Museum facts for kids

The Japanese Shōsō-in in Nara is the oldest museum building in Japan.

A museum is a building which is open to the public. It is also the institution where things are collected and then shown to people.

History

The word, museum, originates Musa which are the goddesses of literature, art, and science who appear in Greek mythology.

According to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the definition of museums has changed over time.

The oldest museum structure in the world is the Shōsō-in in Nara, Japan.

Today's museums are non-profit, permanent institutions in the service of society and its development.

Function

A museum acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible heritage and the intangible heritage of humanity and the environment.

Museums exist for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.

Some museums have things that visitors can do.

Museums can be about different things such as art, national history, natural history, or science. People go to museums sometimes to learn, or to simply have fun.

Museums with live animals are called zoos.

Exhibitions

Temporary or changing exhibits

Exhibition which selects works along with some themes, e.g., a writer, a time, an area, etc.

Permanent exhibits

Exhibition which displays the works which the museum possesses.

Gallery

Art museums

The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
Morohashi Museum of Modern Art in Fukushima

History museums

The Tōhoku History Museum in Miyagi

Literature museums

Koriyama Museum of Literature in Fukushima is the former home of Masao Kume

Natural history museums

The American Museum of Natural History in New York

Open air museums

New Lanark is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine is a World Heritage Site in Shimane Prefecture, Japan

Science museums

Mushitec in Fukushima is about insects

Museum ships

Cutty Sark in London, England
Nippon Maru in Yokohama harbor
National Museum, Szczecin, Poland

Most visited museums

This section lists the 20 most visited museums as compiled by AECOM and the Themed Entertainment Association's annual report on the world's most visited attractions. The cities of London and Washington, D.C. contain more of the 20 most visited museums in the world than any others, with six museums and four museums, respectively.

Rank	Museum	City	Country	Visitor count (annually)
1	Louvre	Paris	France	8,600,000
2	National Museum of China	Beijing	China	7,290,000
3	National Museum of Natural History	Washington, D.C.	United States	6,900,000
4	National Air and Space Museum	Washington, D.C.	United States	6,900,000
5	British Museum	London	United Kingdom	6,820,686
6	The Metropolitan Museum of Art	New York City	United States	6,533,106
7	Vatican Museums	Vatican City (Rome)	Vatican City	6,002,251
8	Shanghai Science and Technology Museum	Shanghai	China	5,948,000
9	National Gallery	London	United Kingdom	5,908,254
10	National Palace Museum	Taipei	Taiwan	5,301,860
11	Natural History Museum, London	London	United Kingdom	5,284,023
12	American Museum of Natural History	New York City	United States	5,000,000
13	Tate Modern	London	United Kingdom	4,712,581
14	National Gallery of Art	Washington, D.C.	United States	4,104,331
15	National Museum of American History	Washington, D.C.	United States	4,100,000
16	State Hermitage Museum	St. Petersburg	Russia	3,668,031
17	Musée d'Orsay	Paris	France	3,440,000
18	Victoria and Albert Museum	London	United Kingdom	3,432,325
19	The Science Museum	London	United Kingdom	3,356,212
20	Reina Sofía	Madrid	Spain	3,249,591

The Louvre in Paris.
The British Museum in London.
The State Historical Museum in Moscow.
The Museum Island in Berlin.
An example of a very small museum: A maritime museum located in the village of Bolungarvík, Vestfirðir, Iceland showing a 19th-century fishing base: typical boat of the period and associated industrial buildings.
The Orthodox Church, later an Ottoman mosque, and now a museum, Hagia Sophia was once the pride of the Byzantine Empire. Historically located in Constantinople, is now modern day Istanbul, Turkey.
The Museo del Prado in Madrid (est. 1785).
The Peristylia hall in National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta, the largest and one of the oldest museum in Indonesia.
Vatican Museums.
Pérez Art Museum in Miami, Florida.
São Paulo Museum of Art in São Paulo, Brazil.
Exhibit in Indonesia Museum, Jakarta, displaying the traditional costumes of Indonesian ethnic groups, such as Balinese and East Java.
Shoes on the Danube Promenade, a Holocaust Memorial.
Gold Museum, Bogotá Colombia.
Viewers of the Doni Tondo by Michelangelo in the Uffizi Gallery.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo, Colorado was ranked #2 children's art museum in the United States by Child Magazine.
Taiwan Design Museum in Taiwan.
Indonesia Museum in TMII built in Balinese architecture, is an ethnology museum displaying various artifacts and way of life of ethnic groups in Indonesia.
The queen's chamber in Petit Trianon, former residence of Marie Antoinette.
The golden funerary mask of Tutankhamun, Egyptian Museum of Cairo
Iron bed in torture room at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Narayanhity Palace Museum (formerly Narayanhiti Royal Palace) in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Maritime Museum in Szczecin, Poland.
Museum of Medical Humanities in Taipei, Taiwan.
National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.
The Canadian War Museum.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
The open-air museum of King Oscar II at Bygdøy near Oslo in the museum guide of 1888. The World's first open-air museum was founded in 1881.
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Diplodocus fossil exhibit in Minnesota Science Museum.
Antique cuckoo clocks in the interior of Cuckooland Museum.
The Creation Museum is a Christian creationism museum run by Answers in Genesis.
Zoos are considered "living museums". This is the entrance of the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California.