A Brief History

The Guam Museum was founded by the by America Legion Mid-Pacific Post 1 in 1933 in Agana, Guam. The American Legion operated the museum from its establishment in 1933 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.

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 towards the end of World War II.

No new museum building was constructed during the post-war 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 ever built.

Former Senator Tony Palomo, a journalist and historian who specialized in Guam, served as the Director of the Guam Museum from December 1995 until his retirement on June 13, 2007. Palomo supported the creation of a permanent building for the museum.

A exhibition of Guam's history, operated by the Guam Museum, opened within the Micronesia Mall in April 2004. Run by the Guam Museum, the exhibit attracted more than 200,000.

The historic Fort Santa Agueda in Hagåtña was originally proposed as a possible choice for the Guam Museum's new location. However, the Fort, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Guam, is preserved by the Guam Historical Preservation Trust, which ruled out the location.

Initial plans for a permanent, modern museum building were first unveiled in 2006.

A groundbreaking ceremony for a new, $27 million permanent home for the Guam Museum was held on February 5, 2013. Construction on the facility, which can house artifacts spanning the island's 3,000 year history, was funded largely by the Hotel Occupancy Tax bond, established by the Public Law 30-228. The museum is located on Skinner Plaza in downtown Hagåtña, near the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica. The new, three-story museum building has room for a permanent exhibit gallery, a changing exhibit gallery, archival and collections storage, an indoor theater, and space for retail, a cafe, and outdoor theater.

In May-June 2016, the museum was one of the venues for the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts, the largest cultural arts festival in the Pacific region. Guam welcomed 27 island nations and territories to showcase various art forms and cultural traditions over two weeks. The museum’s first floor gallery featured an exquisite art exhibit and the indoor and outdoor theaters were used for a Pacific islands film festival.

The museum’s first exhibit is The History of the Guam Museum, which will open in Ocotober 2016.