The National Museum of the Philippines is the official repository established in 1901 as a natural history and ethnography museum of the Philippines. It is located next to Rizal Park and near Intramuros in Manila. Its main building was designed in 1918 by an American architect Daniel Burnham. Today, that building, the former home of the Congress of the Philippines, holds the National Art Gallery, natural sciences and other support divisions.
The adjacent building in the Agrifina Circle of Rizal Park, formerly housing the Department of Finance, houses the Anthropology and Archaeology Divisions and is known as the Museum of the Filipino People.
History
The National Museum was established in Manila on October 29, 1901 as the 'Insular Museum of Ethnology, Natural History and Commerce under the Department of Public Instruction by Virtue of Act No. 284 passed by the Philippine Commission. Since then, it has changed names and location, placed under various departments and offices, merged, abolished, transferred and re-created to become the 'National Musuem.'
On February 12, 1998, Republic Act 8492, also known as the 'National Museum Act of 1998', finally established the National Museum as an independent institution with a permanent and exclusive site known as the National Museum Complex. This consists of the National Museum Main(former Old Congress Building), which houses the National Art Gallery, the Museum of the Filipino People (former Finance Building), and the Department of the Tourism Building which shall become the Museum of Natural History. As per P.D. 804-A, the Planetarium is also administered and maintained by the National Museum.
The National Museum at present is composed of 12 disciplines in the areas of anthropology, archaeology, arts, geology, museum education, cultural properties, planetarium, zoology, botany, restoration and engineering, chemistry and conservation, and archaeological sites and branch museums. It has 19 branches and sites nationwide.
