The Museum returns in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as per official companion guide

Quite the exhibitionist

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will see the return of the Museum, and there is an imminent Direct focusing on the new game which will provide players with lots of official info for the first time since September 2019 (via Resetera).
This announcement about the Museum has arrived by way of the official companion guide for the game, which has recently gone live for pre-orders ahead of New Horizons’ launch. It also confirms that there will be a department store managed by Timmy and Tommy. Presumably, Tom Nook is getting to grips with his latest venture into international commercial tourism, and the apprentices have more than proven themselves in previous games. The description of the product follows:

• “Get Acclimatized
  • We’ll get you settled in on your new island home as quickly as possible. Our useful primers will get you oriented and informed on everything a new resident needs to know.
• Create Your Paradise
  • The sea’s the limit when it comes to customizing your island— you just need the right tools and a little guidance (…and maybe a bit of insider information for playing the stalk market). You’ll find all of this here, and more: every tool and app is explained and our tips for design and money making are not to be missed!
• Discover and Explore
  • Museum lovers will be in for a treat—as long as you’re willing to be the one providing the exhibits! It’s a hands-on approach to preservation, and every budding naturalist or palaeontologist needs a solid reference book to consult. You won’t find a single specimen that’s not covered here.
• Shop Till You Drop
  • Your island wouldn’t be much of a paradise without decent shopping facilities. Luckily, Timmy and Tommy’s retail experience brings a wealth of desirable goods for purchase. Every last option for the fashionista or interior decorator is lavishly catalogued.
• Stunning Photography
  • Want to see some of the hottest island destinations that have already found their feet, built a community and began attracting high-volume tourism? We’ve discovered some true gems and arranged photo shoots that are sure to provide plenty of inspiration for building the island of your dreams.
• Special Bonuses
  • Fans of Animal Crossing will be delighted with the high quality bookmarks we’ve included—one side features beautiful character artwork, and the other is filled with useful info. We’ve also created an online calendar for keeping track of events on the island and making sure you never miss a resident’s birthday!”

We saw bug-hunting, excavating, and fishing in various sneak peeks of gameplay, but it wasn’t known whether the fruits of the player’s labours would be bartered or curated. The Museum has been present in every entry in the series bar Animal Forest, but because New Horizons is a departure from the norm, its return was not secure. With this new information, we could expect the island’s Museum to be run by Blathers, with Celeste manning the gift shop. Perhaps each player’s gift shop will have different stock depending on the exhibition spaces they want to create. That would be a sweet souvenir collected when friends drop by different islands, but we don’t know if that’s the case. Yet.
There will be a Direct on February 20 dedicated to the cutesy life sim. Interested parties will receive an “in-depth” appraisal of what’s in store for New Horizons, and the 25-minute presentation will begin at 9.00am ET / 2.00pm GMT.