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A person being given a tour of the museum collections centre

Explore our collections

Our venues show artworks and objects from the City’s collections as well as hosting a diverse programme of exhibitions and events. The City’s collections span fine and decorative art, history, childhood collections, Lauriston Castle and its historic contents, as well as items relating to famous Edinburgh writers.   The City’s collections include over 200,000 items and are being added to all the time via generous item donations and purchases supported by funders. The collections are so large that only a small fraction of them can be on display in our venues at any one time. The rest are kept in storage in our Museum Collections Centre and other stores. We also lend works to national and international exhibitions. To learn more about each of our collections and where they can be seen, please read below.

Fine Art

 

The City’s fine art collection is one of the world’s foremost collections of Scottish art. It features historic and contemporary paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, art textiles, digital works and installation art.

 

The fine art collection holds around 5,000 artworks, from the Glasgow Boys, Scottish Colourists and Edinburgh School to post-War art and contemporary works. It is ‘Recognised’ by the Scottish Government as being of National Significance.

 

You can see works and learn more about the collection at the City Art Centre.

 



History

 

The City’s history collection includes archaeology, social history (of Edinburgh and nearby coastal communities), applied art, childhood collections, the Lauriston Castle collection and the Writers’ Museum collection which focuses on Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Many parts of the collection are ‘Recognised’ by the Scottish Government as being of National Significance.

 

You can see social history and applied art objects at Museum of Edinburgh


You can see social history objects at the People’s Story Museum

 

You can see childhood-related objects at Museum of Childhood

 

You can see Lauriston Castle’s preserved interiors at Lauriston Castle

 

You can see literary collections at the Writers’ Museum

 

You can see Queensferry collections at Queensferry Museum