Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales facts for kids

Logo used since August 2022

Previous National Museum Wales logo used until August 2022

Poster by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion suggesting the formation of a National Museum of Wales, June 1876.

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, branded as simply Amgueddfa Cymru (formerly the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and legally National Museum of Wales), is a Welsh Government sponsored body that comprises seven museums in Wales:

• National Museum Cardiff – formerly the National Museum of Wales
• St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff
• Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenavon
• National Wool Museum, Dre-fach Felindre near Llandysul
• National Slate Museum, Llanberis
• National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon
• National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

In addition to these sites, the organisation runs Oriel y Parc, a gallery of Welsh landscape art in St David's, in partnership with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority. The National Collections Centre in Nantgarw is AC-NMW's storage facility.

Directors of the National Museum of Wales

• William Evans Hoyle (1908–1924)
• Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1925–1926)
• Sir Cyril Fox (1926–1948)
• D. Dilwyn John (1948–1968)
• Gwyn Jones (1968–1977)
• Douglas Bassett (1977–1985)
• David W. Dykes (1986–1989)
• Alastair Wilson (1989–1993)
• Colin Ford (1993–1998)
• Anna Southall (1998–2002)
• Michael Houlihan (2003–2010)
• David Anderson (2010–)

Visitor numbers

In 2017 over 1.89m visitors attended the National Museum sites. The most popular site for 2017 was St. Fagans and in 2016 the most popular attraction was National Museum Cardiff.

Museum visitor numbers

Museum	Visitor numbers (2017)	Image
St Fagans National Museum of History	553,090
National Museum Cardiff	539,550
National Waterfront Museum	268,622
National Slate Museum	145,969
Big Pit National Coal Museum	141,969
National Roman Legion Museum	70,021
National Wool Museum	36,909
Source: Visits to Tourist Attractions in Wales 2017