Patna Museum

Patna Museum, the oldest museum in Bihar, was set up in 1917 under Sir Edward Gait, a few years after Bihar was separated from Bengal, and its first exhibits were kept in a room of the Patna High Court. Land was granted in 1925, and architect Rai Bahadur Vishnuswaroop designed an Indo-Saracenic building with a central chhatri, corner domes and jharokha windows. Governor Sir Stephenson opened it in 1929.

For decades it held Bihar's main historical collection, which grew past 75,000 objects, including terracotta and stone sculpture and a large coin collection. When the Bihar Museum opened in 2015, objects from before 1764 moved there, and Patna Museum kept the later period. Its galleries include one on Dr Rajendra Prasad, India's first President, preserved animals, a Persian Shahnama manuscript and a 53-foot fossil tree.