Raj Dinakar Kelkar Museum, Pune, Maharashtra India

The Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum is a one-man collection of Padmashree Late Dr. D.G. Kelkar (1896 - 1990). The museum is situated in the heart of Pune and has a collection of about 21,000 priceless artifacts, spread over an area of three floors. Upon my visit to the museum, I identified a scope of improvement within the internal communication media used such as signages, artifact descriptions and maps to guide you through. Hence, this whole new system was designed with a new visual language, identity and guidelines.  

Dr. Dinkar Kelkar started collecting exhibits around 1920 and one by one, section by section he raised the collections to around 15,000 objects of great attraction till the year 1960. He was very much fond of showing these exhibits to his friends and visitors in the same way as he wanted them to grasp his poems. Gradually the collection became a point of great attraction even to the visitors abroad. Dr. Kelkar could then easily win the minds of the authorities of the local bodies and of the State Govt. as well as of private institutions all over India, who came forward to help him to further collect the exhibits and convert the collection into a Regional Museum for Western India.
    
It was to the credit of Shri. Y.B. Chavan , the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Shri. P.J. Chinmulgund, the then Education Secretary of the State Govt. that the one man collection could take the shape of a real Museum. In fact the names of such institutions, state - authorities and luminaries who contributed towards the building of this Museum are too many to be enumerated here.

This museum was commissioned by Dr. Dinkar Kelker, to preserve the collections that had made all through his life of the number of artifacts. Original objective behind construction of this museum was to immortalize the name of his only son, Raja, who happened to meet an untimely death. The building comprises of three stories. Wide gamut of watch-worthy sculptures can be sighted which were made during 14th century. Also, the treasure trove in the museum incorporates varied sorts of armaments, musical instruments and also wide gamut of ornaments fabricated using ivory, gold and silvery. Also an array of artworks of number of renowned Indian artists and painters has been preserved. The biggest of cynosures is Mastani Mahal that gives fairly good deal of ideas regarding the palace, wife of Peshwa Baji rao I used to live in. 

As a result of this public appreciation Dr. Kelkar decided in the year 1962 to hand -over his collection to the Dept. of Archaeology, Govt. of Maharashtra for developing it as a Regional Museum with better display and maintenance of its exhibits.