What comes to mind when you think of the word "museum"? Is it dinosaur skeletons behind a glass window or airplanes suspended from the ceiling? Or, do you think of paintings hanging on a wall or a quiet room full of past relics? All of these things and more are possible in museums.
We’ve all visited a museum at some point in our lives, whether it was during a school field trip or with family on vacation. Have you ever stopped to wonder how many people that museum impacted or why it came to be?
In this lesson, we will explore
Generally, a museum is a building that houses famous works of art, important artifacts, and historical objects or other items of cultural or scientific significance.
Well, it is a lot more than just a building with old stuff; it is the treasures that it contains that matter more. More importantly, a museum protects and cares for the things it has. Curators are the people who work in museums to protect the museum's objects, learn about them, and share their knowledge with the public.
Another key aspect of what makes a museum is making sure people can see the fantastic items they hold. Sometimes, a museum isn't able to display all the items that it has. For example, the British Museum has over 8 million objects but only a small percentage of these are put on a show because there isn't enough space.
The word "museum" comes from Ancient Greek "mouseion" which meant 'seat of Muses" and it was used for philosophical institutions or for a place for contemplation.
In Rome, the word "museum" was used for places for philosophical discussions.
It was in the 15th century that the word "museum" was used for the first time to describe something similar to modern museums. At that time, it was used for the collection of Lorenzo de Medici (an Italian statesman, banker, and de facto ruler of Florentine Italy).
Until the 17th century, it continued to be a name for collections of curiosities. For example, John Tradescant, a Royal Gardener in England, had traveled to different continents and made a collection of natural history, art, and ethnography which was called the "world of wonders in one closet shut." Later, after his death, his collection was moved to the University of Oxford where a special building was made for it. This building was opened to the public in 1683 and was named the Ashmolean Museum and is considered to be the first museum open to the public that held the name "museum". That marks the moment when “museum” started being an institution and not just a collection of items and it remained like that during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The earliest museums were private collections that were not of open nature and were only accessible to a narrow circle of people. They displayed rare and curious natural objects and artifacts. Some of them worked as “wonder rooms” or “cabinets of curiosities”.
Museums for the general public started opening in the Renaissance but many important museums started opening in the 18th century.
There are different types of museums.
General museums hold collections in more than one subject and are therefore sometimes known as multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary museums. Many were founded in the 18th, 19th, or early 20th centuries.
If you love art, there are 'art museums', also known as 'art galleries', that show not just paintings but also various types of art objects like sculptures, illustrations, photographs, drawings, ceramics, or metalwork. One of the most famous art museums is the Louvre in Paris, France. It’s the home of the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Are you curious about the world around you? Or the question "what's out there" in space keep you awake at the night? Then, science, technology and space museums would answer all your questions and spark your imagination. These are museums devoted to one or several exact sciences or technologies such as astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, medical science, construction and building industries, manufactured objects, etc. Also included in this category are planetaria and science centers.
Then, there are history museums that collect objects and artifacts that tell a chronological story about a particular locality. Objects that are collected could be documents, artifacts, archeological findings, and others. They could be in a building, a historic house, or a historic site. For example, Imperial War Museum in England covers war and conflict from the First World War to the present day.
Does the natural world excite you? When you look at different organisms like insects, replies, plants, birds, or dinosaurs, you wonder how did they evolve into their current forms? Or, do you try to study rocks to know what the Earth was like in the past? Then you must visit the natural history and natural science museums. They are museums with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, rocks, fossils, climate, and more.
For centuries, museums have played an integral role in preserving the history of our society. Exhibits tell us stories about how our nation, our communities, and our cultures came to be and without them, those stories could be forgotten.
Museums serve our communities in a multitude of ways.
Yes, indeed! Museums are both necessary and relevant today. They are the institutions charged with conserving, protecting, and displaying artifacts from our past and thus preserving our rich heritage, which might otherwise be lost to private collectors or to time itself. Quite simply, without museums, we would most certainly lose the tangible links to our past.
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Think about these questions: What kind of museum would you like to visit? - History, Art or Science? Find out how many museums are there in your town or country. How many of them have you visited and what did you learn/enjoy there? What museums across the world would you like to visit someday? |
As a museumgoer, there are straightforward rules on how to behave as well as unsaid common courtesies.
