page_title: Port Louis
section_title: Museums
hierarchical_section_title: Port Louis / Culture / Museums
caption_attribution_description: English: The Blue Penny Museum in Port Louis, Mauritius
context_page_description: Port Louis is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's economic, cultural and political centre, and most populous city. It is administered by the Municipal City Council of Port Louis. According to the 2012 census conducted by Statistics Mauritius, the population was 147,066.
context_section_description: The Blue Penny Museum is located at the Caudan Waterfront, and is dedicated to the history and art of the island.  Its collection includes antique marine maps, paintings, sculptures, engravings, and stamps, including examples of the famous orange-red one penny and deep blue two pence stamps.  The Natural History Museum of Port Louis houses exhibits of the impressive fauna of Mauritius, with a gallery devoted to birds and terrestrial animals, a second focusing on marine species, and a third focused on the dodo, the famous Mauritian bird which became extinct during the Dutch occupation. The Mauritius Postal Museum is housed in an old stone building that dates to the 18th century, and houses displays of stamps and postal paraphernalia from Mauritius and around the world.  The Mauritius Photography Museum, located in a small 18th-century white-washed French colonial building, is a private museum that displays artifacts and documents about Mauritian photography and the early days of cinematography. The China Heritage Museum, located in Chinatown, displays historical items representing the daily life of the Chinese community.  Currently closed for renovation (2014) is Aapravasi Ghat, which is the remains of the immigration depot that was built by the British Government to import laborers from India, Eastern Africa, Madagascar, China and Southeast Asia to work on the island's sugar estates.  Although not a museum in a traditional sense, the National Library of Mauritius houses a rich and comprehensive collection of material related to Mauritius history, including manuscripts,  books, newspapers, periodicals, music scores, photographs, maps, drawings and other graphic art forms and audiovisual materials, in addition to providing the traditional services of a library to residents of the city and nation.
caption: Blue Penny Museum
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