Museums were places where humans and many other species exhibited items of scientific, artistic or historical importance.
The Eleventh Doctor said he liked to visit museums and look at the exhibits as a way of "keeping score". He was very critical of any errors in the artefacts or labelling. (TV: The Time of Angels)
Popular museums included the Solarian Pinacotheque, the Delirium Archive, the Eldred Collection, Henry van Statten's vault, the Space Museum and the Time Museum. (PROSE: Time Traveller's Diary)
Museums on Earth[]
Museums in London included the British Museum, (PROSE: The Sands of Time, Byzantium!, The Stone Rose, Snowglobe 7, Timewyrm: Exodus, COMIC: A Stitch in Time) the Civic Transport Museum, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) the International Gallery, (TV: Planet of the Dead, Mona Lisa's Revenge) the London Museum of History and Antiquities, (PROSE: The Last Pharaoh) Madame Tussauds, (TV: Spearhead from Space, PROSE: Magic of the Angels) the National Gallery, (TV: The Day of the Doctor) the National Museum, (TV: The Big Bang) the National Space Museum, (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Scales of Injustice, The Dying Days) Sector SE14 Delta, (TV: The Last Oak Tree) Spellman's Magical Museum of the Circus, (TV: The Day of the Clown) and the Tate Modern. (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows)
Other museums located in England included the plant museum, (TV: The Ice Warriors) St Margaret's House Museum, (AUDIO: The Thirteenth Stone) and Professor Eldred's space museum. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
Arguably the most famous museum in Paris was the Louvre. (TV: The Massacre, City Death, Mona Lisa's Revenge) The Eleventh Doctor brought Amy Pond to see a Vincent van Gogh exhibit in Musée d'Orsay in Paris in 2010, as compensation for her fiancé's death. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor)
An annual fundraising ball was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. (AUDIO: Uncanny Valley) Another New York museum was visited by the Second Doctor, John and Gillian. (COMIC: The Monsters from the Past)
The North Pole Experience was located at the North Pole. (PROSE: The Frozen Wastes)
The Melbourne Immigration Museum was located in Melbourne. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)
The Hall of Heroes was a Silurian museum located at Earth's centre. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)
Some museums were not open to the public. These included Julius Silverstein's private museum in London (TV: The Web of Fear) and Henry van Statten's Vault in Utah. (TV: Dalek)
The Verbier Museum of the Impossible was a museum in Verbier that was established in 2044 by Anke Von Grisel containing numerous things that shouldn't exist, such as a picture of Napoléon Bonaparte riding a Stegosaurus. Viewing the contents as dangerous the Doctor attempted numerous times to have Von Grisel turn the artefacts over to him to no avail. (PROSE: Canaries)
In 2323, the Dalek Dome featured a museum which contained working Dalek gunsticks. During the 2323 Dalek invasion of Earth, Georgette Gold, under the control of a hypno-pulse, took one and used it to exterminate a voice actor before using his microphone to take control of the Dome. On the orders of the Golden Emperor, additional gunsticks were fitted to informational Dalek machines to threaten hostages. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks [+]Alan Barnes, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2022-2023).)
Museums on other planets[]
When the First Doctor, John and Gillian landed on a Thain planet occupied by Kleptons, John suggested searching for weapons to use inside of the museum. Inside, they indeed found Heat guns from the century before. (COMIC: The Klepton Parasites)
The Morok Empire established a Space Museum dedicated to their victories on the planet Xeros. The natives of Xeros, the Xerons, eventually overthrew the conquerors with the aid of the First Doctor and his companions, destroying the Museum. (TV: The Space Museum)
The Fourth Doctor and Romana I visited a museum run by the Collectors to retrieve a disabled K9 Mark II. (PROSE: Heart of TARDIS)
Trion had a number of museums, including the National Museum of Natural History of the Home Planet at Efnisien and Central Museum at Charlottenlund near the Giants' Drop. There was also a Central Museum on Njordr Nerthus, Trion's furthest moon. [source needed]
The Academia Stellaris was located on Sirius 5. (TV: City of Death) The Braxiatel Collection was located on KS-159. (TV: City of Death, Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series) The Deimos Moonbase was located on Deimos. (AUDIO: Deimos / The Resurrection of Mars) The Morovanian Museum was located on Morovania Minor. (AUDIO: The Renaissance Man) The Museum of Locks was located on Lebenswelt. (PROSE: The Book of the Still) The Solarian Pinacotheque was located on Strikian. (TV: City of Death) The War Museum was located on Dulkis. (TV: The Dominators)
Other museums included the Delirium Archive, (TV: The Time of Angels, COMIC: The Forgotten) the Museum of Aural Antiquities, (AUDIO: Whispers of Terror) the Museum of the Last Ones, (PROSE: The Last Dodo) the Museum of Things That Don't Exist, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) the Paloma Centre, (PROSE: The War of Art) a Thain museum, (COMIC: The Klepton Parasites) the Time Museum, (COMIC: The Time Museum) and the Museum and Archive of the Tellurian Stain. (PROSE: The Colony of Lies)
Other museums[]
Some museums were located on starships. The Royal Collection was located on Starship UK, (TV: The Pandorica Opens) while the ship Hope was a museum in itself. (PROSE: Aliens and Predators)
The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones once found themselves in a museum dedicated to the Doctor's previous incarnations. Soon however, the Doctor discovered that he was in fact in the TARDIS matrix, "Martha" being the ship's consciousness helping him defeat a psychic attack from Es'Cartrss. (COMIC: The Forgotten)