Everyone knows well what a museum is, but few are aware of its origin, development and, especially, social influence. Such topics are usually studied by specialists and form the subject of a separate science - museology. However, popularity, diversity, and the constant growth in the number of museums require deeper insight into these issues, including from viewers, without whose cooperation a modern museum is impossible. This is the principle of the new museology. To promote an understanding of the nature of the museum, its philosophy, in other words, those social ideas and relationships that shaped and transformed it is the task of this book. Its author is Z.A. Bonamy, a museum worker and museologist, tells in six thematic essays about vivid episodes associated with famous museums: the Louvre, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hermitage, the Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin and others, hoping to look into the future of the museum as the most important institution of memory. The publication contains rich illustrative material representing the image of the museum in world fine arts and photography.