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95-592: Penlee House is a museum and art gallery in the town of Penzance , Cornwall , home to many paintings by members of the Newlyn School , including The Rain It Raineth Every Day by Norman Garstin , School is Out by Elizabeth Forbes , Among the Missing by Walter Langley and On Paul Hill by Stanhope Forbes . It is operated by Penzance Town Council in association with Cornwall Council . Penlee House

190-453: A contractor when necessary. The cultural property stored in museums is threatened in many countries by natural disaster , war , terrorist attacks or other emergencies. To this end, an internationally important aspect is a strong bundling of existing resources and the networking of existing specialist competencies in order to prevent any loss or damage to cultural property or to keep damage as low as possible. International partner for museums

285-464: A culture. As historian Steven Conn writes, "To see the thing itself, with one's own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience, can be enchanting." Museum purposes vary from institution to institution. Some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over

380-422: A dining room, breakfast room and drawing room, with a scullery kitchen, butler’s pantry, dairy and office. The first floor was approached by a formal staircase from the hall which is still in existence, and via a servants’ staircase. There were three main bedrooms, including separate bedrooms for J.R. Branwell and his wife. A small dressing room and a large bathroom were approached through the main bedroom. There were

475-685: A full-time director to whom authority is delegated for day-to-day operations; Have the financial resources sufficient to operate effectively; Demonstrate that it meets the Core Standards for Museums; Successfully complete the Core Documents Verification Program". Additionally, there is a legal definition of museum in United States legislation authorizing the establishment of the Institute of Museum and Library Services : "Museum means

570-517: A further four small bedrooms which over the years were used by members of the family or as servant accommodation and later as junk rooms/storage. In 1946, the estate was purchased by public subscription to be a War Memorial which would also house the Town’s historic and art collections. The house opened as the District Museum in 1949 with further refurbishment taking place in 1974. In more recent years

665-525: A gold signet ring, a shrunken head and poisoned arrows. At the end of World War II , the owners of the Penlee Estate were planning to build on the land and to demolish the house. The then Mayor, Robert Thomas, decided to open a public appeal and purchase the estate as a War Memorial . The estate is about 15 acres, and the purchase price was £13,000. It was decided to use the house as a museum and arts centre, plus two domestic council dwellings. The Museum

760-566: A limited view of history as constituted by accumulative growth. Lévi-Strauss often referred to Montaigne 's essay on cannibalism as an early example of ethnology. Lévi-Strauss aimed, through a structural method, at discovering universal invariants in human society, chief among which he believed to be the incest taboo. However, the claims of such cultural universalism have been criticized by various 19th- and 20th-century social thinkers, including Marx, Nietzsche , Foucault , Derrida , Althusser , and Deleuze . The French school of ethnology

855-427: 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

950-459: A museum and on display, they not only got to show their fantastic finds but also used the museum as a way to sort and "manage the empirical explosion of materials that wider dissemination of ancient texts, increased travel, voyages of discovery, and more systematic forms of communication and exchange had produced". One of these naturalists and collectors was Ulisse Aldrovandi , whose collection policy of gathering as many objects and facts about them

1045-550: A museum is successful, as happened in Bilbao, others continue especially if a museum struggles to attract visitors. The Taubman Museum of Art is an example of an expensive museum (eventually $ 66 million) that attained little success and continues to have a low endowment for its size. Some museum activists see this method of museum use as a deeply flawed model for such institutions. Steven Conn, one such museum proponent, believes that "to ask museums to solve our political and economic problems

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1140-402: A museum's collection typically determines the museum's size, whereas its collection reflects the type of museum it is. Many museums normally display a "permanent collection" of important selected objects in its area of specialization, and may periodically display "special collections" on a temporary basis. The following is a list to give an idea of the major museum types. While comprehensive, it

1235-509: A notable person, or a given period of time. Museums also can be based on the main source of funding: central or federal government, provinces, regions, universities; towns and communities; other subsidised; nonsubsidised and private. It may sometimes be useful to distinguish between diachronic museums which interpret the way its subject matter has developed and evolved through time (e.g., Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Diachronic Museum of Larissa ), and synchronic museums which interpret

1330-503: A palace of Henry VIII , in England opened the council room to the general public to create an interactive environment for visitors. Rather than allowing visitors to handle 500-year-old objects, however, the museum created replicas, as well as replica costumes. The daily activities, historic clothing, and even temperature changes immerse the visitor in an impression of what Tudor life may have been. Major professional organizations from around

1425-407: A public, tribal, or private nonprofit institution which is organized on a permanent basis for essentially educational, cultural heritage, or aesthetic purposes and which, using a professional staff: Owns or uses tangible objects, either animate or inanimate; Cares for these objects; and Exhibits them to the general public on a regular basis" (Museum Services Act 1976). One of the oldest museums known

1520-894: A series of standards and best practices that help guide the management of museums. Various positions within the museum carry out the policies established by the Board and the Director. All museum employees should work together toward the museum's institutional goal. Here is a list of positions commonly found at museums: Other positions commonly found at museums include: building operator, public programming staff, photographer , librarian , archivist , groundskeeper , volunteer coordinator, preparator, security staff, development officer, membership officer, business officer, gift shop manager, public relations staff, and graphic designer . At smaller museums, staff members often fulfill multiple roles. Some of these positions are excluded entirely or may be carried out by

1615-556: Is Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum , built by Princess Ennigaldi in modern Iraq at the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire . The site dates from c.  530 BC , and contained artifacts from earlier Mesopotamian civilizations . Notably, a clay drum label—written in three languages—was found at the site, referencing the history and discovery of a museum item. Ancient Greeks and Romans collected and displayed art and objects but perceived museums differently from modern-day views. In

1710-747: Is UNESCO and Blue Shield International in accordance with the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property from 1954 and its 2nd Protocol from 1999. For legal reasons, there are many international collaborations between museums, and the local Blue Shield organizations. Blue Shield has conducted extensive missions to protect museums and cultural assets in armed conflict, such as 2011 in Egypt and Libya, 2013 in Syria and 2014 in Mali and Iraq. During these operations,

1805-549: Is believed to be one of the earliest museums in the world. While it connected to the Library of Alexandria it is not clear if the museum was in a different building from the library or was part of the library complex. While little was known about the museum it was an inspiration for museums during the early Renaissance period. The royal palaces also functioned as a kind of museum outfitted with art and objects from conquered territories and gifts from ambassadors from other kingdoms allowing

1900-448: Is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is an ongoing debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museum's collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect and preserve cultural artifacts for future generations. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in preservation efforts to retard decomposition in ageing documents, artifacts, artworks, and buildings. All museums display objects that are important to

1995-404: Is not a definitive list. Private museums are organized by individuals and managed by a board and museum officers, but public museums are created and managed by federal, state, or local governments. A government can charter a museum through legislative action but the museum can still be private as it is not part of the government. The distinction regulates the ownership and legal accountability for

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2090-438: Is not necessarily a negative development; Dorothy Canfield Fisher observed that the reduction in objects has pushed museums to grow from institutions that artlessly showcased their many artifacts (in the style of early cabinets of curiosity) to instead "thinning out" the objects presented "for a general view of any given subject or period, and to put the rest away in archive-storage-rooms, where they could be consulted by students,

2185-616: Is particularly true in the case of postindustrial cities. Examples of museums fulfilling these economic roles exist around the world. For example, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao was built in Bilbao, Spain in a move by the Basque regional government to revitalize the dilapidated old port area of that city. The Basque government agreed to pay $ 100 million for the construction of the museum, a price tag that caused many Bilbaoans to protest against

2280-515: Is sometimes conceived of as any comparative study of human groups. The 15th-century exploration of America by European explorers had an important role in formulating new notions of the Occident (the Western world ), such as the notion of the " Other ". This term was used in conjunction with "savages", which was either seen as a brutal barbarian, or alternatively, as the " noble savage ". Thus, civilization

2375-417: Is to set them up for inevitable failure and to set us (the visitor) up for inevitable disappointment." Museums are facing funding shortages. Funding for museums comes from four major categories, and as of 2009 the breakdown for the United States is as follows: Government support (at all levels) 24.4%, private (charitable) giving 36.5%, earned income 27.6%, and investment income 11.5%. Government funding from

2470-508: The Age of Enlightenment saw their ideas of the museum as superior and based their natural history museums on "organization and taxonomy" rather than displaying everything in any order after the style of Aldrovandi. The first "public" museums were often accessible only for the middle and upper classes. It could be difficult to gain entrance. When the British Museum opened to the public in 1759, it

2565-458: The American Alliance of Museums does not have such a definition, their list of accreditation criteria to participate in their Accreditation Program states a museum must: "Be a legally organized nonprofit institution or part of a nonprofit organization or government entity; Be essentially educational in nature; Have a formally stated and approved mission; Use and interpret objects or a site for

2660-641: The Ancient Greek Μουσεῖον ( mouseion ), which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence was a building set apart for study and the arts, especially the Musaeum (institute) for philosophy and research at Alexandria , built under Ptolemy I Soter about 280 BC. The purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display objects of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for

2755-648: The European Regional Development Fund , Penwith District Council, Penzance Town Council and the Friends of Penlee House, to refurbish and develop the Museum and Art Gallery. Overseen by Robert Allen, architect, the building was completely redeveloped, adding gallery spaces, lift access and the cafe and shop, as well as refurbishing the museum. Care was taken to preserve the feel of the original genteel Victorian home , while providing state-of-the-art conditions for

2850-526: The National Endowment for the Arts , the largest museum funder in the United States, decreased by 19.586 million between 2011 and 2015, adjusted for inflation. The average spent per visitor in an art museum in 2016 was $ 8 between admissions, store and restaurant, where the average expense per visitor was $ 55. Corporations , which fall into the private giving category, can be a good source of funding to make up

2945-610: The Newark Museum in a series of books in the early 20th century so that other museum founders could plan their museums. Dana suggested that potential founders of museums should form a committee first, and reach out to the community for input as to what the museum should supply or do for the community. According to Dana, museums should be planned according to community's needs: "The new museum ... does not build on an educational superstition. It examines its community's life first, and then straightway bends its energies to supplying some

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3040-472: The Smithsonian Institution stated that he wanted to establish an institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". In the late 19th century, museums of natural history exemplified the scientific drive for classifying life and interpreting the world. Their purpose was to gather examples from each field of knowledge for research and display. Concurrently, as American colleges expanded during

3135-607: The Titanic Belfast , built on disused shipyards in Belfast , Northern Ireland , incidentally for the same price as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and by the same architect, Frank Gehry , in time for the 100th anniversary of Titanic 's maiden voyage in 2012. Initially expecting modest visitor numbers of 425,000 annually, first year visitor numbers reached over 800,000, with almost 60% coming from outside Northern Ireland. In

3230-654: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. uses many artifacts in their memorable exhibitions. Museums are laid out in a specific way for a specific reason and each person who enters the doors of a museum will see its collection completely differently to the person behind them- this is what makes museums fascinating because they are represented differently to each individual. In recent years, some cities have turned to museums as an avenue for economic development or rejuvenation. This

3325-523: The industrial revolution , with plentiful, cheap accommodation and willing models. Soon, a host of artists settled, forming the colony known as the Newlyn School. Museum 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

3420-834: The interpretive plan for an exhibit, determining the most effective, engaging and appropriate methods of communicating a message or telling a story. The process will often mirror the architectural process or schedule, moving from conceptual plan, through schematic design, design development, contract document, fabrication, and installation. Museums of all sizes may also contract the outside services of exhibit fabrication businesses. Some museum scholars have even begun to question whether museums truly need artifacts at all. Historian Steven Conn provocatively asks this question, suggesting that there are fewer objects in all museums now, as they have been progressively replaced by interactive technology. As educational programming has grown in museums, mass collections of objects have receded in importance. This

3515-495: The 1860s. The British Museum was described by one of their delegates as a 'hakubutsukan', a 'house of extensive things' – this would eventually become accepted as the equivalent word for 'museum' in Japan and China. American museums eventually joined European museums as the world's leading centers for the production of new knowledge in their fields of interest. A period of intense museum building, in both an intellectual and physical sense

3610-510: The 19th century, they also developed their own natural history collections to support the education of their students. By the last quarter of the 19th century, scientific research in universities was shifting toward biological research on a cellular level, and cutting-edge research moved from museums to university laboratories. While many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research

3705-652: The British Museum for its possession of rare antiquities from Egypt, Greece, and the Middle East. The roles associated with the management of a museum largely depend on the size of the institution. Together, the Board and the Director establish a system of governance that is guided by policies that set standards for the institution. Documents that set these standards include an institutional or strategic plan, institutional code of ethics, bylaws, and collections policy. The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) has also formulated

3800-587: The Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society had collapsed. The society was reformed in the mid 1880s, but as no rent had been paid for the museum premises for many years, specimens were sold to raise money and to clear the debt. Insect damage to the Natural History collection meant that much of it was subsequently destroyed. The Museum remained in St John’s Hall until 1947. The society sold

3895-684: The United States, several Native American tribes and advocacy groups have lobbied extensively for the repatriation of sacred objects and the reburial of human remains. In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which required federal agencies and federally funded institutions to repatriate Native American "cultural items" to culturally affiliate tribes and groups. Similarly, many European museum collections often contain objects and cultural artifacts acquired through imperialism and colonization . Some historians and scholars have criticized

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3990-532: The United States, similar projects include the 81,000 square foot Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia and The Broad in Los Angeles . Museums being used as a cultural economic driver by city and local governments has proven to be controversial among museum activists and local populations alike. Public protests have occurred in numerous cities which have tried to employ museums in this way. While most subside if

4085-456: The building has been completely refurbished, but every attempt has been made to retain the character of a mid-Victorian villa. The institution now called Penlee House was initially known as Penzance and District Museum, and was founded by the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society in 1839. Its first home was in the Market House, which had just been completed. The Museum was situated in

4180-610: The care of the collections. Ethnology Compared to ethnography , the study of single groups through direct contact with the culture, ethnology takes the research that ethnographers have compiled and then compares and contrasts different cultures. The term ethnologia ( ethnology ) is credited to Adam Franz Kollár (1718–1783) who used and defined it in his Historiae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published in Vienna in 1783. as: "the science of nations and peoples, or, that study of learned men in which they inquire into

4275-431: The chosen artifacts. These elements of planning have their roots with John Cotton Dana, who was perturbed at the historical placement of museums outside of cities, and in areas that were not easily accessed by the public, in gloomy European style buildings. Questions of accessibility continue to the present day. Many museums strive to make their buildings, programming, ideas, and collections more publicly accessible than in

4370-404: The classical period, the museums were the temples and their precincts which housed collections of votive offerings. Paintings and sculptures were displayed in gardens, forums, theaters, and bathhouses. In the ancient past there was little differentiation between libraries and museums with both occupying the building and were frequently connected to a temple or royal palace. The Museum of Alexandria

4465-458: The collections to Penzance Borough Council in 1937 for a nominal sum, with an agreement that they would be displayed for the public good. 1939 saw the collections put into storage and unfortunately many items subsequently disappeared. No record of the Museum’s extensive Egyptian collection can be found. Also missing is a Bronze Age gold torque, and more unusual items such as the hand of a Mummy with

4560-620: The cross can be examined. The height is 2.07 m; width of head 0.685 m; width of shaft at base 0.635 m; width of shaft at neck 0.495 m; thickness 0.265 m Penlee House is home to a great many paintings by members of the Newlyn School . The area’s spectacular scenery has attracted visiting artists since the early 19th century. In the 1880s, numerous British painters began to arrive in Newlyn , many of whom had trained in Paris or Antwerp. Newlyn offered scenes and lives scarcely touched by

4655-539: The development of more modern 19th-century museums was part of new strategies by Western governments to produce a citizenry that, rather than be directed by coercive or external forces, monitored and regulated its own conduct. To incorporate the masses in this strategy, the private space of museums that previously had been restricted and socially exclusive were made public. As such, objects and artifacts, particularly those related to high culture, became instruments for these "new tasks of social management". Universities became

4750-691: The display and care of the collections. Founded in 1839, the museum collections cover 6000 years of history in west Cornwall, from Penwith’s awe-inspiring archaeological sites to the area’s more recent social history . The recently refurbished social history gallery houses a wealth of artefacts covering the area’s fascinating and often quirky heritage. The Social History and Archaeology galleries show how people have lived and worked in West Cornwall for thousands of years. The galleries include Bronze Age jewellery found locally, 1930s fashion , historical artefacts and curiosities. The large granite cross outside

4845-403: The dome of the building and contained a mixture of Natural Science , Archaeology and Ethnological artefacts – a typical antiquarian museum of the period. One visitor described it as “a mangy lot of skins and skeletons under the charge of an imbecile old man”. In 1867, the growing Museum moved to the newly constructed St John’s Hall , the town’s main public building. By the end of the decade,

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4940-413: 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. The English word museum comes from Latin , and is pluralized as museums (or rarely, musea ). It is originally from

5035-510: The first floor, there are rooms dedicated to the archaeology and social history of the Penwith (Land's End) peninsula. In 1860, J. R. Branwell began a series of land purchases on the Western outskirts of Penzance with the intention of providing a site for his new home and a large park to surround it. During the refurbishment of Penlee House in 1997 a stair tread was found with handmade nails marked with

5130-409: The former use and status of an object. Religious or holy objects, for instance, are handled according to cultural rules. Jewish objects that contain the name of God may not be discarded, but need to be buried. Although most museums do not allow physical contact with the associated artifacts, there are some that are interactive and encourage a more hands-on approach. In 2009, Hampton Court Palace ,

5225-697: The funding gap. The amount corporations currently give to museums accounts for just 5% of total funding. Corporate giving to the arts, however, was set to increase by 3.3% in 2017. Most mid-size and large museums employ exhibit design staff for graphic and environmental design projects, including exhibitions. In addition to traditional 2-D and 3-D designers and architects, these staff departments may include audio-visual specialists, software designers, audience research, evaluation specialists, writers, editors, and preparators or art handlers. These staff specialists may also be charged with supervising contract design or production services. The exhibit design process builds on

5320-511: The gradual retreat of the Ottoman Empire in the more distant Balkans . Among the goals of ethnology have been the reconstruction of human history , and the formulation of cultural invariants , such as the incest taboo and culture change, and the formulation of generalizations about " human nature ", a concept which has been criticized since the 19th century by various philosophers ( Hegel , Marx , structuralism , etc.). In some parts of

5415-422: The looting of the collection is to be prevented in particular. The design of museums has evolved throughout history. However, museum planning involves planning the actual mission of the museum along with planning the space that the collection of the museum will be housed in. Intentional museum planning has its beginnings with the museum founder and librarian John Cotton Dana . Dana detailed the process of founding

5510-407: The material which that community needs, and to making that material's presence widely known, and to presenting it in such a way as to secure it for the maximum of use and the maximum efficiency of that use." The way that museums are planned and designed vary according to what collections they house, but overall, they adhere to planning a space that is easily accessed by the public and easily displays

5605-577: The museum dates from the 11th century and has been moved on at least three occasions, its original location being the Green Market in Penzance. While this cross was in the Greenmarket it formed the accepted measurement point for the then Borough of Penzance, all settlements within a half-mile of the cross being reckoned within the control of the said Borough and subject to associated local government taxation. It

5700-409: The museum landscape has become so varied, that it may not be sufficient to use traditional categories to comprehend fully the vast variety existing throughout the world. However, it may be useful to categorize museums in different ways under multiple perspectives. Museums can vary based on size, from large institutions, to very small institutions focusing on specific subjects, such as a specific location,

5795-590: The museum planning process. Some museum experiences have very few or no artifacts and do not necessarily call themselves museums, and their mission reflects this; the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia , being notable examples where there are few artifacts, but strong, memorable stories are told or information is interpreted. In contrast,

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5890-516: The only people who really needed to see them". This phenomenon of disappearing objects is especially present in science museums like the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago , which have a high visitorship of school-aged children who may benefit more from hands-on interactive technology than reading a label beside an artifact. There is no definitive standard as to the set types of museums. Additionally,

5985-433: The origins, languages, customs, and institutions of various nations, and finally into the fatherland and ancient seats, in order to be able better to judge the nations and peoples in their own times." Kollár's interest in linguistic and cultural diversity was aroused by the situation in his native multi-ethnic and multilingual Kingdom of Hungary and his roots among its Slovaks , and by the shifts that began to emerge after

6080-415: The past. Not every museum is participating in this trend, but that seems to be the trajectory of museums in the twenty-first century with its emphasis on inclusiveness. One pioneering way museums are attempting to make their collections more accessible is with open storage. Most of a museum's collection is typically locked away in a secure location to be preserved, but the result is most people never get to see

6175-564: The personal collection of Elias Ashmole , was set up in the University of Oxford to be open to the public and is considered by some to be the first modern public museum. The collection included that of Elias Ashmole which he had collected himself, including objects he had acquired from the gardeners, travellers and collectors John Tradescant the elder and his son of the same name . The collection included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which

6270-674: The preservation of their objects. They displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a historical printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia. Some museums seek to reach a wide audience, such as a national or state museum, while others have specific audiences, like the LDS Church History Museum or local history organizations. Generally speaking, museums collect objects of significance that comply with their mission statement for conservation and display. Apart from questions of provenance and conservation, museums take into consideration

6365-422: The primary centers for innovative research in the United States well before the start of World War II . Nevertheless, museums to this day contribute new knowledge to their fields and continue to build collections that are useful for both research and display. The late twentieth century witnessed intense debate concerning the repatriation of religious, ethnic, and cultural artifacts housed in museum collections. In

6460-442: The private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts . These were often displayed in so-called "wonder rooms" or cabinets of curiosities . These contemporary museums first emerged in western Europe, then spread into other parts of the world. Public access to these museums was often possible for the "respectable", especially to private art collections, but at

6555-400: The project. Nonetheless, over 1.1 million people visited the museum in 2015, indicating it appeared to have paid off for the local government despite local backlash; key to this is the large demographic of foreign visitors to the museum, with 63% of the visitors residing outside of Spain and thus feeding foreign investment straight into Bilbao. A similar project to that undertaken in Bilbao was

6650-513: The property passed to his two daughters, Mrs Vera Hancock and Mrs Sybil Ferguson who sold the house and estate to Penzance Borough Council in 1946. The council purchased Penlee Park as a memorial to the dead of World War II and Penlee House was formally opened as the Penzance District Museum in 1949. In 1974, the ownership of the museum and park passed to Penwith District Council , and since 1985, Penzance Town Council owns and operates

6745-484: The public presentation of regularly scheduled programs and exhibits; Have a formal and appropriate program of documentation, care, and use of collections or objects; Carry out the above functions primarily at a physical facility or site; Have been open to the public for at least two years; Be open to the public at least 1,000 hours a year; Have accessioned 80 percent of its permanent collection; Have at least one paid professional staff with museum knowledge and experience; Have

6840-407: The public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing." The Canadian Museums Association 's definition: "A museum is a non-profit, permanent establishment, that does not exist primarily for

6935-708: The purpose of conducting temporary exhibitions and that is open to the public during regular hours and administered in the public interest for the purpose of conserving, preserving, studying, interpreting, assembling and exhibiting to the public for the instruction and enjoyment of the public, objects and specimens or educational and cultural value including artistic, scientific, historical and technological material." The United Kingdom's Museums Association 's definition: "Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artifacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society." While

7030-572: The ruler to display the amassed collections to guests and to visiting dignitaries. Also in Alexandria from the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 285–246 BCE), was the first zoological park. At first used by Philadelphus in an attempt to domesticate African elephants for use in war, the elephants were also used for show along with a menagerie of other animals specimens including hartebeests , ostriches , zebras , leopards , giraffes , rhinoceros , and pythons . Early museums began as

7125-557: The site. The collections housed within the museum were originally taken from what remained of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society collection (founded in 1839) which was originally housed within the dome of the Market House in Penzance. During the 1990s, Penzance Town Council conducted a major refurbishment of the building providing up to date facilities for housing its important and historic art collection. On

7220-461: The study and education of the public. To city leaders, an active museum community can be seen as a gauge of the cultural or economic health of a city, and a way to increase the sophistication of its inhabitants. To museum professionals, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museum's mission, such as civil rights or environmentalism . Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithson's bequest funding

7315-451: The subject matter which now include content in the form of images, audio and visual effects, and interactive exhibits. Museum creation begins with a museum plan, created through a museum planning process. The process involves identifying the museum's vision and the resources, organization and experiences needed to realize this vision. A feasibility study, analysis of comparable facilities, and an interpretive plan are all developed as part of

7410-494: The type of collections they display, to include: fine arts , applied arts , craft , archaeology , anthropology and ethnology , biography , history , cultural history , science , technology , children's museums , natural history , botanical and zoological gardens . Within these categories, many museums specialize further, e.g., museums of modern art , folk art , local history , military history , aviation history , philately , agriculture , or geology . The size of

7505-471: The vast majority of collections. The Brooklyn Museum's Luce Center for American Art practices this open storage where the public can view items not on display, albeit with minimal interpretation. The practice of open storage is all part of an ongoing debate in the museum field of the role objects play and how accessible they should be. In terms of modern museums, interpretive museums, as opposed to art museums, have missions reflecting curatorial guidance through

7600-705: The way its subject matter existed at a certain point in time (e.g., the Anne Frank House and Colonial Williamsburg ). According to University of Florida Professor Eric Kilgerman, "While a museum in which a particular narrative unfolds within its halls is diachronic, those museums that limit their space to a single experience are called synchronic." In her book Civilizing the Museum , author Elaine Heumann Gurian proposes that there are five categories of museums based on intention and not content: object centered, narrative, client centered, community centered, and national. Museums can also be categorized into major groups by

7695-428: The whim of the owner and his staff. One way that elite men during this time period gained a higher social status in the world of elites was by becoming a collector of these curious objects and displaying them. Many of the items in these collections were new discoveries and these collectors or naturalists, since many of these people held interest in natural sciences, were eager to obtain them. By putting their collections in

7790-475: The world offer some definitions as to what constitutes a museum, and their purpose. Common themes in all the definitions are public good and the care, preservation, and interpretation of collections. The International Council of Museums ' current definition of a museum (adopted in 2022): "A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to

7885-561: The world, ethnology has developed along independent paths of investigation and pedagogical doctrine, with cultural anthropology becoming dominant especially in the United States , and social anthropology in Great Britain . The distinction between the three terms is increasingly blurry. Ethnology has been considered an academic field since the late 18th century, especially in Europe and

7980-705: The year 1864, which confirms that the house was under construction in that year. The parkland surrounding Penlee House was laid out with formal and informal gardens and a lodge was built at the Trewithen Road end of the park. When the house was first built, Morrab Road was not in existence and the Penlee House Estate directly bordered onto the Morrab House Estate, the home of Charles Campbell Ross MP, which later became Morrab Library and Morrab Gardens . Penlee House originally contained three reception rooms,

8075-536: Was "encyclopedic" in nature, reminiscent of that of Pliny, the Roman philosopher and naturalist. The idea was to consume and collect as much knowledge as possible, to put everything they collected and everything they knew in these displays. In time, however, museum philosophy would change and the encyclopedic nature of information that was so enjoyed by Aldrovandi and his cohorts would be dismissed as well as "the museums that contained this knowledge". The 18th-century scholars of

8170-435: Was a concern that large crowds could damage the artifacts. Prospective visitors to the British Museum had to apply in writing for admission, and small groups were allowed into the galleries each day. The British Museum became increasingly popular during the 19th century, amongst all age groups and social classes who visited the British Museum, especially on public holidays. The Ashmolean Museum , however, founded in 1677 from

8265-492: Was charged with organizing the Louvre as a national public museum and the centerpiece of a planned national museum system. As Napoléon I conquered the great cities of Europe, confiscating art objects as he went, the collections grew and the organizational task became more and more complicated. After Napoleon was defeated in 1815, many of the treasures he had amassed were gradually returned to their owners (and many were not). His plan

8360-489: Was moved from the Green Market in 1829 a short distance to a house in North Street (Causewayhead); on the demolition of this house (ca. 1868), the cross was then moved to a position at the western end of the Market House. In July 1899, it was moved to Morrab Gardens and moved again in 1953 to Penlee Park. On 23 September 1997, the cross was erected at its present position by the new entrance to Penlee House. All four sides of

8455-711: Was never fully realized, but his concept of a museum as an agent of nationalistic fervor had a profound influence throughout Europe. Chinese and Japanese visitors to Europe were fascinated by the museums they saw there, but had cultural difficulties in grasping their purpose and finding an equivalent Chinese or Japanese term for them. Chinese visitors in the early 19th century named these museums based on what they contained, so defined them as "bone amassing buildings" or "courtyards of treasures" or "painting pavilions" or "curio stores" or "halls of military feats" or "gardens of everything". Japan first encountered Western museum institutions when it participated in Europe's World's Fairs in

8550-542: Was opened in its new home by Sir Cyril Fox on 24th June 1949. It was administered by the Borough Librarian from 1949 until 1974, when Penzance lost its borough status and the Museum became the property of Penwith District Council. In 1985, ownership of the Penlee Estate reverted back to Penzance Town Council. In the 1990s, substantial funding was raised from various sources, including the Heritage Lottery Fund ,

8645-403: Was opposed in a dualist manner to barbary , a classic opposition constitutive of the even more commonly shared ethnocentrism . The progress of ethnology, for example with Claude Lévi-Strauss 's structural anthropology , led to the criticism of conceptions of a linear progress , or the pseudo-opposition between "societies with histories" and "societies without histories", judged too dependent on

8740-497: Was originally built in 1865 as the home of the wealthy Branwell family under the directions of John Richards Branwell. The house and gardens were described in The Cornishman as ″delightful″ and a ″perfect picture″, though Branwell owned the newspaper.) On his death in 1902, one of his daughter's, Edith looked after the estate and house, and on her death in 1918, it passed to her elder brother, Alfred. Following Alfred's death in 1939,

8835-642: Was realized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (this is often called "The Museum Period" or "The Museum Age"). While many American museums, both natural history museums and art museums alike, were founded with the intention of focusing on the scientific discoveries and artistic developments in North America, many moved to emulate their European counterparts in certain ways (including the development of Classical collections from ancient Egypt , Greece , Mesopotamia , and Rome ). Drawing on Michel Foucault 's concept of liberal government, Tony Bennett has suggested

8930-729: Was the Louvre in Paris , opened in 1793 during the French Revolution , which enabled for the first time free access to the former French royal collections for people of all stations and status. The fabulous art treasures collected by the French monarchy over centuries were accessible to the public three days each " décade " (the 10-day unit which had replaced the week in the French Republican Calendar ). The Conservatoire du muséum national des Arts (National Museum of Arts's Conservatory)

9025-473: Was the stuffed body of the last dodo ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper. The first building, which became known as the Old Ashmolean , is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood. In France, the first public museum

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