Museum International

No 188 (Vol XLVII, n° 4, 1995)

Storage
 C O N T E N T S No. 4, October - December 1995

Editorial
3
Why reserve collections? MaiTineJaoul
Dossier:
Storage 4
Storing museum collections:an unresolved
Front cover
The SmithsonianInstitution’s
8 problem YaniHeweman
Museum Support Center:the
‘street’serves as the backbone
of the facility,providing
Visible storage:the Glenbow experiment
circulation space for people,
collections and the main
13 Dennis Slater
utility systems.
Photo:Q Smithsonian
Institution Detached storage:the Smithsonian Institution’s
18 Museum Support Center U.Vincent Wilcox
Back cover
A basement storage section in
the new hall of the Deutsches
Temporary storage:a challenge to the National
Museum in Munich.
Photo:Q Deutsches Museum, 23 Museum of Denmark Torben Limdbaek
Munich

Editor-in-Chief: Marcia Lord New directions in Africa Mu,bianaLubila,

Editorial Assistant:Christine 28 Lydia A.Koraizteng,Alain Godonou
Wilkinson
Iconography:Carole Pajot-Font
Editor,Arabic edition:
Museum Reserve Collections:An International
Mahmoud El-Sheniti
Editor,Russian edition:
35 Symposium DominiqueFerriot
Tatiana Telegina

Advisory Board

Gael de Guichen,ICCROM
Profile 40 A Workers’Museum in Copenhagen
Peter Luduigsen
Yani Herreman,Mexico
Nancy Hushion,Canada
Jean-PierreMohen,France
Stelios Papadopolous,Greece
Elisabeth des Portes,Secretary-
Exhibit 44 Looking at Rembrandt:the view from Amsterdam,
Berlin and London Kees Bruin
General,ICOM,ex officio
Roland de Silva,President,
ICOMOS,ex officio
Tomislav 3ola,Croatia Event 48 The Beirut Museum opens its doors
Shaje Tshiluila,Zaire Btvgitte Colin
O UNESCO 1775
Published for the United Nations
Educational,Scientific and Cultural
Organizationby Blackwell
Viewpoifzt 51 Scientific illiteracy:a challenge to natural history
Publishers. museums Andreas L.Steigen
Authors are responsible for the
choice and the presentation of the
facts contained in signed articles
and for the opinions expressed
therein,which are not necessarily
Features 55 Books
those of UNESCO and do not
commit the Organization.The
designationsemployed and the
presentation of material in Mzrseimi
57 Illicit traffic
I?rlenzationaldo not imply the
expression of any opinion
whatsoever on the part of UNESCO
59 Professional news
concerning the legal status of any
county,territory,city or area or of
its authorities,or concerning the
delimitation of its frontiers or
boundaries.
61
ISSN 130-0775,Mzrseum Iiztenrational (UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (Vol.47,No.4,1975)
O UNESCO 1775
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
 STOLEN
Drawing in Indian ink onpaper by Rembrandt:standing woman seen)ill-length in leftprofile,wearing a
long dress and a shawl ouer her shoulder,her head tilted slightly to the fight;brown backgrbzmd.Figure ‘744’
in lower right-handcorne? roiind stamp bearing the words Brenaen Kiinsthalle’ita lower left-handcorner
and the word ‘Rembrandt’ on the back.Stolenfrom a museLcm in Baku,Azerbijan,inJuly 1993.(Interpol
Baku -Reference 35/1-650and InterpolWiesbaden-Refereiace EA 32-33U-3103494].
Photo by courtesy of theICPO-InterpolGeneralSecretariat,L-yons{France)
Editorial

Probably more b a m has been done to ?nusezm collectionsth’ioughinpoperstoragethan

by aizy other nieans.”

So begins a handbook on museum storage commfssioned by UNESCO after the first

International Conference on Museum Storage,held in Washington,D.C., in 1976.Both
the Conferenceand the handbook were intended to alert the museum community to the
dangers inherentin inadequate,ill-conceivedstorage systems.Surprisingly enough,this
questionremains as timelytoday as it was nearly twentyyears ago,as museums facenew
challenges that threaten collections as surely as fire and flood.

First and foremost are the demands of an increasingly sophisticatedpublic accustomed

to ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions replete with hi-tech,interactive media and theme-park-type
displays.The search for novelty and change very often takes precedence over the time
consumingand far less glamorous task of caring for the objects in store.And as success
is all too often measured in the number ofvisitors,financing becomes far easier to obtain
for temporary or permanent displays than for the storage of museum collections.

Compounding thisproblem isthe dramaticevolutioninmuseum presentation:not solong

ago a much higherproportion ofthe collectionwason publicview thanisnow considered
acceptable;visitors may have been bored by case after case of arrowheadsand pots,but
researchers could carry out much of their work in the gallery itself.As new ideas for
didactic interpretation,coupled with expanded acquisition rates,consigned the bulk of
the collectionto the stores,theneedforimprovedstorage conditionsbecame exacerbated
with no corresponding increase in funds.As storage is not visible,it tendsto be neglected
in planning and investment,where priority is given to spaces open to the publicz

And yet,the hidden objects and artefacts that make up the bulk of the collectionof many
a museum are oftenits true razkoiz d’êt3they are theheart and lungsthat-drivethe museum
‘machine’, thatkeep it alive and well and able to adapt to the needs ofseriousscholarsand
Sunday strollers alike.As a respected conservator put it: ‘Whetheror not an object w il
l be
preserved for the futureis most dependenton the kind ofstorageprovided forit. Costly and
complicatedconservationtreatments are oflittleuse ifthe objectstreated are subsequently
returned to damaging environments.By providing the best storage possible,w e are taking
the first and most importantstep toward preserving our cultural heritage.’3

The need to take a freshlook at storagein today’smuseum contextwas suggested by Gaël

de Guichen,head of Museums and Collections at the International Centre for the Study
ofthe Preservationand the Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), and a member of
Museum InternationaisAdvisory Board.His long professional experience and genuine
concern for the cause of preventive conservation have made him an internationally
recognized spokesman on this question.His advice and guidance were invaluable in
planning this issue.
M.L.

Notes

1. E.Verner Johnson and Joanne C. Horgan, Museum CollectionStorage,Paris, U N E S C O , 1979.

2. See Michael Corfield, ‘TheStorage of Museum Collections:An Overview’,Storage,London,

United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 1991.

3. Konstanze Bachmann, ‘Principlesof Storage’,CoilsematioiaConcerns,Washington,D.C.,

Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.
ISSN 1350-0775,Musezon kztenzationnl (UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (Vol.47,No. 4,1995)
O UNESCO 1995
Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF ( U 0 and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
Why reserve collections?
&fartine Jaoul,Director of the Musée
National des Arts et Traditions Populaires
in Paris, draws upon her considerable
experience as thefomier director of the
mzisezim’sreserve collections to set otrt the
main issues confronting tniueutns today
as thevgrapple with theproblems of
storcige and the managenient and
preservation of collections.She is n
member of the Executàue Board of the
French National Committee of ICOM and
runs a network of European
ethnographic museums.
Agricultural instruments on display at
the Paris International Fair in 1900:
‘Wasnot the museum, which showed
eueything but explained nothing, exactly
what is now understood by thephrase
“reservecollections open to thepublic’?’
4 ISSN 1350-0775,Mzrseum International (UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (Vol.47,No. 4,1995)
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford. OX4 1JF (UICand 238 Main Street, Cambridge.MA 02142 (USA)
When was the ambiguous concept of re-
serve collections in museums first formu-
lated?What does it mean in practical terms
at the present time?And whatis the general
public’sunderstanding of it? Is the reserve
collectionthe museum’shidden,inaccessi-
ble heart,or simply its dark side:invisible,
unfitfordisplay,forgottenabout?No doubt
theseare someofthe questionsthatled the
editorial staff of Museum International to
devote an entire issue to this subject.
Going back to the origins ofthis institution,
whether the ‘cabinetsof curiosities’of the
EuropeanRenaissanceorthe‘museum’ deve-
loped in the Western world as a universal
model during the nineteenth century,w e
can say,‘Inthe beginning was the collec-
tion’,the whole ofwhich was accessibleto
visitors.But the visitors came from the very
smallsectionofsocietythatwas expected to
be able to appreciate,without assistance,the
significance of the ‘wondersof nature and
art’collectedover the years and as opportu-
nity offered.W a s not the museum itself,
whichshowedeverythmgbutexplainednoth-
ing,exactly what is now understood by the
phrase ‘reservecollectionsopen to thepublic’?
With the growing concern to offer an
educationaland pleasurable experience
to a broad social spectrum,which forms
part ofmuseums’own definition ofthem-
selves as expressed by ICOM,curators
increasingly felt the need for careful
selection of the objects they put on
display. Thus museography came into
being, as did its logical consequence,
the reserve collection.
Given this division of the museum into
two areas that are not felt to be of equal
value,it does seem useful to give some
thought to the meaning of the term
‘reservecollection’(also calledthe stores)
and the museum practices associated
with the concept.
The visiting public and professionals
Today,many people simply do not realize
that museums have reserve collections.No
indication of their existenceis given at the
museum entrance,hence the surprise or
disappointmentofvisitorswho have come
specifically to see a particular object or
O UNESCO 1995
 Why reserve collections?

work,which they have read about or seen

photographed in a book or magazine,
when it is not put on display.

Some museum visitors who do know that

reserve collections exist think of them as
places of no particular interest,in which
works oflesserqualityare foundalongside
old frames and discarded showcases,all
gathering dust together. But, more and
more visitors overestimate the importance
of the reserve collections (as witness the
success of the open days organized by
certain curators). It is a place from which
the anonymous, ordinary visitor to the
museum is as a ruleexcluded.One must be
a professional, a specialist,have an ap-
pointment,or be accompanied by a guide.

H o w dreams and frustrations can feed on des

such exclusions!Surely the museum’sfin-
est and most extraordinary treasures must
be hidden away in these places. Here, -e
wandering freely,far from the madding
crowd,thecartelsand compulsoryitinerar-
ies,in the silence and the half-light,one thewisdom ofthis or that acquisitionuntil a
would surely discover,in the company of later date.Conversely,acquisitionscanbe dis-
an enthusiastic specialist,the objectwith a couraged in advance by the argument that
special message for oneself alone!Such is the reservesare already full.And yet,works
the savour of forbidden fruit. that are sometimes of mediocre quality
remain on display in the exhibition rooms
However,as time passes and the youngest indefinitely,though over the years the re-
museums grow older,the congestionofthe serve collections have been enhanced by
reserve collections,the downside of a dy- acquisitions that would give the museum’s
namic acquisitions policy, is becoming a visitors new pleasures.One should also re-
leitmotifin discussions between museum member the delicate objectsthatsometimes
professionals.It is oftensaid thata museum suffer from extended periods of exposure
that has stopped adding to its collectionis a when there are others of equal value in the
dying museum.Butoneshouldperhapsadd reserve collectionthat could replace them.
that an acquisitionspolicy without a reserve
collectionpolicywillcondemnthe museum
to death by suffocation. Architecture and programming

Many curators have a tendency to acquire
new works for the simple reason that they
have room in their reservesto house them,
postponing consideration ofthepurpose or
O UNESCO 1995
At what point in the general programming
of a museum can one begin to think
seriouslyaboutthe reserve collection?Too
late,in most cases,or at any rage long after
* 5
Martine Jaoul
Irbe ceramic stores after reorganization.
6 Q UNESCO 1995
decisions have been taken on other sec-
tions of the museum.The reserve collec-
tion is then built up,as an afterthought,in
unused (or unusable) premises with the
(meagre) leftoversfromthe generalbudget.
But there have recently been signs that
attitudesmight be changing.For example,
two national museums in Paris are under-
going major renovation under the state
programme of public works:the Muséum
d'Histoire Naturelle (Natural History Mu-
seum) and the Musée des Techniques
(Technological Museum).
The renovated GrandeGalerie de Zoologie
(zoologicalwing) oftheformer,whichwas
listed on the programme of public works
for 1985,was opened in June 1994 after
nine years of intense activity by its scien-
tists,museologists,architectsand restorers.
What is interestingfrom our point of view
is that from 1980 until 1986 the conserva-
tion team focused its efforts on the con-
struction of a new underground storage
facility which is modem in style and func-
tional.In the same way,the inauguration
by the National Museum ofTechnology of
the new extramural storage facilities in
September 1994 was regarded as the first
stage of its renovation work. In fact,an
international symposium on museum re-
serve collections was organized in that
context (see the article by Dominique
-
Ferriot in this issue Ed.).
It is now clear that the planning and
equipment of reserve collections must
form an integral part of the overall pro-
gramme of the museum. The function
and,consequently,siting of the reserve
collection and the equipment it requires
can vary considerably from one establish-
ment to another.They cannot be dissoci-
ated from the programmes of the exhibi-
tion rooms,the network of collectionsto
which the museum belongs or the type of
visitor it attracts.Each conservation team
should therefore consider carefully what
purpose its reserve collections should
serve:D o they provide in-depthsupport
for the exhibition function or are they
more a contrast to what is on display?D o
they reflect outdated museological ap-
proaches of which reminders are pre-
served as part of the history of the mu-
seum? Is it intended to provide deeper
knowledge ofa given scientificdiscipline,
a very specializedsubject,a school or an
individual artist? Or is it preferable to
accumulateforthefuturecollectionswhose
value is not fully appreciated today,and
which the public or the supervising au-
thorities might not yet be ready to accept?
I Towards what main objectives are the
reserve collections to be oriented in the
coming years?What w il
l be keptin them?
For w h o m w i
ll thesecollectionsbe prima-
rily intended and what means should be
employed to place the items at their dis-
posal:consultationinworkrooms,tempo-
rary exhibitions,loans or storagein other
museums?
Once clear answers have been given to
some of these questions decisions can be
made with regard notonly to thesizeofthe
reserve collections,their location and fur-
niture, but also to their immediate sur-
roundings,accesspoints,proximity to other
sections ofthe museum (workshops,labo-
ratories, conservation, documentation),
staffing,etc.
 Why reserve collections?

A shared responsibility

The museum’s reserve collections w il

l
then impinge on the activities of a large
number ofthe museum’sstaffand concern
everyone in one way or another,even if
managers or storekeepers are the ones
most directly involved.

Curators and specialist staff should know

what the reserve collections contain,keep
up-to-datefiles,undertakeand publish the
results of research on the collections.An
evaluation ofthe contentsofthe reserveby
type of collection is a good way of ration-
alizing acquisitions,especially if one can
‘networkwith other museums with the
same approach, organizing complemen-
tary programmes or even exchanges of
collections and shared storage facilities.

Restorersmust superviseconditionsinboth
the exhibitionroomsand the storageareas,
recommending appropriate storage furni-
ture and stands and,above all, regularly
checking the state of conservation of the
collections.Security staff are also respons-
ible for the safe keeping of works held in
the reserves and should control comings
and goings in the storage area.
For the administrative staff,the manage-
ment ofthe reservecollectionshas consid-
erablefinancialimplicationsinvolvingrun-
ning costs and forward-looking invest-
ment. A large number of the museum’s
activities converge on the reserve collec-
tion, which should therefore be given
constant attention in the allocation and
organizationof day-to-daytasks.
It would be in the interest of the staffofthe
museum’scultural activities section to bear
the reserve collectionsin mind,above all to
makepeopleawareofCern.Thecollections
couldbe usedwhenevermoredirectcontact
with objectsisneeded,forexample,special-
O UNESCO 1995
me disiizfection
enclosure.
ized conferencesand museum visits for the
blind.Someitemscouldalso be takenoutof
the reserve collections for use outside the
museum, say,in museum-buses and for
visits to schoolsand hospitals.For teachers,
the reserve collections mirror the life of a
museum and are an ideal place for voca-
tional training and teaching activities.
The articles in this issue are so many
indications that sound management of
reserve collections is closely associated
with all the other activities of a museum.
The contributors are all concerned to
prevent our reserve collections from be-
ing simply a reflection of our consumer
society’stendency to accumulate without
discrimination and to waste.They could
well lead the reader to conclude that the
problem ofreservecollectionsw i
llbe one
ofthe key issuesofmuseologyinthe years
to come. rn
7
Storing museum collections-an
:
unresolved problem
Yani Hen-eman
Regardless of thegreat strides in recent
miLseicwi architecture andplanniizg,
storage areas continare to be seriously
neglected, according to Yani Herreman,
n well-knownMexican architect.She has
been involved in a niinaber of inuseum
projects in her o w n county niad abroad
and is a member ofMuseum
International’sAdviso y Board.
8 ISSN 1350-0775,Mziseum Intenzntionfil (UNESCO,Paris), No.188 (Vol.47,No.4,1995)
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road. Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,M A 02142 (USA’i
Despite the factthat collectionshave been museographical refits,such as the Museo
stored in museums ever since museums de laReina Sofia(Madrid,Spain). There are
were first conceived,it seems that among at the moment overfiftyknown projects at
architects,planners and even curatorsand various stages of completion throughout
conservators ignorance of the field has the world.
prevailed at all times and in all places.
Today storage space for collectionsis still Traditionally museums have been a real
waging a losing battle with other uses of design challenge:first, as buildings,be-
spacein museum buildings despite current cause of the complexity of their purpose;
advancesin architecture,conservationand second,as works of architecture because
planning, just as it did twenty-fiveyears of the importance of their function as the
ago,when specialization in the various setting for collections;and,third,as artistic
fields of museology began. creations because of the great creativity
public buildings of this type deserve.Paul
The twentieth centuryhas been character- Winkler has called the museum a highly
ized by a huge boom in museums,a boom sophisticated mechanism.Maybe forthese
thathas not yetfallenoff.By the mid-1970s very reasons the museum as a work of
many people believed that the museum architecture has won over the best archi-
explosion was already over. The major tects of our time,who have made forays
museums had been built,and the situation into this difficult field and left us with
in the world was starting to change,lead- wonderful examples of expressive and
ing to the belief that the planning rate for well-constructed works. None the less,
museums would be much slower than in despite the great progress made in archi-
the previous decade. To everyone’ssur- tectural planning and programming and
prise,however,the culture boom,in par- improved technical knowledge of fields
ticular as regards museums, continued that are as important to museums as con-
undiminished.The exhibition held at the servation,the overwhelming majority of
Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art in 1982 them are not veiy successfulin their func-
on new American art museums showed tioning.There are still areas that are seri-
that a great number ofbuildingshad been ously neglected even though their signifi-
built or refurbished in those years,and a cance is beyond question,and one such is
quick glance at the world situationbacked the storage of collections.
up what the exhibition was saying.More
than ten years have passed since then,and
the construction,renovation and expan- An Achüles’heel
sion of museums is still even now a boom
industry.Every day sees the opening of Readers of this article may think that its
new museums devoted toparticularthemes: arguments err on the side ofexaggeration,
children(El Papalote,Museum oftheChild, but they can be assured that the difficulty
Mexico City,1993); the Olympic Games of finding an appropriate solution to the
(Lausanne,Switzerland,1993); history,such problem of storage areas still represents a
as that ofthe history of the Federal Repub- considerableAchilles’heel in architectural
lic of Germany (Bonn, Germany,1994); projects and a real headache for those
and specificperiods ofhistory,such as the responsible for collections.
Holocaust Museum (Washington, D.C.,
United States), to mention but a few exam- For Graeme Gardiner,as formany conser-
ples. There are also architectural and vators,it is a frequent occurrence to find
O UNESCO 1995
 Storing museum collections:an unresolved problem

that the deterioration of holdings is rooted ing of the need for museologists to have Oldfimzitureis carefidlypyotected in the
in the unsuitable way in which they are some knowledge of administration and Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec,
stored. Ignorance and negligence in the management,togetherwith specific infor- Canada.
management oftemperature and humidity mation on the collections for which they
levels,pollutants,dust,insects and other are responsible.
pests and poor cataloguing and documen-
tation result even today in the loss of It must be admitted,though,that there
objects kept in storage.In order to solve has fortunately been a significant ad-
the problem a campaign is needed to raise vance in the way museologists, archi-
awarenessofit amongmuseum staffand to tects and planning and programming
educate them.Conservators,curators,ad- specialists see the issue. Unquestion-
ministrators,directorsand otherswho have ably this increased awareness has come
anything to do with museums must be from a better understanding of tech-
persuaded of the importance of keeping rniques of conservation, Cataloguing,
storage areas in good condition and func- documentation,planning,programming,
tioning correctly.If a collection is to be security and administration.Awareness
remodelled or rehoused the appropriate of the immense possibilities offered by
specialistsmustbe consulted,which means information technology in the field of
conservatorstrained in preventive mainte- museology in general, and of docu-
nance,collection administrators,special- mentation,administration of collections
ists in the application of informationtech- and planning in particular,has also been
nology to the cataloguing of collections, crucial in improving storage area
planning architects and so on,who w il
l management.
advise those involved on the best way of
carrying out the task. Despite the spread of contemporary pro-
gramming and planning practices,when
Sinceas long ago as 1980Gaëlde Guichen, dealing with storage it cannot be over
the principal advocate of the study and stressed that it must be taken into consid-
utilization of storage areas,has been writ- eration when a museum is being designed
O UNESCO I995 # 9
Yani Herreman
or remodelled.It is highly desirable for
curators,conservatorsand plannerstowork
together.The formationofan interdiscipli-
nary team would go a long way towards
ensuring eventual success. The current
state of knowledge regarding the conser-
vation of collections in storage enables
solutions to be found which must be
considered in the overall design of the
museum right from the very beginning,
and in analysing the way in which the
pieces are used and their characteristics.
Acquisition policies and the museum's
objectives are also determining factors.
Planning,planning and more
PhMW
According to JoanneHorgan,specialist in
architectural planning and programming,
there are a series of steps that facilitatethe
planning ofa storagearea:(a) classification
of collections according to type and use;
(b) preparation of the programme and the
conceptual diagram;(c) establishment of
design criteria; and (d) communication
Peatment of a ceramic object in the
restoration laboratory of the MLlsée
National des Arts et Traditions
Populaires,Paris.
10
with the architect.It also seemsto me to be
of particular interest to point out which
basic functions of the museum affect and
modify the storageareas and should there-
fore be looked at when the programming
study is initiated.
Registration, catalogtti?ig and
documentation of works
Extraordinary progress has been made in
this field,allowing close monitoring both
ofthe history ofan object and ofits current
state ofpreservation.It includes the use of
computers in support of the programme,
forregisteringand cataloguingworks.Spe-
cialists in this discipline must advise the
planners or architectsofwhat they need to
do their job.
Collection management and
administration
This importantfunction,only recently rec-
ognized as such,involves,together with
m
'5
e,
$
3E
d
c
n
O
O UNESCO 1995
 Storing museum collections:an unresolved problem

the curator,controlling and co-ordinating

the policy fordisplay and rearrangementof
the collection,including what is held in
storage,and drawing up programmes.It is
intimately relatedto all the otherfieldsand
shouldbe closelyconnectedwith thework
of the planner and architect when the
storage area is being designed.

Coilseruation

Therehasbeenconsiderableprogressinthis
field too,with much greater knowledge of
techniques,materials and substances that
canprolong thelife ofcollectionsin storage.
Conservators must provide guidelines for
planners and architects on the best use of
space and on refinementssuch as optimal
levels of light,relative humidity and other
technical requirements.

Collectionsecurity

Security has gained the attention it de-

serves in museum work. The way it is
I
implemented is dictated by serious re-
search that makes it possible to lay down
rules for activitiesin the various areas.

Research
The type and frequency of research pro-
grammesdetermine not only the size ofthe
collection,and thus the storage area, but
also its location and internal arrangement,
forwhichspecialistadviceisessential.Among
the currenttrendsforresolvingthe problem
of storing very large collections there is
consensus about the desirability of con-
structing buildings exclusivelyfor that pur-
pose,suchas,forexample,thestoresforthe
Julita Museum in Sweden and the Smith-
sonian Institutionin the United States,both
ofwhich are located some kilometresfrom
O UNESCO I995
their museums and serve to house the mii-
lionsofobjectsthatmake up the collections.
Exhibitions
There is a direct relation between the
storage area and the exhibition area;it is
advisable to have an intermediary transit
and setting-uparea, used also for work
and/orregistrationand control.Thenumber
of exhibitions and the usage policy for
exhibitswil
l affect the internalplanning of
the storage area.
* 11
Fani Heweman
Education
Although less'obviousthan what has been
listed above,education must also shape
planning criteria.In some cases,too,it can
be a determining factor,as in stores open
to the public.The museum'spolicy and its
objectivessetthe standarüforthis relation.
To conclude,I should like to point out that
at present architects and planners have
more resourcesfor designing good collec-
tion storage areas.The work of interdisci-
plinary teams,which are now more capa-
ble of advising and informing and have a
clearer idea of the importance of this
crucial part of the museum, w ill enable
collections and heritage in storage to be
keptsecureand well looked afterfor many
more years to come.
Bibliography
DE GUICHEN, Gaël. Musens: adequados a
abrigar ColecçOes? Sao Paulo,Museu da
12
Industria,Comércio e Tecnologia de %O
Paulo,1980. (Museu e Tecnicas series.)
BACHMANN, Konstanze.(ed.). Conservation
Concerns. A Guide for Collectors and
Curators. Washington,D.C., Smithsonian
InstitutionPress,1992.
HORGAN,
Joanne C.Planning Good Collec-
tion Facilities. Course Notes in Collection
Storage. Mexico City,Museo de Historia
Natural,1990.
DARKAGH, Joan;SNYDER, S.James.MifieLinz
Design. Planning and Building for At?
N e w York,Oxford University Press,1994.
JOHNSON, E Verner; HORGAN, Joanne C.
Mifiema CollectionStorage.Paris,UNESCO,
1970.(TechnicalHandbooks for Museums
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GARDINER,Graeme.Prevention Rather than
Cure: Preservation versus Conservation.
Museum International,No. 183 (Vol.46,
No.3, 1994).
O UNESCO 1995
Visible storage:the Glenbow
experiment
Deimis Slater
A17 tll7USLlal eqDerinaentfor opening
inuserint reserves to tt!!epublicwas
attempted by the Glenbow Museum il7
Calgaiy (Alberta), Canada. ne successes
and failures of thispilotproject m e
described ~ J Dennis
J Slater, ethitology
curator in the m~l~euiii ’spublicationand
research division.He has recently
cwated one of Gle~bow’s neulest
permanent exlJibits, Where Symbols
Meet:A Celebration of West African
Achievementfeaturiiig artefactsfion?the
inuseurn’sextemite West African
collectiou.
ISSN 1350-0775,Mtlsetrm Intmzfltio?ml(UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (Vol.47,No. 4,1995)
O UNESCO 1995
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
Between 1978 and 1981, the Glenbow
Museum in Calgary,Canada,planned,pre-
pared, and constructed a storage/exhibit
system called Visible Storage.
The premise for most ifnot all such system
is to allow the public total visual access to
museum collections.This formula assumes
that the public has the right to complete
access to its cultural heritage,and that the
public is interestedin seeinglargenumbers
ofobjectsnormally held in restrictedcollec-
tions areas. Glenbow’s design and final
product were built on these assumptions,
but as a prototype,it featuredonly one area
ofourcollections.W e targetedethnographic
material,specifically our Cree artefacts.
The Glenbowexperimentwas notwithout
precedent. It was based on a similar ex-
periment in 1976at the University ofBritish
Columbia’sMuseum of Anthropology in
Vancouver. Unlike it, Glenbow’sproject
featured a discrete collection,used on-
demand lighting,grouped objects accord-
ing to culture and type,and included an
education area. As with the UBC project,
Glenbow’s public was offered a large
number of similar objects with minimal
labelling, and few of the objects were
textiles or clothing.
In the UBC example,visible storage was
one part of a three-pointsystem of infor-
mation and objects.AsMichael Ames wrote:
Visible storagebecame one of the three
types of displays available to students
and the public alike. Each of the dis-
plays is based on a separate exhibit
policy suited to its ownparticularneeds,
and the combination of the three make
a total picture for the m u s e u m visitor.’
According to Dr Ames, each unit empha-
sized thevisual qualityof artefacts,orused
artefacts to communicate messages or il-
lustrate storylines (didactic), or featured
them in visible storage.
Glenbow’sprototype was composed ofan
interpretive/programmes space, a large
crescent-shapeddidactic area,and an ad-
jacentseriesof drawer units.The interpre-
tive/programmes area featured storage
cupboards for school programmes para-
phernalia,chairs and tablesfor discussion
groups/presentations,and audiovisualfa-
cilities.The didactic area was a long cres-
cent-shapeddisplay case composed of a
wooden base and frame faced with large
sheets of heavy glass, and topped by
independentfluorescentlightsources.La-
bels and informationpanels in the didactic
area were standard for our exhibits,and
photographs and illustrations were fea-
tured on the back wall of the case.The
banks of drawer units were composed of
largesteelframesfitted forsliding horizon-
tal or vertical drawers.All large cases and
independent drawers were faced with
plexiglass.The exteriors of all the drawer
units were painted with a metallic grey
finish,the flat sides and fronts interrupted
only by on-demandlight buttons and re-
cessed drawer handles. No text or labels
were attached to the outside of the units.
Objects were arranged according to type
and culture,and chosen as examplesofthe
diversity in our collections.Labels were
minimal,placed beside or below the arte-
facts,identifying culture,name,and arte-
fact number.A computerwas located near
by to provide visitors with additionalinfor-
mation.Combined,thedidacticand drawer
units housed approximately 90per cent of
Glenbow’sCree collection.It featured a
wide range of the artefacts,such as cloth-
ing,containers,weapons,implements,and
musicalinstruments.Inthecaseand drawer
units,light sources were restricted to on-
demand systems,illuminatingthe contents
for short periods.
13
Dennis Slater
View of the draiiler unitfacility shoioing
the coniputer station and vertical and
horizontal storage drawers.
14
Mixed reactions personnel,but the design and layout do
not necessarily achieve the goal of greater
After its completion,visible storage was access for visitors.Opponents of the sys-
closely monitored for public reaction and tem contend that minimal labels and high
maintenance needs.Monitoring included concentrationsofartefactsdiscouragelearn-
staff observations (e.g.regular checks of ing in museum visitors.Defenders argue
mounts, drawer mechanism, computers, that this assumes that visible storage units
labels,etc.), and questioningvisitors to the want to achieve the samegoals as exhibits.
facility.Soon after the opening, a basic
difficultyappeared:public reaction to the A visible storage unit is not a display,nor
drawer units was negligible.For the most is it intendedasone.Certainlythe Glenbow
part, visitors did not go into this area, example was not designed to meet that
preferring to concentrate in the didactic requirement. It had three components:
display area.If they did enter,they ‘tested’ interpretiveprogrammesarea,didacticdis-
the on-demandlightingsystem or the slid- play area and drawerunits.Together,these
ing action of the drawer units. discrete spaces offered visitors a different
museum experience;separately,they of-
Visitors did not enter or use the visible fered objects in volume,and participation
storage area because they did not under- in programmes and special events.
stand its intention.It was unlike anything
they had encountered before,either in the The problem arises when visible storage
accompanying didactic area or in the rest units are seen in isolation.They are not
of the museum. Visible storage systems displays,they are not conventional stor-
were radically new to the museum public. age,and visitors are unprepared and per-
Their intention may be clear to museum haps not inclined to use them. When
O UNESCO I995
 Visible storage:the Glenbow experiment

questioned,most said they didn’tknow normal interpretive context. These also Entyance of the cl-escent-shapeddidactic
what the area was,and did not understand address one of the most crucial character- display.
why it was created or how they were -
istics of visible storage units their size.
supposed to use it. They were interested Most visible storage systems are large,
in the objects but they were intimidated heavy andvisuallyimposing.TheGlenbow
by the area’simposing box-like design, prototype occupied more space than
and they were frustrated by the minimal conventional storage cabinets but it con-
labels.It was an unexpected space,not tained fewerartefacts.it was also consider-
providing ‘conventional’exhibit informa- ably heavier and placed significant stress
tion or context. on the floor.Because of its size and grey
exterior,a number of visitors described it
Sowhatdoes a visible storageunit achieve, as uninviting.
if it is not an exhibit? It presents a large
number of objects in an unconventional Other issues arose as the staffand public
context,and it alertsvisitors to the hidden worked with this new system.Since most
wealth ofmuseum collections.These crite- ofthe Creecollectionwas housed invisible
ria are often cited as the prime reasons for storage the new unit actually hampered
any visible storage design.But is this kind staffaccess to objects needed for detailed
of ‘volumedisplay’a catalyst for learning, study or loan to other museums. Unit
or is it visually overwhelming? Can such drawers were not easily removed or
units stand alone,or are they more appro- dismantled so that objects could be re-
priate as accentsin a larger display?As the moved. Furthermore,the units were de-
public and staffused visible storage,these signed for a specific type and number of
questions assumed greater importance. objects: they did not lend themselves to
Initiaimonitoringsuggestedsomeanswers: substitutions or additions. Although the
perhaps the units were too large, and drawers were designedfor ease of access,
reduced versions might be an accent for their height,weight and perspective were
conventional exhibits;volume is useful, difficult for childrenor people confined to
but it is most effective if it is nested in a wheelchairs.
O UNESCO 1995 15
Dennis Slater

The re-createdsixteenth-century
nrrnourer’s shop in the exhibit,Warriors:
A GlobalJourneyThrough Five
Centuries.
Over time,the constantuse ofthe drawers
also posed a danger to the artefacts.De-
spite careful mount designs the drawer
movement caused artefact deterioration
and a gradual loosening of the mounts.
This was particularly noticeable in the
shorter vertical drawers.
Itwas also obviousthat certainshapesand
sizes of artefact could not be comfortably
accommodated by visible storage. The
prototype worked for ethnographic ob-
jects but the design would not accommo-
date the variety of weights and shapes
common in a cultural history collection,
particularly the large numbers ofcostumes
and textiles in the museum.Clothing and
mannequins were only accommodated in
larger unobstructed cases built into the
drawer units.In these,mannequins were
smaller than those in conventional exhib-
its. Textiles posed an even greater prob-
lem, because at that time there was no
visible storage system that could safely
store textiles.‘With other objects,conser-
vation concernswere addressed,and arte-
facts suffered few problems,but textiles
and clothing were either too large or
required mounts too complex for the unit
design.When theywere included,it was in
longflatdrawer units orin ‘focus’
casesthat
could accommodate mannequins.Neither
option allowed for large numbers of these
artefacts,and also limited how they were
presented.
What about the value of the unit as a
research tool?H o w did it compare with
regular storage facilities,and how did it
affect research access? Visible storage
allows researchers to view large num-
bers of artefacts and choose objects of
interest.This is adequate for casual re-
search,but difficult for researchers w h o
need hands-on access. In Glenbow’s
prototype,most of the Cree collection
was in visible storage, and effectively
unavailable for in-depthresearch.It was
unavailable because it was on a floor
separate from the rest of storage, and
objects could not be easily removed
from the didactic or drawer units.
Lessons learned

What did this experiment prove?Contrary

to most evaluations,visible storagewas not
a complete failure;it provided valuable
informationaboutvisitors,collections,ex-
hibits and expectations.Glenbow’sproto-
type was closed in 1985,mostly for design
and technical reasons.Shortly after it was
dismantled,parts ofit were recycledin the
museum. Drawer units became research
and conservationstations,and otherswere
converted into storage facilitiesfor rolled
textiles and animal hides in the ethnology
area.Athoughvisitors were not inclined to
use the computer system designed for the
prototype, all the computer equipment
was salvaged and used in other exhibits
and projects.The prototype taughtuswhat
the public expected from a computersup-
16 O UNESCO 1995

plement, and what level of information
was comfortable for casual and serious
researchers.
Less obvious were the philosophical
changesprompted by the visible storage
experiment.Visible storagedemonstrated
the value of an area designated for
interpretationand programmes,and as a
result, programme space has been a
standard fixture on the exhibit floors
since 1985. These areas are discrete
spaces versatile enough to accommo-
date a range of programmes and school
activities.
Since the mid-1980s,numerous exhibits
have featured small drawer units as dis-
play-caseoptions,or as independentunits
for special collections.Both versions in-
crease the volume of artefacts on display
and accessto awidervariety ofcollections.
Independentunits also allow for concen-
trations of artefacts pertinent to an exhibit
theme. In many cases, these have been
small objects (e.g.military medals and
insignia) in shallow drawers such as the
unit in the recentGlenbow exhibit Warn'-
om:A GlobalJozirizey ïh-ougbFive Centu-
ries. This exhibit also displays many ob-
-
jects with another method diorama.The
Warriorsexhibitfeaturesa dioramarecrea-
tionofa sixteenth-centuryarmourer'sshop
similar to the type found in a castle in
southern Germany.The diorama contains
many pieces ofarmour,weaponsand tools
from the Glenbow collection.Inthisexam-
ple,artefactsare displayed in volume but
the diorama provides an interpretive
context.
As an experiment in research/storage
space,visible storage sparked another
change in exhibit design - resource
areas.Visible storage demonstrated that
O UNESCO 1995
Visible storage:the Glenbow experiment
a research area with objects in large
drawer units may be cumbersome,but
the public is still interested in the infor-
mation.The resultwas a change in what
our exhibits offered,and the inclusion
of reading/resource areas with books,
pamphlets and computer stations. At
Glenbow,resource areas seem to be in
part a product of the intellectual shift
prompted by the visible storage experi-
ment. Today, resource areas are stan-
dard in Glenbow exhibits and are used
with enthusiasm by the public.
Visible storage was and is a hotly conten-
tious issue.But with the UBC experiment
and the Glenbow prototype,crucial les-
sons were learned.'Theresults of the
Glenbow experiment have deeply inîlu-
enced how new temporaryand permanent
exhibitions are designed. Consequently,
philosophy,design,and public needswere
more clearly defined in the museum com-
munity. A number of the changes now
implementedin our exhibitswere inspired
by the prototype. It focused attention on
issues of access,information and learning
which are still key issues in the museum
community.Because ofthe visible storage
experiment and its philosophical legacy,
all our exhibits have benefited and the
public has a more meaningful museum
experience.
Notes
1. Michael M.Ames, 'Preservation and Access:
A Report on an Experiment in Visible
Storage', Guzette,SummedFall 1981.
2. Duncan Cameron, Ceutiiig Visual and
IntellectualAccess to Mirseiim Collections,
Glenbow Museum, 1986 (unpublished report).
17
 Detached storage:the Smithsonian
Institution’sMuseurn Support Center
U.Vincent Wilcox
A ground-breakingstorage and research
facility located well away from the
Srnithsonian Institution in central
Wmhington,D.C., the kluseiim Sr~port
Center employs state-of-rhe-arttechnology
tofacilitate both presewation and
research.n e author ulas heavily
involved in planning the centre arid was
appointed its director while it was under
construction in 1981.H e hnspreviozdy
served as collections manager for the
Smithsonian’sDepartment of
Anthropology andprior to that as curator
of the Research Branch at theMuseuun of
theAmerican Indian,Heye Foundation,
in New York.
” with research and study. The centre is design is facility maintenance.The build-
18
Published by Bkdckweii Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF CUI<)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,M A O2143 (USA)
TheSmithsonianInstitution’sMuseum Sup- a single structure.Four large storage bays,
port Center is a specialized research,con- called ‘pods’, provide a stable and secure
servation and storage facility located in environmentforlong-termcollectionpres-
Suitland, Maryland, approximately ervation. Each pod is approximately the
10 k m south of the United States Capitol size ofan American football field and rises
building in Washington, D.C.Covering to a height of three storeys. They are
nearly two hectares of land,this unique, designed solely to be collection spaces.
zigzag-shaped building contains more Withinthem thereare relativelyfewhuman
than 50,000mzofspace.Having no public support services other than those required
exhibits,it is dedicated to the mission of for staff safety and accessibility.Separate
providing the optimum environment for and distinctfrom the storage pods is a two
both the preservation and study of storey office/laboratory complex.It is de-
Smithsonian collections. signed for the specialized research and
conservation activities located at the cen-
There is,of course,a contradiction inher- tre. Here people and collections come
ent in this mission.The optimum environ- together under controlled conditionswith-
ment for preservation and the optimum out compromising the environment in the
environmentforstudyare neitherthe same storage pods.
nor alwayscompatible.Collectionsrequire
very stable surroundings free from the Separating the office/laboratory complex
various agents of deterioration,such as from the four storage pods is the large,
light,dust, insect pests and extremes in central corridor called ‘thestreet’.Six me-
temperature and humidity.The very pres- tres wide and rising the full height of the
ence of human beings can compromise building,the streetis the main passageway
these conditions.O n the otherhand,mod- for the movement of both people and
ernmethods forresearchand conservation collections throughout the centre.Collec-
frequentlyrequirespeciallyequippedlabo- tion objects of all sizes can easily traverse
ratories with separate climate-controlsys- this corridorfrom the loading dock at one
tems.Human safety guidelinesfor exhaust end of the building to most any place
and ventilation render it difficult to main- within the centre.Elevators located at the
tain the standards established for long- corners of three of the storage pods pro-
term collectioncare.Furthermore,the indi- vide access from the street to all levels in
viduals who perform and support the re- the pods and the office/laboratory com-
search and conservation functions have plex.Large doorways in the wall at the first
special needs of a more personal nature. floor of the office/laboratory complex are
They require thebasic human servicesand for objects too large or awkward for the
conveniences,such as food and drink, elevators.These can be lifted directly from
washing and toilet facilities,and,.whatis the street using a chain hoist or a forklift
most important,a comfortable and pleas- truck.
ant work environment.
Recognizing this inherent Contradiction, Maintenance, cleanliness and
the facility architects created a design that security
separatesthe activities associatedwithpres-
ervationand storagefrom thoseassociated Another focus of the centre’sarchitectural
essentially severaldifferentfacilitieswithin ing must be kept clean,the utility services
ISSN 135@-@775,Mifieim International (UNESCO,Paris),No.188 Nol. 47.No.4.17751
O UNESCO 1795

kept in good working order, and the
structural integrity kept intact.Perform-
ing these tasks may conflict with the
programmeactivitiesassociatedwith pre-
serving and studying the collections.
Consequently,the facilityhas no attic or
basement.The energy plant is located at
one corner of the facility at the head of
the street,with all the main mechanical
systems placed on the roof. The street
serves as the spinal column for all the
building systems. The power, steam,
water,ventilation and communications
lines run from the energy plant down
the street, branching off as needed.
Here,systemsmaintenance can be done
without compromising the security and
protection of the programme areas.Fur-
thermore,major improvements to the
utilities can be done easily as needs for
these services increase.
Fourteen air-handlingunits,three boil-
ers and three chillers provide specially
filtered and conditioned air to all areas
-
of the bu il d i n g . High effi cien cy
particulate air (HEPA) filters remove
more than 99.8per cent of all particulate
matter from the air,including pollen and
insect eggs. They provide a virtually
dust-free environment and significantly
reduce the cost of cleaning services.
Thermostats and humidistats in most of
the spaces,with individuallycontrolled
steam and heating coils, ensure that the
temperatureand humiditylevelsare kept
constant throughout the centre.
Sophisticated security monitoring and
detection equipment,including motion
detectors and closed-circuittelevision,
offer optimum safety for the collections.
Individuals entering the centre pass
through a security checkpoint where
personal belongings are inspected and
building credentials are issued. These
credentiaQ include passcards for use in
O UNESCO 1995
Detached storage:the Smithsonian Institution’sMuseum Support Center
the card-readersplaced at the entrances A ‘stateofthe nrt’facility the
to the various office, laboratory and SmithsoiaiaizInstitutioiz’sMuseum
storage areas. Coded to meet the indi- Suppoi-tCenter.
vidual needs ofeach staffmember,these
passcards automatically unlock doors
and record a person’spassage through
the building.For fire safety,smoke-and
heat-detection devices, monitored by
computer,supporta water-chargedsprin-
kler system with individuallycontrolled
heat-activatedsprinkler heads.
All collection objects are processed
through the loading dock and shipping
office.A computer records the transport
ofall museum collections into and out of
the centre. The shipping office also
controls the movement of accountable
property,hazardousmaterials and waste.
A separate storage area is designed ex-
clusively for hazardous materials,and a
cold-storage refuse room is used for
organic waste that may be subject to
insect infestation.
An integrated pest-management pro-
gramme helps prevent the development
of insect pests that could be harmful to
the collections.The programme is su-
pervised by the staff Pest Manager,and
involves the inspection of all incoming
# 19
U.Vincent Wilcox
Collections are transportedthrough the
‘street’using electric-poweredtrucks and
specially designed carts.
20
materials,strict control over designated designed storage systems, including
food areas and food disposal, and the closed cabinetscontaining shelves,draw-
placement of over 2,000 insect monitor ers and other specialized equipment,
traps throughout the centre.The traps house more than 20 million specimens
are inspected regularly,and the insects and objects. The rows of cabinets ex-
found within them are identified and tend more than 16 k m back and forth
recorded.In this manner,the Pest Man- within the pods.Computer-aideddesign
ager monitors the occurrence of insect (CAD) systems facilitated the planning
pests and makes risk assessments re- and installation of the cabinets,and bar-
garding potential problems for the col- codes have simplified and accelerated
lections.Generally,thorough cleaning collections documentation and inven-
is the easiest and most effective method tory control.
for controlling insect populations with-
out the use ofpotentially harmful chemi- Pod 3,knownas the ‘wetpod’,is equipped
cals. In addition,a 50-cm-widegravel with explosion-proof electrical devices,
strip surroundsthe entire building along special drains and separate ventilation to
the outside of the exterior walls. This provide a safe environmentfor the storage
‘deadzone’helps discourage pests from of the fluid-preserved(alcohol) biological
entering the facility. collections.Bottled collections are stored
on shelves,and tanks are placed in special
movable racks within a three-level,steel
Caring for 20 d o n items mezzanine structure.PartofPod 4,known
as ‘highbay’,is for the storage of oversize
The fourstoragepods functionlike large, objects,such as boats,whale skulls,and
self-containedstorage cabinets.With in- carved stone monuments. A pair of large
mlated outside walls 50 c m thick,each roll-up doors, installed back-to-backto
one covers an area of approximately provide for insulation,allow direct access
3,250 m2and is over 8.5 metres high. from the outside.
Pods 1,2,and half of Pod 4 are divided
into three separate levels,each a little In contrast to the windowless pods,
over 2 m high, by the construction of natural light shines through picture
steel and concrete decks. Especially windows in the officeAaboratory com-
plex,providing employees with a view
over woods and landscaped grounds.
The glass in these windows, and the
overhead fluorescent lights in the
laboratories,are filtered for potentially
harmful ultraviolet light.Exhaust hoods
and ‘elephanttrunks’remove noxious
odours and gases. Tiled rooms with
special drains and explosion-proof
fixtures are for the use of alcohol
and solvents. Air, gas and de-ionized
water supply the special needs of re-
searchers and conservators. Rooms
linked with lead shielding house X-ray
equipment.
O UNESCO 1995
 Detached storage:the SmithsonianInstitution’sMuseum Support Center

The Museum Support Center houses the one of them has received specialized care
Smithsonian’sConservationAnalyticalLabo- and is now housed in superiorconditions.
ratory,and conservation laboratories for The resultis a model forcareofcollections
the National Museum ofAmerican History that w ill help to ensure their preservation
and the Department ofAnthropology.The for generations to come.
NationalMuseum of Natural History main-
tains storage and laboratoryfacilitiesat the Being separate from the public museum
centre foreach ofits scientificdepartments facilitiesin centralWashington does create
and its new Laboratory for Molecular Sys- special concerns for the administration of
tematics.There are specialultra-coldfreez- the centre.Transportationbetween it and
ers for the preservation of DNA samples theotherfacilitiespresentsschedulingprob-
and tanks filled with nitrogen gas for the lems for staff. They are now dependent
preservation of meteorite specimens.The upon a shuttlebus insteadoftheirown two
NationalMuseum ofAmerican History also feet for attending meetings and visiting
has space for the storage and study of a their colleagues in other offices. Basic)
variety of historical collections. Branch
offices of the Smithsonian Libraries and
PhotographicServices provide supportto
the research and scholarlyactivitiescarried
out at the centre.

Designed for growth

The Museum Support Center w a s dedi-

cated in 1983. The installation of the
specialized storage equipment and the
moving of collections into the facility
has been an ongoing project up to the
present time. Collections are being
moved from overcrowded and inad-
equate conditions. The preparation of
the objects and specimensforboth trans-
port and installation in the new storage
is being done by specially trained staff
under the guidance of the curators,con-
servators and collection managers.The
objective is to leave behind all the prob-
lems associated with the previous stor- Pod 3 is designed
age and bring the collections into the to stow biological
centre clean,inventoried and pest-free. collections
The moving process could have been presetwed in
catastrophic for the collections had it alcobol. T a d a are
been performed too hurriedly or care- mounted on
lessly. In fact, it has become the best movable shelves to
event that has ever happened to the provide easy access
individual objects and specimens.Every to the specimens.
8 UNESCO 1995 21
U. Vinceizt Wikox

communication systems become increas- provide additional space for all the vari-
ingly important,including telephone,fax ous Smithsonianmuseums,aswell as for
and,especially,computer networks.The the large library and archive collections.
Internet electronic communications net- Newly constructed and functionally part
work is an essential toolfor the majority of
of the centre are a greenhouse for bio-
the scholars and scientists.It is used not diversity studies,and a special facility
only for communicating with colleagues forpreparing and studyingmarine mam-
outside the Smithsonian,but alsoformain- mals. Approaching construction phase
taining contactbetween the various sepa- is the new Cultural Resources Center for
rate facilitieswithin the Smithsonpan Insti-
the National Museum of the American
tution itself. Consequently,the Museum Indian. Most of its collections, now
Support Center was among the first of the housed in N e w York,will be transferred
Smithsonianfacilitiestopossessh l1internetto this new building alongside the Mu-
capabilities. seum SupportCenter.An additionalstruc-
ture will be built on the Mall in Washing-
Growth is an inherent part of the mis- ton to serve as the museum’s public
sion of most museums.The Smithsonian facility.Eventually,additional pods and
Institution has recognized that more more officesand labsw ill be constructed
space is needed to serve the public onto the existingMuseum SupportCenter
properly with exhibitions and education building. in the long term, there w il
l
programmes,and for the adequate pro- probably be a greater separation of fa-
tection and preservation of the collec- cilities between those designed specifi-
tions. It has d<evelopeda long-range cally for public programmes,and those
master-planfor the development of ad- dedicated to research and collection
ditional facilities to support more of the care.The Museum Support Center may
non-public functions associated with be seen as a model for the research-and-
research and collection care.These w il
l storage facilities of the future. w

Research and consetvation laboratories

contain exhaust hoods and ‘elephant
trunk’to remove noxious odours.
22 Q UNESCO 1995
Temporary storage:a challenge to the
National Museum of Denmark
Torbeiz Lundbaek
Tbe massive task of evacuating the
ethnographic collectiotz of the Natioizal
Museum of Demzaxk turned out to be a
blessing in disguise,for it resulted in a
state-of the-micomputerized systemfor
collectiotz tnaizagement and research.
The author is a member of the board of
directors of the museum and head of the
Deparlineiit of Eth?iograpiJj$he is a
fomaer pmidetzt of the ICOM National
Committee.
Removing DDT ujearivg special safety
oufits.
ISSN 1350-0775,Mzrseimz inlenzatio~zai(UNESCO, Paris), No.188 (Vol.47,No.4,1995)
O UNESCO 1995
...
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UKj and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
In the mid-1980sthe National Museum The collection of ethnography in Co-
of Denmark in Copenhagen was allo- penhagen is of great international im-
cated substantial financial resources toportance. The nucleus can be traced
undertake a radical modernization plan. back to the Royal Kunstkammer in the
This included rebuilding the premises inseventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
the Museum’s main building, which and is one of the largest and most well
housed the DepartmentofEthnography. documented of its kind.The part of the
The rebuilding was so extensive that it collection that was acquired in the first
was necessary to evacuate the depart- half of the last century comprises a vast
ment’sexhibitions,storerooms,archives, amount of material which is not repre-
library, offices and laboratories - an sented in more recentlyestablished eth-
-
area of about 8,000m2 while the work nographicalmuseums.It also includesa
was going on. number of highly valuable special col-
lections,for example the Eskimo collec-
The Department of Ethnography origi- tion. The entire collection consists of
nated in the Royal Ethnographical about 150,000ethnographical objects
Museum which was inauguratedin 1849, and a similar number of archaeological
becoming the world’sfirst museum of artefacts.To this may be added exten-
general ethnography. In 1892 the sive archives,a vast photo and sound
museum was incorporated intothe newly collection,and the department library.
established National Museum of Den-
mark,together with national and classi- During the planning period it was soon
cal collections which had been trans- realized that it would be necessary to
ferred to the same museum building evacuate the entire department from the
during the intervening years. building area. As the removal would ne-
cessitate dealing with every single item in
the collection, it was consequently de-
cided to set aside resources and time to
create a new electronic inventory of the
collection.However,as time did not per-
mit detailed scrutinyand registrationofthe
entire collection,the ethnographicalitems
would be dealt with first, leaving the ar-
chaeologicalpart until later.
A five-stepprocess
The programme for dealing with the eth-
nographical items was to comprise five
phases:(a) compilingacomputerizeddata-
base of the most important data from
existing museum inventories,registration
cards,and archives relating to each item;
(b) thorough cleaning,including a very
complicated removal of old poisonous
pesticides,which required special safety#
23
Torben Lzindbnek
Add@ new infomntion and
photogrnphingprior to packing.
24
outfits;(cl photographic recording of all
items,each to be electronically registered
in the database;(d) adding new observa-
tions and correcting or supplementing
current written data about the items,in-
cluding the conservator’sevaluation of
their condition and their conservation
needs;and (e) careful packing and trans-
fer of the whole collection,ensuring that
informationabout the physical location of
each item could be obtained at any time
through the database.
The project was planned in collaboration
with themuseum’snewlyestablishedDocu-
mentation Unit,with the Department of
Conservation and with colleagues who
were in charge of the actual removal.A
detailed time schedule was made for the
entire undertaking.
At thesameüme as the DocumentationUnit
was devising the overall computerized in-
ventov system,which was eventually to be
used by all museum departments,decisions
had also to be made about the special
categories of information that were to be
included in the ethnographicalinventory.A
subsequent study of existing thesauri re-
vealed that oniy a few categories could be
used,and thatappropriate systematiclistsof
functions, materials, techniques, ethnic
groups,geographical areas,historical peri-
ods,etc.,had to be worked out.
The part of the main building housing the
Department ofEthnography-and where it
is rehoused today - was closed to the
public in March 1988.Ten curatorsthen set
to work on the new inventory of ethno-
graphical items.Throughout an entire year
-
they concentrated each in their regional
-
field on creating the computerizeddata-
base according to the new system.
Packing and removal took place the fol-
lowing year. A conservator, a technical
assistant,and a student were attached to
each of the ten curators.Each team was
responsiblefora regionally defined collec-
tion of 10,000to 15,000itemswhich was to
be handled according to a strict monthly
time schedule.The entries for each item
were recorded in the newly established
database,old informationwas taken into
account and new information added.The
O UNESCO 1995
 Temporary storage:a challenge to the National Museum of Denmark

items were then photographed by a spe- ing the actual removal of containers and
cially built camera connected to the elec- items from the building and the new loca-
tronic data system,which formed part of a tion of each container and individualmu-
permanentphotographicset-upmade avail- seum item.At first, many team members
able to each team.The photographs were worried about being tied up with a seem-
automatically given a numberlinkedto the’ ingly monotonous task for such a long
museum number of the item.A photogra- period. However the handling of such a
pher from the Documentation Unit in- large number of museum items proved to
structed the teams in the photographic be a very positive experience for the par-
technique,and examined daily the previ- ticipants.Under frequently difficult condi-
ous day’s photographs for approval or tions,they worked with great effort and
rephotographing before the item was skill, completing the project on time in
packed. The resulting slides were later spite of a very tight schedule.
transferred to a video disc which can be
accessed automatically through the data- The removalofthe collectiontook place in
base system. 1389.At the end of the year offices,ar-
chives,and the libraiyweremoved aswell.
The registrationof the archaeologicalcol- In 1390 and 1991 temporary offices were
lections was made more briefly, and no set up for the staffin one of the museum’s
photographs were taken of the items be- buildings outside Copenhagen.Notwith-
foretheywere packed and moved.A more standing the restricted space and the inac-
thorough inventory is being made of the cessibility of the collections,the staff suc-
archaeologicalitemsconstitutingtheGreen- ceeded in working out detailed plans for
land collection, part of which is being the new ethnographic exhibitions in col-
returned from the National Museum of laborationwith competentarchitects.These
DenmarktotheNationalMuseum ofGreen- were to consist of a permanent introduc-
land.’The Department plans to continue tory exhibition occupying some twenty
reinventorying the archaeological collec- rooms with selected museum items from
tions at a later date. many countries,and a study exhibition of
similar size which could be operated as a
The conservators evaluated the state of kind of open storeroom.To this would be
conservation of each item,and were in added an area forsemi-permanentsubject-
charge of the actual packing. Objects in oriented exhibitions,and space set aside
poor condition were left for conservation for temporary exhibitions.
treatmentwhilethe otherswere packed for
storage.Large items were wrapped indi-
vidually and transferred to newly built The computerized database: .
storeroomsin the museum’sbuildings on saving time and space
the outskirts ofCopenhagen,while smaller
items were stored in containers which Already at this point the extensive new
were transferred to temporary storage out electronic data inventory proved a unique
of town. A special unit had the task of tool for selectingthe most suitable exhibi-
providing enormous quantities of profes- tionitems.Withoutit, this careful planning
sional packing material for the packing would not have been possible within such
teams. This unit was also in charge of a short time.It also proved very useful in
transportation,which was followedup by planning the study collection. To save
electronicregistrationofthe data concern- space,all information for the public,in-
O UNESCO 1995
#
25
Torberz Lzindbnek
Unpackiizg itemsfor new exhibitiom. cluding the traditional museum texts,were
storedincomputersintheexhibitionrooms.
Information about the function of each
exhibited item,its origin,museum his-
tory, materials and dimensions were
automatically drawn from the new in-
ventory system and combined with lexi-
cal informationabout cultures of origin,
occupation,technique,expeditions,col-
lectors,etc. This approach of allowing
visitors to choose from a broad range of
information through an easily compre-
hensible and interactive data system
proved very successful.
The return of the offices, archives and
library to the department took place at the
26
end of 1991,followedby the installationof
the new exhibitionswhich were opened to
the public in 1992.Here again,the proce-
dure was carefully planned and based on
computer data.A centralunpacking station
manned with five unpacking units chan-
nelled the items through to the mounting
procedure in the newly built exhibition
area.
The unpackingand installationoftheitems
has continued since the museum’s re-
opening,following the time schedule for
fitting up new storerooms,which is still in
progress.Itemsneededfornew permanent
and temporaryexhibitionshavebeen given
priority in this respect,however the un-
O UNESCO 1995
 Temporary storage:a challenge to the National Museum of Denmark

packing of the remainderof tlie collection and its condition,and has facilitated the
wi
ll be finished before long,and the de- comparison of information sometimes
partment w i
ll again be able to give mu- dating back more than a century with
seum colleaguesand other researchers full items of formerly uncertain identity.
access to study the collections. When the unpacking is completed and
the new location of all items is computer-
In the interim,the department has taken ized,it will be easier to access the entire
great comfortin the fact that though most collection.
of the itemswere inaccessible,it has been
fareasier to answerinquirieswhichwould The National Museum now boasts many
have required months ofhard work using new features. Glass roofing over the
formermethods.For example,ratherthan courtyards of the old museum has given
searching for photographic negatives or the public a wide range of modern
bringing items to the museum’s photo- facilities.A new central hall leads to a
graphic studio,it is now possible to re- restaurant,public library,cinema,class-
trieve on screenmore than 100,000stored rooms, and a vast area for temporary
photographs, and by simply pushing a exhibitions.Thisis called ‘Egmonthallen’,
button to obtain a print of any one of named after the foundation which, to-
them,which canbe used for identification gether with the Danish Government,
or study.Similarly,textprint-outsfrom the financed the renovation of the museum.
database may be obtained within sec- There is no doubt that the moderniza-
onds. tion was a success.The new exhibitions
have,of course,been widely discussed
The system,which is now being further and generally praised, and the number
developed into an even more advanced of visitors has more than doubled. In
technique digitizing supplementary in- 1994 the museum received the Euro-
formation and photographs,has been pean Museum of the Year award.z
especially praised by guest researchers
who, after a few minutes’ instruction, The prospect of success was a strong
can make queries on their own. The motivation for the staffof the Department
system contains old data, which will of Ethnography.Everyone was willing to
often need correction after closer study, focus on this very concentrated effort,
as well as new data added in haste.After anticipating(correctly,as it turned out) that
a more thorough revision it w ill also they would later fully benefit from the
allow for the possibility of research years of hard work. B
through an external network,and w i
ll
facilitate the production of electronic
multimedia publications.
Notes
The intensive review of the collection,
which was a necessarypreconditionforits 1. See Mzlseuin I?zte?7?ntio?zal,
No.182 (Vol.
evacuation,has given rise to an excellent 46,NO.2, 1994) Ed.-
collection-managementsystem.This type
of undertaking in such a large museum 2.An English-languagevideotape
would have been impossible under nor- documenting the work described in the article
mal circumstances,but it has resulted in a can be obtained from the National Museum of
profound knowledge of the collection Denmark on request.
O UNESCO 1995 27
New directions in Africa
Mzibinnn Luhila,Lydia A.Kornnteng,Alain Godonou
The wiifiezms of sub-SaharanAfrica are
faced with acute problem of
consenation and storage of collections,
which are composed primarily of orgnnic
materials and subject to extreme,
widespread and often irreversible
deteriorationprocesses. Irhe P M tiesand staff.Its history datesback to 1930
199&2000project was set up by the
International Centrefor the Stuciv of the
Presenmtion and the Restoration of
Cultural Pr0pen.y (rccRoM)in Rome, to
train African professionals in th&field.
Thefollowing three articles, written by
foimer PRE&iX fellows, are ample proof
that such training,combined with
itiitiative, determination and
resowcefidness, can make a dramatic
difference.
28
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford. OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA O2142 (USA)
From a certain mess to a possible order: a success story in Zambia
(Mubiana Luhila)
The Livingstone Museum in Livingstone,
Zambia, is the largest museum in the
country in terms of size,collections,facili-
when its first objects (then only ethno-
graphic) were acquired. It is Zambia‘s
oldest museum.
The earliest part of the present museum
building was constructed in 1950. As
collections grew, so did the need to
house them properly. By 1961 the mu-
seum possessed 1,022 ethnographical
objects,8,118historical documents and
objects,9,822 objects from prehistoric
sites and 204,986 natural history speci-
mens.Several additions to the museum
were built to accommodate the various
collections,as well as an educationwing
and a workshop. Until 1990, the mu-
seum concentrated its efforts on acqui-
sitionsand paid little attention to collec-
tion management,preventive conserva-
tion and documentation. The conse-
quences of this neglect only began to be
realized towards the end of the 1980s.
In February 1990 the author (University
of Zambia,PREMA University Course)
was given the task to start and develop
a conservation department that would
cater for the conservation needs of the
museum. This was and still is a mam-
moth task. However, with assistance
from ICCROM and the Social Science
Research Council of the United States,
both of which provided equipment,
materials and training,w e have man-
aged to lay a firm basis for the depart-
ment in terms of competenceand facili-
ties.By 1994,the department had estab-
lished a basic conservation laboratory
and had hired four additional conserva-
tion assistants responsible for preven-
ISSN 1350-0775,Museum kitenmtional (UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (vol.47,No. 4,1995)
tive conservation of the ethnographic
collection,paper and archival materials,
natural history specimens and prehis-
toric objects.
A survey of the seven museum store-
rooms carried out in March 1990 noted
the following common problems: very
high levels of insect infestation;objects
congestedin storeroomsand within stor-
age units,and often packed in cases on
the floor;sub-standardobject supports
in some storage units; generally good
climatic conditions in storeroomsabove
ground level but poor conditions for
those below ground level due to water
seepage during the rainy season;high
light levelsdue to direct sunshinefalling
into storeroomsand on to objects;inade-
quate documentation,with no inventory
of collections and no object-retrieval
system.Clearly,the situation had to be
corrected if the life expectancy of the
objects was to be extended and if the
collection was to be made more useful
to the museum and the public.
A proposal entitled ‘Storage Upgrading
Project’was submitted to the director.Its
objectives were: (a) to put all collection
documentationin a complete and manage-
able state to enable users to retrieveobjects
in the shortestpossible time;Co> to upgrade
storage conditions in order to ease conges-
tion,reduce damage by light,climate and
insects, and provide better supports for
objects;and (c) toinventorycollectionsso as
to identify objects in the accession register
that were not in the museum and objectsin
the museum that were not in the register.
The proposal was accepted and fundsfor
the initialwork committed.The project was
to be carried out collection by collection,
starting with ethnography.
O - _ _ ~I995
- IINEÇCO ,,_

A dearth of documentation
The ethnographicalcollectiondocumenta-
tion consistedof an accessionregister and
catalogue cards filed by number only.
There were no files for field-collection
forms,no catalogue cardsby ethnic group
or object type,no object movement regis-
ter and no object retrieval (location) sys-
tem.W e thusset outtomake the documen-
tation system more functional.This en-
tailed ensuring that information in the
accession register was correct and that no
entries were missing (for unknown rea-
sons, three separate accession registers
with differing informationhad been com-
piled over the years); creating catalogue
cards by ethnic group and by object type
which would make the collection more
usable by keepers (collection gap filling)
and researchers;opening an object move-
ment register to keep track of the objects;
establishing an object-locationplan in the
storerooms and incorporating it into the
documentation to form a retrieval system.
The project was discussed with ICCROM
officialswho were in ZambiainAugust 1990
to prepare a three-month Conservation
Management Course to be held at the
LivingstoneMuseum in 1991.An agreement
wasreachedfortheICCROMPREMAProject
to fund the documentationwork at a total
cost of $3,725.This covered the production
of33,000new cataloguecards,thepurchase
offheencard cabinets,and wages forthree
temporary documentalists who joined the
author and two conservation assistants to
form the project working team.
Thefirststepwas to checkfordistortedand
missing entriesin registerNo.3.Thiswork
continued until w e were convinced w e
had a reliable accessionsregister.The next
step was the creation of catalogue cards
using information from the register and
from existing catalogue cards.By 30 Nov-
O UNESCO I995
New directions in Africa
ember 1990 catalogue cards by accession
number, ethnic group and object type
were completed and filed into the recently
acquired card cabinet.The documentation
system could now show the keeper in
which areas his collectionwas weak,and
researcherscould now easily identifywhat
they wanted.(Unfortunately,as no system
forthe safekeepingoffieldcollectionforms
existed,much ofthis data was lost and our
plan to safeguard this information could
not be implemented.)
The next task of establishing a location-
and-retrievalsystemdependedonthecom-
pletion of work to upgrade storage condi-
tions.The ethnographical collection was
housed in two storerooms,one directly
above [he other. Both storerooms were
congested and many objects were stored
on the floor,thus blocking passage.Most
shelves were over-packed,causing the
objects to become deformed and often
scratchy when handled.The humidity in
the lower storeroom was 100 per cent in
the rainy season due to water seepage
through its underground walls.New stor-
age space had to be found for the endan-
gered collection.
W e set out to disinfest the collection,
reduce light levels,shift objects to a safer
space,decongest the storeroom,support
objects properly and establish an object
location system.This phase began in Feb-
ruary 1991.Broken windows which al-
lowed in dust,insects and cats were re-
placed and painted white on the insideand
black on the outside to block sunlight.An
amount of $50 was spent on these two
tasks.The two storeroomswere then pre-
pared for disinfestation with No. 22
Gammexane smoke generators.W e felt
that this was an effective but safe method,
particularly since it was done on Saturday
when staffwere awayfortheweekend and
repeated a fortnightlater.
29
Mirbinna Luhila,Lydia A.Komnteng,Alain Godonou
An exercise in teamwork
An appeal was sentout to possible donors
in Zambia for funds to construct a 230 m2
storeroom into which objects from the
basement storeroomwould be transferred.
In the meantime,work on upgrading stor-
age conditions on the ground floor store-
room began.A working team comprising
the author,twoconservationassistantsand
three research assistants was formed in
March 1991.Lessons in handling and mov-
ing objects were given to the team.
The Museum’s30 m2archaeologicalstudy
room was to be used as a temporary
storeroom.Shelves were constructed at a
cost of $400and covered with polythene
sheets (donated by ICCROM) to act as
padding for the objects.All objects on the
floor in the storeroom were cleaned and
transferredto the studyroom,thuscreating
space for a working area. Objects were
then moved shelf by shelfto the working
area and the shelves cleaned and padded.
The objects were cleaned (mostly with a
From n cerîain mess vacuum cleaner) andretumedto theshelves
30
where they were placed with adequate
space for each object.Extra padding (tis-
suepaper) was provided where necessary.
When the three-month P R E U National
Course began on 2 September 1991,funds
for the construction of a storeroom were
still to be found and work on shifting the
collectioninthebasement storeroomcould
not yet start.However,as the objectswere
under threat and needed to be transferred
fortheirsafety,the museum administration
offered to forgo the museum’stemporary
exhibition gallery in order to house the
collection.
This space had no storage racks and those
in the storeroom were in too poor a
conditionto be adapted.The museum had
no fundsto pay forthe constructionofnew
storageracks.A requestto the British High
Commissionin Zambiafor $18,000tobuild
fif‘ty-sixracks received a favourable re-
sponse and the storage units were deliv-
ered to the museum in early November
1991.
The transfer of objects from the store-
room and the archaeologicalstudy room
began almost immediately, with the
PREMA course participants constituting
the working team. By the end of the
course on 30November 1991,four-fifths
of the objects had been moved to the
new storeroom.In January 1992 a team
comprising all former PREMA Zambia
Course participants in the museum was
constituted to finish this task and by
March 1992 the entire collection was
properly stored in a climatically safe
new storeroom.A number of shelves
had been coveredwith polythene sheets
to protect objects from dust and insects;
however as the supply of sheetsran out,
this part of the work could only be
finished in 1994 when additional sheets
were acquired.
O UNESCO 1995
 New directions in Africa

A simple object location system was logue.This was the final peg in the mu-
devised. All storage units were given seum object-retrievalsystem and now ob-
alphabetical numbers from A to S. The jects can be retrieved from the storeroom
ground-floorstoreroom contained units withoutwasting valuabletime.Forsecurity
A to Nand the new storage room housed purposes,however,this process is super-
units O to S. Each shelf in the unit was vised by the keeper or his designate who
numbered starting from the bottom also manage the separate register which
shelf,and each compartment in a long recordsthe movement ofobjects.An addi-
unit was given a Roman numeral. If, tional record of object movement is kept
for example,an object location is R.4.111, attached to the shelf lists and is removed
it indicates that the object is in the only when an object returns to its holding
new storeroom in Unit R, Shelf 4 and unit.
Compartment III. This is the holding
unit for the object and it will always be The heritage w e keep in museums on
found there. Storage shelf lists were behalfofthe public has to be bequeathed
created, with information about each to posterity in an intact and usable state.
object in a holding unit entered on a The work carried out on our etlino-
prepared form.These serve as inventory graphical collection was an attempt to
lists and are permanently stored in the contribute to this. The results could
holding unit. have been better. It was, however,our
first experience and something resem-
Increating the shelflistsand in carrying out bling order has replaced the mess that
the inventory,w e discovered that some threatened the very existence of the
objects had no accession numbers.After a objects.W e have learnta great deal from
thorough check through records, these this effort which w ill serve us well as w e . . . to apossible orde6 but CI team of
objectswere accessioned and the numbers move on to tackle the upgrading of our tweizty iool-kedfor two months to macb
written on the object and on the shelflist. archaeological collection. # this Stclgt?.
At the beginning of the exercise,10,022
objects were recorded in the register.By
the end,11,750objects were listed,mean-
ing that 1,728 objects had never been
properly accessioned.

When the shelflists were completed,each

was covered in a polythene sheet for
protection,using a heat sealingmachine.A
list of objects on exhibition was also com-
piled and each objectwas marked ‘present’
in the accessions register.All entries not
marked ‘present’ are deemed not to be in
the museum.There having been no previ-
ous object movement register,it is impos-
sible to know where these objects might
be.

Objectlocationnumbers onshelflistswere
then copied onto object cards in the cata-
O UNESCO 1995 31
klicbinna Luhila,Lydia A.Koranteng,Alain Godonou

30,000movements. from confusion to preventive conservation at the

National Museum of Ghana
(Lydia A. Koranteng)

The National Museum of Ghana was cre-
àted just after the country’sindependence
in 1957,and has since then slowly drifted
off to sleep:boasting a rich collection of
24,000objects-of which 90 per centare in
storage-it has never changedthe displays
in the public galleries,and mounted itslast
temporary exhibition in 1980.At the same
time,storeroomsmeasuring 200 m2were
used as a repository for a variety of mate-
rials which rapidlymade the aislesimprac-
ticable and access to the objects impossi-
ble,thus threatening theirvery safety.Far-
reaching action was urgently needed.
In collaboration with the PREMA 1990-
2000 programme,the National Museums
Board decided to organizea practical train-
ing course with the following main objec-
tives:(a) to rid the storesofeverything that
was neither storage structurenor museum
object and re-groupthe collections;(b) to
resume and complete the inventory so as
to be able to recover an object in less than
five minutes without displacing more than
two objects;and (c) to mount a temporary
exhibition.The course was divided into
both theoretical study (40 per cent) and
practicalwork (60per cent) and given over
a three-monthperiod to twenty staffmem-
bers of Ghana museums.
After participants had cleared away 30
m3 ofextraneousmaterialfrom the stores
and had repatriated collections housed
in various offices, specific areas were
attributed to each type of collection.
Shelfspace was increased by 30 per cent
and storage elements were created that
were adapted to the special needs of the
textile and painting collections.Meas-
ures were taken to protect the collec-
tions from theft, fire,insects and dust,
and to ensure internal ventilation. A
place was then assigned to each object
and the inventory was begun (it contin-
ued after the end of the course and has
now been completed). A preventivecon-
servation plan was established,taking
into account the nature of the premises
and the climatic conditions.
In the course of this work, more than
30,000 displacements of fragile objects
were effected and the participants were
understandably proud to have damaged
only one -a terracotta pipe.The operation
was completed by the organization of a
temporary exhibit describing the role of a
museum to the generalpublic.Today,it is
-
possible -and even pleasant to enter the
storesofthe Ghana National Museum and
to work on the collections.

Remove and refit:the case of Benin

(AlaifiGodonou)

In August 1992 Benin’sMinister of Cul- seriously dilapidatedovertime and were

ture launched an ambitious programme
to reorganize the stores of four major
national museums,in co-operationwith
the PREMA 1990-2000project.It must be
said that storage conditions had become
32
now critical.
The situation of the History Museum of
Abomey, housed in two ancient royal
palaceswhich figureonthe UNESCO World
O UNESCO 1995
 New directions in Africa

Heritage list,was the most dramatic.The The building selected needed some work: Thefamous collectioii of Beiiin S Kings of
building containingthe storeroomswas in treatmentofwalls and woodwork to resist Aboniey was cleaned, disiifested aizd
infestation,reinforcement of openings tvaizsfewedto a new,specially equipped
a state ofadvanced deterioration:the walls
were cracked,the ceiling decaying and theagainst intruders, protection from dust, storage i-oowz.
roof threatened to cave in. The entire improvements in lighting and ventilation
structure was infested with termites.The (air-conditioning being ruled out). The
location of the building on an immense former storeroom measured 120 m2;the
and poorly maintained site of 44hectares new one contained two rooms of approxi-
mately 60mzeach.Althoughthespacewas
favoured the infiltration of rats and even
reptiles. the same,there was nevertheless a differ-
ence in organization.One room only was
the devoted to housing the entire collection,
With the exceptionof a few cabine'ts,
museum possessed no storage elements whilst the other was arranged in a mixed
and most ofthe objectswere piled up on workshop/collection-documentation area
the floor. Some had been infested by which had been totally lackingpreviously.
insects and were already irreparable. The storage elements ordered were spe-
The inventory,dating back to the 1950s, cially conceived for the collection,taking
was unreliable and had never been veri- into accountthe various dimensions ofthe
fied. In view of the scale of the risks objects and their different storage require-
threatening such an exceptional histori- ments. They consisted of 68 mzof teak
cal collection,its removal was the only shelving divided into three blocks, and
possible solution. seven hanging canvas panels,all built on
O UNESCO 1995
i) 33
Mirbiann Lubila,Lydia A.Kornnteng,Alain Godonoic

site in Abomey.The new storeroomswere was the measurement of success envis-

completedforthemodest amountof40,000 aged,but it was hardly imaginable at the
French francs (approximately $8,000), beginning!
which covered equally the costs of build-
ing repairs and construction of the storage Inthe sameway,thestoresoftheHistorical
elements. Museum of Ouidah, the Ethnographic
Museum and the Honmè Museum inPorto-
The objects transferred from the old stores Novo were also refurbished.Several les-
were disinfested, vacuum-cleaned and sons were learned from this experience,
documented.Theverification ofthe inven- the most important of which was that a
tory continued throughout these opera- team of people trained only in basic prin-
tions and revealed that of some 1,500 ciples and techniquescould conceive and
objects in store,only 1,000had been pre- realize considerable improvements in a
viously inventoried.With the creation of a short time and at very modest cost,thus
system ofobjectlocation,any object in the opening new possibilities for internal de-
storescould be found in five minutes:this velopment in African museums.

The PREMA programme is organized in collaboration with the University of Paris

I -Panthéon Sorbonne,the University ofLondon-InstituteofArchaeology (UCL),
the L. Pigorini Ethnographic Museum in Rome,and the Canadian Conservation
Institute in Ottawa. It is financed by international organizations (UNESCO,the
European Union,the Agency for Cultural and Technical Co-operation(ACCL));
national organizations and ministries (BMZ,Germany,DANIDA,Denmark,USAID,
United States,FINNIDA,Finland,Ministry for Co-operation,France,Ministry of
ForeignAffairs,Italy,NORAD,Norway,Ministry ofDevelopmentand Co-operation,
the Netherlands,ODA,United Kingdom,SIDA,Sweden,Ministry ofForeign Affairs,
Switzerland); foundations (Dapper Foundation,Ford Foundation, Getty Grant
Program,Skaggs Foundation,Elf Foundation). The programme is included in the
activities of the UNESCO World Decade for Cultural Development.

34 O UNESCO 1995
Museum Reserve Collections:An
International Symposium
Dominique Ferriot
In 198S,Donziniqzie Fem‘ot was
appointed director of the National
Mzlsearni of Technology at the
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
(National Coizsewatoq)of industrialArts
aizd C?*ajs),Paris, which is now beiizg
renouated.Herpreviousposts iiiclzrde
those of Assistaitt to the Director of the
Econiuseuin at Le Creusot,Head of the
Partnership Diuision at the Parc de la
Villette in Paris, a?zdDirector of
Conztiiuizicatioiz and Scieiztflc aizd
TechnologicalCulture at the French
Ministiy of Research and Tecbiiology.
i%e stores of theMusée des Arts et Métiers
in Paris are located in the neighbouiing
stibitrb of Saint-Denis;the architect is
Fraizçois Deslatiggiers.
ISSN 1350-0775,Ilfzrseum Intenratio?zaZ (UNESCO,Paris), No.188 (Vol.47,No.4,1995j
- TINESCO
O _.__ ~.1995
_,_
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
To mark the opening of its new reserve
collections,at Saint-Denisinthesuburbsof
Paris,the National Museum ofTechnology
organized on 19and 20September 1994,in
Paris,an internationalsymposium on mu-
seum reserve collections which brought
together over 400 participants,represent-
ing 14countries.The themes ofthe sympo-
sium were the reserve as ‘treasure’, as a
research-and-training tool and as a collec-
tion and database,and they clearly identi-
fied the expectationsand concerns of our
colleagues and, more generally, of the
teachers and researcherswho are the natu-
ral clientele of museum reserves.
The reserve as ‘treasure’
‘Neithertreasurenor junk.’With this delib-
erately provocative catch phrase, Annie
Caubet,curator-in-chiefand directorofthe
Department of Oriental Antiquities in the
LouvreMuseum,soughtabove all to stress
the unity of the collections which were
established as a result of large-scale ar-
chaeologicalexpeditions to the Orient.
The collections are one and indivisible.
There are no duplicates,no items of infe-
rior value.All could be shown in the same
space,ifnot onthe same plane.Ofcourse,
it is impossible to exhibit all the 90,000
objectskeptby thedepartment.Thenumber
of works exhibited represents 10 per cent
of the total.The reserves are thus a neces-
sity,a place bf storage and a study galleiy
for some sections of the visiting public.
‘Treasures’ can be temporarilystored in the
reserve collectionsof the major technologi-
cal museums. A case in point is the as-
tronomy section of the ScienceMuseum in
London which is now kept in one of the
museum’sreserve facilities,Blythe House.
When she took the floor,Suzanne Keene,
head of collections management at the
ScienceMuseum,laid clearemphasison the
importance of a policy concerning reserve
collectionsforthe acquisitionand conserva-
tion of contemporary technological herit-
age. Without the vast site at Wroughton
(near Swindon,100 k m from London) and
the construction of new storage areas,the
ScienceMuseum would simply not be able
to conserve the technologicalheritage,par-
ticularlyverylargeobjects.Infact,Wroughton
attracts a wider range of visitors than the
researchersinvolved.This disused airfield is
quite suitable for the staging of temporary
exhibitions,allowing access to the objects
which remain quietly lined up in their
hangars or on their pallets.Still in England,
the recent creation of common reserve
collections for the different museums in
Oxfordshire enabled curators to rediscover
forgottenor neglected objects.Karen Hull,
collections manager, Oxfordshire County
Museum, spoke about her experience in
very concreteterms:when an object leaves
an old shelffor a new one,it takes up three
times as much space! i)
35
D o m inique Femiot

. . .. . .

Tbe YtAselage’of the Saint-Denis stores.
The themes of planning and organization done by the restoration workshop of the
were the forms of the communication by Musée Historique des Tissus (Textiles
Martha Morris, acting deputy director of Museum) in Lyons.H o w could one avoid
the NationalMuseum ofAmerican History, using the term ‘treasure’to describe the
Washington,D.C.The establishment of elmwood cope chests based on illustra-
new reserves in Maryland had been an tions in Diderot’sEncyclopedia? A nine-
absolute necessity for the Smithsonian In- teenth-centurybuilding near the museum
stitution and the removal of the objects to had been skilfulIy converted to house the
the reserves had been, and still was, a furniturecreated oradaptedforthe storage
mammoth undertaking. and conservation of the delicate ancient
textiles.A restoration workshop installed
Many questions were asked concerning on the top floor gets the fullbenefit of the
this initial theme, especially about the natural daylight, and the four levels of
proceduresgoverning both the acquisition reserve collectionsbeneath house what in
and ‘disposal’ of the ever-increasingnum- the programme is actually called the ‘treas-
bers of objects which represent the con- ure’ of the museum, the most precious
temporaryscientificand technologicalher- objects in its collection.
itage.Is there not a risk of the ‘treasure’
reservesofthe museum acquiring an inde-
pendent existence,even becoming a sec- The reserve as a research-and-
ond museum,particularly iftheyare organ- training tool
ized to be exhibited to a wider public?
What should be the function of work- Objects are certainly placed in reserve
shops? collections primarily so that they can be
studied.In fact Suzanne Keene speaks of
Concerningthislatterpoint,PierreArizzoli- ‘studycollections’rather than ‘reservecol-
Clémentel,curator-in-chiefand currently lections’.Annie Caubet could not imagine
director ofthe Musée desArts Décoratifsin her day-to-day work without constantcom-
Paris, spoke about the exemplary work ing and going between the exhibition

36 UNESCO 1995

roomsand thereservecollections,inwhich
new discoveries are often made in the
courseofinventorying,restoringandphoto-
graphing the objects received.
The organic links between research and
conservation work form the basis of
Georges-HenriRivière’sapproach to the
creationofthe Musée des Arts etTraditions
Populairesin Paris,which has become the
model ‘laboratory-museum’. Its present
director,MartineJaoul,outlinedthehistory
and philosophy of this experimental mu-
seum, which has become a model for
many more recent establishments,without
glossingover difficultiesand failures.Thus,
the nrrièl-e-misée(back shop) has aged
better than the study gallery or the cultural
gallery,which the general public ip fact
visit indiscriminately. The heart of the
museum is still in the stores with the
workshops,therestorationlaboratory,and
the consultation rooms installed near by -
a centrenot only for conservationworkbut
also for research and training.
The Musée National des Arts et Tradi-
tions Populaires is a ‘museum school’
and as such its real centre is its ‘back
shop’,to which curators,restorers and
museum professionals come to try out
new ideasand seek inspiration.Its docu-
mentation centre serves the network of
new museums and new centres estab-
lished in the region.
it was at this point that the idea of a
partnership then took hold,with a view
to formulating a policy for the ethno-
graphic heritage.This does not neces-
sarily imply the establishmentof reserve
-
collections in the region the experi-
ence of the Musée National des Arts et
TraditionsPopulaires in this connection
-
was rather negative but systematic
referral to local facilities when in situ
preservation is possible.
O UNESCO 1995
Museum Reserve Collections:An International Symposium
With Philippe Taquet, a palaeontologist
and former director of the Muséum
National d’HistoireNaturelle in Paris,at-
tention was focused on reserve collec-
tions in the natural sciences.At a time
when scientists are trying to make na-
tional governments aware of the urgent
need for nature conservation policies (at
the present rate of depletion,half of the
existing rain forestsw
ill have disappeared
from the face of the earth by 2032), and
when research institutions are settingup a
very extensive programme for inventory-
ing the biosphere, the natural history
collections conserved for over 300 years
in museums today constitutean irreplace-
able source of scientific data. Philippe
Taquetgavevery concreteexamples,some
from Laos where he was working on
mission, to demonstrate the scientific,
culturaland financialvalue ofsuch collec-
tions,which can assume strategic impor-
tance, for the developing countries in
particular. It is therefore essential that
researchershave accessto reserve collec-
tions. Hence the zoological library pro-
gramme (45 k m of shelves) implemented
in 1985at the Muséum National d’Histoire
Naturelle and,in another field,the crea-
tion ofvisitable reserve collectionsfor the
Musée des Arts et Métiers,which is now
being renovated under the programme of
major public works being carried out by
the French Government.
The reserve as a collection and
database
The multimedia era has truly revolution-
ized the world ofmuseums.Essentialman-
agement tools for the staff in charge of
collections,databasesand imagebanks are
also ways of gaining access to the mu-
seum’sresources,including those in re-
serve collections. The creation of new
reservecollectionsconstitutedthefirststage
37
Dominique Ferriot
A ‘studycollection’of theDeictsches
Museum in Munich: view of the hangar
deuoted to theFirst World War.
38
in the process of renovation of the Musée
des Arts et Métiers. The design by the
architectFrançois Deslaugiers,which has
now been implemented at Saint-Denis,
near Paris,proposed a building in two
main sections.The collectionsare housed
in a ‘chest’80 m long,20 m wide and 8
m high which is covered over with
wood. Inside, there are aisles broad
enough for researchers to move about
freely.A variety of furniture (sometimes
old showcases) has been preferred to
the ‘compactus’storage modules. An-
other section of the building houses the
restorationand photographyworkshops,
and the study and consultation areas.
This technical facility,which looks like
an enormous stainless-steelfuselage,was
cruelly lacking in the old premises in the
Rue Saint-Martinin Paris.Constant liai-
son between the two sites (Paris and
Saint-Denis) is possible thanks to the
multimedia information system,which
was establishedwith a view to conserva-
tion,research and public access.Bruno
Jacomy,assistant to the director, and
Elise Picard,in charge of the manage-
ment of the collectionsofthe Musée des
Arts et Métiers,demonstrated the possi-
ble uses of the museum’s multimedia
database for researchers and, subse-
quently, by the general public in the
renovated museum.The Musée des Arts
et Métiers is already on the Internet,and
an initial CD-ROM (Musée des Arts et
Métiers-L ”Albzcm)has been made which
gives a guided tour of the collections
with a description of the objects which
include many mechanical models. In
this way, the ‘treasure’in the reserve
collections can be exhibited outside the
museum itself,offering an informed -
but increasingly numerous - public ac-
cess to resources that were once wholly
or partly ‘outof bounds’.
Claude Camirand,the director of the tech-
nological department at the Musée de la
Civilisation in Quebec, Canada, pointed
out that the curatoroftoday has tolivewith
the reality of technological obsolescence,
and called for a cautious approach to new
systems,whose maintenance costs were
often under-estimated.
@UNESCO 1995
 Museum Reserve Collections:An InternationalSymposium

Walter Rathjen, the assistant director

with responsibilityfor the collectionsof
the Deutsches Museum in Munich,was
also pragmatic in describing his involve-
ment in the creation of a new museum
building devoted to air and space. Ini-
tially,the museum was looking for addi-
tional storage possibilities, but in the
end a new museum was started on a
disused airfield atOberschleissheim,near
Munich. This new extension of the
Deutsches Museum ‘Study Collection’,
now receivesthe paying public (150,000
visitors last year). A multimedia infor-
mation system linking the different sites
is urgently required in order to facilitate
the task of the curators.

Ruth Leveson, the registrar of

Scienceworks, Museum of Victoria, of-
fered the experience of the Australian
museums. In her account of the space
devoted to the reserve collections of the
National Gallery of Australia,the Austral-
ian War Memorial in Canberra, and
Scienceworks,Museum of Victoria,Ruth
Leveson returned to day-to-dayproblems:
whether or not to have air-conditioning,
the rationaluse ofspace,and the different
ways ofallowing accessto and controlling
the public.

The variety and interest of the con-

tributions, and the special attention
given to reserve collections in science
and technological museums,made the
symposium held at the Conservatoire
National des Arts et Métiers in Septem-
ber 1994 an outstanding affirmation of
our common credo. A museum is as
much its ‘backshop’(or arrière-niusée
as Martine Jaoulput it) as its temporary
exhibitions, which would not exist
without the hidden base of the ice-
berg. Although computers and the de-
velopment of multimedia systems are
making access to this submerged part
O UNESCO 1995
easier,nothing can replace direct con- i73e stores of the London Science Museum
tact with the object.Hence the need for are located at Wrougl2ton.
reserve collectionsamong which certain
categories of visitor may be allowed to
wander down the aisles that Georges-
Henri Rivière used to call the ‘streets’,
giving them a closer view of the objects
and sometimes enabling them to touch
them, for the purposes of study or
research but also for enjoyment,which
is the ultimate reason for the museum’s
existence.
39
A Workers’Museum in Copenhagen
Peter Liidvigsen
Denmnrk’s Arbejdeniiuseet wasfounded
-
on an idea to innke workers’history
uisible.Initially short on collectiom,but
long on detennination and imagiizatioia)
it has become n popular naentber of the
coirizty’smuseum cornmiinit’. Its
strengths lie in the eloquent stones it tells
about eveqdn-y lz$e and in the ncfiue
szLpport of theDniaish trade-unioia
movement. m e author is director of the
micseim.
40
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road. Oxford, 0% 1JF iUK1 and 238 Main Street. Cambridge,MA 07142 ILISA)
The history of the working class does not thegeneraleducationaland economic level
play the most prominent part in the inter- of the country is high,the movement has
nationalworld of museums.There can be acquired sufficient resources to support
little doubt that this is due to conventional the recording of the workers’cultural his-
thinkingamong museum people and among tory as an integral part of overall Danish
those university departments that educate culture. The Danish trade-union move-
and train them.If the history of industrial ment thus acted as godfather to the Work-
workers were integrated into the sense of ers’Museum when it was established in
national identityto the same extent as the 1982 as one of the first of its kind in the
history reflected in more traditional muse- world.
ums, the story of workers would seem
fascinating,vital and multi-faceted,and The museum was created primarily in
would be perceived as a natural part of a response to a social demand to make
country’sheritage. workers’history visible in Danish muse-
ums.Existing museums were approached
However, new cultural elements in the but few ventured further into discussing
museum world are not necessarily the the subject other than to observe that a
result ofisolated intellectual processes but museum of this kind would presumably
very often spring from the rejection of grow into a combination of a flags-and-
existing power structures,which may be banners museum and an institution for
expressed by the nature of museum hold- retired trade-unionpresidents.They held
ings,museum layout,and the allocationof -
aloof and the outcome was that the
resources. For in the final analysis, the Workers’Museum was established as an
contents and profiles of museums reflect autonomous institution.
those socialforcesthat use the holdings to
consolidate their own cultural position. There was, of course,no collection,and
Although this may be,to some extent,an the Workers’Museum had to start from
oversimplification,it explainswhy w e have scratch. The old assembly hall of the
a workers’museum in Denmark. Copenhagen workers was made available
to the museum and two million Danish
It is well known that the Nordic countries kroner were contributed by the Confed-
have a high degree of social organization. eration of Danish Trade Unions,the LO.
Yet although theirwelfare model has often Strong support came from a group of
been internationallyacclaimed,it has rarely residents in a Copenhagenworking-class
been implemented elsewhere for lack of district, from instructors in the labour
the necessary preconditions.One of the movement’seducation system,and to -
most crucial preconditions in the Nordic give credit where credit is due from a -
contextwas theexistenceofa SocialDemo- few museum people who used their pro-
cratic party,capable of and willing to take fessional know-how to back the project.
responsibilityforformingthe government, Initial funds were insufficientto carry out
and a highly organized working class. major constructionwork and consequently
the museum was built gradually through
In Denmark,the trade-unionmovement the operatingbudgetsofsucceedingyears.
constitutes an important social force with The contributionfrom the LO has contin-
strong historical and cultural roots. Be- ued, and allocations from the Danish
cause 90per cent ofworkers are members Government under the Museum Act have
of trade union organizations,and because been granted since 1984.
ISSN 1350-0775,Mzdseirin interizntionnl IUNESCO,Paris), No. 188 !Vol. 47,No. 4,1995,
O UNESCO 1995
 A Workers’Museum in Copenhagen

From the outset, the Workers’ Museum try,but for the Workers’Museum this was
demonstrated its capacity to interest peo-vital. As it turned out, it proved to be
relatively simple.Exhibitionswere based
ple in its activities.A collection had to be
created and a profile drawn up which on the material people had given us,that
would atrract potential contributors and is to say,on those very objectswhich they
visitors. Following a campaign in which perceived as their history.It was crucial
that the public not only identify with the
w e explained in great detail the objectsw e
were interested in acquiring,the museum new museum but that it stimulate and
opened its first exhibition in 1984: 7îJe satisfy their curiosity.For this reason we
1950s-An Exbibition on a Working-class created very powerful exhibitions which,
Family. It was necessary to explain our more than anything,told a story:the story
wishes in such a detailed manner because of the street of the 1950s;the story of a
early experience had shown that it was working-classhome early one morning at
most difficult to make people understand 8.05 am;the story of women at work -
that quite ordinary,everyday objectscould or at home. But primarily w e told the
in fact belong in a museum. story by making people re-liveit and by
borrowing perspective from’the indi-
Concurrentlywith thefirstphase ofcollect- vidual objects in the collections.The
ing and structuring this exhibition, the Workers’Museum rapidlyearned a repu-
museum minutely planned a public-rela- tation as a place where experiences
tions and marketing campaign.It calls for could be had, where visitors were al- The Worke~s’Miisetin? project
a great deal of obduracy to place a new lowed to see,smell,and touch history. to tun?thefoi-rnerRoyalNavy
museum,whose contentsare perceived as The interest was such that within a very Dockyard in thePo??of
fairlyuninterestingby mostpeople,among short time w e had to regulate the influx Copenbagen into a museum/
-
the most talked-ofmuseums in the coun- of school pupils and still do. restoratioi~IJoli~a~i
ceiztre.

O UNESCO 1995 41
Peter-Ludvigsen
In thepeminnetitexhibition The 1950’s-
An Exhibition on a Working-class
Family,an elderly couple take n rest on n
street bench.
42
and brought it back to its original ap-
pearance as a basement pub in 1892.W e
gave it an international beer list - of
course,you do not get a wine list but a
beer list when you go to the basement
restaurant of a Workers’Museum and-
a bill of fare of traditional north-wekt
European slant.Here,too,the idea was
simple: Why not take a bite out of
history and taste it?
Behind these varied activities w e up-
hold the professional integrity of the
museum. The restaurant has not been
leased to a restaurateur, the assembly
hall is not run by a booking agency,and
the way has not been paved for the
exhibitionoffamousforeign shows.The
house and its cultural history hold a
value of their own,qualities that suffice.
In 1993,the museum welcomed 107,000
visitors. It is still run with financial
support from the LO,which contributes
34 per cent of the operating budget;7
per cent is covered by the Danish Gov-
Immediately after the creation of the ernment - the maximum amount under
museum, the nssembly hall in which it the Museum Act; 5 per cent is received
was lodged was iiûted as a national from a number of foundations;36 per
monument. Built by the workers them- cent from the museum’so w n earnings,
selves when the labour movement was and 18 per centfrom sponsorsw h o m w e
young in the 1870s, it was a meeting find ourselves.
place for socialists from all over the
world at the turn of the century, and The Workers’Museum has existed for
home to many of the smaller trade un- some thirteen years and has long been a
ions in their early days. So at the same fully integrated part of the Danish mu-
time as w e were collecting objects w e seum world. During this time,the mu-
started to restore the building,begin- seum has completed its organizational
ning with the assembly hall. Since .its structure and has made itselfreasonably
restoration, it has been used for the visible in the Danish setting. Conse-
purposes for which it was originally quently,it has been possible for staff to
intended - rallies, general meetings, spend time preparing a new project to
concerts,celebrations,etc. The Work- be executed in Copenhagen harbour,
ers’Museum was transformed into some- which,like virtually all other harbours
thing beyond a museum; it became a in Europe and North America,has un-
place where history could be appre- dergone radical structural change.The
hended in many ways. For example,in Workers’Museum,by means of an inde-
the late 1980s w e restored the restaurant pendent foundationit has established,is
O UNESCO I995

deeply involved in the creation of a
large-scaleMuseum and RestorationCen-
tre in an old naval dockyard.Part ofthe
centre is planned as a holiday site with
200 flats so that holiday-makers may
spend some time in history.This side-
O UNESCO I995
A Workers’Museum in Copenhagen
line activity is expected to become op- i%e Asseinbly Hall at the Workers’
erational as from 1997.The centre will Mu.seunz just before the audience arrives
be an autonomous enterprise,but was for a Sunday nzonzing concert.
conceived as a natural development of
the experience w e have gained from
building up our Workers’Museum. W
43
Looking at Rembrandt:the view from
Amsterdam,Berlin and London
Kees Bm r in
Mounting the same ait exhibition in
three internationally recognized
museims can haue siiiprising results.
The exhibition of the works of Rembrandt
and bis pupils drew dqferent responses
from visitors in Amsterdam, London and
Berlin,and reflectedthe distinctive
approaches of the three mziseuni
curators.Kees Bniiii surueyedpLiblic
reaction at all three exhibitions ai7d
reueals a uariety of responses that
questioned the iinpoizance of art
heritage, the notion of t m e ualidity and
thepersonal andpublicforces which tiy
to establish rubat makes art great’.The
author is a research fellow of the Facdty
of Histo- at Erasnius Uniuersity in
Rotterdam.
44
Published hy Ulacliwell Publishers.108 Cowley Road.Oxford, 0x4 ]JI; (UKi and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 031Q (USAI
The organizers of Rembrandt: The Mas- greenvelvetbackgroundwasused through-
ter and bis Workshop, which went on out, the distance between the paintings
view in Amsterdam in the spring of 1992 was approximately the same,as was the
(after appearing in Berlin, and on its amountofinformationprovided.Museum-
way to London), wanted an exhibition goers in Berlin had to do without any clear
‘withno ifs, ands or buts about it’ as explanationoftheworkshop section ofthe
regards the authenticity of Rembrandt’s exhibition.Here and there,textsignsmen-
work.The problem of attribution occu- tioned that certain works were formerly
pied a central position in the plans.After attributed to Rembrandt,but this was not
all, this international Co-production of always the case.In London,the transition
the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the from Rembrandt to the workshop section
Gemaldegalerie in Berlin, and the Na- was demarcatedfar more clearly;thewalls
tional Gallery and British Museum in were a different colour and a written text
Londonwas organizedto pay homage to explained the comparison principle.How-
the research focused on Rembrandt’s ever,as in Berlin,there was no difference
work and its often startling results.To between how Rembrandt’sand his pupils’
illustrate the enormous influence works were displayed,for each had just as
Rembrandt had on his pupils,a special much -or as little -wall space,and except
section of the exhibition was devoted to forthe points noted above,the roomswere
Rembrandt’s workshop. The paintings similar.
here were by Gerrit Dou, Samuel van
Hoogstraten, Govert Flinck and The situationwas quite differentinAmster-
Ferdinand Bol.Among these workswere dam.TheRembrandtsectionwas extremely
paintings hitherto attributed to spacious and there was very little written
Rembrandt himself,but now believed to text,but theworkshop sectionwas another
be by his pupils. matter entirely.All the paintings were in
one room,with much less space between
Although the selection of the works of them than the Rembrandts,no wall cover-
art and the compilation of the catalogue ing,just plastered white walls, and any
required intensive joint consultations, numberofdisplayboardswith information
no central agreementswere made about setup throughoutthe room.This was how
the actual arrangement,design,public Amsterdam chose to emphasize the differ-
recruitmentand supervisionin the three ence between Rembrandtand his pupils:a
cities.These were matters for Amster- difference in status.
dam,London and Berlin themselves;the
autonomy of each of the museums was In drawing up the texts to accompany
considerable, and was carefully safe- the paintings, Amsterdam was clearly
guarded. catering to an international public.The
titles of the paintings were in no fewer
When it came to evoking the relationship than six languages,and the supplemen-
between Rembrandt’sown work and that tary information was in Dutch and Eng-
of his pupils,there were sizeable differ- lish. In Berlin,the titles and information
ences between the exhibition in Amster- were in German only, and in London
dam and those in Berlin and London. In they were solely in English. The deci-
Berlin,therewas only a virtuallyimpercep- sion to use one national language or to
tible dividing line between one section of opt for a whole list of languages re-
the exhibition and the other; the same vealed not only something of the expec-
ISSN 1350-0775,hfzrsfiinz intfi-~zntiorzd(UNESCO,Paris). No. 188 (Vol.47,No. 4,1995)
$1 UNESCO 1395

tations as regards the museum public,
but also disclosed a clear sense of cul-
tural or national insularity. In London,
everyone was just as aware as in Amster-
dam that the exhibition would draw
numerous foreign visitors,yet it was not
thought necessary to present any of the
information in their languages.
A matter of interpretation
Although one might have expected little
change in the substanceof the accompa-
nying texts, oddly enough, the differ-
ences were considerable.In Berlin,the
emphasis was mainly on the icono-
graphic,stylisticaspects.In Amsterdam,
more attentionwas devoted to biographi-
cal and time- or place-related aspects.
And in London, the approach was far
more sceptical and less ceremonious,
with texts alluding to the doubts sur-
rounding the attributions and re-attribu-
tions. Sometimes, the descriptions of
one and the same work failed to co-
incide in any way, and in several cases
there were vast discrepancies in the
interpretations.For example,in Amster-
dam it was noted that The Artist in his
Studio,dated about 1629 and depicting
a young artist standing before an easel
with an enormous canvas on it, was a
painting of Rembrandt himself, prob-
ably at his studio in Leiden. In Berlin,
O UNESCO 1995
Looking at Rembrandt:the view from Amsterdam,Berlin and London
however,no mention was made of its Visitors crowd theAinsterdain exhibition.
being a self-portrait.Instead, the text
concentrated on the symbolic meaning
of the depiction.And in London, the
possibility was suggested that it might
be a self-portrait,but it was noted that
the features were not clear enough to
warrant any definite conclusion.
In the information on the two versions
of Susaima mid theElders,both painted
by Rembrandt and both on display at the
exhibition,there w a s an interesting dis-
crepancy in the descriptions of the art
historical context.In Amsterdam,it was
noted that a work by Lastman had in-
spired Rembrandt to paint both ver-
sions,but Lastman’sname was not re-
ferred to in either Berlin or London.In
London,in fact,it was Rubens who was
said to have inspired the paintings,for
-
Susanna’spose virtually the same in
both the paintings-was thought to have
been borrowed from a work by Rubens
that Rembrandt had seen a print of.In
Berlin,an allusion was made to another
painting by Rembrandt which exhibited
certain stylistic similarities.While Lon-
don and Berlin referred to the similari-
ties and differences between the two
versions, Amsterdam did not. When
Amsterdam did addressthe art historical
context of the paintings,it was virtually
always in a .local or national context
rather than an internationalone.
* 45
Kees Bniin

The information accompanying one of In the questionnaire presented to mu-

the re-attributedex-Rembrandtsin the seum-goers,several questions referred
workshop section in London made it to how the exhibition had affected some
evident that despite the initial consen- of their ideas.When they were asked if
sus,serious doubts had arisen as to the the exhibition had altered their impres-
new attribution.They pertained to Anna sion of Rembrandt,it was only in Lon-
and the Blind Tobit,now attributed to don that a majority answered affirma-
Gerrit Dou,and on display next to two tively. In Berlin, the responses were
of his other interior scenes. Although more or less evenly divided betweenyes
little evidence of these doubts was ex- and no,and in Amsterdam,the majority
pressed in the Amsterdam and Berlin said no.
texts,museum-goersin London read the
following statement:‘Thecomparison of Had the comparisonbetween Rembrandt
these three paintings was intended to and his pupils led to new ways of
support the attribution of the Anna to looking at them?Here again,there were
Dou,but when it was made in Berlin and significantdifferencesin responses from
Amsterdam it was not convincing.The the three locations: in Berlin and Am-
treatment of Tobit’sface and hands,for sterdam,the majority said yes,although
example,is far less polished than in the in London most said no. If London
paintings by Dou. The question of the museum-goers had altered their ideas
authorship of the Anna must therefore about Rembrandt, this was apparently
remain open. The attribution to not based on a comparison between
Rembrandt himself should probably be Rembrandt and his pupils. In Amster-
reconsidered.’ dam and Berlin,this confrontation clearly
had more of an impact.In Amsterdam,it
was more often stated that ‘Rembrandtis
Contrasts and consensus more exceptional than I thought’,
-
whereas in Berlin and to the extent
By the time the gates closed in May 1992, that there were any newly acquired
-
more than 900,000people had seen the insights,in London as well the prob-
exhibition in Berlin,Amsterdam and Lon- lematic nature of ‘authenticity’ was more
don.Most ofthem,more than 441,000, had frequently emphasized.
seen it in Amsterdam,followed by almost
320,000in Berlin and 180,000in London. A third question was whether one as-
Amsterdam had thus served as the strong- sumed that the Rembrandt paintings
est magnet,which could be explained in exhibited would all still be attributed to
part by the duration(the exhibitionwas on him in twenty-fiveyears’time. In none
view a month longer in Amsterdam than in of the cities did a majority back this
Berlin or London) and the higher ‘quota’ assumption. Berlin was the most posi-
admitted to the Rijksmuseum,and in part tive. London museum-goers were ap-
by the far more active public recruitment parently so impressed by the authentic-
methods.In London and Berlin,there had ity discussion that doubts dominated
been hardly any collaboration with tourist their responses.Ironically enough,the
organizations.The argument used by the percentage of visitors w h o categorically
London Tourist Board was that in the rejected the assumption was largest in
summer months,enough tourists already Amsterdam where the difference be-
came to London. tweenthe official,‘approved’Rembrandts
46 O UNESCO 1995
 Looking at Rembrandt:the view from Amsterdam,Berlin and London

and the ex-Rembrandtswas so clearly

emphasized.Moreover,doubt and dis-
beliefwere more widespread in Amster-
dam among Dutch museum-goersthan
among foreign ones.Although the com-
parison between the Master and his
pupils was not the primary reason to
attend the exhibitionin any of the cities,
the indecision in the re,sponsesto this
last question is ample proof that the
publicity about ‘authentic’ and
‘unauthentic’had been quite effective.
And did these museum-goersenjoy the
exhibition?Their commentson the ques-
tionnaires and the.remarks of museum
staff left no doubts that they did.

But did anyone ‘enjoy’the ex-Rembrandts

or the works of his pupils? As far as w e
could see,thiswas hardly the case.Judging
from how they behaved and what they the problem, this scientific research re- Pyofessor Josua Bmyn,a leading member
said,most visitors had not come with an flects the ‘obsessions’of the society in of the Renzbrandt Research Project, is
open mind but had come for the official which it functions.Perhaps it might be irzteiviewed in tlie ‘Wo?-khop’sectioizof
Rembrandts, and not for the ‘doubtful’ wise to bear in mind what the critic and theAnisterdam exiiibitiotz.
paintings,no matter how ‘great’theymight essayistWalter Benjamin wrote before the
have been. Second World War about changes in how
people look at art. In a society where
And here there is somethingodd,and sad, technologyhas made justabouteverything
ifyou will.Despite the occasionallysevere reproducible,the public is bound to be
criticism of the experts,most of the mu- increasinglyfascinatedby what is ‘real’and
seum-goersquite willingly took them at what is ‘notreal’,at the expense ofwhat a
their word. The distinction between work of art is all about,the representation,
Rembrandt and non-Rembrandtthat these its very content.
experts had drawn was all too often ac-
cepted as a dividing line between interest- To look at ‘realRembrandts’seemed to be
ing and uninteresting. by far the most important reason to come
to the exhibition.But what did people
The historian Simon Schama reproaches reallysee,besides thebillionsofdollarsthe
present-day Rembrandt studies for their works of art were worth, or at any rate
‘reductionistobsessionwith authenticity’- insuredfor?And what did theywant to see?
and he is not the only one to do so - and In part,it remains a mystery.‘Rembrandt?
one could get the impression that what is W h o is that?’the nineteenth-centuryDutch
involved here is an isolatedscientificphe- author/artistJan Cremer asked at the start
nomenon, the preferences of scholars, of his career,and actually it was not such
having little to do with the public at large. a stupid question.Although thequestion‘A
It would none the less seem more appro- Rembrandtlover?What is that?’is certainly
priate to assume that in its formulationof as intriguing.
8 UNESCO 1995 47
The Beirut Museum opens its doors
Brigitte Colin
i%e forthcoining reopening of some of the
rooilzs ita theNationalMuseum of Beimt
afrer more thanfi9eenyears of ular will
be a red-leiter day in the reuiual of the
national identity of the Lebanesepeople.
m e author,iuho holds a d@loma in
architecturefroin the École Nationale
Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris,
joined UNESCO in 1982 and has since
then supervised the technicalfollow-zip to
ciilturalheritageprojects in the Arab
region.
48
Published by Blackwell Publishers.108 Cowley Road. Oxford,OX+ IJF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,M A 02142 (LISA)
The National Museum of Beirut,which is
the only public museum in Lebanon,was
famous the world over for its Phoenician,
Greek and Roman sarcophagi,and housed
theworld’srichestcollectionofPhoenician
andArab jewels.Itwas one ofthefirstgreat
signs of Lebanese independence and has
sincethe 1975 war become a symbolofthe
country’sunity.
As early asJanuary1919,eighteen months
prior to the proclamation of the state of
Greater Lebanon,a prototype of the Ar-
chaeological and Fine Arts Service began
assembling items that were scattered in
and around the vicinity of Beirut and
objectsfrom excavationscarried out by Dr
Contenau at Saida and the Renan mission
at Saida and Tyre.That initial collection
increased rapidly,thanks not only to the
successive directorsbut also to donations,
among which were General Weygand‘s
collection in 1925 and that of Dr Ford in
1930.
The present building was constructed in
1930, at the intersection of the Avenue
Fouad ler and the Rue de Damas,and was
situated on the demarcation line. This
stately building comprises a basement,a
ground floor, a mezzanine floor and a
terrace;the centralpart,above the mezza-
nine, is covered by a glass roof giving
natural overhead light.The area of the site
onwhich thebuilding is locatedisapproxi-
mately 5,500m2, and the exhibition floor
space amounts to 6,000m2. The immedi-
ately adjoining museum annexes and ad-
ministrativeofficesoccupyabout 1,000m2.
The basement of the museum was given
over to stelae, sarcophagi and frescoes
from various necropolises dating back to
the Achaemenid,Greek,Roman and Byz-
antine eras and incIuded the anthropoid
sarcophagi of Eshmun-Nazar II, King of
Sidonfrom theend ofthe sixth centuryB.c.,
ISSN 1350-0775./CIiseum Internntionnl iUNESCO.Paris),No. 188 (Vol.47,No. 4, 1995)
the façade of a Byzantine tomb decorated
with a fresco from the sixth century of our
era,lead sarcophagi of the Roman period
from Tyre,Sidon and Beirut,and a great
many other things.The two rooms were
adorned with early fourteenth-century
marble mosaic fountains and eighteenth-
century painted panelling. Ceramics,
chased-bronzevases, nineteenth-century
Druze mantles and lengths ofsilk inteko-
ven with gold thread were displayed in
showcases.
The Hall ofAhiram (named after a king of
Byblos who lived in the twelfth century
B.c.) was flanked by three galleries: the
Alphabet Gallery, the Colossus Gallery
and the Ramses Gallery.In the centre of
the hall was King Ahiram’ssarcophagus,
one side of which bears the Phoenician
inscription that is the prototype of all
present-day alphabets. In the Alphabet
Gallery Hittite inscriptionswere displayed
alongside Phoenician and cuneiform in-
scriptions from Mesopotamia.In the Co-
lossus Gallery an Egyptian sculpture dis-
covered by Mr Dunand at Byblos was
exhibited.
The Director-GeneralofLebaneseAntiqui-
ties,Emir MauriceChébab,had to closethe
museum on 15 April 1975.Being a particu-
larly vulnerable target throughout the en-
tire period of the hostilities,from 1975 to
1990,this majestic building of ochre stone
(now riddled with bullet-holesof all cali-
bres) had also become the symbol of
communicationbetween the eastand west
zonesofBeirut.Three shellsdestroyed the
roof in 1982; the mosaic ‘flooring was
covered over with concrete;in the Hall of
Ahiram,a wall map of the Mediterranean
world is breaking away in slabs.
Untransportable objects such as statues,
bas-reliefsand Phoenician sarcophagi are
still protected in concrete casings filled
with sand.Small objects,some of which
Q UNESCO 1995
 The Beirut Museum opens its doors

are very precious,were removed to a safe to support the General Directorate of An- Mai% entrance of the Beirut National
place when the fighting first broke out. tiquitieswith a view to the restorationand Muse~m.
Despite that,there have been many thefts the refitting of the interior of the Beirut
from the museum’s cellars and storage Museum from the selection of the best
areas.On the firstfloor,the light-coloured architectural project to the allocation of
wooden display shelveslooked as though funding for the different phases of the
they had been ravagedby a cyclone:there project.
were no longer any showcases,shelves
had been torn away and pieces of furni- Since 1991 a network for donations and
ture had collapsed.Archaeological mate- contributionsin kind liasbeen developed
rial, reserves and the book and archive in support of the museum within the
collections were all covered with a thick frameworkofthe UNESCCVUNDP (United
layer of dust. Nations DevelopmentProgramme) global
project for the restoration of the cultural
At the symbolicreopeningofthe museum, and urban heritage of Lebanon. As far
on 22 November 1993, the Minister for back as June 1992 UNESCO allocated an
Culture and Higher Education said,‘The emergencyfundforthepurchase ofequip- \
reconstructionof the museum is an act of ment and office material for the General
faith in the Future.Here w e find our past, Directorate of Lebanese Antiquities and a
and also our history over the ages,our computer system for updating the inven-
wealth,our heritage and the treasures of tory of the museum’scollections.The city
the civilizations that have succeeded one of Marseilles gave UNESCO, for the mu-
another in this land’. seum,its museum-managementsoftware
INDIGOand in November 1993 offered to
Immediately afterthe fighting ceased the train the staff iîl situ.Électricité de France,
Lebanesetookverypromptactionby form- through its Mécenat Scientifique et
ing the Association des Amis du Musée Technologiqzu (scientific and technologi-
National (Association of Friends of the cal patronage), plans to equip the labora-
National Museum), whose principal aim is tory.
O UNESCO I995 49

Afiih-centuy mosaic, called The Good
Shepherd,from Jnah in southern Beirut.
The Phoenician Galleries CESthey appear
today.
50
basement of the museum.The refitting of
the interiorshouldbe designedin linewith
currentmuseological criteria,whether it be
from the standpointofscientific contentor
the technical means to be used to display
and conservethe objects.The educational
role of modern museums must also be
taken into account in a country where
young people are still seeking their na-
tional identity.
The General Directorate of Antiquities
The association,which receivedUNESCO’s must battle on all fronts to restore the
patronage for its activities in support of the buildings,work out the scientific content,
museum’s reconstruction, is represented refit the conservation laboratories,refur-
abroad by national committees that w il
l bish the library and start up the adminis-
work towards the attainmentof the recon- trative services again, since there is a
struction aims.A committee in London is considerabledearth ofeverything-equip-
already very active and w ill carry out the ment,qualified staffand funds.The mobi-
reconstructionofthe conservationlaborato- lization of support from the Lebanese
ries while another committee has justbeen diaspora around the world could come to
formed in Brussels to help recover objects the help of the Director-GeneralofAntiq-
stolen from the museum during the war. uities, Mr Camille Asmar, helped by
people of goodwilland a museologist,Ms
it is true thatthe building canbe saved,but Suzy Hakimian,who is strugglingto attain
it needs major structural work.A danger- the principal goal,that is,the reopening
ous rise in the water table also means that to the public of certain galleries of the
urgent drainage work is needed for the National Museum of Beirut.
0 UNESCO 1995
Scientific illiteracy: a challenge to
natural historv museums
Andreas L. Steigen
The growing scient@ illiteracy makes
people strangers to their own world.’With
these words Andreas L. Steigen laumhes
a carefüliy wroughtpleafor museums to
assume a more dynanaic andpublic-
spirited role in traristnitting scientific
kiaowledge.i%e author is associate
professor at the Centrefor Studies of
Environment aizd Resources at the
University of Bergen in N o w a y and is
president of the ICOM hzternational
Conamittee of M u s e u m and Collections
of Natural Histoy.
ISSN 1350-0775,Museum International (UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (Vol. 47,No. 4,1995)
O UNESCO 1995
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)
d
I write books on the natural science of
everydaylife,from the Big Bang through
biological evolution to quantum phys-
ics.This occupationhas brought me into
many a bookshop looking for books on
science.Living in an industrialized soci-
ety stronglyshaped by naturalscience in
almost every aspect ofeveryday life,it is
an unpleasant surprise to find that even
the most prestigious bookshops offer
only a comparatively small selection of
books on natural science. But they do
offera very rich,sometimesoverwhelm-
ingly so, selection of pseudo-science
subjects like astrology, homoeopathy,
healing,etc. The growing trades com-
peting with science-basedmedicine are
especiallywell represented.The charla-
tans have a thriving business in modern,
enlightened societies where physicians
have made the mistake ofleading us into
the biologically unsound beliefthatdeath
is a disease and not a perpetual and
necessary ecological process..
Ideas are moulded by culture into analo-
gies and metaphors. Science is a venture
deeply rooted in culture and acts on cul-
ture itself, creating new contemporary
metaphors.Analogiesand models ofscien-
tific knowledge are diffused throughout
society,and although the insighton which
the metaphor is based may change,the
metaphor itself persists.
Todaythepublic seemstohave alove/hate
relationship with science and technology.
In some quarters science is met with blind
faith,in others with disapprovaland deep
distrust.Our everyday life is infused with
technology and the products of scientific
research,and our homes are better charac-
terized in terms of technology than of
culture and art. It is a paradox that the
greater the influence of technology and
science on our rapidly changing everyday
life, the more remote and alien this cat-
egory of knowledge is to the general
public. The growing scientific illiteracy
makes people strangerstotheirownworld.
Natural sciences are not superior to the
social sciences and should not control
politics and social life.O n the other hand,
the overwhelming importance of the pro-
duction of scientific facts and transfer of
informationin a democratic society is un-
derestimated.Some of today’shottest po-
litical topics.aredeeply influenced by sci-
ence,forinstance,energy production,acid
rain, biodiversity, gene technology and
therapy,AIDS and legislation.Consequently
both politicians and the electorate should
have a working knowledgeofscience,not
to become experts,but to be adequately
informed,to be able to discriminate be-
tween factand fiction and between a well-
founded argument and mumbo-jumbo.In
a democratic society citizens should be
able to analyse and see through expert
reports and political arguments veiled be-
hind a varnish of science.
Democratic societies and systems are
founded on the creed that relevant argu-
ments are more important when making
decisions than a loud voice,and that en-
lightened discourse is a useful instrument
in resolving disagreements. Knowledge
combined with ethics is educational and
may prevent prejudice. The important
political decisionsshaping our future con-
tain strong elements of natural science.
Knowledge isolatedfrom its socialcontext
may be of little value,but actions taken
without insight may be just as bad.
Naturalscienceconcernsthephysicalworld
that can be measured,described and ana-
lysed,and thescientificmethod isbased on
a sense ofwonder and the testing ofideas
through experimentation.All too oftenit is
portrayed as abstract,theoretical and un-
real,and thus excluded from society and #
51
Andreas L. Steigerz
everyday life.The image ofthe lone scien-
tist working at the edge of society cannot
be allowed to continue.Science and soci-
ety are completely integrated.
Anti-science,quasi-science,metaphys-
ics and irrationality flourish.When the
‘why’questions on life,reason and pur-
pose become too complicated,people
often take refuge in a quest for a single
answer to all questions through reli-
gious fundamentalism or mysticism.The
‘marketof alternatives’is doing a roar-
ing trade at present. The business of
personal happiness and success,new
world-viewsand instant solutions,surfs
on an occult wave of helpless igno-
rance.Often the most outspoken propo-
nents are journalists excited by what
they believe is exotic, revealing their
lack ofknowledge and intellectualskills.
The pressure to publish unverified re-
sults quickly has led to a loss of public
confidence in science.A relatively re-
cent example of this is cold fusion.
Science is supposed to be open and
inquiring and new insights are regularly
substituted for old truths;the intellec-
tual openness of science is its most
important quality. Anti-sciences are
therefore brought to market with a sci-
entificveneer,and their merchants often
use the vernacular of natural science.It
is,however,a characteristic of most of
the so-calledalternatives to science that
their claims are either not tested or
cannot be tested at all within the con-
straints of scientific methods.
Scientificdebatesare takenas proofforthe
unscientific natureofscience.Scienceitself
standsaccusedofbeing a conservativeand
isolated brotherhood when it does not
acceptthe unfounded claimsofthe charla-
tans.One oftengets the impressionthatthe
quack‘sclaim that science and scientific
52
method is the ultimate conspiracy is easier
to grasp for the layperson than is the
scientific iiiethod itself. The scientific
method isthe best,in fact the only,control
mechanism against fraud and exploitation
of humans in distress.
The testable quality ofthe natural sciences
is theirgreatestasset.Explanations ofnatu-
ral phenomena are based on facts and
repeatable experiments which can be
checked by otherscientists.All factsare,in
principle, open to tests and reinterpreta-
tion,and science itselfis an ongoing ven-
ture.The controlofscience is an important
and,in many respects,ethical issue,since
scientific achievements may have norma-
tive implications,especially in biology and
frontier medicine.
A false neutrality
But all is not well in scientific quarters.In
spiteofa growingsocialawarenessamong
scientists,the notion that natural science
is neutral in method and consequencesis
still widespread.As scientists w e would
like to be beyond the conflicts of society,
conflicts which often emerge from the
results of natural science. In the world
outside our laboratoriesand lecture halls,
science and technology are tools for op-
pression and liberation: they can create
and reduce environmental problems.Sci-
ence helps to increase food production,
develop new medicines and weapons.
Thus the notion of science as a neutral
venture is false.
Natural science can be justified by its
usefulness and relevance both to techno-
logically advanced and to developingsoci-
eties.The importance of science can also
be appreciated from the fact that its con-
cepts and ideas are deeply integrated in
our culture and general perception of
Fi UNESCO 1995
 Scientific illiteracy:a challenge to natural history museums

ourselves,much more intertwined than is lution in the living world. Not only do
usually acknowledged.The craving to ex- objectsrepresentthe physical and biologi-
,plainand understand the world and our calworld,theyare also products ofphysics
continuing wonder over time,space and and chemistry in action.
existence,are fundamental human activi-
ties deeply rooted in our intellect.Ques- Museum collections and exhibitions con-
tions raised by philosophers throughout tain objects and organisms from the wild,
recorded history are still being asked by some of them threatened by human activ-
inquisitive children. ity.The growing biocentrism is,to a great
extent, based on sentiment rather than
The general influence of science on all scientificfact.Various types ofmovement,
aspectsoflifehas neverbeen strongerthan ideologies and quasi-religious organiza-
today. Economy, culture and social life tions use the concern for the environment
have to an increasing extent been shaped or the individual’sgenuine concernfor his
and changed by the multifarious and use- or her own body and love for relatives,to
ful scientific discoveries of the last 300 convey theirmessage and to collectmoney
years.Why is it then that in our scientifi- forrunningtheir organization.Fundamen-
cally based societythe general knowledge talism based on religious fanaticism or
ofscience is so low and even diminishing? extremebiocentrismconsequentlyreduces
This paradox opens the door to non- the intrinsic value of human beings and
scientificventuresbased on obscureideol- must therefore be opposed.One example
ogy,business talent and greed.As socially is whaling.There is room for controlled
aware and responsibleinstitutionsthisfact hunting of mink whales.The idea that this
cannot be swept under the carpet when is cruel or inhumane is disputable.The
w e consider the role of natural history notion of ‘humanekilling’ of whales in
museums in society. itselfis unsound,sinceit is ethically.wrong
to use human beings as the standardin this
context.
Museums for objects ...
and processes Where then,do natural history museums
fit into this rather convoluted picture?I
Natural history museums present objects firmlybelieve,and I think there is ample
from the natural world. To understand evidence for it, that a museum of objects
fullythe informationcontentand the fasci- from nature has a special attraction to
nating history of those objects they should people.Those objects are historic.They
be put into a comprehensivescientific and contain a story told in the language of
socialcontextwheneverpossible.Thepres- physics, chemistry and organic evolu-
entationmay be humanity in natureand/or tion,and represent variations and possi-
naturein humanity.In almost allmuseums bilities realized in nature outside the
today human beings are put into their museum.The educational power ofsuch
proper place as animals,products of evo- objects is great and is not always devel-
lution as are all other organismson planet oped to its full potential.
Earth.Itis importantto expand theconcep-
tual setting.Objects of natural history are Environmental exhibits should be pre-
notonly objectspei-se, they arealso shaped sented with reference to objects and
by physical and chemicalprinciples defin- processes still going on in nature.They
ing and delimiting the possibilities of evo- represent the living past and present,
O UNESCO i995 53
Andreas L. Steigen
and reflect the future created by human
beings today. Objects should, when
possible, be presented in a scientific
context including both proximate (func-
tional) and ultimate (evolutionary) prin-
ciples. Just as evolution and derived
adaptations are important, so are the
constraints and limits set on evolution
by physical, chemical and biological
limits.
Functionsoforganisms can be described
in terms of physiology, and general
principles of variation,time and scaling
are inherent qualities of every object.
Some objects have scientific value,
others not, but in a carefully selected
and presented exhibitionall objectshave
an exhibit value. The challenge of the
naturalhistory museum is to expand this
value to includemore generalprinciples
of natural science.The interest in ani-
mals and plants often reflects human
needs for products of biological evolu-
54
tion.There is a deep and well-founded
concern for nature and species in natu-
ral ecosystems threatened by human
activity or commercial interests. This
engagement can be strengthened and
made more realistic through a scientifi-
cally coherent and comparative exhibit
approach.
Principles of natural history and scientific
method should be conveyed in an intelli-
gible way to visitors to reduce scientific
illiteracy,not only through exhibitions,but
in lectures,books,educational and multi-
media programmes,etc.Programmespro-
moting understanding of the social neces-
sity and implications of natural sciences
and technologyshould also be includedin
this effort to reduce scientific illiteracy.To
achieve this,co-operationbetween muse-
ums and the public can be prolific and
stimulate debate and insight concerning
the importantrolethenaturalsciencesplay
in contemporary societies.
Cl UNESCO 1995

Books
Gender Perspective% Essays on
W o m e n in Museums, edited by Jane R.
Glaser and Artemis A.Zenetou.
(Washington and London,Smithsonian
Institution Press,1994,xxv + 161 pp.)
Looking for a feminist bomb to attack or
embolden (depending on your stance)
your views on women in museums?If
so,don’tbuy this book.Summarizing
the main contributionsto a seminar held
by the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington,D.C., in March 1990,’it is
neither bomb nor balm.Rather,it
reflects what its Preface calls ‘across-
section of female and male perspectives
on feminist issues in museums of
yesterday,today and tomorrow’ranging
through ‘theconservative,the moderate
and the militant’.As such,it could not
be free of certain of the ambiguities,
even contradictions,that characterize its
areas of focus.
A minor but telling example:Marc
Pachter (of thirty-fivecontributors nine
are male) wonders ‘how,in successful
exhibitions,the feminist perspective [sic]
has best been employed’.The very
multiplicity of viewpoints expressed in
Gender Perspectives: Essays on W o m e n in
Museziiizs is ample and refreshing proof
that there is no single feminist position
on the issues at hand.
These are covered in eight clusters of
generally readable pieces that move
from the historical impact of women on
museum work,through the contributions
of feminist scholarship to certain
academic disciplines and museologicall
graphical endeavours,then to case-
studies and to the gender-related
educational roles ofmuseums,and
finally to future-orientedconcerns,
before ending with a ‘Conclusion:
Towards a Collective Perspective’.
An examination of the appended and
extensive bibliography reveals how
much the efforts that produced Gender
ISSN 1350-0775,Mz~sezimI?ilenzutionul(UNESCO,Paris), No. 188 (vol.47,No.4,1995)
O UNESCO 1995
Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street, Cambridge,M A 02142 (USA)
Books
Perspectiveswere focused on the United
States.Aside from a few British and
Canadian entries,the only non-American
references are the articles included in
Museum k issue entitled ‘Focuson
Women’(No.171,1991).
It is,however,not a criticism to situate
the book,and to inform readers that it is
an almost exclusively American mosaic
of women-in-museumsissues in 1990,so
rich,contrasted and engaging and -
perhaps applicable to or premonitory for
-
other contexts is that mosaic.
The major discussion in this work
centres around the scope and nature of
wonzeiz %presence in and impact on
American niusemus. As for scope,and
although timely and pervasively
representative statistics seem to be
lacking,there appears to be a gender
link with types of museums where
women can exercise professional
influence.Thus,Ann W.Lewin affirms
that ‘Women’s roles in the funding and
the development of children’smuseums
have been enormous.An estimated 85 to
95 per cent of the founders,the directors
and the activists in children’smuseums
are women.’
In sharp contrast,Bonnie Van Dorn
laments that,in 1971,there was only one
woman among the sixteen founders of
the Association of Science and
Technology Centers,and that it took
eighteen years for that Association -
-
now 326 institutions strong to elect a
woman president of the Board.
And what kind of impact do women
directors,curators,managers,and in
other professional roles,have on
museums?Many have striven to enter the
male-biasedmainstream,and to excel
there according to that mainstream’s
own norms.As JeanWeber says:
‘Womenin high positions seem to be
goal-orientedand committed
(occasionally driven) to produce
55
Books
landmark exhibitions,splendid
publications,innovative programmes -
in short,work miracles over and over
again.’In such a dog-eat-dogworld,
there is a price:‘Theburnout ratio is
high,and personal lives often suffer.’
Some women professionals have
decided to reject the male-defined
ground rules and attempt to create a
specifically feminine or feminist
professionalism.Marcia Tucker recalls
that,‘findingvirtually no place for m y
being and my ideas within the existing
museological framework,I chose to
establish a museum.This made me both
privileged and marginalized.’
Opting out of what might be called the
unreformed branch of the mainstream
can (must?) have conflictual overtones.
Barbara Clark Smith decided to address a
public of women: ‘inrefusing to engage
a male audience,I hope it is clear that it
is far from my purpose to offend men:
however,it is not my priority to avoid
doing so.’
For women opting to continue what
could be called ‘thelong wade through
the mainstream’,in order to change it,
the experience can be both painful and
rewarding.It is again Jean Weber who
points out that,in ‘itsolder and
pejorative sense,feminization[of
museum professions] means lower
wages and esteem’.
On the other hand,according to JO Allyn
Archambault,by placing the ‘boysand
their toys’approach out of bounds,
feminizationhas been ‘bringingcivility
to science museums’.Ms Archambault
continues:‘Womenare taught to be
socializersand nurturers.They can
continue to use their socializing and
nurturing skills when they enter
leadership positions.’She concludes:‘We
should all congratulatewomen for their
willingness and ability to bring true
civilization to museums and to their
staffs,subject-matterand audiences.’
On this reviewer’sdashboard,such
affirmations can cause a red ‘stereotype-
around-next-bend’ warning light to blink
on.Happily,JO Allyn Archambault does
not state that all women are nurturers,
socializersand civilizers.Such a claim
could not but elicit a look (or guffaw) of
disbelief from subordinates,women as
much as men,in museum and other
professions,who have had the
misfortune to serve stifling,dictatorial
and decidedly uncivilized leaderships,
female as well as male.
Stereotyping is not the aim or function
of Gender Perspectives: Essays on. W o m e n
in Museiims. Quite the contrary,reading
it should help motivate all ‘museum
people’to strive,in their professional
and personal contexts,for a positive
answer to Susan Stitt’sconcluding
question:‘ Willthe [next]stage of the
women’smovement be the practising of
humanism?’
Book revieiued by Arthur Gillette, ruho
iiiill be remeinbered by readers as the
former Editor-in-chief of Museum.He is
currently Director of UNESCO’S Division
of Youth and Sports Activities.
Note
1. Reported on by Jane R. Glaser, ‘TheImpact
-
of W o m e n on Museums an American
Seminar’,Musezim,No. 171,1991.
O UNESCO 1995

Illicit traffic
Stolen art and cuiturai property:
INTERPOL’Sspecial programme
Police forcesall over the world are
subjected to constant pressure from
public opinion and governments to
combat the ever-increasingvolume of
crime.Obviously,acts of terrorism and
drug-traffickingare priority areas,
followed by offences against persons
and more particularly those committed
against children.Crimes against
property,which probably affect the
general public most,are sometimes
considered to be of secondary
importance.Ilowever,illicit traffic in
stolen works of art and cultural property
is of considerable importance since it
can threaten the entire cultural heritage
of a community.
INTERPOL has a special programme for
combating this form of crime at the
internationallevel,working through
each member country’sNational Central
Bureau (NCB), usually located in the
capital city,which centralizes all
information of international interest.
The best way to explain INTERPOL‘S
general role in this area is to imagine a
case of theft.Let us suppose that thieves
break into a museum in Geneva and the
alarm goes off.The police are called in
and preliminary inquiries begin which
lead them to believe that the theft may
have internationalimplications.From a
city like Geneva,it only takes a few
hours to reach many countries.A
witness may have noted the registration
number of a foreign vehicle,the stolen
works of art may be of interest to the
internationalmarket,or there may be
other elements of this kind.Let us say
that three extremely valuable paintings
have been stolen and that the thieves
have disappeared.
The investigators now have two tasks:to
identify the thieves and to circulate
informationabout the stolen property.In
O UNESCO 1995
Illicit traffic
many cases,both tasks are linked,since
discovery of the stolen property,even if
it has often passed through several
hands,can lead to the arrest of the
thieves.As the police believe that the
paintings have left Switzerland,they
therefore send out through the NCB an
internationalbroadcast giving a detailed
description of the works.To facilitate
this,INTERPOL has produced a printed
form in the Organization’sfour
languageswhich can help police officers
with only limited knowledge of works of
art to describe the stolen property.
Before the form is filled in,a telegram
describing the stolen property is sent to
police and Customs,since the latter may
well be lucky enough to discover the
stolen property during a border control.
This is particularly important in Europe
with the opening of borders within the
European Union.
One art form and one photograph for
each stolen item are sent to the
INTERPOLGeneral Secretariat in Lyons
(France), which drafts a summary of the
theft for data entry and opens a file.An
internationalstolen property notice is then
prepared for distribution to all member
countries and is scanned and stored in the
computerized database.Each notice states
that member countries must inform art
galleries,museums,salesrooms,
pawnbrokers,antique dealers and
Customs services.ICOM and UNESCO are
also informed,while the NCBs in
Washington and London pass on the
informationto other bodies such as IFAR,
Art Loss Register and TRACE.Obviously,
the wider the circulation given to the
notice,the more effective the search.In
addition to these notices,a poster is
published twice yearly showing the six
most wanted works of art.Notices for
works of art which have been discovered
by the police are occasionally published
so as to trace their owners.Once a stolen
work ofart has been recovered,the
General Secretariat sends out a
cancellationnotice.
57
Illicit traffic
In the vast majority of cases,requests for
publication of stolen-propertynotices
come from European countries,Canada
and the United States.This is hardly
surprising in view of the large number of
‘movable’ works of art kept in homes and
museums in those countries.In 1991,
thirtyseven notices were published in
connection w ith thefts from museums
(17.5 per cent), forty-sevenin 1992 (18.8
per cent), and twenty-sevenduring the
first seven months of 1993 (22.3per cent).
As can be seen,the number is constantly
rising.Most of the thefts are committed
during museum opening hours,but on
some occasionsbuildings are broken into
and on others museum employees have
been accomplices,or items have been
taken from reserves.In the latter case,the
museum staff only realize that a theft has
been committedwhen they take an
inventory.One particular modus operandi
is to replace the original work with a
COPY.
Unfortunately,these comments are
based only on the informationsent to
the General Secretariat.Contrary to
common belief,INTERPOL does not
keep information on all offences
committed anywhere in the world,but
records only those crimes considered to
have international ramifications.
Member countries occasionally report
the theft of an archaeologicalitem.In
many instances,the item displayed in a
museum has either been stolen or has
come from a clandestine dig.In the latter
case,the problem is a delicate one since
the police can only intervene if an
offence has been committed.A case of
this kind occurred a few years ago.
INTERPOL received information from a
confidential source that an extremely
valuable statue of Aphrodite was about
to be displayed in a museum in the
United States.The informationindicated
that the statue had been stolen at
Morgantina in Sicily.The NCBs in Rome
and Washington were contacted.The
problem was that the Italian authorities
were unable to confirm that the statue
had been stolen and illegally exported
58
from Italy.The case does not appear to
have been settled;however it may be
said that INTERPOL did what it had to
do and it was then up to legal and other
experts to solve the problem.
Traffickers and some dealers take
advantage of the fact that very often the
objects in question cannot be identified,
particularly if they come from
archaeological digs,even though
national legislationsforbid the export of
such items.This is not a recent
phenomenon.In the past,
representativesof colonial authorities
certainly played an active role in
removing cultural property from their
colonies and one country has
announced that it intends to search the
luggage of departing diplomats.The Far
East is particularly affected by thefts
from archaeological digs,and countries
such as India,Thailand and Cambodia
frequently request the publication of
stolen property notices.
Offences against cultural property tend to
be committed by specialists.If they are
identified by the investigators,INTERPOL
can circulate their descriptions.Notices
can be published which include a
photograph of the offender,his or her
identity,fingerprints,any aliases used,and
all available informationof use to the
police.A blue notice is used to trace the
whereabouts of someone involved in a
criminal case,and a green notice draws
countries’attentionto someone known to
have committeda number ofcrimes.Details
of out-of-the-ordinary iizod~lsoperandi
can be circulated and may help to link
several different cases of theft.
Editor’sNote: The above article is taken
from the address by Jean-PierreJouanny,
INTERPOL Officer,to the Workshop on
Illicit Traffic of Cultural Property,held in
Anisha,United Republic of Tanzania,in
September 1993,and organized by ICOM
in co-operationwith UNESCO,the
Southern Africa Development
Community Association of Museums and
Monuments,and the Tanzanian Ministry
of Education and Culture.
O UNESCO 1995

Professional news
Internationalsalon rewards
museographic innovation
The third InternationalSalon of
Museographic Technologies (SITEM,Lille,
France,25-27 January1995) rewarded
eight exhibitors with the coveted 'labelof
museographic innovation'.The labels
were selected from more than fm
candidatesby an internationaljury of
museum professionals.The laureatswere:
Apimex,distributor of Hahn showcases,
for their climatically controlled showcase
for paintings;Cristal Noir,for a special
process of backlighting by optical fibres;
Entropies,for their particularly well-
designed stand-aloneexhibition supports;
Laserblast Quantel, for a new method of
surface cleaning by laser,which can be
readily manipulated by museum staff;
MBA Design &Display,for their
lightweight,long-lastingexhibition panels,
which are easily stored and protected;
Médialog,for their innovative approach to
interactive media;Marc Boulay,for his
artistic and scientificallysound
reconstructions of living and prehistoric
animals;Dominique Fleurent,for a special
technique to preserve butterfly larvae in
museum collections.
For further information:
SITEM,Provinciales,
33,rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
75011 Paris (France).
Tel:(33.1) 40.15.98.65
Fax:(33.1) 43.41.67.19
Tate Gallery introduces personal
audio guide
With the launching of TateInfonn in
January 1995,the Tate Gallery in London
became the first British gallery to
provide personalized audio tours using
microprocessor-baseddigital technology.
The system,installed with great success
at the Louvre in 1993,allows visitors to
access audio information when they
wish and not as part of a fixed tour.
B UNESCO 1995
Professional news
Commentaries may be rewound,fast-
forwarded or cleared as the visitor
desires;additional information on any
particular painting or sculpture may be
obtained by keying the item number into
the Inform hand unit.The text may be
reprogrammed by the host institution in
minutes in order to change content,
switch from one language to another or
provide alternativeversions of the audio
tour tailored to specific audiences.The
Inform system has been developed by
Acoustiguide,a leading recorded-tour
company.
For further information:
Acoustiguide,
188 Sutton Court Road,
London W 4 3HR (United Kingdom).
Tel:(44.181)747-3744)
Fax:(44.181)995-6195
RAMA network links European
museum databases
RAMA - Remote Access to Museum
Archives - is a multimedia system for
consultation of museum databases via
telecommunicationsnetworks.Launched
in 1992 with financial assistance from the
European Community (now European
Union), RAMA currently links the image
databases of twelve museums including
the Musée d'Orsay in Paris,the Uffizi
Museum in Florence,the Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford and the Goulandris
Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.By
the end of 1995,it is expected that some
twenty museums w il
l participate in the
network,including a number in the
United States.RAMA does not alter the
structure of existing databases but allows
for the transmissionof high-definition
images from heterogeneous systems.
Researchers possessing a personal
computer and simple software can have
immediate access to information and
images according to a variety of
selection criteria,and can communicate
among themselves via RAMA'S electronic
* 59
Professional news
mail service.Although primarily
designed for professionals in the fields
of art and culture,RAMA is considering
future applications aimed at a broader
public.A newsletter for RAMA members
is published in six languages,(Dutch,
English,French,German,Greek and
Spanish).
For further information:
Telésystèmes,
55,avenue des Champs Pierreux,
92029 Nanterre Cedex (France).
Tel:(33.1)46.14.51.86
Fax:(33.1)46.14.56.81
Sixteenth IIC internationalCongress
The sixteenth InternationalCongress of
the InternationalInstitute for Conservation
of Historic and Artistic Works wil
l take
place at the Falconer Center in
Copenhagen,25-30 August 1996,in
associationwith the Danish National
Museum.Under the title Archaeological
Consemation and its Consequences,the
Congress w i
ll offer new perspectives on
the conservationof archaeological sites
and finds,both on land and under water.
Particular attention wil
l be given to ways
in which attitudes towards archaeological
conservationhave been reassessed in
recent years as the consequences of
previous approacheshave become
evident.The congress aims to bring
together conservators and archaeologists,
conservationscientistsand historians,
curators,collections managers,educators
and students.Materials under discussion
wi
ll range from ceramics to shipwrecks,
from metals to mosaics,and from
waterlogged wood to wallpaintings.The
official language of the congressw il
l be
English.
For further information:
The International Institute for
Conservation of Historic and Artistic
Works,
6 Buckingham Street,
London WC2N 6BA (United Kingdom).
Tel:(44.171)839-5975
Fax:(44.171)976-1564
60
ICCROM course on JapanesePaper
Conservation
The fourth internationalcourse on
JapanesePaper Conservation w i
ll take
place in Tokyo and Kyoto,23 November
to 16 December 1995,organized by the
InternationalCentre for the Study of the
Preservationand the Restoration of
Cultural Property (ICCROM), in co-
operation with the Tokyo National
Research Institute of Cultural Properties,
the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs
and the Kyoto National Museum.The
course aims to introduce participants to
a variety of paper-conservation
techniques based on Japanesescroll
mounting,and w i
ll focus on practical
sessions complemented by theoretical
lectures and demonstrations.The
lecturers wi
ll be Japanese paper-
conservation specialists and the working
language w il
l be English.
For further information:
ICCROM,
13 Via di San Michele,
00153 Roma RM (Italy).
Tel:(39.6)587-901
Fax:(39.6)588-4265
New publications
Incendie et Panique [Fireand Panic]. By
Col.Alain Raisson.Published by the
Département des Affaires Financières,
Juridiqueset Générales,Direction des
Musées de France,6,rue des Pyramides,
75041 Paris Cedex O1 (France), 1994,
106 pp.
A practical guide to fire-prevention
regulations applicable to museums,and
the security measures that should be
taken to prevent disasters or,in the
worst case,to manage panic situations
and protect collections.The author,who
is technical adviser for security at the
Direction des Musées de France,
provides informationon equipment,staff
training and action plans to follow in the
event of major hazards such as floods,
bomb alerts,criminal attacks,etc.
O UNESCO 1395

i%e Educational Role of the Museiim.
Edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill.
Published by Routledge,London and New
York,1994,340 pp.(ISBN 0-415-11287-7.)
CollectioilsMamgenimt. Edited by Anne
Fahy.Publishedby Routledge,London and
New York,1994,304 pp.(ISBN:hardback
0-415-11282-6, paperback 0-415-11283-4.)
These two recent additions to the
‘LeicesterReaders in Museum Studies’
series are fresh efforts at information
gathering whose aim is to bring together
for the first time an important body of
published work,much of it taken from
recent journals which few libraries carry.
The first tide is a compilation of texts that
address the relationshipsof museums and
galleries to their audiences;it covers both
the broad issues relevant to all museum
visitors as well as questions dealing with
specific educational groups.The second
title focuses on the physical care and
documentation of collections and the
development of standards for collection
management,and examines the status of
research in museums,sources of advice
about security and the basics of insurance
and indemnity.
Letters
I a m writing in reply to Professor
Aurora Leon’sopen letter on
museology in Spain which appeared
in the No. 4,1994,issue of Museunz
International;I am a mere museum
employee and an enthusiastic
participant in debates concerning this
professionwith which I have been
connected for seventeen years
(fourteen as a volunteer). For the
-
record,I possess at least formally - confined to the case of official museums
Ms Leon’stwo essential attributes:
namely,I am a university graduate
and,after working for twelve years,
followed a two-yearspecialized
course in museology.
O UNESCO 1995
Letters
New museums
Dabesh Museynî, 601F ~ X Avenue,
J New
York,N.Y.(United States) New York‘s
first museum devoted to nineteenth-and
twentieth-centuryacademic art opened
in January 1995.It presents selections
from the many works of art collected by
Dr Dahesh (1909-19841,a Lebanese
writer and social visionary with a
passion for collecting European
art.
Le Misée des Ails Forains L%e Museilni
of Fun FairArlsJ,50,rue de l$glise,
75015 Paris (France)
With more than 1,500objects
including merry-go-rounds, fair stalls
and organs,marionettes,games,
scenic panoramas and ornamental
sculptures,the museum houses one
of the largest collections in the
world devoted to the history of fun
fairs from 1850 to the present.Opened
in October 1994,it boasts an
important documentation section and
an exhibition service to foster
exchanges with French and overseas
museums.
I shall refer only to those points in Ms
Leon’sopen letter that I disagree with,
and which seem indeed to be in
contradiction with other points made in
the same letter.
The bleak picture that she paints made
m e wonder whether her remarks,made
on the occasion of a lecture sponsored
by the Ministry of Culture,are not over-
and officialdom.My experience and
contactswith colleagues in other Spanish
and Portuguese museums,together with
what I have heard from the mouths of
professionals in other countries,prompt
e 61
Letters
m e to say that the current state of the
profession does not fully correspond to
the situation that she decries.It is not
fair to put the problem down to
autocratic directorsin ivory towers and
lackadaisical staff.Although these types
of situations do arise,they are
fortunately becoming exceptions since
the changes ushered in by the
appearance in 1978 of the remarkable
book she now abominates.
I confess I am truly astounded by her
statement that ‘themuseologist’srole
[will]focus on theoretical study of the
various elements that go to make up the
museum -which even makes it
unnecessary for him or her to be
-
physically present in the institution and
on maintaining contact with the staff in
order to plan museum activitiesfrom the
infrastructure angle.’And I ask myself,
how can museum activities be planned
on the sole basis of theoretical or
scientific assumptionswithout it being
necessary for a museologist to be
physically present?
Is it conceivable to design programmes,
content and objectives without direct
involvement in the activities in question?
I a m afraid that without the necessary
corrective of hands-onexperience there
would unfailingly be a gulf between the
self-styledmuseologist and the museum
staff no matter how willing the latter
might be to follow the former’s
instructions.In brief,a latterday version
of the sadly thorny relationship between
architect and construction workers.I
cannot imagine a museologist who is not
fully in tune with the museum staff,nor
can I imagine an effective team without
-
at least one of its members not
necessarily the director - having
received specialized training in
museology.
I might add that a museum is not an
abstract,self-sufficiententity.It is a body
with a life of its own which finds
fulfilment through its relationship with a
public and a culture.Its functions,
though based on theoretical premises
that have universal validity,wil
l vary
according to whether it is an
archaeological,ethnographic or art
museum,whether it is European,
American or African,and whether it is
set in a rural or an urban environment.
The socio-culturalfunctions that it is
required to perform must be keyed to
the identity of the community it is meant
to serve and the projection of its past on
to the present as a springboardfor
thinking about the future.In this
connection,I note that there is no
explicit reference to the forging of links
between museums and society as part
and parcel of the museologist’swork.I
believe that the new museums are better
placed to reach the public than the big
state museums.Through the themes they
address and the use of more direct
language,it is probably easier for them
to bring the public to respond to their
content and hence to feel somehow
involved in the social dimension of the
museum’sactivity.In this sense,I
believe that a museum should be
thought of not so much as a public
service but as a community task to
which all those concerned,whether as
museum-plannersor as museum-goers,
have something to contribute.
It seems to m e that when Ms Leon
urges would-bemuseologists to
familiarize themselves with national
and international museological
practices,to join ICOM or to subscribe
to &lttseurn intemntionnl,she is
implicitly recommending eclecticism.
W e would be foolish if w e agreed to
pad out our curricula vitae with
certificates of attendance at courses
and seminars or with membership
cards of associations and professional
bodies.Professional competence does
not come from culling other people’s
experience but from the confrontation
of necessarily ever-expanding
theoretical knowledge with day-to-day
practice,and is often achieved
through voluntary work which,for
want of better academic training,
offers the only means of getting
ahead.
D UNESCO 1995

The great majority of museum workers - multidisciplinarity,which is the best
including many staff members with ten
or fifteen years’experience behind them
- are not lacking in enthusiasm,
imagination or boldness.These qualities
are usually reined in by the ever tighter
constraints of scant resources,lack of job
security and the political use made of
museums,which are created for the
purpose of elections,and then
abandoned to their fate afterwards,with
neither endowment nor guarantee of
survival.But from the daily and often
frustrating tug-of-warbetween proposals
and resources,ideas and means,we can
reach the heartening conclusion that,
while demand continues to outstrip
supply,supply just as surely shapes and
promotes demand.There are many
museum staff who,though lacking the
qualificationsprovided in theory by
specialized academic training,have
made a virtue out of necessity and have
come up with the right solutions to a fair
number of the shortcomingshighlighted
by Ms Leon.
Maria-XoséFemandez Cervifio
Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
Aurora Leon’sopen letter on museology
compels our attention.In it she calls into
question the museum paradigm and its
exclusive predication on collecting and
conservation and in so doing brings a
breath of fresh air to the multifarious
disciplines and habits of our museum
professions.By attacking the ‘tenacious
virus of officialdom’,and the many
examples of malfunctioning in our
museums,she addresses fundamental
concerns,whose validity,I feel,extends
well beyond Spain.Both her thoughts
and her anger would be a good starting-
point for the manifesto in which w e
should collectively outline a museology
that would shake the established
museum paradigm up a little bit.
It seems to m e that there are two
avenues that w e need to explore for the
future of museums.The first is that of
O UNESCO 1395
Letters
antidote to the ‘museologicalcatechism’
Ms Leon decries.W e quite agree that
museums need to be more open-minded
than they generally are today,and open
their doors to people from a broad range
of professions,for whom museums are,
to use a cherished ethnological
expression,above all a ‘special
environment’in which various skills are
brought into play.By the very nature of
their public-servicefunction,museums
require a strong commitment to quality
and observance of an ethical code.
Indeed,ethical values should be the
irreducible common denominator for all
participants active in and for museums.
In large measure,such a code has yet to
be elaborated,alongside the existing
code’of professional ethics.
In the various museum professions a
distinctioncan be drawn between those
who possess particular types of
knowledge and those who possess
particular types of skills.This admittedly
artificial division neverthelessenables us
to identify two categories of
professionals.
The first includes all the specialists in
various disciplines,such as historians,art
historians,anthropologists,and most
scientists at natural history and science
museums.W e should note that it is rare
to see these specialists,all expert in their
own fields,but all too often isolated
from one another,working together on a
single project.The combination of all
these types of expertise remains an
ambitious,but tremendously promising
objective,which could help to establish
a truly interactive dialogue with the
public.Experts with special skills include
architects,scenographers,acousticians,
lighting technicians and various other
specialistswho either are already or w il
l
soon be well integrated in the museum
environment.
W e might do well to enlist the assistance
of an even wider range of creative
professionals,such as theatrical
-
personnel stage-designers,stage-
i) 63
Letters
managers,producers,and even
musicians and dancers -who would
remind us that a museum is first of all a
temple of the muses.There have indeed
been some experimentsalong these
lines.However,w e still need to consider
the possibilities of such in-house
encountersseriously if w e are to go
beyond the mere social event.
The second avenue to be explored is
more concerned with the management
of museums.While not wishing to
break the ‘spell’of the museum,I feel
w e should be more strategy-oriented,
and endeavour to outline a strategic
design for each and every museum. In
today’sworld,with its complex and
demanding contours,w e have no right
to seek to escape our own
environment.Strategic museology,for
me, thus consists in involving
museums in a context of action within
a given system.Museums thus acquire
the dual role of figures of authority
and active participants.A
museological strategy provides a
museum with management guidelines
by mobilizing all of its material and
human resources to attain its
objectives.Where there is a broad,yet
specific objective,such as the
education of a country or a region,
museology is often unavowedly
strategic without admitting it, since in
such cases the global resources are in
fact made available in order to
achieve that goal.However,most of
the attitudes required need to be
acquired collectively,for all, rather
than just some of the energies to be
64
mobilized.This is a difficult task,to
be carried out with attention to detail
over a period of time.
So where do museologists fit in here?I
see museologists as these new type of
professionals straddling several
disciplines.While not omniscient,they
are aware of the complex nature of the
world and are capable of action-orientec
analysis.Their role in their museum maj
be that of the theoretician who can shec
light on complex cultural and symbolic
systems.Or they may function as
managers,suggesting activitiesinvolving
a large number of participants and
aimed at achieving specific results.Eithe
way,museologists embody a new
approach to museums.I cannot help
comparing this new professional
approach to that of designers in industq
who are at once the inventors and the
agents of change,acting on culture
before structure.They have a new way
of seeing the world,and indeed of
changing attitudes.
Like Aurora Leon,I too believe in
museology.
Bernard Bachmai
Delegate for Regional Actio]
Cité des Sciences et de 1’Industri
Paris (France
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