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Museum Information

A museum is an institution that houses and cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary.[1] Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. The continuing acceleration in the digitization of information, combined with the increasing capacity of digital information storage, is causing the traditional model of museums (i.e. as static “collections of collections” of three-dimensional specimens and artifacts) to expand to include virtual exhibits and high-resolution images of their collections for perusal, study, and exploration from any place with Internet connectivity.

Early museums began as the private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts.

The museums of ancient times, such as the Musaeum of Alexandria, would be equivalent to a modern graduate institute.

Contents

History

The State Historical Museum in Moscow Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City

Early museums began as the private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts. These were often displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities. Public access was often possible for the "respectable", especially to private art collections, but at the whim of the owner and his staff. The oldest such museum in evidence was Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum, dating from c. 530 BCE and devoted to Mesopotamian antiquities; it apparently had sufficient traffic as to warrant a labels for the ordered collection.

The oldest public museums in the world opened in Rome during the Renaissance. However, many significant museums in the world were not founded until the 18th century and the Age of Enlightenment:

The Orthodox Church, later an Ottoman mosque, and now a museum, Hagia Sophia was once the pride of the Byzantine Empire. Historically located in Constantinople, is now modern day Istanbul, Turkey

These "public" museums, however, were often accessible only by the middle and upper classes. It could be difficult to gain entrance. In London for example, prospective visitors to the British Museum had to apply in writing for admission. Even by 1800 it was possible to have to wait two weeks for an admission ticket.[citation needed] Visitors in small groups were limited to stays of two hours.[citation needed] In Victorian times in England it became popular for museums to be open on a Sunday afternoon (the only such facility allowed to do so) to enable the opportunity for "self improvement" of the other - working - classes.[citation needed]

The first truly public museum was the Louvre Museum in Paris,[citation needed] opened in 1793 during the French Revolution, which enabled for the first time in history free access to the former French royal collections for people of all stations and status. The fabulous art treasures collected by the French monarchy over centuries were accessible to the public three days each "décade" (the 10-day unit which had replaced the week in the French Republican Calendar). The Conservatoire du muséum national des Arts (National Museum of Arts's Conservatory) was charged with organizing the Louvre as a national public museum and the centerpiece of a planned national museum system. As Napoléon I conquered the great cities of Europe, confiscating art objects as he went, the collections grew and the organizational task became more and more complicated. After Napoleon was defeated in 1815, many of the treasures he had amassed were gradually returned to their owners (and many were not). His plan was never fully realized, but his concept of a museum as an agent of nationalistic fervor had a profound influence throughout Europe.

American museums eventually joined European museums as the world's leading centers for the production of new knowledge in their fields of interest. A period of intense museum building, in both an intellectual and physical sense was realized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (this is often called "The Museum Period" or "The Museum Age"). While many American museums, both Natural History museums and Art museums alike, were founded with the intention of focusing on the scientific discoveries and artistic developments in North America, many moved to emulate their European counterparts in certain ways (including the development of Classical collections from ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia and Rome). Universities became the primary centers for innovative research in the United States well before the start of the Second World War. Nevertheless, museums to this day contribute new knowledge to their fields and continue to build collections that are useful for both research and display.

Purpose

View of the Winter Palace from the Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, home of the Hermitage Museum.

Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Many times, museums concentrate on the host region's culture.

Although most museums do not allow physical contact with the associated artifacts, there are some that are interactive and encourage a more hands-on approach. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of subject matter and introduced many interactive exhibits, which give the public the opportunity to make choices and engage in activities that may vary the experience from person to person. With the advent of the internet, there are growing numbers of virtual exhibits, i.e. web versions of exhibits showing images and playing recorded sound.

archaeological finds in a museum in Canosa di Puglia

Museums are usually open to the general public, sometimes charging an admission fee. Some museums are publicly funded and have no entrance fee, either permanently or on special days, e.g. once per week or year.

Museums are usually not run for the purpose of making a profit, unlike private galleries which more often engage in the sale of objects. There are governmental museums, non-governmental or non-profit museums, and privately owned or family museums. Museums can be a reputable and generally trusted source of information about cultures and history.

Definitions include: "permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment, for the purposes of education, study, and enjoyment", by the International Council of Museums;[5] and "Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artifacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society," by the UK Museums Association.[6]

Types

Types of museums vary, from very large collections in major cities, covering many of the categories below, to very small museums covering either a particular location in a general way, or a particular subject, such as an individual notable person. Categories include: fine arts, applied arts, craft, archaeology, anthropology and ethnology, history, cultural history, military history, science, technology, children's museums, maps, natural history, numismatics, botanical and zoological gardens and philately. Within these categories many museums specialize further, e.g. museums of modern art, local history, aviation history, agriculture or geology. A museum normally houses a core collection of important selected objects in its field. Objects are formally accessioned by being registered in the museum's collection with an artifact number and details recorded about their provenance. The persons in charge of the collection and of the exhibits are known as curators.

Gold Museum, Bogotá Colombia.

Archaeology museums

A reconstruction of a Neanderthal child at Archaeological Museum of Bandar Abbas, Iran

Archaeology museums specialize in the display of archaeological artifacts. Many are in the open air, such as the Acropolis of Athens and the Roman Forum. Others display artifacts found in archaeological sites inside buildings. Some, such as the Western Australian Museum, exhibit maritime archaeological materials. These appear in its Shipwreck Galleries, a wing of the Maritime Museum. This Museum has also developed a 'museum-without-walls' through a series of underwater wreck trails.

Art museums

Main article: Art museum Museum of Modern Art

An Art museum, also known as an art gallery, is a space for the exhibition of art, usually in the form of art objects from the visual arts, primarily paintings, illustrations, and sculpture. Collections of drawings and old master prints are often not displayed on the walls, but kept in a print room. There may be collections of applied art, including ceramics, metalwork, furniture, artist's books and other types of object. Video art is often screened.

The first publicly owned museum in Europe was the Amerbach-Cabinet in Basel, originally a private collection sold to the city in 1661 and public since 1671 (now Kunstmuseum Basel).[7] The Uffizi Gallery in Florence was initially conceived as a palace for the offices of Florentian magistrates (hence the name), it later evolved into a display place for many of the paintings and sculpture collected by the Medici family or commissioned by them. After the house of Medici was extinguished, the art treasures remained in Florence, forming one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public. Another early public museum was the British Museum in London, which opened to the public in 1759.[4] It was a "universal museum" with very varied collections covering art, applied art, archaeology, anthropology, history, and science, and a library. The science collections, library, paintings and modern sculpture have since been found separate homes, leaving history, archaeology, non-European and pre-Renaissance art, and prints and drawings.[citation needed]

The specialised art museum is considered a fairly modern invention, the first being the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg which was established in 1764.[citation needed]

The Louvre in Paris was established in 1793, soon after the French Revolution when the royal treasures were declared for the people.[8] The Czartoryski Museum in Kraków was established in 1796 by Princess Izabela Czartoryska.[9] This showed the beginnings of removing art collections from the private domain of aristocracy and the wealthy into the public sphere, where they were seen as sites for educating the masses in taste and cultural refinement.

History museums

Museum of the Filipino People, Manila

History museums cover the knowledge of history and its relevance to the present and future. Some cover specialized curatorial aspects of history or a particular locality; others are more general. Such museums contain a wide range of objects, including documents, artifacts of all kinds, art, archaeological objects. Antiquities museums specialize in more archaeological findings.

A common type of history museum is a historic house. A historic house may be a building of special architectural interest, the birthplace or home of a famous person, or a house with an interesting history. Historic sites can also become museums, particularly those that mark public crimes, such as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum or Robben Island. Another type of history museum is a living museum. A living museum is where people recreate a time period to the fullest extent, including buildings, clothes and language. It is similar to historical reenactment.

See also: Medical History Museum (disambiguation)

Maritime museums

Main article: Maritime museum

Maritime museums specialize in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on seas and lakes. They may include a historic ship (or a replica) made accessible as a museum ship.

Military and war museums

See also Category: Military and war museums
The Canadian War Museum

Military museums specialize in military histories; they are often organized from a national point of view, where a museum in a particular country will have displays organized around conflicts in which that country has taken part. They typically include displays of weapons and other military equipment, uniforms, wartime propaganda and exhibits on civilian life during wartime, and decorations, among others. A military museum may be dedicated to a particular service or area, such as the Imperial War Museum Duxford for military aircraft, Deutsches Panzermuseum for tanks or the International Spy Museum for espionage, or more generalist, such as the Canadian War Museum or the Musée de l'Armée.

Mobile museums

Mobile museum is a term applied to museums that make exhibitions from a vehicle, such as a van. Some institutions, such as St. Vital Historical Society and the Walker Art Center, use the term to refer to a portion of their collection that travels to sites away from the museum for educational purposes. Other mobile museums have no "home site", and use travel as their exclusive means of presentation.

Natural history museums

For a more comprehensive list, see List of natural history museums. The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Museums of natural history and natural science typically exhibit work of the natural world. The focus lies on nature and culture. Exhibitions may educate the masses about dinosaurs, ancient history, and anthropology. Evolution, environmental issues, and biodiversity are major areas in natural science museums. Notable museums of this type include the Natural History Museum in London, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. A rather minor Natural history museum is The Midwest Museum of Natural History is located in Sycamore, Illinois.

Open-air museums

Main article: Open-air museum The open-air museum of King Oscar II at Bygdøy near Oslo in the museum guide of 1888. The World's first open-air museum was founded in 1881. An old farmhouse at the Salzburger Freilichtmuseum in Großgmain near Salzburg.

Open-air museums collect and re-erect old buildings at large outdoor sites, usually in settings of re-created landscapes of the past. The first one was King Oscar II's collection near Oslo in Norway, opened in 1881. In 1907 it was incorporated into the Norsk Folkemuseum.[10] In 1891, inspired by a visit to the open-air museum in Oslo, Artur Hazelius founded the Skansen in Stockholm, which became the model for subsequent open-air museums in Northern and Eastern Europe, and eventually in other parts of the world.[11] Most open-air museums are located in regions where wooden architecture prevail, as wooden structures may be translocated without substantial loss of authenticity.[citation needed] A more recent but related idea is realized in ecomuseums, which originated in France.[citation needed]

Science museums

For a more comprehensive list, see List of science museums. Museum of Science and Industry

Science museums and technology centers revolve around scientific achievements, and marvels and their history. To explain complicated inventions, a combination of demonstrations, interactive programs and thought-provoking media are used. Some museums may have exhibits on topics such as computers, aviation, railway museums, physics, astronomy, and the animal kingdom.

Science museums, in particular, may consist of planetaria, or large theatre usually built around a dome. Museums may have IMAX feature films, which may provide 3-D viewing or higher quality picture. As a result, IMAX content provides a more immersive experience for people of all ages.

Also new virtual museums, known as Net Museums, have recently been created. These are usually web sites belonging to real museums and containing photo galleries of items found in those real museums. This new presentation is very useful for people living far away who wish to see the contents of these museums.

Specialized museums

Museum of Toys and Automata in Verdú, Spain

A number of different museums exist to demonstrate a variety of topics. Music museums may celebrate the life and work of composers or musicians, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, or even Rimsky-Korsakov Apartment and Museum in St Petersburg (Russia). Other music museums include live music recitals such as the Handel House Museum in London. In Glendale, Arizona, The Bead Museum[12] fosters the appreciation and understanding of the global historical, cultural and artistic significance of beads and related artifacts. The permanent collection has beads from around the globe, including a 15,000 year old bead. Temporary exhibits are also available.

An example of a specialized museum, in this case devoted to horology, is the Cuckooland Museum in the United Kingdom, which hosts the world's largest and finest collection of antique cuckoo clocks.[13]

Museums targeted for youth, such as children's museums or toy museums in many parts of the world, often exhibit interactive and educational material on a wide array of topics, for example, the Museum of Toys and Automata in Spain. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an institution of the sports category. The Corning Museum of Glass is devoted to the art, history, and science of glass. The National Museum of Crime & Punishment explores the science of solving crimes. The Great American Dollhouse Museum in Danville, Kentucky, U.S.A., is depicts American social history in miniature.[14] Interpretation centres are modern museums or visitors centres that often use new means of communication with the public. In some cases, museums cover an extremely wide range of topics together, such as the Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, KS.

Virtual museums

A recent development, with the expansion of the web, is the establishment of virtual museums. Online initiatives like the Virtual Museum of Canada[15] and the National Museum of the United States Air Force provide physical museums with a web presence, as well as online curatorial platforms such as Rhizome.[16]

Some virtual museums have no counterpart in the real world, such as LIMAC (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima),[17] which has no physical location and might be confused with the city's own museum. The art historian Griselda Pollock elaborated a virtual feminist museum, spreading between classical art to contemporary art.[18]

Some real life museums are also using the internet for virtual tours and exhibitions. On March 23, Whitney Museum in New York organized what it called the first ever online Twitter museum tour.

Zoological parks and botanic gardens

Zoos are considered "living museums" Main article: Zoo

Although zoos and botanic gardens are not often thought of as museums, they are in fact "living museums". They exist for the same purpose as other museums: to educate, inspire action, and to study, develop and manage collections. They are also managed much like other museums and face the same challenges. Notable zoos include the Bronx Zoo in New York, the London Zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Saint Louis Zoological Park, the San Diego Zoo, Berlin Zoological Garden, the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Frankfurt Zoological Garden, Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and Zürich Zoologischer Garten in Switzerland. Notable botanic gardens include Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden and Royal Botanical Gardens (Ontario).

Management

Vatican Museums

The museum is usually run by a director, who has a curatorial staff that cares for the objects and arranges their display. Large museums often will have a research division or institute, which are frequently involved with studies related to the museum's items, as well as an education department, in charge of providing interpretation of the materials to the general public. The director usually reports to a higher body, such as a governmental department or a board of trustees.

Objects come to the collection through a variety of means. Either the museum itself or an associated institute may organize expeditions to acquire more items or documentation for the museum. More typically, however, museums will purchase or trade for artifacts or receive them as donations or bequests.

Miami Art Museum in Miami, Florida

For instance, a museum featuring Impressionist art may receive a donation of a Cubist work which simply cannot be fit into the museum's exhibits, but it can be used to help acquire a painting more central to the museum's focus. However, this process of acquiring objects outside the museum's purview in order to acquire more desirable objects is considered unethical by many museum professionals. Larger museums may have an "Acquisitions Department" whose staff is engaged full time for this purpose. Most museums have a collections policy to help guide what is and is not included in the collection.

Museums often cooperate to sponsor joint, often traveling, exhibits on particular subjects when one museum may not by itself have a collection sufficiently large or important. These exhibits have limited engagements and often depend upon an additional entry fee from the public to cover costs.

Museum planning

See also: Museum planning and Interpretive planning São Paulo Museum of Art in São Paulo, Brazil.

The design of museums has evolved throughout history. Interpretive museums, as opposed to art museums, have missions reflecting curatorial guidance through the subject matter which now include content in the form of images, audio and visual effects, and interactive exhibits. Museum creation begins with a museum plan, created through a museum planning process. The process involves identifying the museum's vision and the resources, organization and experiences needed to realize this vision. A feasibility study, analysis of comparable facilities and an interpretive plan are all developed as part of the museum planning process.

Some museum experiences have very few or no artifacts and do not necessarily call themselves museums; the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, being notable examples where there are few artifacts, but strong, memorable stories are told or information is interpreted. In contrast, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. uses many artifacts in their memorable exhibitions. Notably, despite their varying styles, the latter two were designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates.

Exhibition design

Main article: Exhibit design

Most mid-size and large museums employ exhibit design staff for graphic and environmental design projects, including exhibitions. In addition to traditional 2-D and 3-D designers and architects, these staff departments may include audio-visual specialists, software designers, audience research and evaluation specialists, writers, editors, and preparators or art handlers. These staff specialists may also be charged with supervising contract design or production services. The exhibit design process builds on the interpretive plan for an exhibit, determining the most effective, engaging and appropriate methods of communicating a message or telling a story. The process will often mirror the architectural process or schedule, moving from conceptual plan, through schematic design, design development, contract document, fabrication and installation. Museums of all sizes may also contract the outside services of exhibit fabrication businesses. Predator Exhibits, located in Ontario, Canada, is one such business.

Etymology

The English "museum" comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as "museums" (or rarely, "musea"). It is originally from the Greek Μουσεῖον (Mouseion), which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the Muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence a building set apart for study and the arts,[19] especially the Musaeum (institute) for philosophy and research at Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter about 280 BCE.[20] The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens.[21] However, Pausanias gives another place called "Museum", namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill and died there of old age and was subsequently buried there as well.[22]

Most visited museums

Main article: List of most visited art museums in the world

See also

References

  1. ^ Edward Porter Alexander, Mary Alexander; Alexander, Mary; Alexander, Edward Porter (2007-09). Museums in motion: an introduction to the history and functions of museums. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008 ISBN 0-7591-0509-X. ISBN 9780759105096. http://books.google.com/?id=owHSEk96qxQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Museums+history&q=. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
  2. ^ "Royal Armouries Museum". Royalarmouries.org. 1940-12-29. http://www.royalarmouries.org/collections/history-of-the-collection/museum-history/armouries-history/16th-17th-century. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
  3. ^ http://www.musee-arts-besancon.org/pages.php?idMenu=1&idPage=0&langue=1
  4. ^ a b c "The history of the British Museum". British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/history/general_history.aspx. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  5. ^ "ICOM Statutes". INternational Council of Museums. http://icom.museum/statutes.html#2. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  6. ^ (Definition adopted 1998)"Frequently asked questions". Museums Association. http://www.museumsassociation.org/faq. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  7. ^ H.C. Ackermann, The Basle Cabinets of Art and Curiosities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in: O. Impey & A. MacGregor (edd.), The Origins of Museums: The cabinet of curiosities in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, 2nd edition, London: House of Stratus 2001, pp. 81-90, quoted in Marta C. Lourenço, A Contribution to the History of University Museums and Collections in Europe, presentation at the UMAC 2002 Conference, Sydney/Canberra, Australia, 29/9-4/10/2002, available at http://publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/umac/2002/lourenco.html.
  8. ^ McClellan, Andrew (1999). Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum.... University of California Press. pp. 14–20. ISBN 0520221761. http://books.google.com/?id=UUxG3N-t750C&dq=inventing+the+louvre+luxembourg+gallery.
  9. ^ "History of The Czartoryski Museum". Czartoryski. http://www.czartoryski.org/museum.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  10. ^ Roede, Lars (1993. "The Open-air Museum Idea. An Early Contribution". Conference Report of the Association of European Open Air Museums 1991. Stockholm
  11. ^ Rentzhog, Sten (2007). Open air museums: The history and future of a visionary idea, Carlssons Jamtli Förlag, Stockholm and Östersund. ISBN 978-91-7948-208-4
  12. ^ "The Bead Museum". Beadmuseumaz.org. http://www.beadmuseumaz.org/. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
  13. ^ Times Online article; Time for a change: to 600 antique cuckoo clocks
  14. ^ "The Great American Dollhouse Museum". Thedollhousemuseum.com. http://www.thedollhousemuseum.com. Retrieved 2011-01-06.
  15. ^ "Virtual Museum of Canada - Musée virtuel du Canada". Virtual Museum of Canada - Musée virtuel du Canada. http://www.virtualmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  16. ^ "Rhizome". Rhizome. http://rhizome.org. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  17. ^ "LiMAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima". LiMAC. http://li-mac.org/. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  18. ^ Pollock, Griselda (2007). Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum. Routledge. ISBN 0415413745.
  19. ^ Findlen, Paula (1989). "The Museum: its classical etymology and renaissance genealogy". Journal of the History of Collections 1: 59–78. doi:10.1093/jhc/1.1.59 (inactive 2008-06-25). http://jhc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/1/1/59. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  20. ^ "Ptolemy I Soter, The First King of Ancient Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty". Tour Egypt. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ptolemy1.htm. Retrieved 2008-04-05.
  21. ^ Mouseion, def. 3, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus
  22. ^ Peter Levi, Pausanias Guide to Greece 1: Central Greece, p. 72-73 (Paus. 1.25.2)

Further reading

External links

Categories: Museums | Museology | Tourist activities | Greek loanwords

 

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