Other highlights include Ancient Egyptian exhibitions, one of Sir Elton John's extravagant suits, the Jean Muir Collection of costume and a large kinetic sculpture named the Millennium Clock.

[8] In 1697 Robert Sibbald presented the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine with a natural history collection he had put together with his friend Andrew Balfour, who had recently died.

Daniel Defoe, in A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain published in 1737, called it "a fine Musæum, or Chamber of Rarities, which are worth seeing, and which, in some things, is not to be match'd in Europe".

In 1767 the museum became the responsibility of the first Regius Professor of natural history, Robert Ramsey, then in 1779 his successor John Walker recorded that he had found the collection was in poor condition.

Jameson's natural history course held practical classes three times a week in "the great museum he had collected for illustrating his teaching", including description of exhibits and identification of mineral specimens.

In 1854, the government chose to transfer the university's collection into an enlarged natural history museum combined with a new institution educating the public about commerce and industrial arts.

It established the Industrial Museum of Scotland under the direction of the Board of Trade's Science and Art Department in London, and approved purchase of the site.

The brief was to emulate The Museum of Practical Geology of "London, but embracing, in addition, the economic products of the animal and vegetable kingdoms".

The university's Regius Professor of natural history continued as Keeper of its collection, with access to specimens to illustrate lectures, and also reported directly to the Board.

In 1855 George Wilson was appointed as the museum's first director, he pressed ahead with preparations while the Board of Works organised designs, but died in 1859.

Prince Alfred formally opened the first phase on 19 May 1866,[21][29] with public access to the east wing and about a third of the Great Hall (now the Grand Gallery).

The natural history collection took up the large hall in the east wing (now Animal World),[29][30] a corridor link to the university formed a "Bridge of Sighs" over West College Street.

For a reception in the Spring of 1871, the museum stored refreshments in the "Bridge of Sighs" corridor, but students found this and no drinks were left for the Edinburgh worthies, so a door restricted access from the university.

[36] This became intolerably cramped, eventually James Hartley Ashworth raised funds and a new teaching laboratory and museum was opened in 1929 at the King's Buildings campus.

[18] The central section of the Museum of Science and Art building, including the rest of the Great Hall, was completed in 1874 and formally opened to the public on 14 January 1875.

In 1975, a fictitious bird called the Bare-fronted Hoodwink (known for its innate ability to fly away from observers before they could accurately identify it) was put on display.

[7][49] Staff at the museum took several days of strike action at points during 2015 and 2016, called by the Public and Commercial Services Union.

[50][51][52] In August 2023, the museum began preparing for the return of the Ni'isjoohl totem pole to the Nisga'a people of British Columbia, Canada.

[26] The exterior, designed in a Venetian Renaissance style, contrasts sharply with the light-flooded main hall or Grand Gallery, inspired by The Crystal Palace.

The major redevelopment completed in 2011 by Gareth Hoskins Architects uses former storage areas to form a vaulted Entrance Hall of 1,400 m2 (15,000 sq ft) at street level with visitor facilities.

[55][56] It is clad in golden Moray sandstone,[55][56] which one of its architects, Gordon Benson, has called "the oldest exhibit in the building", a reference to Scottish geology.