The Fiji Museum was founded on a collection presented to the Suva Town Board by William Allardyce in 1904. In the following years, other collections were donated, all of which were displayed at the Town Hall. After a fire destroyed part of the collection in 1919, the museum was moved to a concrete building at Draiba. In 1930, it was moved to the upper floor of Carnegie Library, where it remained for twenty four years. During World War II, the collection was stored in various places on the island, some of it suffering greatly from the damp. The old wing of the present building was completed in 1954; the new wing in 1971. In recent years, the focus of the museum has moved from being merely a repository of artifacts to being a research and educational institution. The staff engages in archeological research, the collection and preservation of Fiji's oral tradition, the publication of materials on languages and cultures, and programmes designed to make Fiji's youth more aware of its various cultural backgrounds.