Australian Museum

The Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology. Apart from exhibitions, the museum is also involved in indigenous studies research and community programs.

It is located in College Street, Sydney and was originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. The museum was renamed in June 1836 by a Sub-Committee meeting, when it was resolved during an argument that it should be renamed the Australian Museum.

Deutsches Museum

The Deutsches Museum (German Museum) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology.

The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) as an initiative of Oskar von Miller. The full name of the museum in English is German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology (German: Deutsches Museum von Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik). It is the largest museum in Munich.

Herreshoff Marine Museum

The Herreshoff Marine Museum, located in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, is a maritime museum dedicated to the history of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, yachting, and the America's Cup. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (1878-1945) was most notable for producing sailing yachts, including eight America's Cup defenders, and steam-powered vessels.

The museum, situated near Narragansett Bay on the grounds where the manufacturing company once stood, has a collection of over sixty boats including Nathanael Greene Herreshoff's Clara, built in 1887, Harold Vanderbilt's Trivia, and the 1992 IACC yacht, Defiant. The Nathanael Greene Herreshoff Model Room contains over 500 yacht and steam yacht models and the Rebecca Chase Herreshoff Library holds a collection of books and manuscripts related to the company, the Herreshoff family, and yachting. The museum also hosts symposiums related to yacht design and operates a sailing school.

Indianapolis Museum of Art

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is an art museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art is among the ten largest and oldest general art museums in the United States. The museum traces its founding to October 11, 1883, when 18 Indianapolis residents signed articles of incorporation to establish the Art Association of Indianapolis. Among the founders was May Wright Sewall (1844–1920), who was known during her lifetime for her work in the women’s suffrage movement and as a founder of the International Council of Women.
Indianapolis Museum of Art

The association’s first exhibition, in November 1883, included paintings by American artists William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) and Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837–1908). The association’s first permanent museum and art school, the John Herron Art Institute and Herron School of Art, opened in 1906 at Pennsylvania and 16th streets in Indianapolis. In 1969, the Art Association of Indianapolis changed its name to Indianapolis Museum of Art, and in 1970 the museum moved to a new and much larger building on Michigan Road, a few miles northwest of the downtown area. Four new pavilions have been added to the original building since 1970, and the most recent expansion added 171,800 square feet  to the museum.

Among the museum’s early supporters were Eli Lilly (1885–1977), president of Eli Lilly and Company from 1932 to 1948; author Booth Tarkington (1869–1946); Herman C. Krannert (1887–1972), founder of Inland Container Corporation; and Caroline Marmon Fesler (1878–1960), who purchased paintings by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso and other important artists for the museum. The IMA's current director since 2006 is Maxwell L. Anderson.

The main floor houses primarily pre-20th century European and American artwork, the second floor non-Western artwork, and the third floor modern and contemporary art by such artists as James Turrell and Vito Acconci.

Kyoto National Museum

The Kyoto National Museum  is one of the three formerly imperially-mandated art museums in Japan. The museum is located in Higashiyama Ward in Kyoto. The collections of the Kyoto National Museum focus on pre-modern Japanese and Asian art. The Museum is currently undergoing renovation and will reopen in 2013.

The Kyoto National Museum, then the Imperial Museum of Kyoto, was proposed, along with the Imperial Museum of Tokyo (Tokyo National Museum) and the Imperial Museum of Nara (Nara National Museum), in 1889, and construction on the museum finished in October, 1895. The museum was opened in 1897. The museum went through a series of name changes, in 1900 changing its name to the Imperial Household Museum of Kyoto, and once more in 1924 to the Imperial Gift Museum of Kyoto. The current name, the Kyoto National Museum, was decided upon in 1952.

The museum was originally built to house and display art treasures privately owned by temples and shrines, as well as items donated by the Imperial Household Ministry. Currently, most all of the items in the museum are more or less on permanent loan from one of those places.

The museum is divided into three parts: Fine Arts, including sculptures, paintings and works of calligraphy; Handicrafts, including pottery, fabrics, lacquerwares and metalworks; and Archaeology, including objects of archaeological and historical interest. Altogether, the museum houses over 12,000 works, of which around 6,000 are on display at the museum. The museum also boasts photographic archives containing over 200,000 photographic negatives and color transparencies. In the Fine Arts collections alone, there are more than 230 pieces that have been designated as either National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.

The museum focuses on mainly pre-modern Japanese works (it is said to have the largest collection of Heian period artifacts) and Asian art. The museum is also well-known for its collections of rare and ancient Chinese and Japanese sutras. Other famous works include senzui byobu (landscape screen) from the 11th century, and the gakizoshi (Scroll of Hungry Ghosts) from the 12th century.

London Museum

The London Museum was inaugurated on March 21, 1912 by King George V with Queen Mary and Princess Mary and Prince George at Kensington Palace. It opened for public visitation on April 8, admitting more than 13.000 visitors during the day. Two years later the collections were removed to Lancaster House and remained there until shortly after World War II. Later they returned to Kensington Palace.

The first keeper of the museum was Sir Guy Francis Laking. From 1926 to 1944 the keeper was the famous archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler. This collection now forms part of the collection of the Museum of London based in the City of London and is on display daily.

Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle

The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France

The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution. Its origins lie, however, in the Jardin royal des plantes médicinales (Royal Medicinal Plant Garden) created by King Louis XIII in 1635, which was directed and run by the royal physicians. The royal proclamation of the boy-king Louis XV on 31 March 1718, however, removed the medical function, enabling the garden—which became known simply as the Jardin du Roi (King's Garden)—to focus on natural history.

For much of the 18th century (1739–1788), the garden was under the direction of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, one of the leading naturalists of the Enlightenment, bringing international fame and prestige to the establishment. Incorporated as the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in 1793, opening in 1794 with, as one of its foundation professors, eminent evolutionary pioneer Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. The museum's aims were to instruct the public, put together collections and conduct scientific research. It continued to flourish during the 19th century, and, particularly under the direction of chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, became a rival to the University of Paris in scientific research. For example, during the period that Henri Becquerel held the chair for Applied Physics at the Muséum (1892-1908) he discovered the radiation properties of uranium. (Four generations of Becquerels held this chairmanship, from 1838 to 1948.)

A decree of 12 December 1891 ended this phase, returning the museum to an emphasis on natural history. After receiving financial autonomy in 1907, it began a new phase of growth, opening facilities throughout France during the interwar years. In recent decades, it has directed its research and education efforts at the effects of human exploitation on the environment. In French public administration, the Muséum is classed as a grand établissement of higher education.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms.

The museum's Royal Mummy Room, containing 27 royal mummies from pharaonic times, was closed on the orders of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. It was reopened, with a slightly curtailed display of New Kingdom kings and queens in 1985. Today there are about 9 mummies displayed. One of them is the newly discovered mummy of Queen Hatshepsut.

Museums at Night

Museums at Night is an annual weekend of late openings, sleepovers and special events taking place in museums, galleries, libraries, archive and heritage sites all over the UK. It is affiliated with the Nuit des Musées programme across Europe. It takes place on the weekend before International Museum Day, May 18th, and in 2011 will run across the weekend of Friday 13th - Sunday 15th May 2011.

Museums at Night is funded by the MLA and administered by Culture24.

For Museums at Night weekend 2009, cultural and heritage venues in the UK staged 157 events, attracting over 34,000 visitors.

Museums at Night weekend sees combined cultural and heritage programmes offered by multiple organisations in many UK cities, including Stockport, Bath, Dorchester, Norwich, Liverpool and NewcastleGateshead

National Heritage Museum

The National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts is a museum with an emphasis on American history and Freemasonry. It also contains the Gorden-Williams Library, a Masonic research library. The Museum was founded by the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction Scottish Rite appendant body of Freemasonry.

It is open Tuesday through Saturday 10:00AM to 4:30 PM and Sunday noon to 4:30 PM. The museum features general interest galleries with changing exhibits about American history and culture, Massachusetts history and industry, decorative arts, and Lexington's role in the American Revolution. Parking and admission are free.

National Motorcycle Museum

The National Motorcycle Museum occupies an 8-acre site in Bickenhill, Solihull, England and holds the World's largest collection of British motorcycles.In addition to over 850 motorcycles which cover a century of motorcycle manufacture the site has conference facilities. The main entrance is from the roundabout at the junction of the A45 and the M42.
The founder of the museum, construction entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Roy Richards, started collecting good examples of British motorcycles in the 1970s. The museum opened in 1984 with an initial collection of 350 machines.

The museum was developed to include conference facilities in 1985. The museum has become the largest collection of British motorcycles in the world, with over 250,000 visitors a year.

Roy Richards died of respiratory failure on March 29, 2008, aged 77. The National Motorcycle Museum is a fitting memorial to his passion for preserving British motorcycling history

National Museum of Art of Romania

The National Museum of Art of Romania  is located in the former royal palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest, Romania, completed in 1937. It features notable collections of medieval and modern Romanian art, as well as the international collection assembled by the Romanian royal family.

The museum was damaged during the 1989 Romanian Revolution that led to the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu. In 2000, part of the museum reopened to the public, housing the modern Romanian collection and the international collection; the comprehensive Medieval art collection, which now features works salvaged from monasteries destroyed during the Ceausescu era, reopened in spring 2002. There are also two halls that house temporary exhibits.

The modern Romanian collection features sculptures by Constantin Brâncusi and Dimitrie Paciurea, as well as paintings by Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Theodor Pallady, Gheorghe Petrascu, and Gheorghe Tattarescu.

The international collection includes works by Old Masters such as Domenico Veneziano, El Greco, Tintoretto, Jan van Eyck, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, and Rembrandt, plus a smattering of works by impressionists such as Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley. Among the most famous Old Master works in the collection are Jacopo Amigoni's portrait of the singer Farinelli, a Crucifixion by Antonello da Messina, and Alonso Cano's Christ at the Column.

National Museum of Rome

The National Museum of Rome is a set of museums in Rome, Italy, split among various branches across the city. It was founded in 1889 and inaugurated in 1890, with the aim of collecting antiquities from between the 5th century BC to the 3rd century AD.

Its first collection was formed from the archeological collections of the Museo Kircheriano, a collection assembled by the antiquarian Athanasius Kircher, soon supplemented by the numerous new discoveries in Rome during the expansive city-planning after it became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. This was initially meant to be displayed in a 'Museo Tiberino' (never realised), but in 1901 the State granted the institution the Villa Ludovisi and the important national collection of ancient sculptures.

Its base was established in the 16th century cloister built by Michelangelo off the baths of Diocletian, still its main base. These buildings' adaptation to their new purpose began for the 1911 Exposition and completed in the 1930s.

National Museum of Singapore

The National Museum of Singapore  is a national museum in Singapore and the oldest museum in Singapore. Its history dates back to 1849 when it was started as a section of a library at Singapore Institution. After several relocations, the Museum was relocated to its permanent site at Stamford Road at the Museum Planning Area in 1887.

The Museum is one of the four national museums in the country, the other three being the two Asian Civilisations Museums at Empress Place Building and Old Tao Nan School, and the Singapore Art Museum. The museum focuses on exhibits related to the history of Singapore. The Museum was named the National Museum of Singapore in 1965. For a brief period between 1993 and March 2006, it was known as the Singapore History Museum, before reverting back to its previous name. The Museum underwent a three-and-a-half-year restoration and reopened on December 2, 2006, with the Singapore History Gallery opening on December 8 of the same year.

The revamped National Museum was officially opened by President of Singapore S R Nathan and Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lee Boon Yang on 7 December 2006

Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum

The Nederlands Scheepvaart Museum also called Netherlands Maritime Museum is a museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The museum is housed in a former naval storehouse, 's Lands Zeemagazijn or Admiraliteits Magazijn, constructed in 1656. The museum moved to this building in 1973.

The museum is dedicated to maritime history and contains many artifacts associated with shipping and sailing. The collection contains, among other things, paintings, scale models, weapons and world maps. The paintings depict Dutch naval officers such as Michiel de Ruyter and impressive historical sea battles.

The map collection includes works by famed 17th-century cartographers Willem Blaeu and his son Joan Blaeu. The museum also has a surviving copy of the first edition of Maximilian Transylvanus' work, De Moluccis Insulis, the first to describe Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the world.

Moored outside the museum is a replica of the Amsterdam, an 18th-century ship which sailed between the Netherlands and the East Indies. The replica was built in the years 1985-1990.

The museum is currently closed until Summer 2011 while undergoing a major renovation.

New Mexico Museum of Art

The New Mexico Museum of Art (formerly the Museum of Fine Arts), the oldest art museum in the state of New Mexico, is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe. It is one of eight museums in the state operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

The New Mexico Museum Of Art is designed by Isaac Rapp and built in 1917, it is an example of Pueblo Revival Style architecture, and one of Santa Fe's best-known representations of the synthesis of Native American and Spanish Colonial design styles. The museum’s permanent collection and changing exhibitions of traditional and contemporary art place the art of the region into national and international contexts.

The museum located at 107 West Palace Avenue, one block off the historic Santa Fe Plaza.

National Museum of Haiti

The National Museum of Haiti  in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was completed in 1938. It is located at Route Nationale No. 1 in the neighborhood of Montrouis. It is not to be confused with the Musée du Pantheon d'Haiti (built 1983), which is located across the street from the National Palace.

The National Museum houses information and artifacts covering the history of Haiti from the time of the Arawak and Taino Indians until the 1940s.There are murals showing the treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards and the treatment of African slaves by the French. There are also artifacts relating to the emperors of Haiti, including the pistol with which King Henri Christophe used to commit suicide.

One of the most important objects in the museum's collection is the anchor of the Santa Maria, the ship of Christopher Columbus, which ran aground on the coast of Haiti on 24 December 1492.

Omani French Museum

The Omani French Museum is a heritage museum, located in the former residence of the French Consul, Bait Faransa on Lane 9310, Qasr Al Alam Street, in the old quarter of Muscat, Oman.

The white building which was essentially a palace, was initially established as a present by the Sultan Assayed / Faisal bin Turki to the French Consul in Muscat in 1896. On January 29, 1992, Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the late French President François Mitterrand established a museum in the palace to preserve the historical Omani-French relations. The museum has a substantial collection of items to this effect including photographs of the early French diplomats, historical documents, Omani - French ships, Omani and French costumes and jewellery and furniture

Sam Tung UK Museum

The Sam Tung UK Museum  is a museum restored from Sam Tung Uk (literally "three-beam-dwelling", which describes the original floorplan), a Hakka walled village in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong.

It was built by a Chan clan under the leadership of the clan patriarch, Chan Yam-shing, in 1786 (during the reign of Emperor Qianlong). The Chan clan was originally from Fujian; they had moved to Guangdong, and then to Hong Kong to engage in farming. The site has been carefully restored and opened to the public as a museum.

The entrance, assembly and ancestral halls, and twelve of the original houses are preserved. Other rooms have been modified to accommodate a reception area, an orientation room, an exhibition hall, a museum office, and a lecture theatre. The agricultural implements and everyday objects of Hakka village life are on permanent display. The main exhibition hall at the far end of the building complex changes its displays approximately every six months. Documentation of the restoration process is on display in Orientation Room.

The Bead Museum

The Bead Museum is a museum of beads located in Glendale, Arizona It is located at 5754 W. Glenn Drive.

The Bead Museum was founded to establish a safe haven for a permanent collection of beads and adornments of all cultures, past and present, which would provide an enduring opportunity for the study and enjoyment of these magnificent examples of art and ingenuity.

The Bead Museum serves the public through exhibitions and programs designed to heighten awareness of peoples' ideas about themselves and their world through the study of beads. Used all over the world, these small, perforated objects speak of ancient links with people, places, and diverse community expressions.

This unique museum was founded in 1984 by Gabrielle Liese and houses an international collection of over 100,000 beads and beaded artifacts. The museum features permanent and changing exhibitions, and education and outreach programs of lectures, tours, and classes for the visitor.

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries.

Pope Julius II founded the museums in the 16th century. The Sistine Chapel and the Stanze della Segnatura decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. They were visited by 4,310,083 people in the year 2007

The Vatican Museums trace their origin to one marble sculpture, purchased 500 years ago. The sculpture of Laocoön, the priest who, according to Greek mythology, tried to convince the people of ancient Troy not to accept the Greeks' "gift" of a hollow horse, was discovered 14 January 1506, in a vineyard near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were working at the Vatican, to examine the discovery. On their recommendation, the pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The pope put the sculpture of Laocoön and his sons in the grips of a sea serpent on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery.

The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public

Virtual Museum of Canada

The Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) is Canada's national virtual museum. With over 2,500 Canadian museums, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location.

The VMC includes virtual exhibits free online games, educational material and over 580000 images.The resources are bilingual; available in both French and English. While the content on the Virtual Museum of Canada is created by Canadian museums, it is administered by the Canadian Heritage Information Network which is an agency within the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The Virtual Museum of Canada provides an online environment for Canadian communities to tell their stories and preserve their history. One of the most popular sections of the VMC is their Community Memories section. This is a place where smaller Canadian community museums, who are mostly volunteer run, can create online exhibits about their history