THE BEGINNINGS OF MUSEUM ARCHITECTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

Contrary to Europe, where museums were created from transformed collections, in America the first museums were founded on the basis of scientific institutions. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century, museums are formed based on private collections. Objects were erected to house the collections, which for a long time, almost until the middle of the 20th century, stylistically referred to the architecture of ancient Greece. From the mid-nineteenth century, museums began to be built, for which architects looked for inspiration in later styles. And although neo-gothic, neorenaissance and neo-baroque objects appeared, the Greek Revival dominated museum architecture in the United States, created by graduates of the Parisian École des Beaux-Arts.