What Is Museum Studies and Archival Science?

Museum studies and archival science are the scholarly and professional fields concerned with how collections of objects and records are acquired, documented, cared for, interpreted and made available over time. Museum studies (also called museology) looks at museums as institutions: what they collect, how they exhibit and teach, whom they serve and how they are governed. Archival science (archival studies) looks at records and the archives that keep them: why records are created, how their meaning depends on context, and how they stay authentic and usable. The two fields share a core problem, which is keeping evidence of the past trustworthy and accessible, and they increasingly share methods, especially in digital preservation and in the ethics of ownership. This guide explains what each field is, the main subfields, how the work is done, the central ethical questions of provenance and repatriation, how people are trained, which professional bodies and funders matter, and how this territory touches research administration.

What Is Museum Studies?

Museum studies is an interdisciplinary field that treats the museum as an object of study and as a site of practice. It draws on history, art history, anthropology, archaeology, education, management and, more recently, information science. The term museology is used for the theory and critical study of museums, while museum practice (sometimes called museography or museum work) covers the day-to-day tasks of running one.

What counts as a museum is itself debated. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) adopted its current definition at an Extraordinary General Assembly in Prague on 24 August 2022: “A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.” The five verbs in that definition (research, collect, conserve, interpret, exhibit) are a convenient map of the field’s core functions.

Museums are not only art museums. The sector includes history museums, natural history and science museums and science centers, zoos and botanical gardens, historic houses and sites, children’s museums, university museums and collections, and community and tribal museums. Each type has its own collecting norms, but the shared professional questions are consistent: what to acquire, how to document and store it, how to display and interpret it, and how to be accountable to the communities connected to it.

What Is Archival Science?

Archival science is the study and practice of records and archives. An archive, in the sense used by the field, is a body of records kept because of their continuing value as evidence of the activities of the person, family or organization that created them, as well as the institution or program that cares for them. This differs from a library, which assembles published items by subject (see What Is Library Science?), and from a museum, which collects objects chosen for their significance. A library catalogs items one at a time; an archive describes aggregates and the relationships among them.

Several principles organize archival thinking. These are standard concepts in the field, stated here in general terms:

• Provenance (respect des fonds). Records are kept together according to the creator that produced or accumulated them, rather than being regrouped by subject. The creator’s identity is part of what the records mean.
• Original order. Where possible, records stay in the arrangement their creator gave them, because that arrangement is itself evidence of how the work was done.
• Appraisal. Archivists decide which records have enduring value and merit permanent retention. Most records created by any organization are not kept permanently, so appraisal is both a research method and an ethical responsibility.
• Arrangement and description. Records are organized into hierarchical levels (collection, series, file, item) and described in finding aids so that researchers can locate them without handling everything.
• Authenticity and reliability. A record must be shown to be what it claims to be, and to have been created in the ordinary course of the activity it documents. This concern becomes sharper for born-digital material, which is easy to alter and depends on software to be read.

Archival science also overlaps with records management, which governs records during their active life, before any are transferred to an archive. In practice a records manager and an archivist are often part of the same continuum of care.

Main Subfields

Collections management and registration

Collections management covers the legal and documentary side of holding things: accession (formally taking an item into the collection), deed of gift or transfer documents, loans, deaccessioning (formally removing an item), cataloging, location tracking, and condition reporting. A collections management system is the database that records all of this. Good registration is the foundation for everything else, including later provenance research and repatriation claims.

Conservation and collections care

Conservation is the professional practice of examining, documenting, treating and preventing deterioration of cultural material. It is usually distinguished from preventive conservation (also called collections care), which manages the environment and handling around many objects at once rather than treating one object at a time. Typical concerns are temperature and relative humidity, light exposure, pollutants, pests (integrated pest management), vibration, safe handling, storage furniture and disaster preparedness. Conservation science applies analytical chemistry, materials science and imaging to understand what an object is made of and how it degrades. Common techniques include microscopy, X-radiography, infrared and ultraviolet imaging, and spectroscopic analysis of pigments, metals and organic materials. Ethical conservation emphasizes minimal intervention, documentation of every treatment, and, where feasible, reversibility.

Exhibition, interpretation and education

This subfield studies how meaning is made for visitors: exhibition design, labels and storytelling, learning in informal settings, accessibility, and visitor research and evaluation. A great deal of museum studies scholarship is critical, asking whose stories are told, who is excluded and how museums inherited the assumptions of colonial-era collecting.

Archival processing and description

Processing is the hands-on work of appraising, arranging, rehousing and describing an archival collection. Descriptive standards and the finding aids built from them are the main access tool. The conceptual model CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127) is a widely used ontology for describing cultural heritage information, and shows how museum, archive and library descriptions can be made to interoperate.

Digital preservation and digital curation

Digital preservation is the set of policies and practices that keep digital content accessible and authentic over time, despite file format obsolescence, media decay and changing software. Core practices include fixity checking (verifying files have not changed using checksums), redundant geographically separate copies, format identification and normalization, and preservation metadata. The reference framework most often cited is the OAIS model, described on this site at OAIS Reference Model (ISO 14721), and preservation events are commonly recorded with PREMIS. Archival-quality file formats are discussed under PDF/A (ISO 19005). Organizations demonstrate that they can be trusted to do this work through audit and certification schemes; see trusted digital repository and CoreTrustSeal. The wider practice of managing data through its life is covered by the Digital Curation Centre.

Provenance research and repatriation

Provenance, in the museum sense, is the documented history of an object’s ownership, custody and location from creation to the present. It matters for establishing authenticity, for legal title, and for ethics: an object with a gap in its history, particularly during periods of war, conquest or colonial collecting, may have been looted, stolen or taken without consent. Repatriation is the return of cultural property, ancestral remains or records to the communities, families or nations from which they came. Both are treated in their own section below.

Methods and Evidence

Museum studies and archival science use a mixed toolkit. Historical and documentary methods are used to trace an object’s or record group’s past through accession files, correspondence, sales records and inventories. Material and scientific analysis is used by conservators and conservation scientists. Social-science methods are used in visitor studies, such as observation, interviews and surveys, and these fall under the usual human-subjects review at the researcher’s institution. Participatory and community-based methods, in which source communities help decide how material is described, stored, accessed or displayed, are now a major strand in both fields. Information-science methods underpin cataloging, metadata design, digital preservation and data modeling.

Because archivists and museum professionals are also custodians, research in these fields often has a reflexive character: the field studies its own practices, such as how appraisal decisions shaped what the historical record contains, or how description language can silence or harm. Archivists have written extensively on the idea that archives are not neutral, and on the responsibility to document marginalized communities.

Provenance, Repatriation and Cultural Property

Ethical and legal questions about who owns and controls cultural material are central to both fields.

In the United States, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted in 1990, requires museums and federal agencies to engage in the protection and return of four categories of material: Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. The National Park Service maintains the program’s official guidance and administers its processes. The regulations that implement the statute have been revised over time, so institutions should work from the National Park Service’s current NAGPRA pages and from their own counsel, and this guide does not provide legal advice. NAGPRA applies in the United States to Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian material and does not cover every repatriation question; claims involving other countries or other kinds of cultural property follow different laws, treaties and institutional policies.

Beyond the law, many institutions have adopted policies and practices that go further, including consultation with source communities, shared stewardship, long-term loans, and the return of items from collections. In archives, the equivalent questions concern cultural protocols and access. Two community-led labeling systems relevant here are described on this site: Traditional Knowledge Labels and the broader Local Contexts framework, which let communities attach information about appropriate use and care to collections held by others.

Provenance research for works that may have been lost through theft or forced sale, including in the Nazi era, and for antiquities with unclear excavation histories, is a specialized area of its own. It combines archival research, legal knowledge and, increasingly, shared databases. Where a claim arises, the institution’s legal counsel and the relevant national and international rules determine the correct process.

History of the Fields

Collecting is old, but the public museum as an institution took shape in Europe from the early modern period onward, growing out of cabinets of curiosities, royal and aristocratic collections and, later, state and university collections. Museum studies as a formal academic field developed in the 20th century alongside professional training programs, and a critical museology movement later questioned the museum’s authority and colonial entanglements. Archival practice similarly grew from the record-keeping of states, churches and families into a profession with its own principles, notably the emphasis on provenance and original order that European archivists formalized in the 19th century. In both fields, the digital era has changed the central problems: collections are digitized, born-digital records arrive in large volumes, and questions of access and consent are now global.

Training and Careers

Careers in the field include curator, collections manager, registrar, conservator, conservation scientist, exhibition designer, museum educator, archivist, records manager, digital archivist and digital preservation specialist. Pathways are varied. Museum work often requires a master’s degree in museum studies, a subject specialism (such as art history, history or anthropology) or a conservation degree. Archivists commonly hold a master’s degree in archival studies, in library and information science (see What Is Library Science?) or in history with an archival concentration. Conservators typically train in specialized graduate programs that combine studio practice, science and internships. Doctoral programs and research positions exist in museum studies, archival studies, information science and heritage science, especially in universities.

Professional Bodies, Standards and Journals

• American Alliance of Museums (AAM). AAM describes itself as the organization representing the entire museum field. It has been championing museums since 1906, operates accreditation and peer-review programs, and maintains Core Standards for Museums and related ethics and standards documents.
• International Council of Museums (ICOM). The international organization of museums and museum professionals, which maintains the museum definition quoted above and a code of ethics for museums.
• Society of American Archivists (SAA). The main professional association for archivists in North America. It publishes the journal American Archivist, develops standards, provides education and advocacy, and maintains a Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics.
• International Council on Archives (ICA) and national bodies such as the UK’s Archives and Records Association. These organizations carry out comparable standards, education and advocacy work in other regions.
• Conservation organizations such as the American Institute for Conservation and the International Institute for Conservation, which provide ethics codes and professional networks for conservators.

Scholarship appears in journals devoted to museum studies, museum management, archival science and heritage science, as well as in the journals of related disciplines. Check each society’s own site for the current list of its publications.

Funding

Funding for this area comes from a mix of public agencies, private foundations, universities and earned income. Three sources come up most often in the United States:

• Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). IMLS is a federal agency whose stated purpose is to advance, support and empower America’s museums, libraries and related organizations through grantmaking, research and policy development. Its strategic goals include advancing collections stewardship and access. IMLS reported awarding $266.7 million through grantmaking, research and policy development in 2024. Federal funding conditions can change, so check IMLS directly for the programs currently accepting applications.
• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). NEH is a federal agency that funds humanities research, preservation and public programs, and has supported archival, library and museum projects. Its Office of Digital Humanities requires data management plans for the proposals it funds. Program availability varies by year, so confirm current opportunities on the NEH site.
• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. A major private funder of arts, culture and humanities in the United States, with a record of supporting museums, archives and libraries. Its grantmaking is largely staff-driven or invitation-based rather than open-application. See Andrew W. Mellon Foundation humanities and arts research funding.

Outside the US, national research councils and heritage funders play comparable roles, and the details differ by country.

Connections to Research Administration

Museum, archive and heritage projects raise administrative questions that are familiar to research offices. Grant proposals to heritage funders typically need budgets that include conservation supplies, digitization, storage and cataloging labor, and they may require a data management plan covering how digitized collections and derived data will be preserved and shared. Human-subjects review applies to oral history and visitor research, as covered in What Is History?. Community partnerships with tribal nations, source communities and donors call for written agreements covering access, intellectual property and credit. Digital collections and datasets need persistent identifiers and a deposit plan; see What Is an Institutional Repository? for how repositories differ from archives. Collections held by a university may also be subject to export-control, permitting and loan-agreement rules that the institution’s compliance office manages.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between museum studies and archival science?

Museum studies examines museums and their collections of objects, along with exhibition, interpretation and audience. Archival science examines records and archives, with emphasis on provenance, original order and authenticity. They overlap in collections care, description, digital preservation and ethics.

What is the difference between a museum, a library and an archive?

A museum collects and interprets objects. A library assembles published materials, usually cataloged item by item for use. An archive preserves records created by a person or organization as evidence, arranged by creator and described as groups. The boundaries blur, and many institutions hold all three kinds of material.

What is museology?

Museology is the theory and critical study of museums: their purposes, history, social roles and ethics. It is another name for much of what is taught in museum studies programs.

What does a conservator do?

A conservator examines, documents and treats cultural objects and works to slow future deterioration, following ethical principles such as minimal intervention and full documentation. Conservation scientists use analytical methods to study materials and degradation.

What is provenance?

In museums, provenance is the documented history of an object’s ownership and location. In archives, it is the principle that records are tied to the creator that produced them. Both uses concern origin and context.

What is NAGPRA?

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, enacted in 1990, is a U.S. law requiring museums and federal agencies to facilitate the protection and return of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. This is general information, not legal advice; use the National Park Service’s current guidance.

What is digital preservation?

It is the active management of digital content so that it remains accessible and authentic over time, using practices such as fixity checking, multiple copies, format management and preservation metadata, often organized around the OAIS reference model.

What degrees lead to a museum or archives career?

Common routes are master’s degrees in museum studies, archival studies or library and information science, subject degrees in history, art history or anthropology, and specialized graduate programs for conservators. Requirements vary by employer and role.

Who funds museum and archival projects?

Public agencies such as IMLS and NEH in the United States, private foundations such as the Mellon Foundation, universities, and donors. Check each funder for current programs and eligibility.