Exhibits in a Shanghai show include animal specimens dating back a century, reports Zhang Kun.

An ongoing exhibition at the Shanghai History Museum offers a glimpse into one of China's first museums, dating back to the 19th century.

Centurial Collection - Early History of Museology in Shanghai is jointly hosted by the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai History Museum.

A large proportion of the 151 objects on display belonged to the original collection of the Museum of North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (NCBRAS). Among the exhibits are animal specimens dating back 100 years, bronze and ceramic items from ancient China, as well as the first reproduction of the skull of the Peking Man. The original piece of the cranium of the primitive human was lost in the World War II.

"We have not only brought out the original specimen and objects from the former Royal Asiatic Society, but also arranged the exhibition according to historical documents and pictures," says Huang Ji, curator of the exhibition, and a scholar with the Shanghai Museum of Natural History.

For example, the first specimen of the giant panda is exhibited in a "scenic box" that imitates the original dwelling environment of the animal, just like it was displayed in the original museum of NCBRAS.

"The exhibition has been designed to create an experience reminiscent of the original NCBRAS museum," he said. Visitors can also download mobile applications to their smartphones to enjoy an interactive experience to learn about the exhibits and museum history.

"The original building of the Asiatic Society museum is now occupied, so we can't have the exhibition in the original location," says Wang Xiaoming, director of Shanghai History Museum. "A historical piece of architecture built in the 1930s, our museum is an ideal venue to reproduce the original environment."

The museum of NCBRAS "was one of the first museums in China," says Yang Zhigang, director of Shanghai Museum. "The basic functions of a proper museum, which were exhibition, research and collection, had all been realized at that time."

It started from the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society, which was founded by 18 expatriates led by E.C. Bridgman (1801-1861), America's first missionary to China, in 1857. Two years later, the society joined the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, to be its North China branch.

In 1872, the NCBRAS clubhouse began to open to the public, and in 1874, the Museum of the NCBRAS was officially open at No 5 Yuanmingyuan Road (now 20 Huqiu Road in Huangpu district) in Shanghai. During the same period, another museum was founded by the Catholic priests in Shanghai, which later became part of the Aurora University Shanghai.

Both museums closed in 1952, and the collections were given to the Shanghai Municipality, later joining the public museums of the city, mainly the Shanghai Museum of Natural History, a branch of the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology.

Yang shared stories of the first museums of Shanghai at a forum on July 17, and said that these museums wrote an important page in the urban history of Shanghai.

In 1905, the Nantong Museum was established in Jiangsu province, as the first public museum founded by the Chinese. Museums sprouted in other parts of China around the same period. Together they marked the rapid development of museology in China, Yang said.

The forum, The spirit of natural history in the metropolis, took place at Shanghai Museum over July 17-19, when museum directors and administrators, from both home and abroad, discussed the history of museology, and how museums impact urban culture in the contemporary world.

China's museums have seen rapid development in recent decades, said Guan Qiang, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. There are currently 5,136 museums in China, 230 times the number in 1949, he noted.

In 2017, more than 20,000 exhibitions took place in these museums, with some 900 million visits recorded.

Centurial Collection - Early History of Museology in Shanghai is free of charge and open to the public at the Shanghai History Museum. It runs through Oct 21.