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Museon is a museum for
science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...
and
culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Ty ...
in
The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital ...
,
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...
. It has collections in the domains of geology, biology, archaeology, history, science and ethnology. __TOC__


Origin

The museum was initiated in 1904 by the newspaper director Frits van Paasschen, who wanted to establish a museum where children could learn about industry. Although science and technology became important domains for the museum, the original idea has never been realized. Under the museum's first director, the geologist Herman van Cappelle, the collection policy moved towards natural history and ethnology. Van Paasschen's idea of a museum with a strong education mission however was implemented from the very beginning, expressed by the museum's previous name ‘Museum for Education’. From the start the museum organised lessons for school classes, based on the visual tools that are provided by the museum's collection. Around 1910 the museum was also the first organisation in The Netherlands that programmed educational movies, an initiative that led to the foundation of the first school cinema in the country.


Municipal museum

Starting as a private museum the ‘Museum for Education’ was taken over by the municipality of The Hague in 1920. In 1933, biologist
Niko Tinbergen Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen (; ; 15 April 1907 – 21 December 1988) was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the or ...
, provided the museum with a collection of objects from the
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...
in
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...
. The museum moved several times, until the municipality had its present building built in 1985, by the design by architect WG Quist. The name Museon also dates from 1985. In 1997 the museum was privatised again.


Mission

Museon hosts educational exhibitions and programmes to communicate with a broad audience. A large part of all visitors are school children. Museon aims at transferring knowledge about man and his relation with nature and culture and provides easily accessible information about topical themes and developments in science and society. Currently the collection counts around 273,000 objects.


2002 Portuguese Crown Jewels theft

In 2002 a large part of the
Portuguese Crown Jewels The Portuguese Crown Jewels (''Jóias da Coroa Portuguesa''), also known as the Royal Treasure (''Tesouro Real''), are the pieces of jewelry, regalia, and vestments that were used by the Kings and Queens of Portugal during the time of the Portug ...
were stolen from the Museon, for which they were on loan for an exhibition on European Crown Jewels. Following an investigation by the museum and Dutch authorities, the Dutch government paid a sum of six million euros to the Portuguese government for reparation.


References

Kockelkorn, Hub. Geschiedenis van het Museum voor het Onderwijs. Den Haag, 1985


External links


Museon web site
{{authority control Museums in The Hague Science museums in the Netherlands Natural history museums in the Netherlands History museums in the Netherlands Ethnographic museums in the Netherlands