Portal:Museums
The Museums Portal
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...)
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The National Museum of Korea (Korean: 국립중앙박물관) is the flagship museum of Korean history and art in South Korea. Since its establishment in 1945, the museum has been committed to various studies and research activities in the fields of archaeology, history, and art, continuously developing a variety of exhibitions and education programs.
It was relocated to the Yongsan District in Seoul in 2005. On June 24, 2021, the National Museum of Korea opened a new branch inside Incheon International Airport. Located in the boarding area of the airport in front of Gate No.22, the branch was opened in celebration of the museum's 20th anniversary. (Full article...)
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In conservation, library and archival science, preservation is a set of preventive conservation activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record, book, or object while making as few changes as possible. Preservation activities vary widely and may include monitoring the condition of items, maintaining the temperature and humidity in collection storage areas, writing a plan in case of emergencies, digitizing items, writing relevant metadata, and increasing accessibility. Preservation, in this definition, is practiced in a library or an archive by a conservator, librarian, archivist, or other professional when they perceive a collection or record is in need of maintenance.
Preservation should be distinguished from interventive conservation and restoration, which refers to the treatment and repair of individual items to slow the process of decay, or restore them to a usable state. "Preventive conservation" is used interchangeably with "preservation". (Full article...)
Did you know...
- ... that landscape architect Harriet Pattison collaborated with her lover Louis Kahn on the design of Four Freedoms Park and the grounds of the Kimbell Art Museum?
- ... that the now-closed Dinosaur Wildlife museum exhibited three fox squirrels posed to fight in a boxing ring?
- ... that a teenage boy stole over US$300,000 worth of paintings from the Deshong Art Museum by simply taking them off the wall and sliding them through a window?
- ... that the Paul Delvaux Museum exhibits not only Paul Delvaux's paintings, but also a collection of model trains?
- ... that the Museum of Classic Sci-Fi is located in the cellar of a house in Allendale, Northumberland?
- ... that the Republican Palace Museum in Khartoum was originally a cathedral?
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For editor resources and to collaborate with other editors on improving Wikipedia's Museums-related articles, see WikiProject Museums.
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Cabinets of curiosities (German: Kunstkammer and Kunstkabinett), also known as wonder-rooms (German: Wunderkammer), were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Although more rudimentary collections had preceded them, the classic cabinets of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century. The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings), and antiquities. In addition to the most famous and best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe formed collections that were precursors to museums.
Cabinets of curiosities served not only as collections to reflect the particular curiosities of their curators but also as social devices to establish and uphold rank in society. There are said to be two main types of cabinets. As R. J. W. Evans notes, there could be "the princely cabinet, serving a largely representational function, and dominated by aesthetic concerns and a marked predilection for the exotic," or the less grandiose, "the more modest collection of the humanist scholar or virtuoso, which served more practical and scientific purposes." Evans goes on to explain that "no clear distinction existed between the two categories: all collecting was marked by curiosity, shading into credulity, and by some sort of universal underlying design". (Full article...)
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- Museums
- Most visited museums (by region)
- Art museums: most visited, largest
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- Art museum
- Agricultural museum
- Archaeology museum
- Architecture museum
- Artillery museum
- Aviation museum
- Biographical museum
- Cabinet of curiosities
- Ceramics museum
- Children's museum
- Community museum
- Computer museum
- Design museum
- Dime museum
- Ecomuseum
- Economuseum
- Ethnographic village
- Farm museum
- Fashion museum
- Folk museum
- Food museum
- Green museum
- Hair museum
- Hall of Memory
- Heritage centre
- Historic house museum
- Human rights museum
- Imaginarium
- Interpretation centre
- Jewish museum
- Lapidarium
- Lighthouse museum
- Living museum
- Local museum
- Maritime museum
- Migration museum
- Mobile museum
- Museum ship
- National history museum
- Natural history museum
- Open-air museum
- Palace museum
- Postal museum
- Prefectural museum
- Print room
- Private museum
- Regimental museum
- Schatzkammer
- Science fiction libraries and museums
- Science museum
- Sex museum
- Sculpture garden
- Technology museum
- Textile museum
- Torture museum
- Toy museum
- Transport museum (list)
- University museum
- Virtual museum
- Wax museum
- Writer's home
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