The American Association of Museums says that only 4 percent of the country's museums were built before 1900 and 40 percent were created since 1970. The money keeps coming because museums today are more than cultural and educational edifices. They are economic engines. The Travel Industry Association of America says that what it calls cultural tourists, visitors to a museum or historic site, spend more money, stay in hotels more often, and visit more destinations than other travelers. The organization counted 53.6 million visitors to a museum or historic site in 1998.
Most states have a major history museum.
Usually they are run by the state or have extensive state financing. That's not the way Heritage Harbor began. For years Klyberg, the diminutive leader of the Rhode Island Historical Society since 1969, talked of building a major history museum in Providence. The dream first began to take shape about 15 years ago when the society and two other groups, the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, started searching for space to house their collections. They briefly considered the aging Cranston Street Armory in Providence's West End and later the former Shepard Department Store downtown.