Bangladesh National Museum preserves and displays the cultural property and heritage, as well as specimens of natural history of Bangladesh. Its mission is to establish a bridge between the past and the present and uphold the national tradition and culture. The museum itself has a history, which began with the establishment of Dhaka Museum on 20 March 1913 with an annual government grant of Rs 2,000. The Governor of Bengal, LORD CARMICHAEL, formally inaugurated the museum on 7 August 1913 in a room of the Secretariat Building (at present, the DHAKA MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL).The plea for setting up a museum in DHAKA was first made in the newspaper The DHAKA NEWS on 1 November 1856. In 1909, a few coins were transferred from Shillong to Dhaka, and a suitable place was needed to preserve them. H E Stapleton, a famous numismatist made a proposal to Governor Sir Lancelot Hare on 1 March 1910 to establish a museum in Dhaka. Consequently, a meeting of distinguished citizens of Dhaka was held on 25 July 1912 at NORTHBROOK HALL. The establishment of the museum was formally approved by the government and published in the official Gazette of 5 March 1913. A provisional General Committee of 30 members was constituted with Nicholas D Beatson-Bell, Commissioner of Dhaka Division, as president. It was authorised to appoint a provisional executive committee to draft rules for the management of the museum. The rules drawn up were approved by the government on 18 November 1913, and in accordance with these, a general committee and an executive committee were formed.
In the first meeting of the general committee held on 3 March 1914, a decision was taken to request the Bengal government for a grant of Rs 5,000 to cover the development expenses of the museum for 1914-15. The first meeting of the executive committee was held on 19 May 1914. At this meeting the draft budget for the year 1914-15 was prepared and a decision was taken to appoint a curator. NALINI KANTA BHATTASALI joined as the first curator of Dhaka Museum on 6 July 1914, with a monthly salary of Rs 100. Although the museum was inaugurated on 7 August 1913, it was opened to the public on 25 August 1914, with 379 objects on display. A total of 4,453 people visited the museum in 1914-15; among them 143 were female.
