The Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur, Rajasthan was designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, Chief Engineer of the Jaipur State and advisor to the Maharaja of Jaipur. It was named in honor of the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, who laid its foundation stone on his visit to Jaipur in 1876. Interestingly, upon its inception in 1876, Sawai Ram Singh II intended the building to be a town hall, and it was only in 1880, that his successor Sawai Madho Singh II decided it would be a museum which would display the arts of local craftsmen. Completed in 1887, the museum became a permanent home for exhibits and artifacts collected from various parts of India.
The Albert Hall at Jaipur is an example of exquisite Indo – Saracenic architecture. It combines Indo – Islamic architectural elements inspired by the Mughal monuments in Delhi, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, with traditional Rajput elements prevalent in its context and realized in the locally available stone.
The museum has an extensive collection of various types of indigenous art and crafts - Industrial (Metal) Art, Arms and Armor, Sculptures, International Art, Pottery, Miniature Paintings, In-Situ Paintings, ivory, jewelry, Musical Instruments, Furniture and Woodwork, coins, Garments and Textiles, Clay Models and Masks and carpets.
Murals based on various themes – depicting scenes from the Ramayana, reproductions of paintings from illustrations in the Persian Razmnama made for the Mughal emperor Akbar, European, Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and Babylonian civilizations among others forming an integral part of the building fabric and are an exhibit themselves.
