International Museum Day

Today is International Museum Day!

This day was first organized in 1977 by the International Council of Museums. It's a day meant to celebrate the importance of museums.

A museum, for those not in the know, is a building that is dedicated to the purpose of collecting and interpreting artifacts. Museums can specialize in a particular artifact, like art museums or natural history museums. Many major cities all over the world have museums. 

The word museum comes from Latin. The word itself was descended from an Ancient Greek term which denoted a place dedicated to the muses, which would be dedicated to the study of the arts and sciences. 

The earliest known public museum was the Ennigaldi-Nanna's Museum, dating to around 530 BCE. It was named after its curator, and is located in modern-day Iraq. It would be discovered by British archaeologist Leonard Woolley in 1925.

Another early public museum is the Capitoline Museums, first opened in 1471 in Rome. These museums came about thanks to Pope Sixtus IV donated some bronze sculptures to the people of Rome. In 1759, the British Museum would be opened. 1793 would see the opening of the Louvre in Paris. Yes, the 18th century was a time of commoners gaining increasing access to knowledge of the past.

The first museum in the United States was the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. This museum was opened in 1773, only three short years before the country declared independence from Great Britain. It also had the first female director in 1920 in Laura Bragg. It's a museum decorated to natural history and art. 

So, yeah. Museum have been a large part of community life for generations. So go enjoy one today if you can! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and want to give my blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!