Museum History Journal

ISSN: 1936-9816 (Print) 1936-9824 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ymhj20

Museum Origins: Readings In Early Museum

Philosophy edited by Hugh H. Genoways and Mary
Anne Andrei

Carin Jacobs

To cite this article: Carin Jacobs (2010) Museum Origins: Readings In Early Museum Philosophy
edited by Hugh H. Genoways and Mary Anne Andrei, Museum History Journal, 3:1, 114-116

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/mhj.2010.3.1.114

Published online: 18 Jul 2013.

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 114    book reviews

Museum Origins: Readings In Early Museum Philosophy

edited by Hugh H. Genoways and Mary Anne Andrei
352 pp. Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press Inc., 2008.
$89.00 (cloth). ISBN-10: 1598741969; ISBN-13: 978-1598741964.
$34.95 (paper). ISBN-10: 1598741977; ISBN-13: 978-1598741971.

Reviewed by Carin Jacobs

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Director, Center for the Arts, Religion and Education, Graduate Theological
Union, Berkeley, CA 94709, email: cultural.arts@sbcglobal.net

Everything old is new again. To everything there is a season. These are the
words that ran through my head as I traversed Museum Origins. While the volume
looks back at the roots of our field, focusing largely on the late-nineteenth and early-
twentieth centuries, I felt that these fifty authors, as a consortium, prophesy many of
the issues that now govern our collective work in museums. While the language may
feel a bit stilted in places, showing the true vintage of the articles, their content trans-
lates so directly to current-day that my notes and highlighted portions read much
like a program for the American Association of Museum’s centennial conference.
The vignettes, most of them excerpted and therefore quite digestible, skew
heavily toward male voices, and toward institutions of natural science. Fine arts mu-
seums do make an appearance, roughly one third into the text, though history mu-
seums are all but invisible, with the exception of one tangential piece on historical
societies and their synergistic role with university towns. The early pieces, appearing
in strict chronological order and beginning with a slice from antiquity, immediately
foreshadow the museums we know, using words like architecture, public, learning,
and property to expound on purpose and character. There are pieces, such as H.A.
Hagen’s “The History of the Origin and Development of Museums,” which seem a
bit too expansive for this format, and not as clearly focused as the rest. But Edwin
Lawrence Godkin, writing in the mid-1800s, brings us back on point to consider
the etymology of the words museum and amusement, both incorporating the root
muse—a fact that might cause colleagues on one side of the modern edutainment
debate to shudder.
The second section, “Museum Philosophy,” abandons straight chronology but
provides voices of advocacy, offering emotive arguments for the value of museums.
Luigi Palma de Cesnola declares “…the true museum is a blessing like the air we
breathe…it is the people’s vested fund.” (55) Frederic Lucas adds “…an ever open
book whose pages appeal not only to the scholar but even to the man who cannot
read.” (58) We are then treated to glimpses of future Visual Thinking Strategies
 book reviews 115

as Mariana Alley Van Rensselaer explains that powers of observation may only be
cultivated through sustained and repeated use, a phrase that should make Philip
Yenawine and Abigail Hausen proud. The second woman to speak in the text, Van
Rensselaer also alludes to museum fatigue and to “the museum habit,” (87) a nod to
the current notion of museum literacy.
The third grouping of articles is titled “The New Museum” and offers some of
the first mentions of governance, and of a professional organization for the museum
field. This unit also presages a number of current challenges. George Brown Goode
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suggests that cooperation, not competition, between museums will foster sustain-
ability. The present economic climate might engender similar strategies between cul-
tural institutions on the contemporary landscape. Goode also warns that “A finished
museum is a dead museum, and a dead museum is a useless museum.” (117) His
pleas for a dynamic museum environment are echoed in John Cotton Dana’s evolu-
tionary museum portrait: from storehouse to workshop. (139) Later readings in this
section deal with museum conscience and ethical issues, with hints and undertones
of the for-profit model.
The next division deals with Museum Education, introducing children’s muse-
ums and the idea of outreach. It is here that we see the majority of female contribu-
tors. Elizabeth M. Whitmore bravely asks, “Should the docent ...aim to impart in-
formation about the object, or to develop appreciation of its qualities?” She goes on
to assert, “The two sides would demand docents of very different temperament…”
This dichotomy still divides museum educators, generating an evolving continuum
of interpretive strategies. Fellow educator Frederick Starr traces the development of
teaching collections asserting “A museum without a teacher behind it, and in it, is
the deadliest of things.” (173) The writings here are infused with democratic ideals,
and we begin to see the rise of inclusive schemes with regard to audience.
The next unit, “Museum Exhibitions,” seems equally to consider the politics
of display, collections, and even open storage. These readings import authors from
regions outside the United States, primarily Australia and Great Britain, offering a
more global perspective on spatial issues and design elements. John George Wood,
in a piece titled “The Dulness of Museums,” underscores the ability of art apprecia-
tion and music appreciation to educate the masses, but is troubled by the absence
of any corollary in the sciences. Perhaps today’s “science cafes” would appease him,
illustrating a contemporary response to a similar concern.
We move then to four pieces on Museums and Universities, centered mostly
on the social sciences, which have been grossly absent until now. This interdisci-
plinary grouping also reflects modern thinking on inductive reasoning and theory
versus practice in the study of fine arts. Francis G. Peabody establishes “the social
museum” which “…becomes the corrective of hasty judgments and the prerequisite
of judicious conclusions…” (259) This short section concludes with a look at the
 116    book reviews

importance of professional museum training for men (and women). The text closes
with what feels like an obligatory look at Museums with Living Collections, reflect-
ing Charles H. Townsend’s crusade to have these institutions included under the
museum umbrella, and the American Association of Museums eventual acknowl-
edgement of living collections as part of the museum community.
Museum Origins serves as an interesting counterpart to Genoways’ earlier book,
Museum Philosophy for the 21st Century. This earlier work presents 23 full readings,
much longer than those in Museum Origins, without the benefit of organizational
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structure or topical framework. They are simply laid out for the reader, rather than
being curated, if you will, into Museum Origins’ seven discreet components. On the
surface, these two volumes may appear divergent—historical/modern, free form/
structured, roots/futures. When we strip away these surface distinctions, however,
we see that they are two sides of the same coin. Museum topography (the questions,
challenges, and passions that finally delineate our terrain) appears consistent across
time and place. While museum professionals like to imagine, in true linear fashion,
that we have covered impressive ground, the cycles of culture, economics, and social
change may have simply carried us back to a familiar point on a continually rotating
circle.