Mission

The National Brewery Museum™ and Research Library will provide a venue to display an ever changing wide variety of quality breweriana in an attractive and interesting manner. The goal is to stimulate awareness, interest, and participation in our most enjoyable hobby by current collectors and general public. Also to provoke interest in the great and engaging history and heritage of the brewing industry. Our efforts will include balancing the interests of the diverse membership of the American Breweriana Association, Inc. (ABA) and the goals and aspirations of the Potosi Brewery Foundation, Inc. (PBF).

Vision
Intent: To coordinate the interests of the ABA membership, the Potosi Brewery Foundation, and the general public in providing an interesting and entertaining venue for the display of beer memorabilia and related artifacts.

Guiding Principles: To establish a brewery museum in an outstanding example of a historical brewery building that is typical of the many small town breweries the flourished up until the mid 20th century. To establish awareness to the enterprises and individuals that bestowed character and interest to the great and influential brewing industry. To present for public view quality exhibits covering the many aspects of beer memorabilia which will depict and tell the story with remarkable art, culture, and traditions of a great industry. To serve as a resource center for brewery historians and the public on all aspects of brewing history in America.

Purpose
The ABA Museum Foundation, Inc. was established in 2003, for the purpose of developing and managing the National Brewery Museum and the ABA Breweriana Reference library, within the historic Potosi Brewery that was established in 1852. The National Brewery Museum is an educational, cultural, and research element of the American Breweriana Association, Inc. that was established in 1978. The ABA Museum Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) corporation. The National Brewery Museum's purpose is to preserve breweriana and advertising history through the collection, preservation, documentation, and research of technical and cultural material and to disseminate information about those collections and their technical and cultural topics through exhibition, interpretation, and publication for breweriana collectors, brewery historians, and the general public. The Museum aspires to provide the highest standard of excellence in ethics and practices, while pursuing continuous improvement, stimulating the greatest quantity of quality research, conservation, interpretation, exhibition, and education.

Collections
The foundation of the Museum is its collections that are held in perpetuity for the public. Therefore, in accordance with its mission and the diverse nature of its constituency, the Museum maintains three collection categories:

A. Research Collections - accessioned, documented, and cataloged artifacts of artistic, cultural, technical, or historical significance and artifacts of high quality that are representative of the diversity inherent in the mission of the Museum. These collections are used for research, exhibitions, and loans. They are either owned by the ABA Museum Foundation or are held-on-loan. These collections are given the highest level of care and protection.

B. Interpretation Collections - Accessioned, documented, and cataloged artifacts that are used for interpretation, participatory exhibitions, and educational programs. These artifacts are owned by the Museum and are subject to possible damage or destruction due to non-supervised utilization.

C. Education Collection - artifacts used to support the educational mission of the Museum that is cataloged. They may be exposed to hands-on interaction with visitors. These artifacts are given reasonable care.