Q 01/05

The word "museum" comes from the Greek mouseion, meaning a temple dedicated to whom?

A) The Muses

B) The Graces

C) The Furies

D) The Fates

Answer · why

A) The Muses

The most famous was the Musaeum of Alexandria, founded under Ptolemy I around 280 BC, which is why early libraries were called museums.

Q 02/05

Which Rome institution, begun with a 1471 papal gift, is the world's oldest public museum?

A) The Vatican Museums

B) The Capitoline Museums

C) The Uffizi Galleries

D) The Borghese Gallery

Answer · why

B) The Capitoline Museums

Pope Sixtus IV's gift included the Capitoline Wolf; the Marcus Aurelius equestrian statue and Dying Gaul are also there.

Q 03/05

One of the oldest known museums was built around 530 BC by Princess Ennigaldi in which modern country?

A) Greece

B) Egypt

C) Iraq

D) Turkey

Answer · why

C) Iraq

Her collection of labeled Mesopotamian antiquities dates to the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Q 04/05

Which Oxford institution, opened in 1683, is Britain's first public museum?

A) The Bodleian

B) The Fitzwilliam

C) The Pitt Rivers

D) The Ashmolean

Answer · why

D) The Ashmolean

Elias Ashmole's cabinet of curiosities came largely from the gardener-collectors John Tradescant, father and son.

Q 05/05

The British Museum, established in 1753, was founded on the collections of which physician?

A) Sir Hans Sloane

B) Sir Isaac Newton

C) Sir Joseph Banks

D) Sir Christopher Wren

Answer · why

A) Sir Hans Sloane

It opened in Montagu House in 1759 as the world's first public national museum, and still charges no admission.