A museum is a place that houses culturally or scientifically significant objects for the purpose of educating the public. Museums may display these objects in exhibitions, or keep them stored away for research purposes. Museums are typically funded by the government or local authorities, and are considered to be an important part of a nation’s heritage.
The word “museum” derives from the Greek Mouseion, which was the seat of nine sister goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences. The Latin form of the word, museum, became more generalized and came to denote any place dedicated to the Muses. It was not until the 17th century that the term was first used in Europe to describe a collection of curiosities, as in Ole Worm’s cabinet of wonders in Copenhagen or John Tradescant’s array at Lambeth in London; by the 18th century, however, it had come to refer to any institution that housed a wide variety of cultural objects and exhibited them to the public.
As museums evolved to meet the needs of their societies, they became specialized and focused on specific collections, as well as being places of research for scholars. In the 19th century, they began to be seen as national treasures and agents of nationalistic fervor. This led to the development of a body of theory known as museology, which is the study of museums and their role in society.
Today, museums can be found all over the world. They vary in size, scope, and focus, but all share a dedication to the care and interpretation of objects of cultural and scientific importance. They are also often tourist attractions, with some of the most visited museums in the world attracting millions of visitors each year.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is the largest museum in the Western Hemisphere and contains works from every era and region of the globe. Its collections include everything from the ruby red slippers of Dorothy in the film version of The Wizard of Oz to an original Star-Spangled Banner, the Wright brothers’ 1903 plane and the Apollo 11 command module.
In Rome, the Galleria degli Uffizi has arguably the finest collection of Renaissance paintings in the world, from Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to Raphael’s Rooms. And Italy is home to another unsurpassed museum, the Vatican Museum, which is home to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Velazquez.
Other museums are more specialized, such as the British Museum in London, which displays an astonishing array of objects from around the globe, including the Rosetta Stone and a full-size replica of the Temple of Dendur at Egypt’s Hermitage. Still others are more ephemeral, such as the open-air museums of Scandinavia and the ecomuseums that encompass an entire natural environment. The majority of museums, however, are based in buildings and are dedicated to the preservation and display of cultural objects. These range from a few dozen items to more than eight million objects.