Text 4. Museum – Source of Knowledge and Impressions

Read the text and write down key sentences from each paragraph of the text and combine them into a short summary.

In ancient Greece a museum was a temple dedicated to the Muses. By the Renaissance the term museum was applied to the room where a scholar examined and studied his collection of classical antiquities. Museums as they are known today were first established in Europe in the 18^th century. In 1750 the French government began to admit members of the public, mostly artists and students, two days a week, to see some 100 pictures hung in the Luxembourg Palace, Paris; this collection was later transferred to the Louvre. The Louvre, which had its beginnings in the royal collections of the 16^th century king Francis I, became, during the time of the French Revolution, the first great public art museum; it opened its doors in 1793. The British Museum in London was founded as a public institution in 1753, but prospective visitors had to apply in writing for admission. Even by 1800 it was possible to have to wait two weeks for an admission ticket.

Among other museums founded in the Age of Enlightenment were the National Museum in Naples (1738), the National Science Museum in Madrid (1771). Royal collections were opened to public view in Vienna (1700), Dresden (1746), and at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (1765).

Even before the American Revolution museums were founded in the colonies by private citizens. The Charleston Museum in South Carolina (1773), devoted to the natural history of the region, is an example of the more than 60 cabinets, galleries, and historical societies established from that date up to about 1850. Some, although popular with the public, did not last. Other institutions, however, remain to the present day-for example, the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston (1791) and the first historic-house museum, Washington’s headquarters in Newburgh, New York (opened in 1850).

The first museum concerned with a university was established in Basel, Switzerland, in 1671. The Ashmolean Museum (1663), part of the University of Oxford, England, was the first institution in Western Europe to call itself a museum. In America, Harvard College (now University) established a room of “curiosities” in 1750, it later evolved into the University Museum.

Folk art is sometimes found in ethnic, crafts or historical museum. Museums devoted to national, regional or local history include conventional museum buildings as well as historic houses, sites, and districts. Outdoor complexes may incorporate whole buildings, such as barns, churches, workshops and mills. This type of “living” museum of folk culture, ethnography and social history developed in Scandinavia at the end of the 19^th century. Today such institutions are very popular. Among important natural history museums founded in the late 19^th century are the American Museum of Natural History (1869) in New York City and the Natural History Museum in London (1881), now part of the British Museum.

Science museums also include institutions devoted to industry and technology, such as National Air and Space Museum (1976) in Washington. Often science museums include aquariums, planetariums, zoological parks and botanical gardens.

The first museum opened in Minsk in 1858. It was the Forestry Museum and it belonged to the State Property Chamber. Previously in the late 18^th – early 19^th centuries only the Natural History cabinet existed in the Province Lyceum. Now there is diversity of Belarusian museum. The National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus has the largest repository. It houses over 250.000 items of the main reserves, including rich collections in archaeology, numismatics, ethnography. Visitors are able to acquaint themselves with a large numismatic collection of the museum. Iconpainting, weaving, straw-braiding, traditional folk-painting and national costumes are represented there. The rarest coins of the collection date back to the time of the Roman Empire. One can also see the Golden storeroom and remnants from 113 buried treasures found in Belarus. The National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus houses information about national traditions, customs, history and culture. The museum arranges open-house days and holds uncommon excursions, showcases. The Great Patriotic War Museum organizes panoramic and theme excursion, meetings with veterans.

Apart from that there are open-air museums in the Minsk outskirts that are very popular with tourists. They are the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in the Ozertso Village and the Khatyn State memorial Complex.

Because museums exist to collect, preserve, study and interpret various objects, their collections must be made in accord with well-defined purposes and standards of quality. Objects chosen must be original works, wherever possible, and suitable for exhibition or for study purposes, or both. They must be documented with well-organized information and made available for viewing or study. Their care must be ensured and deterioration or destruction avoided.

Museum work requires certain levels of academic education and training. Museum studies training at the university level is becoming a prerequisite for staff positions.

The physical condition of museum objects is the responsibility of specially trained conservators and restorers. It is their duty to assess climatic, lighting and display conditions, to make recommendations for the protection of objects on display or in storage and to evaluate the fitness of objects to travel on intermuseum loan. Knowledge of chemistry and physics is required of conservation specialists, as well as training in art history, archaeological methods, scientific study of materials and media, and restoration techniques.

Many museums customarily lend objects to other institutions for exhibition purposes; many also organize traveling exhibitions destined to other museums, community centers, schools. Such activities make special subjects available to a broader public.