page_title: National Museum of Indonesia
section_title: Dutch colonial period
hierarchical_section_title: National Museum of Indonesia / History / Dutch colonial period
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Pavillon des Pays Bas
context_page_description: The National Museum of Indonesia, is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Building after the elephant statue in its forecourt. Its broad collections cover all of Indonesia's territory and almost all of its history. The museum has endeavoured to preserve Indonesia's heritage for two centuries.
  The museum is regarded as one of the most complete and the best in Indonesia, as well as one of the finest museum in Southeast Asia. The museum has preserved about 141,000 objects, ranged from prehistoric artifacts, to archeology, numismatics, ceramics, ethnography, history and geography collections. It has comprehensive collections of stone statues of classical Hindu-Buddhist period of ancient Java and Sumatra, as well as quite extensive collections of Asian ceramics.
context_section_description: On April 24, 1778, a group of Dutch intellectuals established a scientific institution under the name Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, (Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences). This private body had the aim of promoting research in the field of arts and sciences, especially in history, archaeology, ethnography and physics, and publish the various findings. The main objective of Bataviaasch Genootschap is to analyze the cultural and scientific aspects of the East Indies, including its society and natural environment, through facilitating research conducted by experts.
  One of the founders – JCM Radermacher – donated a building at De Groote Rivier street in Old Batavia area, and a collection of cultural objects and books, which were of great value to start off a museum and library for the society. The other founder are Jacob de Meijer, Josua van Inperen, Johannes Hooijman, Sirardus Bartlo, Willem van Hogendorp, Hendrik Nicolaas Lacle, Jacobus van der Steeg, Egbert Blomhert, Paulus Gevers and Frederik Baron van Wurmb.
  Due to the growing collections, General Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles built a new premises located behind the Societeit de Harmonie (today Jalan Majapahit No. 3) at the beginning of the 19th century and named it the Literary Society. In the 1862 the Dutch East Indies government decided to build a new museum that would not only serve as an office but also could be used to house, preserve and display the collections.
  The Museum was officially opened in 1868 and popularly known as Gedung Gajah (Elephant Building) or sometimes called Gedung Arca (The house of Statues). It was called Gedung Gajah on account of the bronze elephant statue in the front yard – a gift to Batavia from King Chulalongkorn of Siam in 1871. It was also called Gedung Arca because a great variety of statues from different periods are on display in the house.
  In 1931, the museum's collections were shown in a World Colonial Exposition in Paris. Unfortunately, a fire in the exhibition hall demolished the Dutch East Indies' exhibition pavilion and destroyed most of the objects. The museum received some insurance money as compensation and the following year these funds were used to build the old ceramics room, the bronze room, and both treasure rooms on the second floor.
caption: The Dutch pavilion in Paris Colonial Exposition 1931 that was burned down in a fire destroying some of the museum's collections.
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