Albert Hall Museum is located in Rajasthan, India. It is the oldest museum of the state and functions as the State museum of Rajasthan. The building is situated in Ram Niwas garden outside the city wall opposite New gate and is a fine example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. It is also called the Government Central Museum.
The Albert Hall was completed in 1887 by the architect Samuel Swinton Jacob,Director of Jaipur PWD. The temporary museum and the exhibition whose artifacts had been collected from several parts of India and its neighbourhood were merged and shifted to their permanent home in the new museum. The building itself became an integral part of the display, its Indo-Saracenic architecture and stone ornamentation, became a source of reference for varied classical Indian styles of design from Mughal to Rajput. Even the corridors were decorated with murals in a variety of styles including the Ramayan, reproducing paintings from illustrations in the Persian Razmnama prepared for Emperor Akbar. European, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and Babylonian civilizations were portrayed in the other murals to enable the people of the region to compare and contrast them with their own and develop their knowledge of history and art.
Thus, Albert Hall became a centre for imparting knowledge of history of civilizations, inspiring artisans to improve their skills, and preserving & developing traditional Indian arts, crafts, architectural forms and not least as Hendlay said to amuse and instruct the common people”.
Confronting the gates of the city by 1890 there stood the museum, the zoo and the Mayo Hospital in a public park representing the dream of the former Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh which was realized by his successor Sawai Madho Singh which showed the new face of a Jaipur moving into the modern age.
Rudyard Kipling (himself the son of a curator) on a visit was so impressed by the architecture, woodwork, display, exhibits, cleanliness and not least the curators office that he wrote "it is now a rebuke to all other museums in India from Calcutta downwards".
In 1898 on the eve of his departure, Hendley wrote to the Durbar (than rular of Jaipur) royal family (King of Jaipur) that on average the annual attendance exceeded a quarter million people and in eleven years there were more than three million visitors.
History
The building of Albert Hall Museum was built in 1876 as a concert hall. The museum gets its name from the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, because of the similarity of architecture. The foundation for the building started in 1876, when Prince of Wales visited Jaipur. When the building was constructed, the royals and government did not have any idea about usage of the building. It was initially used as Town Hall in 1880. Later, the King of Jaipur, Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II suggested to use it as a museum for Industrial Arts. Later, the hall was used for displaying masterpieces of local artisans.
In 1881, the museum was at its prime beauty and people from across the country visited this museum to buy or enjoy handicrafts, artwork and other masterpieces. However, the building was under construction until 1887. Later, the museum started to showcase artifacts and ancient artworks along with budding artist’s masterpieces.
