Museums in History

The word museum used to mean "a place of study" and was inimately connected to scholarly work. The word derives from the Alexandrian temple called the Mouseion. It was built to honor the nine minor Greek goddesses known as Muses who presided over creative activity in aniquity. Over two millennia ago the Mouseion was a school and library; our word museum is rooted in that ancient Greek name. And the traditional meaning seems to have lasted for 1500 years or more. So a scientist in the 17th century might have worked in his personal museum, not a laboratory; a scholar often had a museum in his home--the kind of home office we'd call his study.

By the 19th century the word became closely connected to curiosity shows, displays of artifacts and the like. The great showman P.T. Barnum had a "museum" in New York City that was more like a carnival sideshow. Barnum's American Museum was located in lower Manhattan for more than twenty years including the Civil War before being destroyed by fire in 1865. Ever the showman, Barnum made a fortune charging visitors to see everything from the Cardiff Giant to General Tom Thumb, the most famous midget who ever lived. Barnum seems to have salved his scalawag conscience by providing serious lectures and displays as well; even devoting some space to natural history, notably by showing live animals and taxidermy exhibits. There were nods to political and social history, too. The American Museum owned paintings, wax figures, and personal memorabilia of a number of very famous people. In short, Barnum's place housed just about anything you could use to extract an admission charge for the public to see. Surprisingly, Barnum was both a teetotaler and a campaigner for temperance and promoted both in lectures at his establishment. If you'd like to read more, you can read more at http://www.lostmuseum.cuny.edu/archives/museum.htm.

Perhaps because of Barnum, among others, people in the 20th century began to view museums as places where virtually any collection of items was put on display, rather than as places of contemplation and education. It's tempting to say that the Smithsonian Institution also contributed to the trend; its vast and eclectic holdings spread all over Washington and environs represent the ultimate museum. And besides the well-known art and natural science museums of today, oddball museums devoted to nearly anything you can imagine have popped up across the world. Today you can visit museums of cheese, museums of barbed wire, museums of Bad Art. It's arguable that museums today are more like Barnum's and less like Alexandria's.

Quite a few contemporary museums of art rely on blockbuster shows of popular artists or movements to attract more visitors and hence more income. It costs considerable money to run an establishment like the Museum of Modern Art in New York and if the institution wasn't endowed by a billionaire the way the Getty (in Los Angeles) was or is not run by a government the way the National Gallery in Washington is, then the huge sums and considerable publicity accrued by running popular exhibitions are very very important. So we see continual (and repetitive) shows of Impressionists or Post-impressionists. Or we have head-to-head shows of Picasso and Braque. Or we see yet another show of the work of the gloriously mad Vincent van Gogh.

Luckily, the best art museums in this country do occasionally organize shows of the lesser-known artists of past centuries and the present day.