V&A Archive research guide: The India Museum and Indian objects

Access to the V&A Archive is available by appointment on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11.00 – 16.30 in the National Art Library at V&A South Kensington.

If you would like to make an appointment to view material in the V&A Archive, or have any questions related to it, please contact us: archive@vam.ac.uk

Please note that there is a limit of eight files per appointment.

We recommend providing a minimum of two weeks' notice when booking your appointment.

The India Museum was founded in 1801 by the East India Company to house objects the British had brought back from India as examples of Indian art and manufacture. It was located in Leadenhall Street in the City of London.

In 1858, the East India Company lost its administrative powers, and the India Museum became the responsibility of the India Office. The collections were moved to temporary sites in Fife Street, then Cannon Row, and eventually found a permanent home in South Kensington in 1874. The Eastern Galleries (situated on the west side of Exhibition Road) were leased for 50 years in 1891 for £3,500 per annum. By 1879, the India Museum was threatened with closure because it was underused.

In July 1879 the India Office wrote to the Science and Art Department (which administered the South Kensington Museum, the V&A’s predecessor) regarding arrangements for transferring the India Museum’s 19,228 objects to another institution. The India Office stipulated that the collection should remain together and should be exhibited to the public. The options were for the British Museum to take the objects, or for the collection to remain in the India Museum building in South Kensington, but to be curated by the South Kensington Museum, which had been acquiring Indian objects since the Great Exhibition in 1851.

The India Office decided in October 1879 that the South Kensington Museum should be responsible for the collection, as the Museum offered ‘better facilities’ for keeping the collection together, and for raising awareness of the collection. The V&A's Indian Section was formed in 1880 to look after the objects, but the collection continued to be referred to as the India Museum until 1945, when objects were given an Indian Section (IS) prefix rather than an Indian Museum (IM) prefix. The IS prefix continues to the present day.

The India Museum remained in its separate building in South Kensington for a further 47 years. By June 1946 the India Museum building was in a bad state of repair. It was demolished in 1955 as part of the expansion of Imperial College. The India Section objects were moved to the main V&A building, where they remain a valued part of the V&A’s Asian collections.

The main source of information in the V&A Archive are the policy files which relate to the establishment and administration of the India Museum/Section at South Kensington.

Please note that some of the files in this series contain historical colonial language which researchers might find offensive.

Indian and South East Asian collection policy files (1874 – ongoing)

Policy files related to the Indian and South East Asian Collection, including inventories, loans and general policy.
Material: 45 files and 9 volumes
Reference code: MA/70

Indian and South East Asian collection policy and precedent files (1874 – 1989)

General policy and precent files - subjects include the maintenance of the galleries; damage to objects; and the hiring of staff.
Material: 31 files
Reference code: MA/70/1

Indian and South East Asian collection inventory and stocktaking files (1879 – 1978)

The inventory and movement of India Section objects.
Material: 11 files and 9 volumes
Reference code: MA/70/2

Indian and South East Asian collection loan files (1958 – 66)

The loaning of Indian and South East Asian Collection objects to other institutions for exhibitions.
Material: 3 files
Location: VAAR1/MB09/BY01 shelves 5 & 6
Reference code: MA/70/3

Other V&A Archive material

Acquisitions

A sequence of special files document the acquisition of Indian objects and casts of objects for the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A).

The V&A Archive may also hold correspondence (nominal) files for individuals or institutions from which the V&A acquired Indian objects (e.g. MA/1/R1875: Royal Asiatic Society). Please enquire with a member of staff. Note that there are unlikely to be records documenting the provenance of objects prior to their acquisition by the India Museum, although there are lists of lenders in MA/70/2 and MA/70/3 whose objects may subsequently have been absorbed within the V&A’s collections.

Central Inventories (MA/94)

The Central Inventory registers record information about objects (the name of the donor or vendor, and the date of acquisition, and sometimes a description of the object). Not all of this information is recorded for every object, and details tend to be sparse for objects acquired in the 19th century.

There are two central inventory registers that concern specifically Indian Museum objects up to 1908.

Inventory of objects transferred from the India Museum, November 1879

This inventory records the collection of 19,228 objects which were handed over by the India Office to the Science and Art Department in November 1879. The numbers originally assigned by the India Museum to many of the objects have been inserted in the right-hand margin of the Inventory. Also included is: 1) an index showing India Office Museum numbers with their HMC (Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the 1851 Exhibition) equivalents, and 2) an index to lenders and donors whose objects are in the Indian inventory. This volume has been annotated with the registered paper numbers of objects that have been written off or transferred to other museums or V&A departments.
Reference code: MA/94/27

Central Inventory – Indian Museum, 1851 – 1908

This inventory includes all of the objects of Indian or allied origin, acquired by and for the South Kensington Museum, which were allotted to the Indian Museum when the V&A was divided into Departments as from 1 January 1909. All objects in the inventory are Indian, and 19th century, unless otherwise specified. This volume has been annotated with the registered paper numbers of objects that have been written off or transferred to other museums or V&A departments.
Reference code: MA/94/26

Photographs of Indian galleries and objects

The V&A Archive holds about 900 guardbooks containing historical photographs of individual objects in the museum’s collections, as well as gallery displays. The photographs are arranged by negative number in broadly chronological order.
Reference code: MA/32

Photographs of Indian galleries and displays

Photographs of Indian scenes

Tales from the Archive blog

A summary of stories related to the India Museum written by members of the V&A Archives team while they were cataloguing MA/70.

The National Art Library

The V&A’s National Art Library has a wealth of primary and secondary sources (including books, journals, and archives) about the India Museum, and the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition which can be requested online once you have registered for an account.

The V&A’s Asia Department

The V&A’s Asia Department holds black and white photographs of a large proportion of objects in the Indian collections arranged in Museum number order. For further information, contact: asia.enquiries@vam.ac.uk

The British Library

The British Library holds various material related to the India Museum and Indian objects.

The National Archives

The National Archives holds various material related to the India Museum and the Indian Exhibition.