Create an ATL Museum

[Plateosaurus]

This may seem random, but thanks to both my love for things from dinosaurs to Atlas Obscura, I'm interested in museums, ranging from small local museums to the big metropolitan ones. So, the goal is to make up a museum. it can be one for an ATL municipality, or for an ATL subject, whether human, natural history, or cultural.

Korhonen Museum of Natural History
Located in Middlebury, VT, the Korhonen Museum opened in 1973 by Jan Korhonen (December 8, 1917-July 5, 2005), a news editor and a son of finnish immigrants. A long attraction for the city and major northern New England scientific institution, the museum fell on hard times in the 90's and 2000's with reduced funding, but starting in 2010 began a renovation that reinvigorated it; the museum has organised based off a theme of armouring and protection. Its renown for its extensive collection of turtle and freshwater shellfish specimens and bronze age equipment, as well as its dinosaur gallery.

• Dinosaurs: Survival in the Mesozoic - A gallery dedicated to dinosaurs, added in 2009 designed to mimic a prehistoric conifer jungle. The centrepiece are two skeletal Ankylosaurus battling as a Daspletosaurus watches on, but features nine other mounted specimens and 150 others. The exhibit differs from others of its kind by focusing on the Ornithischian dinosaurs (ornithopods, ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, and theyreophorans).
• American Reptiles - A gallery focusing reptiles primarily of North America, with an emphasis on turtles and crocodilians alive and extinct; specifically it focuses on physical adaptations and anatomy like armour and eggs. The gallery has many live specimens on exhibit, and the museum as a whole participates in reptile and amphibian conservation.
• The First Vermonters - The gallery focusing on both native mammals and birds and indigenous peoples of Vermont and North America as a whole and how they interact(ed) in both life and mythology. Originally it was two separate galleries, the Indian Gallery and American Game and Birds Gallery, but in 2014 they were combined.
• Sea of Champlain - A gallery about both Lake Champlain and the ancient Champlain Sea and the Ice Age as a whole. On display are both fossil invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals and displays on hydrography and geology.
• Beyond Ishtar - A gallery first opened in 2011 focusing on Mesopotamian cultures, specifically their construction of buildings.
• Walton Bug Conservation Zoo - An exhibit on live insects and other arthropods, placing emphasis in conservation from threats.

 

[Ficboy]

Museum of the American Revolution*
Located in Washington DC the nation's capital, the Museum of the American Revolution was opened in 1876 to commemorate the centennial of the American Revolution. The man responsible for its creation was Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) the owner of the American Museum in New York City, New York from 1841 to 1865 best known as a Republican Senator of Connecticut. He wanted to create an exhibit that would celebrate the memory of the Founding Fathers and the Revolution. He got approval from the administration of Ulysses S. Grant to break ground on the museum in the District of Columbia in 1866 just one year after the Civil War. Ever since its opening, the Museum of the American Revolution has undergone numerous changes to expand and add new exhibits.

* The Beginning - An exhibit that is dedicated to focusing on the origins of the American Revolution
* The Declaration of Independence - An exhibit that focuses on the signing of this historic American document on July 4, 1776
* Saratoga: The Turning Point - An exhibit about the critical Battle of Saratoga
* The Founding Fathers - An exhibit dedicated to the men who created America
* The Black Patriots - An exhibit dedicated to the African-Americans that supported the American Revolution
* Valley Forge - An exhibit dedicated to this legendary military fortification
* One If By Land, Two If By Sea - An exhibit that focuses on the naval warfare of the American Revolution
* Friends in High Places - An exhibit that focuses on France, Spain and the Netherlands role in the American Revolution
* Yorktown - An exhibit about the decisive end of the American Revolution

Footnote:
This is basically the OTL Museum of the American Revolution built decades earlier and in Washington DC rather than Philadelphia in 2017.

 

[The_Persian_Cat]

His Imperial Majesty's Cabinet of Curiosity and His Imperial Majesty's Cabinet of Curiosity:
Two competing encyclopaedic collections of wondrous artefacts in Prague and Constantinople, under the patronage of the Habsburg and Ottoman dynasies, respectively. As the two greatest houses compete for imperium, prestige, faith, wealth, and glory, they likewise compete for artefacts, curated and documented by scholars and civil servants.

Within the Habsburg collection, we have, among many other things:
* The Golden Fleece
* A unicorn's horn
* The Lance of Longinus
* The very teeth of Saint George! (for God's sake!)
* The Veil of Veronica
* Excalibur
* The mummified corpse of Montezuma, dissected and turned into an anatomical display

Within the Ottoman collection, we have, among many other things:
* The Cup of Jamshid
* The feathers of a simurgh
* The Lyre of Orpheus
* The very teeth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)!
* The Lamp of Aladdin
* The Zulfiqar
* The mummified corpse of Vlad the Impaler, dissected and turned into an anatomical display

 

[AltoRegnant]

OOC: this takes place in the TL displayed in my signature
IC:
The Imperial Museum of French Cultures is located in Orleans, with smaller sister museums in Fort Nantes, Surat, and other locations; due to the amount of history covered, it is easily one of the biggest museums in the world. Commissioned by King August I in 1842, the Museum was part of his projects to enshrine and protect the rights of Frenchmen outside of the Metropole; while rights were guaranteed to Catholics since the beginning of French overseas expansion and Calvinists after 1722, this did not stop issues from emerging. The IMFC quickly became one of the most influential and prestigious aspects of the French empire. While controversial in recent years due to people believing that various artifacts should be returned to their original state, the museum argues that they were bought or are displayed with the consent of the colonial governments. Famous for refusing to sugarcoat or censor its history, the Orleans branch is host to exhibits on

1. The origin of the major cultures within the empire
   1. Charlemagne and the Franks
   2. Pre-Columbian North America
   3. Mésoamérique
   4. Gupta India
   5. The Rise of Islam
   6. Chinese Culture from the Qin to the Ming periods
   7. Bantu Migrations and Sub-Saharan Africa
2. French arrival to the geographic regions and how they made inroads
   1. Charles VIII and Christopher Columbus
   2. Early Caroline
   3. Mayan Conquests and Mésoamérique
   4. Dealings with Indian Monarchs
   5. The Ming Collapse
   6. The African Coasts
3. How the colonies developed culturally and economically
   1. Slavery in Caroline and Its Legacy (Not recommended for children under 14 due to violent imagery and actions)
   2. Blending of Practices in Campechia
   3. Impact of Indian Territory on the rising Empire
   4. The Silver Trade and the Nan Warlords
   5. Changes in Metropolitan French Society
   6. Legal Systems and Governorships
4. How the various cultures of the Empire blended
   1. Demographic Changes Within France
   2. European Tactics In Indian Wars
   3. Mutual Exchange of Cuisine
   4. Philosophical Developments
   5. Art and Prominent Artists (Not recommended for children under 14 due to violence and sexual content)
   6. Roll of the Church in the Empire
5. Competition with local powers (Not recommended for children under 14, as violence is featured prominently throughout the entire Compartment)
   1. Tensions With the Ottoman Empire
   2. Wars With Portugal and Britain
   3. Dealings With The Mughal Empire and Southern India
   4. Intervention In East Asia
   5. Native American Conflicts
   6. African Expansion
6. An examination of the IMCF itself
   1. An explanation of its history and stated purpose
   2. Biographies of major figures responsible for the Museum, most notably
      1. King August I
      2. Sandra D'Nantes. an anthropologist from Caroline who provided much of the information regarding the African subjects of the Empire
      3. Adhik Choksi, who was instrumental to the Indian and Deccani portions
      4. Min Louis, who played a crucial role in the history of China for the Museum's purposes
   3. Information regarding issues plaguing all the Empire's people
   4. a stage/meeting hall for important speakers (the King makes a speech on August I's birthday and the anniversary of the museum opening)
7. The gift shop is also enormous

 

[DrakonFin]

The Winter War Museum (Talvisotamuseo, Vinterkrigsmuseet):

A popular museum in Helsinki, at Eteläranta near the Market Square. The museum was opened in 2007 as a result of the reorganization of the Finnish Military Museum (Sotamuseo, Krigsmuseet) which was since the 1990s having issues with its exhibition buildings. The new Winter War Museum was a result of an open idea competition about enhancing the presentation of Finnish military history to a varied domestic and foreign audience in a new, open, accessible, and interactive way. The museum building itself, called Motti, is inspired in its design by formations of ice and snow, combined with traditional forms of wood construction. It was designed by the Finnish architect Pekka Salminen.

The museum's extensive main exhibition, Cold Will, is designed and built to give the visitor a comprehensive picture of the Winter War of 1939-1940 and many related themes, beginning with a background exhibit about the early decades of newly independent Finland and the creation of the Finnish military, as well as the paramilitary organizations Suojeluskunta and Lotta Svärd. In a sub-exhibit called Red Menace? the early history of Stalin's USSR is also discussed through different documents and period recollections. The main exhibition includes various items and weapons from the war, and multimedia exhibits about the events and the experiences of those involved. The most popular part is probably the Mannerheim Line Experience, a reconstruction of Finnish trenches, dugouts and bunkers, kept constantly in a subzero temperature, with daily re-enactments of events at Finland's main defensive line during the battles of the war. A smaller interactive experience, Air Raid Warning!, puts the visitor in the shoes of a civilian in Helsinki during the Soviet bomber attacks of January 1940.

Since the opening of the museum, there has already been a smaller permanent exhibition looking critically at the Finnish experience of the rest of the Second World War period from 1940 to 1945, including a challenging, highly interactive exhibit on the Continuation War, titled Choose Your Fate, and a historiographical look into the Finnish sources and literature about WWII in Finland, geared towards history professionals and educators (Paper Trails in the Snow). There is also a large children's exhibition built around the story of two Finnish kids, Aimo and Aino, experiencing the war from a younger person's perspective (Aimo's and Aino's Winter Adventure).

The museum's temporary exhibitions space has new exhibitions opening yearly. Typically they look at Finnish experiences with war and crisis situations in different centuries and from different perspectives. Recent exhibitions include The Greater Wrath, a look at Finland during the Great Northern War, a look at animals in war titled A Friend in Need and a polemic look at the results of the Finnish Navy Act of 1927 called The Biggest Mistake?.

Since its opening, the Winter War Museum has been one of Finland's most popular museum attractions. In the year of 2018, the museum attracted altogether over 330 000 visitors. Today, the museum is especially well-liked among foreign tourist groups.

 

[Plateosaurus]

Paleozoic Museum

A museum located in Philadelphia dedicated to the study of palaeontology, but most notable for the array of life-sized models of prehistoric life as it was understood in the late 1800's, created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins as a kind of american counterpart to the Crystal Palace park. The most famous of them all is Benji the Behemoth, a Hadrosaurus model standing tall to defend itself against an attacking Laelaps/Dryptosaurus. Both are housed in what's dubbed the Antediluvian Menagerie, alongside more up-to-date skeletal models.

Today the museum has the following galleries:

• Building the Past - A gallery focusing on the history of the museum itself and how the models were built, as well as the geology and palaeontology of both Pennsylvania and the Delaware River valley.
• Mesozoic Menagerie - The original diorama hall. Once focusing on both the mesozoic and cenozoic eras, it now focuses exclusively on the former, displaying more accurate skeletons recreating life at various points of mesozoic Pennsylvania and New Jersey, from the Triassic and Early Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous.
• Trail of the Mastodon - A gallery for cenozoic fauna, from the Paleocene to the Classical period of the Holocene.
• Seas, Sand, and Coal: Into the Paleozoic - A gallery housing paleozoic flora and fauna, including both the holotype specimen of Bathygnathus (OTL's Dimetrodon) and fossils from West Virginia. It was added in 1996 following a $4 million dollar grant.
• Stallone Exhibit Hall - A temporary exhibit gallery added in the 1996.

Originally intended for display in New York, Hawkins and lead architect Frederick Law Olmsted were scared off after an unsuccessful attempt at vandalism courtesy of Boss Tweed's men to destroy the museum's foundation, as Tweed found no way to profit from it. Philadelphia took the opportunity to get them to build it there in Fairmount Park. Construction began in 1873, and opened in 1878. To this day, it is run by both the city and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. In particular, the latter has moved much of it fossil specimens to it.

Long an icon of the city, the museum spurred on a wave of interest in Earth's past among both Americans and worldwide. On a less savoury note, its been used as propaganda against "primitive" people and for imperialism, with the dioramas being viewed as representing the savage earth before Jesus. Indeed, not even it was spared from the economic malaise that would plague the city in the 70's and 80's. Fortunately, things would turn around come the 2000's with a $28 million donation and a subsequent renovation. The plan gave the museum's exhibits an overarching theme of the diversity of life throughout time and how man threatens it.