This book tells the story of how the collection of bagpipes in National Museums Scotland came from modest beginnings to become a large collection of international significance. Foundations were established with a small exhibition in the then Ntional Museum of Antiquities in 1976, 'Pipes, Harps & Fiddles', with about two dozen items and the realisation that there was a gap in Scotland's national collections to be filled. There are now over 1,800 items in the collection. The collecting policy was: to form a representative national collection of Scottish and British bagpipes; to broaden the collection with examples of kindred instruments from Europe; and, to deepen the collection with the acquisition of parts of instruments, the tools of turnery and manufacture, examples of bagpipe music and ephemera to reflect the character of the tradition. The other decision, realised here, was to publish the history of the instrument especially as represented in this 'national collection of a nation treasure'.