What is the importance of a museum?

Answer

Well, museums have importance for people who enjoy history, or who are very interested in one particular subject.  There are Art museums, Railroad museums, dollhouse museums, and museums devoted to history, or the history of a certain area.  There are many, many other types as well.

For people who love paintings by very popular artists, but are too poor to buy a painting, Art museums are probably the only chance they will have to see an original... Picasso, for example.

Museums are a popular tourist activity.  When you go to a new state or a new country, seeing some of the history pictured or described at a museum is interesting and even fun.  I have been to visit a couple of large dams, and seeing the historical information about how the dams were built was fascinating to me.

That said, obviously all museums aren't going to appeal to all people.  There are as many types of museums as there are interests, and so... if you like cars, you could go to a car museum. :)  If you like sports, you could go to a sports museum (could be called a hall of fame).  If you like books, you could go to the library... or, er... many museums display old books and documents. :)

Here is a link to some of the Smithsonian Museums, if you are interested:

http://www.si.edu/museums/

First answer by Zanbabe. Last edit by Zanbabe. Contributor trust: 583 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 32 [recommend question]