ABSTRACT
For many years, industrial heritage remained confined to the model of museums of science and technology generated over the last two hundred years by the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris, the Science Museum in London, the Munich Deutsches Museum, the Tekniska Museet in Stockholm and Milan's Museo Leonardo da Vinci, just to mention a few traditional examples of great popularity. The Museum of Science and Technology of Catalonia (MNACTEC) based in Terrassa, Spain, but articulated in a geographically dispersed network of sites, museums and interpretation centres, was a pioneering case of a museum model capable of governing an entire territorial system. The Herring Museum in Iceland is a community-oriented museum based on the efforts of volunteers, who have restored, maintained and revitalized ships, equipment and the fishing harbour of Siglufiordur. Brunel's SS Great Britain in Bristol, UK, is a museum focused on one large ship, an artefact emblematic of the first industrial revolution.
