Portal:Museums

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Introduction

The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino in Santiago, Chile

A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying and/or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers and specialists. Museums host a much wider range of objects than a library, and usually focus on a specific theme, such as the arts, science, natural history or local history. Public museums that host exhibitions and interactive demonstrations are often tourist attractions, and many attract large numbers of visitors from outside their host country, with the most visited museums in the world attracting millions of visitors annually.

Since the establishment of the earliest known museum in ancient times, museums have been associated with academia and the preservation of rare items. Museums originated as private collections of interesting items, and not until much later did the emphasis on educating the public take root. (Full article...)

Selected museum

Entrance to the Croatian Natural History Museum

The Croatian Natural History Museum (Croatian: Hrvatski prirodoslovni muzej) is the oldest and biggest natural history museum and the main body for natural history research, preservation and collection in Croatia. Located on Dimitrije Demeter Street in Gornji Grad, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of the Croatian capital Zagreb, it owns one of the biggest museum collections in Croatia, with over 2 million artefacts, including over 1.1 million animal specimens. It was founded in 1846 as the "National Museum". The National Museum was later split up into five museums, three of which were in 1986 merged as departments of the newly named Croatian Natural History Museum. The museum contains a large scientific library open to the public, and publishes the first Croatian natural history scientific journal, Natura Croatica.

The permanent display of the Croatian Natural History Museum consists of mineralogical, petrographical and zoological collections, as well as two permanent exhibits in the atrium: the Rock Map of Croatia and the Geological Pole. It is home to the remains of the Neanderthal from Krapina. As of 2021, the museum is closed pending the completion of reconstruction following the 2020 Zagreb earthquake. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that State Auto Mutual's life-size nativity scene was donated to the Museum of Catholic Art and History in 2023 for display at St. Joseph Cathedral?
... that one of the buildings that house the Safe House Museum was where Martin Luther King Jr. hid from the Ku Klux Klan on 21 March 1968, just weeks before he was assassinated?
... that the Casa Rull in Andorra was said to be occupied by "fat peasants"?
... that the names of Harvey Meyerhoff, Elie Wiesel, and Bill Clinton are carved into the cornerstone of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, according to Meyerhoff's daughter?
... that the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is the only contemporary art museum in the country with a permanent collection?
... that two railroad boxcars were needed to ship William W. Jefferis's vast mineral collection to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History?

Get involved

For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Museums-related articles, see WikiProject Museums.

Selected images

Image 1The old Ashmolean Museum building in Oxford, England (from Museum)
Image 2Workers rallying at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (from Museum)
Image 3Visitors examining fossils displayed at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, Iran (from Museum)
Image 4Paintings arranged in groupings in the "salon style" (from Museum)
Image 5The Louvre in 1853 (from Museum)
Image 6Exhibit planning (from Museum)
Image 7Construction of Titanic Belfast in 2010 (from Museum)
Image 8A guided tour group at the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City, Mexico (from Museum)
Image 9Collections storage for three-dimensional historic artifacts. (from Museum)
Image 10In museums, paintings, framed and unframed, are normally hung on sliding or fixed racking. (from Museum)
Image 11Classic cars displayed at an automotive museum, which could be considered both a history and technology museum (from Museum)
Image 12An exhibition of the remains of Native Americans at the Royal Ontario Museum in 1908 (from Museum)
Image 13Archive Processing rooms provide a space for archivists to arrange and describe archival materials to make them accessible to researchers. (from Museum)
Image 14Officials blamed a lack of funding for a 2018 fire at the National Museum of Brazil that destroyed over 90% of its contents (from Museum)
Image 15Restoration of a gilded mirror by a conservator (from Museum)
Image 16An honours board listing the directors of a museum in Auckland, New Zealand (from Museum)
Image 17The Nantong Museum, the first Chinese-sponsored museum (from Museum)
Image 18Museum textile storage includes rolled storage racks, hanging wardrobe and garments shelving, and cabinets. (from Museum)
Image 19A curator and exhibit designer dressing a mannequin for an exhibit (from Museum)
Image 20Moai figure at the British Museum (from Museum)