Guam Museum

The Guam Museum is a museum focusing on the history of Guam, a U.S. territory in Micronesia. A permanent building to house the museum's collection is expected to open in Hagåtña in 2014. The Guam Museum has been housed in temporary locations since World War II.

The Guam Museum was founded by the America Legion Mid-Pacific Post 1 in 1932 in Agana, Guam (present-day Hagåtña). The American Legion operated the museum from its establishment in 1932 until 1936, when control was transferred to the United States Navy. That same year, Guam Governor George A. Alexander officially established the Guam Museum as a government institution through an executive order. The museum's early collection included documents and artifact's from the island's pre-Spanish period.

Guam was invaded by the Japanese in December 1941 and occupied until 1944. The original museum building, along with its entire collection, was destroyed during the 1944 Battle of Guam in which American forces liberated the island from Japanese control.

No new museum building was constructed during the post-World War II period. On November 24, 1953, Governor Ford Quint Elvidge established the Parks, Monuments, and Museum Committee to re-establish the Guam Museum. The Governor also tasked the Guam Museum with the preservation of Spanish colonial structures and researching the island's history, folklore, and geology. Governor Elvidge appointed Dr. J. Henry Baird as the curator of the Guam Museum and chairman of the Parks, Monuments, and Museum Committee. Still, no structure to house the Guam Museum was built.

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