Our fifth Perth Civic Trust blue plaque was unveiled on 23rd August 2026 in Tay Street, on the facade of 66 Tay Street which housed the original Natural History Museum of Perthshire Society of Natural Science which opened in 1881.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as PSNS was formed in 1867, Dr Francis Buchanan White said in his inaugural address on 7th March 1867. \u201cAs regards the formation of a Museum, the Society, while not neglecting to form a good general typical collection, should more especially devote itself to the acquisition of as perfect a museum as possible of all natural products of the County\u201d. An ambition of the Society was to establish a museum with a fine natural history collection. It was to be as comprehensive as possible in its collections of Perthshire\u2019s rocks, minerals, plants and animals. In 1877 Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, the President, proposed the society should build the museum, including a library and lecture hall, in Tay Street. The businessman Robert Pullar of Perth\u2019s North British Dyeworks, contributed generously to the cost of the building. After Sir Thomas\u2019s unexpected death, the new museum, opened in 1881 was named in his honour, the Moncreiffe Memorial Natural History Museum. The museum was educational and free. Crowds flocked to the opening event and there were upwards of 7,000 visitors in its first nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to exhibits, 66 Tay Street also housed the PSNS Library, an essential tool for scientific study, long before the computer and the internet. From its founding in 1867 the Society accumulated a vast collection of books and journals. It is, perhaps, the most complete Victorian natural history library outside of a university or a national library. There are around 2,500 books in the collection, most were published in the 19th century. By 1885 the museum was becoming overcrowded. Fundraising began and ten years later an extended museum was opened with a dedicated space for displays of Perthshire\u2019s natural history. Mr Alex Rodger was appointed as the Society\u2019s first paid curator. The running and salary costs of the new museum were difficult for the Society to sustain and the museum and its collections were offered to the community. Perth Town Council took over ownership in 1902 and the museum was run by a joint committee. In 1935 the Town Council opened Perth Museum and Art Gallery in George Street. The old museum in Tay Street closed and its natural history collections and Library were moved to the new building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the New Perth Museum opened in 2024 many of the original exhibits moved and are on display there. The PSNS Library remains in the possession of the Society at Perth Art Gallery and can be accessed by arrangement. The buildings comprising 62-72 Tay Street, which included the Natural History Museum, Working Boys\u2019 and Girls\u2019 Club and the former Opera House ( later Baptist Church, until it succumbed to fire in1984) were designed by early PSNS member John Young CE who was Secretary of the Society from 1875 to 1886. The later extension to the Museum was designed by his son, George Penrose Kennedy Young (a PSNS member from 1872) who went on to design many of Perth\u2019s outstanding buildings including General Accident\u2019s Offices at 2 High Street, Northern District Primary School and York Corner, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The black and white photos shown here are all courtesy of Perth Museum and Art Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Our fifth Perth Civic Trust blue plaque was unveiled on 23rd August 2026 in Tay Street, on the facade of 66 Tay Street which housed the original Natural History Museum of Perthshire Society of Natural Science which opened in 1881. As soon as PSNS was formed in 1867, Dr Francis Buchanan White said in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,851],"tags":[857,861,859,858,477],"class_list":["post-3799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-trust-plaques","tag-francis-buchanan-white","tag-perth-museum","tag-perthshire-society-of-natural-science","tag-psns","tag-tay-street","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3800,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3799\/revisions\/3800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perthcivictrust.org.uk\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}