Public and Corporate History Museums

Since the 1950s, the number of history museums within the United States has increased dramatically. Although many of these museums have been developed by government-sponsored entities, a considerable number have been initiated by private corporations. Public and corporate museums share the common goal of attempting to tell the story of a place, a person, an event, or an entity through the display of historical objects, accompanied by visuals and texts. Likewise, public and corporate museums utilize many of the same processes, resources, and techniques in planning, researching, presenting and protecting their collections. Nevertheless, even a casual visitor to a corporate museum may detect a different look and feel than what be encountered from a visit to a typical public history museum. Besides these obvious contrasts, there also may be other less obvious differences in how the two types of institutions function.