Nigerian National Museum

**Nigerian National Museum**
	View of the museum's exterior
Established	1957
Location	Onikan, Lagos Island, city of Lagos
Collections	Nigerian art, including pieces of statuary and carvings and archaeological and ethnographic exhibits
Founder	Kenneth Murray

The Nigerian National Museum is a national museum of Nigeria, located in the city of Lagos. The museum has a notable collection of , including pieces of statuary and carvings and archaeological and ethnographic exhibits.^[1] Of note is a terracotta human head known as the (c. 900 to 200 BC), part of the Nok culture. The piece is named after Jema'a, the village where it was uncovered.^[2] It is located at Onikan, Lagos Island.

History[]

The museum was founded in 1957 by the English archaeologist Kenneth Murray.^[3]^[4] The purpose with the construction of this museum was to preserve different historical artifacts of Nigeria.^[5] During the first decade of the museum's existence, the British Museum gave the Nigerian National Museum two plaques and other artifacts.^[6]^[7] In 2018, a virtual tour of the museum was added using an adapted version of Google Street View along with other tourist sites in Nigeria.^[8]

Collections[]

The museum contains collections of artifacts belonging to different cultures of the ethnic groups of Nigeria, estimated at 47,000 objects^[9] of different materials such as wood, ivory, metal and terracotta, among the artifacts include masks, textiles, drums, dane guns and wooden figures.^[10] Among the artifacts, in the Yoruba section, the museum includes Egungun costumes and clay pots.^[11] The museum has a collection of statues dating from different periods of Nigeria's history.^[12] The museum also contains traditional musical instruments such as sansas, fiddles and flutes.^[13]

The museum has contained works of art by Nigerian artists such as Nike Davies-Okundaye, Abiodun Olaku, Djakow Kassi, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Bolaji Ogunwo, Yusuf Durodola, Nosa Iyobhabha, Duke Asidere,^[14] Ben Enwonwu, Nathaniel Hodonu,^[15] Northcote W. Thomas, Kelani Abass^[16] and Elizabeth Ekpetorson.^[17] The museum contains ancient crowns, Royal regalias, artifacts belonging to the Kingdom of Benin, cultural objects belonging to the Ibibio people, Igbo-Ukwu bronze artifacts, stone monoliths of the Oron culture^[18] and terracottas belonging to the Nok culture.^[19] The museum also contains photographs of the different presidents of the states of Nigeria.^[20] In the textile section, there is a collection of batik fabrics.^[21] The museum also has Ere figurines.^[9], photographs on the colonization of Nigeria^[22] and exhibits related to the culture of Ifẹ, an ancient Yoruba city.^[13]

The museum contains a variety of sculptures among them are the grave sculptures of the Dakakari people who inhabit Sokoto State, the purpose of these sculptures are used in graves to commemorate the death of an important person such as a warrior, social leader or a chief. The museum also contains a sculpture of a Sukur woman in traditional dress from Adamawa State. At the entrance of the museum, also with a sculpture of a deity called Chukwu, of Igbo spirituality. The museum also houses stone sculptures of the Ekoi people.^[15] The museum also has sculptures of animals that are used in different cultures of the ethnic groups of Nigeria.^[23]