Museum

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying and preserving objects of cultural or scientific significance. Some of its objects sit behind glass for the public. Others are never displayed at all, locked away for researchers and specialists who need them. The most visited museums in the world draw millions of visitors a year, many traveling from outside the host country. Yet the institution did not begin as a service to the public. Museums originated as private collections of interesting items, and the emphasis on educating the public took root only much later. So how did a private hoard become a public good? Who decided that ordinary people deserved access to art and rare objects? And why does a building full of old things still spark protests, strikes, and demands for return? The answers reach from a Babylonian princess to a striking security guard in Seattle.

• 2. Temple Of The Muses

  ›

  The English word museum traces back to the Ancient Greek mouseion, a place or temple dedicated to the muses, the patron divinities of the arts in Greek mythology. The most famous example was the Musaeum at Alexandria, an institute for philosophy and research built under Ptolemy I Soter about 280 BC. In the classical period, museums were temples and their precincts, holding collections of votive offerings. Paintings and sculptures stood in gardens, forums, theaters, and bathhouses. There was little difference between a library and a museum then. Both occupied the same building, often connected to a temple or royal palace. The Museum of Alexandria was identical to the Library of Alexandria. Because of that link, early libraries were originally called museums. Royal palaces and temples like the Roman temple of Peace served the same purpose, filled with art and objects taken from conquered territories and gifts from foreign ambassadors. From the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who reigned from 285 to 246 BCE, Alexandria also held the first zoological park. Philadelphus first kept it to domesticate African elephants for war. The animals soon became a show, joined by hartebeests, ostriches, zebras, leopards, giraffes, rhinoceros, and pythons.

• 3. The Oldest Collections

  ›

  Princess Ennigaldi built one of the oldest known museums in modern Iraq, at the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The site dates from around 530 BC and held artifacts from earlier Mesopotamian civilizations. A clay drum label, written in three languages, was found there, referencing the history and discovery of a museum item. The Capitoline Museums on the Capitoline Hill in Rome are widely considered the world's oldest public museum. Their origins trace to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of ancient bronze sculptures to the people of Rome. That gift included the Capitoline Wolf. The museums officially opened to the public in 1734 under Pope Clement XII, becoming the first institution where art could be enjoyed by ordinary people rather than only its owners. The shift turned private collections into public patrimony. The Vatican Museums in Vatican City trace their origins to a single marble sculpture, Laocoon and His Sons, put on public display in 1506 by Pope Julius II. Many other early museums began as private collections of wealthy individuals, families, or institutions, displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities. These first emerged in western Europe, then spread into other parts of the world.

• 4. Curiosity And Order

  ›

  Public access to early collections often depended on the whim of the owner and his staff. Elite men gained higher social status by becoming collectors of curious objects and putting them on display. Many items were new discoveries, and these collectors, often interested in natural sciences, were eager to obtain them. A museum let them show their finds and sort what one account called the empirical explosion of materials produced by wider dissemination of ancient texts, increased travel, and voyages of discovery. Ulisse Aldrovandi pursued a collection policy that was encyclopedic in nature, gathering as many objects and facts as possible, reminiscent of Pliny, the Roman philosopher and naturalist. The goal was to collect as much knowledge as possible and put it all on display. Museum philosophy later changed. The 18th-century scholars of the Age of Enlightenment dismissed Aldrovandi's encyclopedic approach and based their natural history museums on organization and taxonomy instead. The Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1677 from the personal collection of Elias Ashmole, was set up in the University of Oxford to be open to the public. It included objects Ashmole had acquired from John Tradescant the elder and his son of the same name, among them the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe. By 1755 the dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw. The museum opened on the 24th of May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper.

• 5. Opening The Doors

  ›

  When the British Museum opened to the public in 1759, there was concern that large crowds could damage the artifacts. Prospective visitors had to apply in writing for admission, and small groups were allowed into the galleries each day. The British Museum grew steadily more popular through the 19th century, drawing all age groups and social classes, especially on public holidays. France went further during the Revolution. The Louvre opened in Paris in 1793, giving free access to the former French royal collections for people of all stations and status for the first time. The art treasures the French monarchy had gathered over centuries were now accessible three days each decade, the 10-day unit that replaced the week in the French Republican Calendar. As Napoleon I conquered the great cities of Europe, confiscating art as he went, the collections grew and the organizational task grew harder. After his defeat in 1815, many treasures were gradually returned to their owners, though many were not. His concept of a museum as an agent of nationalistic fervor had a profound influence throughout Europe. Chinese and Japanese visitors to Europe were fascinated by museums but struggled to find an equivalent word. Chinese visitors in the early 19th century named them by their contents: bone amassing buildings, courtyards of treasures, painting pavilions, curio stores, halls of military feats, or gardens of everything. Japan first encountered Western museums at Europe's World's Fairs in the 1860s. One delegate described the British Museum as a hakubutsukan, a house of extensive things, which became the accepted word for museum in Japan and China.

• 6. Mission And Money

  ›

  Educational objectives sit at the center of what a modern museum does. The American Alliance of Museums reports that U.S. museums contribute over 18 million instructional hours annually through guided tours, traveling exhibits, and teacher training. The same alliance puts the annual GDP contribution of U.S. museums at 50 billion dollars. Cities have turned museums into tools for economic development, especially in postindustrial regions. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain is a leading example. The Basque regional government funded it to renew the city's old port area and spent about 100 million dollars on construction, which drew protests from local residents. After opening, the museum attracted over 1.1 million visitors in 2015, with 63 percent coming from outside Spain. The foreign spending generated tax revenue that exceeded the initial investment. Titanic Belfast in Northern Ireland followed a similar path, built in the city's former shipyards at about the same cost. In its first year it welcomed over 800,000 visitors, with nearly 60 percent from outside Northern Ireland, and over ten years generated an estimated 430 million pounds in direct spending. Not every gamble pays off. The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia faced high construction costs and lower-than-expected attendance, leading to financial difficulties. Funding for museums comes from four categories. As of 2009 in the United States, the breakdown was government support at 24.4 percent, private giving at 36.5 percent, earned income at 27.6 percent, and investment income at 11.5 percent. Corporate giving accounted for just 5 percent of total funding.

• 7. Who Runs A Museum

  ›

  The Board and the Director together establish a system of governance guided by policies that set standards for the institution. The board governs the museum and ensures it is financially and ethically sound, and members are often involved in fundraising. A board of directors governs a nonprofit corporation, while a board of trustees governs a charitable, educational, scientific, or religious trust, foundation, or endowment. The two are different legal instruments, even where museums use the terms interchangeably. The executive director sets goals, manages operations, oversees staff, and secures funding through grants, donations, and partnerships. Below them, specialists carry out the work. Curators oversee collections, research items, determine authenticity, and organize exhibitions. Collections managers handle the care, documentation, and movement of objects, conducting regular inventories and monitoring environmental conditions. Registrars maintain records and databases, coordinate loans, and oversee accessioning, cataloging, labeling, and condition reporting. Educators design tours and public programs, train teachers, and run community outreach. Exhibit designers create layouts and structures, select materials, plan lighting, and guide visitor movement. Conservators preserve, examine, and treat objects, assessing condition and slowing deterioration. Many other roles fill out a museum, from preparator and archivist to security staff and gift shop manager. At smaller museums, staff members often fulfill multiple roles, and some positions are excluded entirely or handled by a contractor.

• 8. Objects Under Pressure

  ›

  Since 1868, several monolithic human figures known as Moai have been removed from Easter Island and placed on display in major Western museums, including the British Museum and the Louvre. The Rapa Nui see the figures as ancestors and family or the soul, and residents have repeatedly demanded their return. A global movement for the decolonization of museums has gained momentum since the late 20th century. Its proponents argue that museums are a box of things that show biased narratives rather than complete stories. The 2018 report on the restitution of African cultural heritage stands as a prominent example, tied to claims by African countries to regain artifacts illegally taken from their original settings. Other disputed objects include the Gweagal Shield, taken from Botany Bay in April 1770, and the Parthenon marble sculptures, taken from Greece by Lord Elgin in 1805. Successive Greek governments have petitioned unsuccessfully for the return of the Parthenon marbles. In the United States, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA, was enacted in 1990. It requires museums and federal agencies to identify, inventory, and return Native American human remains and associated funerary objects to lineal descendants, tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Recent updates introduced stricter timelines and require consent from descendant communities before displaying or researching such items. Many museums responded by covering displays and increasing consultation with affiliated tribes.

  At the Seattle Art Museum, security guards went on strike for 11 days in December 2024, winning their first contract and wage increases. Union membership among museum workers has grown sharply, with over 15,000 museum employees now represented by unions at more than 50 art museums in the United States. The wave has reached the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum, among others. In 2019, workers at multiple museums voted to form unions, and over 3,000 cultural workers anonymously shared their salaries through a pay transparency spreadsheet. The roots run deep. In 1933, a New York-based collective of artists known as the Artist's Union used collective bargaining for state relief for unemployed artists. In 1971, administrative staff at New York's Museum of Modern Art formed PASTA, the first union of professional employees at a privately financed museum. Its contract won a wage increase, protection against termination without cause, and direct access to trustees. For the next fifty years, little changed in professional museum unionization. The recent disputes have turned sharp. At MASS MoCA, unionized staff held a three-week strike in March 2024, securing a new contract with higher minimum wages and improved overtime pay. In February 2025, Brooklyn Museum workers rallied to protest the planned termination of 47 employees. Not every campaign survives. The Marciano Art Foundation, established by Guess co-founders Maurice Marciano and Paul Marciano, closed indefinitely in November 2019 after workers attempted to unionize, and a month later announced the closure was permanent.