Different Types of Museums for Every Interest

Museums offer endless opportunities to learn, explore and enjoy. But with so many different types of museums out there, how do you find the one that’s right for you? Whether you’re fascinated by art, history, or something more unusual, there’s a museum to match your interests.

I think most people have a certain image in mind when they think of what a museum is. But, there are so many different types of museums that it might be confusing, especially to those who are not frequent museum-goers. That’s why I’ve decided to put together this quick breakdown to help you find your perfect museum match.

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What you need to know about the different museums

While finding a museum is easy, defining it isn’t always clear cut. Many museums started as private collections, making them more eclectic in nature. Certain museums have different areas within the building dedicated to various themes that could be made into separate museums if the collection was split. This is one of the many reasons it’s hard to define them.

This guide is by no means all-inclusive. I’m sure there are countless other definitions, so to make it easier, I’ve compiled a list of categories to illustrate the general idea behind specific museum types. If you’re wondering about the different types of museums, this post will give you a better understanding of what defines them to get you started.

General museums

General museums offer a broad and diverse look at multiple subjects under one roof. These museums typically include exhibits covering history, art, science, culture and nature, making them perfect for those seeking a comprehensive overview of human accomplishments across various disciplines.

The British Museum – London, UK
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York, USA
The Louvre – Paris, France
Smithsonian Institution – Washington, D.C., USA

Art Museums

Art museums showcase various visual art forms, from classical masterpieces to contemporary creations. These types of museums offer an opportunity to explore creativity, artistic techniques and movements throughout history.

Fine Art Museums

Fine art museums focus on classical artworks, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints by renowned artists. These institutions typically house significant historical and cultural pieces that represent pivotal moments in art history.

Uffizi Gallery – Florence, Italy
Rijksmuseum – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Prado Museum – Madrid, Spain

Contemporary Art Museums

Contemporary art museums emphasize art from the late 20th century to the present. Exhibitions often feature innovative and provocative works, including multimedia installations, conceptual art and performance pieces. These types of museums often are housed in modern or refurbished buildings that are also art themselves.

Tate Modern – London, UK
MoMA – New York, USA
Guggenheim Museum – Bilbao, Spain

bilbao-museum-outside | quotes about architecture

Decorative Arts Museums

Decorative arts museums focus on functional yet aesthetically pleasing items such as ceramics, glassware, furniture, textiles and jewelry. They highlight artistic craftsmanship and design evolution through various historical periods.

Victoria and Albert Museum – London, UK
Cooper Hewitt – New York, USA
Museum of Decorative Arts – Paris, France

Folk Art Museums

Folk art museums preserve and celebrate cultural heritage through traditional crafts, folk paintings, sculptures, textiles and other objects. These types of museums provide insights into local customs, traditions, and daily life of various communities.

American Folk Art Museum – New York, USA
Hungarian Museum of Ethnography – Budapest, Hungary
Museo Nacional de Arte Popular – Mexico City, Mexico

Photography Museums

Photography museums exhibit historical and contemporary photographs, showcasing various photographic techniques, influential photographers, and thematic collections. These museums offer an in-depth look at how photography has documented and influenced societies.

International Center of Photography – New York, USA
Fotografiska – Stockholm, Sweden
Maison Européenne de la Photographie – Paris, France

Single-Artist Museums

These types of museums dedicate their exhibitions entirely to one artist’s life, works and legacy. They often house extensive personal archives, notable masterpieces, and interactive exhibits that reveal deeper insights into the artist’s creative process. Sometimes, you’ll find these types of museums in the former childhood homes or the residences of these artists, which adds a more interesting perspective to that person’s life.

Van Gogh Museum – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mozart House – Vienna, Austria
Picasso Museum – Barcelona, Spain
Frida Kahlo Museum – Mexico City, Mexico

Archaeology Museums

Archaeology museums display artifacts and discoveries from ancient civilizations. These types of museums help us understand past cultures, their lifestyles, beliefs and societal structures through exhibits featuring excavated objects, sculptures, pottery, jewelry and more. They also provide context about archaeological methods and significant historical finds.

National Archaeological Museum – Athens, Greece
Egyptian Museum – Cairo, Egypt
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations – Ankara, Turkey

History Museums

There are many different types of museums in this category, but they all have the same purpose. History museums chronicle human history through artifacts, interactive exhibits and storytelling. They often highlight significant events, cultures and figures, making history engaging for visitors interested in understanding the past.

General History Museums

General history museums cover wide-ranging historical narratives, from ancient eras to contemporary history, often using diverse collections of artifacts, documents, and multimedia exhibits. They offer an overview of significant historical developments and cultural milestones.

National Museum of American History – Washington, D.C., USA
Deutsches Historisches Museum – Berlin, Germany
National History Museum – Sofia, Bulgaria

Period-Specific Museums

These types of museums focus exclusively on particular historical periods or pivotal events, providing a more profound, detailed examination of specific moments in history. You can explore detailed exhibits, artifacts, and narratives tailored to distinct historical themes.

Musee de l’Armee – Paris, France
Titanic Museum – Belfast, Northern Ireland
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum – Hiroshima, Japan

Historic House Museums

Historic house museums preserve residential buildings significant to historical figures or periods, showcasing original furniture, decorations and personal items. These types of museums offer a tangible connection to historical figures and their daily lives.

Anne Frank House – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Monticello – Virginia, USA
Casa Azul – Mexico City, Mexico

Memorial Museums

Memorial museums honour and remember significant events or people, emphasizing education and reflection through exhibits that include personal artifacts, testimonies, and historical context. They often serve as poignant reminders of past events and their lasting impacts.

9/11 Memorial & Museum – New York, USA
Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum – Oświęcim, Poland
Yad Vashem – Jerusalem, Israel

Historic sites

Historic sites are preserved locations of historical significance, often associated with critical events or significant cultural developments, offering firsthand experiences and educational opportunities. These sites may include preserved ruins, battlefields, or historically significant buildings.

Pompeii Archaeological Park – Pompeii, Italy
Independence Hall – Philadelphia, USA
Forbidden City – Beijing, China

Science and Technology Museums

Science and technology museums help visitors understand how things work and showcase scientific discoveries. You’ll find interactive displays, technological gadgets, and exhibits about human achievements.

Science Centers

These types of museums are usually designed to be interactive spaces where visitors learn through hands-on experiences and educational exhibits about physics, chemistry, and biology. Many often cater to children and are popular school trip destinations.

Ontario Science Centre – Toronto, Canada
California Science Center – Los Angeles, USA
Science Museum – London, UK
Palais de la Découverte – Paris, France
Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci – Milan, Italy

Technology Museums

These types of museums highlight advancements in technology, from historical inventions to modern devices, computers and digital technology.

Computer History Museum – Mountain View, USA
Tekniska Museet – Stockholm, Sweden
Technisches Museum Wien – Vienna, Austria
Museum of Science and Industry – Chicago, USA

Medical Museums

Medical museums focus on health, medicine and medical history. These types of museums showcase everything from ancient surgical tools to contemporary medical breakthroughs.

Mütter Museum – Philadelphia, USA
Thackray Museum of Medicine – Leeds, UK
Medical Museion – Copenhagen, Denmark
Museum of the History of Medicine – Paris, France

Planetariums and Space Museums

These museums explore astronomy, space travel, and celestial phenomena, often featuring planetariums that simulate the night sky and space voyages.

Hayden Planetarium – New York City, USA
Cité de l’espace – Toulouse, France
Royal Observatory – London, UK
Adler Planetarium – Chicago, USA

Cultural & Ethnographic Museums

These types of museums celebrate human culture, traditions, beliefs, and daily life, highlighting the diversity and heritage of people around the world.

Anthropology Museums

Anthropology museums examine human societies, cultures, and development through historical artifacts, human remains, and cultural objects.

Museo Nacional de Antropología – Mexico City, Mexico
Field Museum – Chicago, USA
Musée du quai Branly – Paris, France
Canadian Museum of History – Gatineau, Canada

Ethnographic Museums

Ethnographic museums document the culture and traditions of specific communities or ethnic groups, showcasing art, customs, and daily life.

Ethnologisches Museum – Berlin, Germany
National Museum of Ethnology – Osaka, Japan
Tropenmuseum – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Russian Museum of Ethnography – St. Petersburg, Russia
Pitt Rivers Museum – Oxford, UK

Ethnographic Villages

These outdoor museums display reconstructed or preserved traditional dwellings, offering immersive experiences of past lifestyles and customs.

Skansen – Stockholm, Sweden
Ballenberg Open-Air Museum – Brienz, Switzerland
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum – Tokyo, Japan
ASTRA National Museum Complex – Sibiu, Romania
Seurasaari Open-Air Museum – Helsinki, Finland

Religious Museums

Religious museums explore religious art, artifacts, traditions, and beliefs across different faiths and cultures. They are often associated with a particular religion and highlight art and other significant pieces.

Vatican Museums – Vatican City
Israel Museum – Jerusalem, Israel
Museum of Islamic Art – Doha, Qatar
Museo Nacional del Prado – Madrid, Spain
Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme – Paris, France

Specialized Subject Museums

These types of museums offer in-depth exhibits focused on particular themes, industries, or fields, making them fascinating for niche interests.

Transportation Museums

These types of museums focus on the history and development of transportation, from cars to aviation. Sometimes, they can devoted to one brand or a specific mode of transportation like trains.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – Washington D.C., USA
Mercedes-Benz Museum – Stuttgart, Germany
London Transport Museum – London, UK
Railway Museum – York, UK

Military and War Museums

Focusing on military history, battles, weaponry, and wartime stories, these museums preserve memories of conflict and heroism.

Imperial War Museum – London, UK
National WWII Museum – New Orleans, USA
Musée de l’Armée – Paris, France
Canadian War Museum – Ottawa, Canada
Australian War Memorial – Canberra, Australia

Maritime Museums

Dedicated to the sea, ships, navigation and maritime history, these types of museums include shipwrecks, naval artifacts, and marine exploration.

National Maritime Museum – London, UK
Vasa Museum – Stockholm, Sweden
Maritime Museum – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mystic Seaport Museum – Mystic, USA
Australian National Maritime Museum – Sydney, Australia

Agricultural Museums

These types of museums showcase farming practices, agricultural tools, rural life, and the history of agriculture.

National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame – Kansas, USA
Canada Agriculture and Food Museum – Ottawa, Canada
Deutsches Landwirtschaftsmuseum – Stuttgart, Germany

Numismatic Museums

Numismatic museums feature collections of coins, currency and related monetary artifacts. These types of museums explore economic history and trade.

Numismatic Museum of Athens – Athens, Greece
American Numismatic Association Money Museum – Colorado Springs, USA
Museo Casa de la Moneda – Madrid, Spain

Philatelic Museums

Philatelic museums house extensive stamp collections, postal history exhibits, and memorabilia related to mail and communications.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum – Washington D.C., USA
Singapore Philatelic Museum – Singapore
Postal Museum – London, UK

Natural History Museums

Natural history museums focus on fossils, minerals, and preserved specimens of animals and plants. They showcase everything from dinosaur skeletons to meteorites.

American Museum of Natural History – New York, USA
Natural History Museum – London, UK
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle – Paris, France
Senckenberg Natural History Museum – Frankfurt, German

Open-Air Museums

Open-air museums reconstruct historic villages, showcasing traditional architecture and everyday life from different eras.

Skansen – Stockholm, Sweden
Beamish, The Living Museum of the North – England, UK
Bunratty Castle & Folk Park – Ireland
Skanzen – Hungary

Living History Museums

Living history museums use costumed actors to depict historical events and everyday life.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums – Massachusetts, USA
Fortress Louisbourg – Nova Scotia, Canada
Conner Prairie – Indiana, USA
Jamestown Settlement – Virginia, USA
Old Sturbridge Village – Massachusetts, USA

Specialized Museums

These types of museums focus on a particular cultural or artistic theme. When you visit museums in this category, anything goes.

Literary Museums

Dedicated to authors and literature, these museums preserve manuscripts, letters and literary history. Sometimes, these types of museums are located in the author’s former home.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum – Haworth, UK
The Hemingway Home and Museum – Key West, USA
The Charles Dickens Museum – London, UK
The Franz Kafka Museum – Prague, Czech Republic
The Jane Austen Centre – Bath, UK

Music Museums

These museums celebrate music history, composers and instruments.

The Beatles Story – Liverpool, UK
Abba Museum – Stockholm, Sweden
Motown – Detroit, USA
Vienna House of Music – Vienna, Austria
The Museum of Musical Instruments – Berlin, Germany

Theatre and Performance Museums

These types of museums showcase theatre history, costumes, scripts, and set designs. They explore the performing arts and all the things related to performance art.

The National Theatre Museum – Madrid, Spain
The Met Opera Archive – New York, USA
Théâtre-Musée Gala Dalí – Figueres, Spain
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust – Stratford-upon-Avon, UK

Architecture Museums

Architecture museums explore building design, urban planning, and architectural heritage.

The Bauhaus Archive – Berlin, Germany
Canadian Centre for Architecture – Montreal, Canada
The Museum of Finnish Architecture – Helsinki, Finland
The Chicago Architecture Center – Chicago, USA
The Danish Architecture Center – Copenhagen, Denmark

Design and Fashion Museums

These museums celebrate design, fashion and industrial creativity.

Fashion/Textile Museums

Fashion museums highlight historical and contemporary fashion trends, textiles and famous designers.

Bata Shoe Museum – Toronto, Canada
Musée Yves Saint Laurent – Paris, France
The Costume Institute at The Met – New York, USA
Kyoto Costume Institute – Kyoto, Japan
ModeMuseum (MoMu) – Antwerp, Belgium

Industrial Design Museums

Industrial design museums focus on product design, technological innovations and everyday objects.

Vitra Design Museum – Weil am Rhein, Germany
Red Dot Design Museum – Essen, Germany
Design Museum – London, UK
Triennale Design Museum – Milan, Italy

Special interest and niche museums

These types of museums cater to specific interests, collecting artifacts, memorabilia, or themed exhibitions. There really are no limits to these museums, as they are often born from a passion for a particular activity, theme or interest.

Wax Museums

Wax museums feature life-sized, realistic wax figures of historical figures, celebrities, and fictional characters.

Madame Tussauds – London, UK (and multiple global locations)
Hollywood Wax Museum – Los Angeles, USA
Musée Grévin – Paris, France
Indian Wax Museum – Chennai, India
Berlin Wax Museum – Berlin, Germany

Toy and doll museums

These museums showcase toys, dolls, and playthings from different cultures and time periods.

Puppenhausmuseum – Basel, Switzerland
Tokyo Toy Museum – Tokyo, Japan
Nuremberg Toy Museum – Nuremberg, Germany
Pollock’s Toy Museum – London, UK

Museum of the Odd

These museums house strange, bizarre, and unusual artifacts, focusing on curiosities and oddities.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not! – Multiple locations worldwide
The Mutter Museum – Philadelphia, USA
Icelandic Phallological Museum – Reykjavik, Iceland
The Winchester Mystery House – San Jose, USA

Philatelic Museums

Philatelic museums preserve and exhibit collections of postage stamps, letters and postal history.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum – Washington, D.C., USA
Museum of Philately – London, UK
Singapore Philatelic Museum – Singapore
Philatelic and Postal Museum – Bangkok, Thailand
Museum für Kommunikation – Berlin, Germany

Numismatic Museums

These museums showcase collections of coins, banknotes, and monetary artifacts from different civilizations.

American Numismatic Association Money Museum – Colorado Springs, USA
Museo della Zecca – Rome, Italy
The Money Museum – Zurich, Switzerland
Shanghai Museum (Numismatics) – Shanghai, China

Sports Museums

Sports museums celebrate athletes, events, and sporting history with memorabilia and interactive exhibits.

The Olympic Museum – Lausanne, Switzerland
National Baseball Hall of Fame – Cooperstown, USA
FIFA World Football Museum – Zurich, Switzerland
Hockey Hall of Fame – Toronto, Canada

Hobby Museums

These museums are dedicated to hobbies and collectibles such as trains, miniatures, and model ships.

Miniatur Wunderland – Hamburg, Germany
The LEGO House – Billund, Denmark
Musée des Automates – Lyon, France
Model Railway Museum – Utrecht, Netherlands
International Spy Museum – Washington, D.C., USA

Regional and local museums

These museums focus on preserving and showcasing local history, traditions, and heritage.

Local History Museums

Local history museums document a particular town or region’s culture, people, and events.

The Museum of London – London, UK
Chicago History Museum – Chicago, USA
Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum – Tokyo, Japan
The New York Historical Society – New York, USA
Melbourne Museum – Melbourne, Australia

Heritage Museums

Heritage museums preserve and interpret historical and cultural heritage, often featuring restored buildings and artifacts.

The Canadian Museum of History – Gatineau, Canada
Australian National Maritime Museum – Sydney, Australia
The National Museum of China – Beijing, China
The German Historical Museum – Berlin, Germany

Private Museums

Privately owned museums often showcase personal collections or unique themes. Quite often, these types of museums are inside private residences that people might still live in.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – Boston, USA
The Morgan Library & Museum – New York, USA
The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) – Hobart, Australia
The Menil Collection – Houston, USA

Palace Museums

Palace museums are housed in former royal residences, showcasing historical interiors and regal artifacts. These are some of my favourite types of museums and I can’t pass on an opportunity to visit as many as I can when I travel.

The Palace of Versailles – Versailles, France
The Hermitage (Winter Palace) – St. Petersburg, Russia
Schönbrunn Palace – Vienna, Austria
Topkapi Palace Museum – Istanbul, Turkey
Rundale Palace – Rundale, Latvia

Final thoughts on different types of museums

As you can see, there are many different types of museums you can explore. They aren’t just stuffy buildings filled with old junk and weird portraits of stuffy people. There are so many great places to learn about anything you can imagine, and for me, that’s the most fun part about visiting museums.

From the unique to the very odd, pretty much anything can be turned into a museum exhibit. Whether you’re into modern art, ancient sculptures, fashion or magic, there is a museum for you. The best types of museums are those that are free, but even those that charge admission often have special days when entrance is free. Look up that information on the museum’s official site and plan accordingly.