“What Self-Respecting Museum is without One?”: The Story of Collecting the Old World at the Science Museum of Minnesota 1914–1988

Abstract

Many Americans have learned some, if not all, of what they know about ancient world cultures through visiting museums. The museums that Americans visit, much like those of the remainder of the Western world, seem to almost always possess objects reflecting the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Many American museums, however, unlike their European counterparts, were not founded with the intention of focusing on what could be termed Old World or Classical Archaeology. Why then, if American museums did not originally intend to collect these objects, do American institutions hold comparatively large collections from these areas? In order to better understand this phenomenon, I chose to study the collections of three museums in the midwestern United States. Possibly the most instructive institution that I studied was the Science Museum of Minnesota.

In examining the collections of museums in the midwest that lacked an intended focus on Classical Archaeology, such as the Science Museum of Minnesota, we may gain insights into how museum culture in America has formed. This project is significant in that it allows researchers a better understanding of the nature of the museum collections that they study. In the past, the historical context of the collecting process itself has been overlooked when research or display of the objects has taken place. It is my hope that a more complete understanding of these collections will prove to be a catalyst for better future research and collecting.