Collections and Discovery: The History of Museums
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- Опубліковано 16 сер 2022
- It seems, as archaeologist Dr. Peter Leeming says, that “Discovery and collection is as old as us and our hominid relations”. How this interest in the unusual has evolved into the modern system of museums and enormous historical, natural, and other collections is history that deserves to be remembered.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #Museums
Only The History Guy would give us the history of history ... and make it interesting.
History GOAT
You've never had a good history professor then.
The history of history is much longer than the history of museums.
Really needs more time. Let's not mention the demand for return of cultural objects - Elgin Marbles? Benin Bronzes? Lewis chessmen?
While getting a Design degree I took Museology as an elective and volunteered at the University's museum as a student worker. I'll tell you museums are hard work from cataloging to parsing provenance documents to removing decades of grunge from an item headed for display. Hours of work for everying that just sets there being looked at.
I often felt that the Very Rural home of my Grandparents in southern Louisiana was like a living museum.
Old farm equipment, mule-team harnesses, livestock handling and holding pens, even an old steam engine.
I miss those days, everything was junked and discarded like no one really cared anymore.
I truly hope that the day never arrives when museum curators decide that exhibits are no longer required, and move to virtual connections of information. My earliest memory of visiting a museum includes a vivid reflection of the unique smells associated with that museum. A combination of the smells of all the exhibits and documentation on site.... The smell of old wood, hints of formaldehyde from the preservation of organic materials, musty back hallways... These smells are etched into my mind and are a part of the museum experience.
Me too, but at the same time I want them to record everything on as many types of media as possible to guard against the unfortunate tendency of some people to want to destroy the past.
@@adrianwebster6923 Yes, or decide, on our behalf, what is relevant,
For an example of an 18th/19th century private collection/house-sized cabinet, I highly recommend seeing Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. It has preserved his house as it was when he died in the 1830s, and it is stuffed full of a huge variety of items, from plaster casts of Greek and Roman statuary to an actual Egyptian pharaoh’s sarcophagus. He was an architect and was able to design his house to fit his ever-growing collection, and he left it to the public as long as it remained as it was when he died.
An excellent museum which definitely worth a visit.
Strictly there have been changes, some of which have been reversed. A series - narrated I think by Martin Shaw (Judge John Deed) - has been on History/Discovery/Nat Geog - cannot recall which as it was in London on a local London digital channel.
London Live?@@highpath4776
Museums are all about Je ne sais quoi. I remember being at the National Air and Space Museum when it opened when I was 8, and it made a lifelong impression. We went back year after year and I never tired of the exhibits that were familiar and I always appreciated those that were new. The Smithsonian institution has an amazing array of museums and if you have the opportunity to spend a week in DC visiting them I strongly recommend it. I am so fond of them I even took my fiance there for our first road trip together- ahead even of Niagara Falls lol!
What an erudite gentleman. Thank you for sharing your rich culture and knowledge.
I absolutely LOVE museums. The very strange Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is one of my favorites.
The history of museums is often overlooked. There has been a stark decline in traditional collecitons museums where you find large displays of objects behind glass, and some interpretation, in trade for far more interactive and childfriendly museums. For good or ill, this has caused many museums to destroy old diorama's and interpretive displays. I had such joy when I found the Fairbanks museum in St. Johnsburry VT and its collection still being displayed in the same way it was when it was assembled in the 1800s. The museum even added extra interpretation about the style of exhibit and dioramas. I basically got to go to a museum museum and it was the best.
Your office/studio looks like a museum.
Thank you.
I did not know we humans have been collecting things for so long! It's a joy of mine to wake up in the morning and see there is a new video by THG. Thanks again for giving me something to think about and share!
We look at history to understand the present, and to, one hopes, not make the same errors as they.
People think Museums are just about the past. I’ve found Museums teach you more about human nature and the future than most current academic institutions. You begin to see that although our tool and powers have made leaps and bounds our brains are still very much the same as those from thousands of years ago, the same weaknesses are still there.
I’m amazed that you’ve attended most academic institutions. Well done.
Agreed... Most academic institutions are glorified trade schools. The idea of a "liberal education" (in the classical sense) seems about dead.
Imagine what a person in a few thousand years will think when they 'discover' the remnants of a museum??? It's gonna blow their minds.
I tell ya, thanks to UA-cam and social media socioarchaeologists of the future aren't going to have many mysteries to wonder about when it comes to us lol!
Not really they will think we ruined grave's.
Imagine finding the ruins of the oldest building of the earliest civilization known, only to discover that it was once a place to learn about civilizations that they themselves considered ancient.
As I watch this I'm reminded that History needs to be watched and I've got a lot of old episodes to watch.
Thank you for the shout-out to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, a favorite destination for school field trips. Last time I was there, the Hadrosaurus was still on display, albeit re-mounted to reflect current theories on dinosaurs.
*clears throat*
"It belongs in a museum!"
thank you, thank you
My wife says that my collections of older technological objects belong in a dumpster....
"... none was ..." -- YES!!!! and that's why I love your writing.
GREAT topic. Thank you.
One type of museum which is becoming rather rare is the roadside museum. These are usually the private collections of an individual, displayed as part of a roadside attraction. Some focus on a single subject, but many are an eclectic mix of "found" objects.
In southeastern San Diego county there is a roadside attraction called the Desert View Tower, a fascinating structure in its own right. Built of stone and four stories tall, it overlooks the Imperial Valley. For many years it housed a fantastic collection of antiques, fossils, Native American artifacts, news clippings, rocks and minerals, etc. Outside of the tower were old wagons, farm implements, and a section of the wooden plank road that once crossed the sand dunes. Sadly, when the owners put the tower up for sale in the 1980s, they were unable to find a buyer willing to pay for both the property and the collection. The collection was sold off piecemeal.
Its funny how nothing at all in human nature has changed. Ever since I've been an adult, I've had an "office" and "Cabinets of curiosities". I sit there now, with my collection of interesting artifacts from nature and travels along with my art, books and military items (much like you looks like) watching this video. I guess its just built into us, and seems to be especially men. Its fun that I've been to the modern museums in the video too. Over the years also had the opportunity to see some of the same artifacts at different museums in different countries.. That's always a fun surprise.
I can't pass on this opportunity to recommend the video "We Love Museums... Do Museums Love Us Back?" by the Pinky Show.
The Pinky Show also covered a lot of marginalized history about Hawaii, too. Gosh I wish I could make sure the History Guy heard about that old show. Their vid about the 1893 Chicago Exposition is MIND BENDING, too. Forgotten History for sure!
Please please pleeeease let History Guy see this comment! 🙏
This weekend I visited a couple of local Boston area museums - the Harvard Natural history Museum (combining the former Museum of Comparative Zoology, the Gems and Minerals and the Glass Flowers) and also the new American History Museum at the Collins Foundation which showcases a collection of tanks and military vehicles from mostly WWII and more recently.
The Harvard Museums were a mixture of old style presentations and new, and the AHM was very modern in presentation. Both were very worthwhile, but a study in contrasts.
I love museums - and the Smithsonian Museums in DC are the best!
I love the general history of “thing” videos you do. You get to cover such a wide array of topics that trace to the present, and that’s really enjoyable to follow as a viewer. Thanks for your work!
A few personal favorite museums: the Institute L'Arabe du Monde (Middle Eastern antiquities) and the Musee d'Orsay (impressionist paintings in particular), Paris; the MUHBA, and the Picasso Museum, Barcelona; the DaVinci museum, Florence.
What a great video. I love wandering through museums and diving the thoughts behind collections, especially personal collections. One of the most fascinating I've seen was the collection of the Medici family in Florence, Italy. The last surviving member donated the collection to the city with the request that it be displayed in an appropriate building, which is now a museum of Science and Industry (I think). It's right behind the Uffizi Gallery, which means it has many fewer visitors, but you can commune with Galileo's telescopes, see what is claimed to be the last Earth -centric globe of the universe (pre-heliocentric thinking). There are exhibits of scientific tools through at least 500 years, probably more. The last time I was there, in 2005, the basement had an exhibit of scientists from Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, up through Newton and displayed original volumes of their works-including Galileo's copy where he noted in the margin what the pope ordered him to write! Museums are fascinating.
A SPECIAL THANKS TO THE AWESOME HISTORY GUY....THG🎀.....Shoe🇺🇸
The Peabody Essex Museum of Salem MA is one of America's oldest operating, established in 1799. It now encompasses quite a few historic properties about the city, showcasing grand old homes and gardens. It deserves an entire day, if not more.
Thanks for a great viseo. For the past two years I've appreciated virtual museum tours & have had the opportunity to see museums I would not otherwise be able to see. Thankfully the guides will continue the virtual tours while their in-person tours are now available.
If one finds themself along i80 between Denver and Omaha, go south 13 miles at exit 279 to Harold Warp's Pioneer Village at Minden, Nebraska. It takes an entire day to just walk through and glance at everything. In the off-season. They have volunteers making rugs, brooms, and doing other demonstrations in the summer.
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer at exit 312, Grand Island, is another good one, figure at least a half day. They had FFA kids in learning blacksmithing when I visited.
I believe its called the Strategic Air Command museum in Ashland.
In North Platte, there's the Fort Cody Trading Post, an admitted tourist trap, with some museum qualities, the Lincoln County Historical Museum, with information on the WW2 North Platte canteen. Traveler's Rest, Buffalo Bill's home, and the Golden Spike Tower, an observation tower over Union Pacific's Bailey railyard. Those 4 can eat up a day, especially if you like watching trains.
Does a zoo count as a museum? The Henry Doorly zoo at Omaha is quite the place, and is across the interstate from Kenefick Park, home to 2 examples of Union Pacific icons, a Big Boy steam locomotive, and a Centennial, named for their debut on the UP's centennial.
I'm told the Platte River road museum (over the interstate) at Kearney is something the kids will like.
If going up toward Yellowstone or the black hills from the east, take US26 from Ogallala, to 92 at Bridgeport, and that will run you straight into Scott's Bluff national monument at Gering (go straight, dont take the bypass). You will pass Chimney Rock along the way. While there, go through the Legacy of the Plains museum at the base of the bluffs. They have a lot of stuff packed into a small space.
A good & informative show.Lance has finally featured his 2nd homes.😁
Danke!
Thank you…I now have a definite plan to go to Ithaca to see that museum!
Didn't know we had such a resource in my backyard. Taking the fam to the museum of the earth (PRI), Friday!
Woohoo! We can't wait to see you! Check out some of the upcoming events this Friday: www.priweb.org/visit/events
Thanks for this brief history of how we preserve and present that which we find intriguing and informative. Museums are where our self awareness shows.
My favorite museum is the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, MO. It has antiquities and art, and curiosities from around the world. I think it is still free to the public. It also has the largest badminton birds on its lawn. I have been there many times and always found things that surprised me and put me in awe. There are world-famous works of art as well.
The development of museums in the 19th century coincides nicely with development of public parks and other public oriented spaces in the 19th and 20th centuries.
..I grew up in Chicago..where the Museum of Science and Industry - The Field - The Adler Planetarium - and the Shedd Aquarium were great as we were young...as we grew older - the Art Institute - the Chicago Historical Society - the Oriental Institute became added in....It is still a great feeling to find a new Museum...and come away with a great feeling...
i cant imagine life without museums.
Live a few miles from PRI and cayuga nature center, both worth a long visit. Excellent channel.
*Paleontology Research Institute.
Another wonderful episode Lance , and I can’t wait for me to visit a virtual Smithsonian museum !
the History Guy is probably the only man in a bow tie that I think I can trust !!
Just great, as usual!
“Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space.” - Orhan Pamuk
One of my favorite museums was a salt and pepper shaker museum in Gatlinburg, TN; seeing all sorts of the trinkets reminded me of my grandma's collection. I also enjoyed the Museum of the Marine Corps (Triangle/Quantico, VA). One day I'd like to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Speaking of collections THG has quite a one right around him. Thanks for the video. Informative as usual.
Nothing brought a greater awe and respect for the world and our species than when I visited the Smithsonian, and later the British Royal; strolling through literally billions of years of history tends to show you how small you are next to the history of just the earth, and yet, look at what our ancestors wrought with basic tools.
For a modern example of a privately-owned cabinet of artifacts, look behind the History Guy.
I want to see a History Guy tank museum episode!
Hey Lance- when will you be opening your bow tie museum?
P.s. Thanks for mentioning us!
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago: Rosenwald established the museum organization in 1926 but declined to have his name on the building. For the first few years, the museum was often called the Rosenwald Industrial Museum. In 1928, the name of the museum was officially changed to the Museum of Science and Industry. Rosenwald's vision was to create a museum in the style of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which he had visited in 1911 while in Germany with his family.
Great ride to work content, thank you!
MONA in Tasmania Australia has taken term museum to a whole new level and attracts visitors from around the world specifically to view the unique exhibits on display!
*Museum of Old and New Art.
A video I didn't know I needed!
I don't know who they are trying to kid but virtual museums will never fully replace a physical specimen. Example; you could look at photos of U505 all day long but until you actually visit it and touch the real thing, you haven't a clue on what life inside a WW2 Uboat was actually about!
But the most fascinating tidbit was that ancient man understood that those weren't just rocks but actual animals.
I wish you were my history teacher 30 PLUS years ago. ( Time is just but a fart in the wind )
But here we are with UA-cam right?
Thank you very much sir!
Good day Mr History Guy, I would like to thank u for the journey is just completed in binge watching every one of ur videos on youtube, although it took me close to a year to complete them all it was entertaining and educational, u my friend r a legend, be well!😉
The hunterian museum will make you say a silent prayer for modern medicine after 2 minutes seeing surgeons instruments from the past
I've been to the Smithsonian twice but never got past the Mutter Museum!
There may be no instinct more ancient, fundamental, and primal to our kind than "Hey, come look at this cool thing I found!"
Love the different intros-and your videos of course
You just gave the best explaintion of why I built my public museum. Thank You. from The South East Side Chicago Police and History Museum
Thanks history guy
The oldest maritime museum is the Peabody Museum at Salem; it was founded in the 1790s as the Marine Society for Captains who had sasiled east of the Cape of Good Hope.
I need to get back to visiting our local museums, it's been too long.
For those interested, The History Guy is referencing this - Nabonidus (555 - 538 B.C.) may well have been the first archaeologist in the world. This monarch, the last of the Babylonian rulers, caused ruined shrines and temples to be excavated, old inscriptions to be deciphered and translated. Pg.344 The Bible as History Werner Keller
From about 530 B.C. - (Nabonidus’ daughter Princess Bel-Shalti-Nannar) created in Ur probably the earliest museum in the world carefully cataloging the collection. This is the oldest museum guide known. Pg.344 The Bible as History Werner Keller
Thanks for the precise references. (Vince Klortho? Any relation to Gozer the Gozarian?)
@@doctorPaule I'll tell you but first you have to choose the form of The Destructor!
Liked and commented 👍
Lance, would you consider presenting the "darker" side of museum collections???
Pompeiian statue of Pan and the goat, anybody? Lol
@@suzbone Damn, I used a photo of that, modified to fit many...uh...occasions...and targets long before the term, meme, came along 😂 🤣
@@BlueBaron3339 nice little inside joke indeed. I learned of the statue, the Secret Museum, etc, in a documentary series on the history of pornography. Definitely look it up; very interesting even if one doesn't agree with every scholar's interpretation.
@@suzbone Got mine in the gift shop at an art museum in Florence. In postcard form. Sent LOTS back to friends in the States. Italians have a very different attitude toward works of art. Not like my friends here whose reaction to my postcards was...well...😂 🤣
Now, Google if you will the phrase "pre-inca erotic pottery" to see another uninhibited art tradition. 😉
@@BlueBaron3339 that pre-inca pottery is also in the documentary series I mentioned earlier! Lololol
Great video.
I had to look up "cockatrice"!
Imagine the very first museum, an apple core and some fig leaves.
A lot of graverobbing went/goes on in the name of museums/archeology. I'm ok with it personally but I was wondering at what age does a grave become morally qualified for robbery? Gotta love the history guy.
Smithsonian is my favorite. Free to see. I can see my fav aircraft, Monet’s and the Diamond 💍 I hoped to give my bride. Bus, train and subway are cheap and safe. Lunchtime in DC is better than NYC
I've always had trouble with museums because I try to read every caption of every exhibit, while my companions are coming back from the next room wondering where I am.
I am tall, and my eyes are old, and although I try to read them all, the descriptive or explainative placards are often placed too low, at an angle, and printed too small, or too shiny and light-reflective, for me to read easily.
There's also kinda like a living museum such as the annual upcoming Antique tractor show and ( used to be) thresher's reunion in Portland, Indiana. hundreds of tractors and thousands of small ( and not so small) engines are there from all over ( literally) the world. And most all of them run and there are demonstrations of how things used to be done with the old stuff, like plowing, threshing, ...wood mill operations, oil well engines etc... some date back to the late 1800's..
Like your introduction....nice
@History Guy - can you please do a video on “spite” houses? A lot of these stories are funny 😄
Do the History of grave-robbing.
Fascinating stuff as it might be that the pyramids were fortresses against graverobbers. And like the history of museums graverobbing probably went on in distant prehistoric times and of course does today.
Looks like you have a little "Home Museum" right behind you.
Carrying on the old tradition, eh?
. . .
Thanks for another cool video.
BTW, After asking about your MOVA globes, I decided to go ahead and get the 8" Earth Globe.
These are very cool.
"The Ship of Theseus" proves that people were pondering the nature of preservation of historical objects even in ancient Greece.
One of the oldest museums in the United States (if not the oldest) is the Charleston Muesum in Charleston SC, founded in 1773.
Welcome back!
You Sir are awesome!!
Would like to see your take on Billy Gould , Aberdeen Washington 🙄
You should do a story about the House in the Rock in Spring Green, Wis. It offers a new twist on museums.
When I visit somewhere, I always go to museums as a feature of my trip. My Thanksgiving trip to Ohio usually entails a visit to either the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum or the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Hey yeah, I didn't think of it . Museums would have a history too. At one point going to a museum was just an idea or concept.
I suspect that the Cabinet in a room grew so much that the room became a Study complete with high backed leather chairs and an exposing fireplace with Mantle.
Female guests after dinner would go to another room while the men retire to either a Smoking Room or a Study.
I must have a museum of other museums! :D
"Museums represent the best ways to maintain and organize such material and conserve it for the future."
Relative to this statement is the conservation of a plethora of documents that were directly related to King George III of England. These include letters penned by the king, also official documents authorized by King George III, as well as documents written by physicians who attended to the king's health both physically and mentally, and much, much more. This cash of documents was locked away and preserved for posterity by British authorities upon King George III's death. It was not until some years into the 21st Century that Queen Elizabeth II authorized the opening and declassification of this vast amounts of information related to King George III, as well as having a team of collegiate scholars not only examine the treasure trove of information, but also having all the documents scanned and made publicly available through the internet.
History Guy, may I recommend a book called The Cabinet of Curiosities? It a great read about Murders, History, and SciFi by the same guys who wrote The Relic. I’m not trying to be funny or insulting; it really is a good read and the authors did their research. It contains a lot of information about early cabinets, their development and associations with museums. Try it, you’ll like it.
Cabinets, the original Man Cave.
The first museum in the USA opened in Charleston, South Carolina in 1773.
I understand that the Ashmolean collection was actually collected by John Tradescant.
The gardens of the Palace of Lausus, in Constantinople was for many years a museum as the private grounds of the eunuch Lausus became open to the public with many wonderful things including the statue of Zeus from the Temple in Olympia which alas was destroyed in a fire 200 years later in 475 AD.
Why did you alter the image at 4:15?
He's one of the few guys on planet Earth who would look weird WITHOUT a bow tie.
I have a pretty sweet cabinet of curiosities set up. I have all the coolest stuff I've found over the years. Only the choicest things go in it. For example: a piece of artic circle preserved mammoth ivory. A muskrat skull I found years ago. Some rarer semi precious stones. Some neat fossils etc etc
Me, I only have a shelf of curiosities. It contains mostly sea shells and rocks, with the highlight of the collection being two 15-million-year-old seashells dug up during construction of one of the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant sites.
You need to talk to Glenn Beck with the Blaze Radio ! Has things you will not believe !
The oldest museum in the US is the Charleston Museum, founded in 1773.
The Museum of Other Realities in vr is a great art museum and you can visit with friends. Other great ones are versailles, and the anne frank house.
I wonder if you've though about making a video on the royal society and their wonderful history.
I suppose as I grow older the relative passage of time goes shorter and the establishment of Museums seem to be surprisingly recent.
Discovery and collections are as Old as CURIOSITY!