Fort Museum

The Fort Museum is a history museum located inside Fort St. George on Rajaji Salai in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Housed in a former British colonial building within India's first British fortress, established in 1644, the museum was opened in 1948 and is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India. It is notable for its collection of colonial-era artifacts, weapons, uniforms, coins, medals, and portraits documenting British rule and the early history of Madras.

Visitors can expect a three-storey heritage museum building inside the Fort St. George complex, which houses administrative buildings of the Tamil Nadu government. Inside, galleries display colonial-period artifacts including weapons, uniforms, flags, coins, medals, porcelain, paintings and portraits of British officials. The museum is organized chronologically across floors with well-labelled exhibits, offering a quiet, educational walk through the early colonial history of Madras and the British East India Company period.

Fort St. George was built in 1644 by the British East India Company under Francis Day and is considered the first British fortress in India. The Fort Museum, established in 1948 after independence, is housed in a building within the fort that formerly served as a barracks and later as the Madras Bank. It preserves artifacts from the British colonial period, including the early administration of Madras, military history, and the development of the city as a major colonial settlement.

The museum documents the colonial heritage and early urban history of Chennai (formerly Madras) and showcases Indo-British cultural interactions through its collection of uniforms, flags, paintings, and everyday objects from the colonial era. It is an important educational resource for understanding the administrative and military history associated with Fort St. George.