30 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Unit 2: What is a Museum?
I. Museum: Institution for acquisition, preservation, study, and exhibition of works of
artistic, historical, or scientific value.
a. Other defining characteristics:
a.i. Nonprofit
a.ii. Public service-education
a.iii. Collections-preservation, research
a.iv. Exhibits-interpretation, communication
Exhibits don’t all have to physical:
oThey can be virtual, oral, or even publication
b. Timeline
b.i. For the longest time, museums as we know them, didn’t exist
b.ii. The British Museum started the 1st Museum
b.iii. Generally, Curio cabinets were within the owners private home
b.iv. Only 4% of museums in America existed before 1900
b.v. Currently in the U.S we have more museums than there are Starbucks
and McDonald’s combined
c. Types of Museums
c.i. Military Museums
c.ii. Living History sites
c.iii. Science centers
c.iv. Special Interest Museums
c.v. Art Museums
c.vi. Botanical Gardens
c.vii. Children’s Museum
c.viii. Historic Houses
c.ix. Natural History Museum
c.x. University Museums
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find more resources at oneclass.com