National Taiwan Museum (Former Taiwan Governor-General Museum)

The National Taiwan Museum (國立臺灣博物館), originally established as the Taiwan Governor-General's Museum (臺灣總督府民政部殖產局附屬博物館), is the oldest museum in Taiwan. It was officially opened on October 24, 1908 by the Japanese colonial government to commemorate the completion of the west coast trunk railway line connecting Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung (then Takao) in the south — a critical infrastructural achievement of colonial Taiwan.

The museum's initial collection comprised over 10,000 items focused on natural history specimens, geological samples, and ethnographic materials from Taiwan's indigenous populations, reflecting Japan's systematic efforts to inventory and exploit the island's resources through scientific documentation. The institution served as the primary vehicle for the colonial government's research into tropical biology, geology, anthropology, and indigenous assimilation policies.

In 1913, funds were raised to construct a permanent building in memory of the fourth Governor-General Kodama Gentarō and Chief Civil Administrator Gotō Shinpei, who had played pivotal roles in modernizing Taiwan's colonial infrastructure. The new building, designed by Japanese architects Nomura Ichirō (野村一郎) and Araki Eiichi (荒木榮一) — both technicians from the Taiwan Governor-General's Office — was completed in 1915 and inaugurated within the Taihoku New Park (臺北新公園, now 228 Peace Memorial Park). The building's distinctive Renaissance-inspired architecture features a symmetrical facade with Doric columns evoking Greek temple aesthetics, a pedimented gable, and a central dome modeled on Roman precedents such as the Pantheon. It became one of the most prominent public buildings in colonial Taipei.

During World War II, the museum continued operations under wartime constraints until the Government-General closed it temporarily from October 3, 1944. The building sustained damage during the war, necessitating postwar repairs. After Japan's surrender in 1945 and the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China, it was reorganized in November 1945 as the Taiwan Provincial Museum under the Taiwan Provincial Administrative Executive Office and, in 1949, renamed the Taiwan Provincial Museum (臺灣省立博物館) under the Taiwan Provincial Government. The first floor temporarily served as the library of the Administrative Executive Office, while the upper floor continued to host exhibitions of natural history specimens and anthropological artifacts inherited from the Japanese era.

In 1999, following the streamlining of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the museum was transferred to central government administration and renamed the National Taiwan Museum. In 1998, the Ministry of the Interior designated the building as a National Heritage site, recognizing its architectural and historical significance. Today the museum complex has expanded to include the Nanmen Park branch (in the former Monopoly Bureau camphor refinery), the Railway Department Park, and the Paleontology Hall (Land Bank Exhibition Hall, opened in 2010) in the former Nippon Kangyō Bank building across the street.

The museum has existed continuously since 1908 and has occupied the same building since 1915, making it an irreplaceable link to Taiwan's colonial past and a living monument to the cultural policies of the Japanese Empire in its overseas territories.