains weapons that give an idea of the Madras (presently Chennai) army organized in 1752. Other antiquities are displayed in the two halls. In one of the halls to the right are exhibited medals and coins of Madras (Chennai), Bombay ( Mumbai) and Bengal mints as also those of the Portuguese, French and Danes. The other hall contains the East India Company and Arcot Porcelain manufactured at Canton in England. In the next hall are shown the silver communion vessels of St. Mary’s Church, a model of Fort St. George, the palanquin of the Nawab of Arcot and the old locks and keys of Fort St. George.

The curator or junior gallery assistant takes round visitors, particularly teachers and students on request. A library is built up. It is mainly for departmental reference and contains thousands of books and periodicals. Adequate labels are provided in the galleries in two languages, English and Tamil. The university and other educational institutions sponsor organized visits to the museum. An illustrated pamphlet on the Fort St. George Museum published in the Madras (Chennai) Information and of which several thousand imprints have been supplied by the Director of Information, Chennai are distributed free to interested visitors. It is under the Superintendent, Museums Branch of the Department of Archaeology, Government of India. The museum is located in Fort St. George and being a museum of the British relics, it is ideally situated and is easily accessible. Hundreds of people visit the museum daily. On special occasions like the Christmas holidays, Mattupougal Day, the day following Vaikuntha Ekadasi and Independence Day, there is a larger rush of visitors. The building is suitable, but requires more gallery and storage space. There are amenities in the shape of fans, seats, etc. for visitors. The sources of acquisition are only purchase, donation and loan as the museum is not yet recognized for treasure trove purposes. It is an institutional member of the Museums Association of India.