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Musée de l'Homme, Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France

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Musée de l'Homme, Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France

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Musée de l'Homme, Place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris, France

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In 1937 a significant turning point for the consideration of 'Museum Anthropology' came about with the transitional reform from the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro to the Musée de l'Homme, Place du Trocadéro.

https://www.museedelhomme.fr/en/from-the-musee-d-ethnographie-to-the-musee-de-l-homme

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From the Musée d’Ethnographie to the Musée de l’Homme

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From 1882 right up to 2015, the year of the refurbishment, let’s look back on 133 years of history.

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The rise of Durkheimian tradition (birth of sociology) influenced France to create a separation between academic institutionalization and the evolution of mainstream paradigms being developed in a 'museum'

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Museum of Copenhagen, Stormgade, Copenhagen, Denmark

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Museum of Copenhagen, Stormgade, Copenhagen, Denmark

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Museum of Copenhagen, Stormgade, Copenhagen, Denmark

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1849 - established the first museum in the first wave of ethnographic collections

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Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA

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Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA

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Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA

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1866

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American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, New York, NY

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American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, New York, NY

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American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, New York, NY

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1868

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Museo Nacional de Etnología, Avenida da Ilha da Madeira, Lisbon, Portugal

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Museo Nacional de Etnología, Avenida da Ilha da Madeira, Lisbon, Portugal

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Museo Nacional de Etnología, Avenida da Ilha da Madeira, Lisbon, Portugal

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1875

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1884-5 : The Berlin Conference concorted the "Scramble for Africa"; marking a separation between the first and second wave of ethnographic museums

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International Council of Museums (ICOM), 1946

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International Council of Museums (ICOM), 1946

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1995: Defined museums as "a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits for the purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment" (Alexander).

Founded on 1946.

https://icom.museum/en/about-us/history-of-icom/

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Over the years, ICOM has evolved in accordance with international museum professionals' needs worldwide, keeping in mind its main mission. More than 60 years after its creation, the organisation continues to represent the global museum community.

1946 - 1947: ICOM is created

Within a year of its creation, two meetings marked the birth of the International Council of Museums. The first one took place in Paris on the occasion of ICOM's creation at the initiative of Chauncey J. Hamlin (US), who became the first President of the organisation. The second meeting, the organisation's first General Assembly, took place in Mexico.

1947 - 1968: ICOM grows up

ICOM's first seven General Conferences were held between 1948 and 1965. During these years, the organisation developed its structure, its geographical representation, and its activities became increasingly professional and consistent. The last two General Conference (held at The Hague in 1962 and in New York in 1965) highlighted the needs and the enthusiasm of participants.

The three main concerns during this period were the educational role of museums, exhibitions, the international circulation of cultural goods and the conservation and restoration of cultural goods.

1968 - 1977: Crisis and transition years

By 1968, ICOM's debt became chronic. While activities, projects and expenses continued to grow, membership dues were unchanged for eight years. Meanwhile, a new type of museum was unfolding, in line with the museum's changing role in society. In the early 1970s, ICOM's existence was put at risk. The only solution was to increase its own resources (its membership and corresponding dues), which put an end to this unfair and outmoded situation.

The Statutes were revised. Up to then the number of active members had been limited to 15 per National Committee. Following the General Conference in Grenoble in 1971, the idea was developed that ICOM should grant equal status to individual members and a reform was adopted in Copenhagen in 1974 whereby active members and associate members formed a single category. The democratic spirit prevailed and all members of the profession had the right to vote and stand for any ICOM function.
18 - 29 May 1977, 11th General Conference, Moscow-Leningrad, URSS

1977 - 1989: ICOM goes international

ICOM began to develop its activities in developing countries in 1977.

A resolution adopted in Moscow in 1977 provided support to Asian, African and Latin America developing countries for the training of museum staff and restorers. This addressed the need for skilled labour and conversation experts. It also promoted the circulation of technical equipment for conservation training.

Four decisive conferences in 1977, 1980, 1983 and 1986 enabled ICOM to fulfill two strategic goals:

The finalisation of a policy on museums in the service of society and of its development;

The adoption of a Code of Ethics, a reference document.

October 26 - November 4, 1986, 14th General Conference, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1989 - 1996: Efficiency and universality

ICOM's financial situation became healthier and the deficit was absorbed in 1994. The fundraising policy was paving the way for a promising future.

ICOM's reputation and global action helped to increase its visibility. This outcome was a just reward for half a century of efforts.

At a time when many international organisations were struggling with financial and structural problems, ICOM maintained the universality, flexibility and imagination that enabled it to meet the demands of the profession. The recommendations of the latest General Assemblies paved the way for cultural policy, reinforcing the idea that economic development and cultural factors were inseparable.
18th General Assembly of ICOM, Stavanger, Norway, 7 July 1995

1996 - 2004: A new era of activities

From 1996 on, ICOM reinforced its fight against the illicit traffic of cultural goods by developing the Red Lists and One Hundred Missing Objects series. Risk prevention activities related to natural or man-made disasters were accelerated with the Museum Emergency Program (MEP) launched in 2002 as well as ICOM's participation in the International Council of the Blue Shield (ICBS).

With these developments, ICOM increased its presence in the global museum community and contemporary society.
ICOM's 18th General Conference, 1998, Melbourne, Australia
2004 - today: ICOM opens up to Asia

ICOM created a new working group with a view to establishing a new strategy for the organisation. This Working Group produced a report titled A Tool Box for Renovating ICOM. Moreover, Running a museum: a practical handbook was designed for professionals and published by ICOM. It became a reference tool for the international museum community in training matters.

ICOM continued to develop activities in relation to the protection of cultural heritage, in particular with its active participation in the Blue Shield and the management of Object ID. Protecting intangible cultural heritage became an integral part of ICOM's programme activities. All these elements contribute to ICOM's institutional influence.

ICOM held its first General Conference in Asia in 2004 in Seoul, Korea. By doing so ICOM highlighted its wish to include the Asian continent more significantly in its organisation. This strategy was reinforced in 2010 through ICOM's presence at the Shanghai World Expo and the organisation of its 2010 General Conference in Shanghai. After the General Conferences in Rio in 2013 and in Milan in 2016, ICOM continues to strengthen its presence in Asia, especially with the upcoming 2019 General Conference in Kyoto, Japan.

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History of ICOM - International Council of Museums

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Over the years, ICOM has evolved in accordance with international museum professionals' needs worldwide, keeping in mind its main mission.

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American Association (Alliance) of Museums

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American Association (Alliance) of Museums

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Founded 1906.

1988: AAM 'defines a museum as "an organized and permanent non-profit institution, essentially education or aesthetic in purpose, with professional staff, which owns or utilizes tangible objects, cares for them, and exhibits them to the public on some regular schedule"' (Alexander).

https://www.aam-us.org/programs/about-aam/

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The American Alliance of Museums’ mission is to champion equitable and impactful museums by connecting people, fostering learning and community, and nurturing museum excellence. Our vision i…

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1050BCE to 600CE

temples dedicated to the Muses

mouseion

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-3rd century BCE

-'most' famous museum dedicated to Greek classical knowledge

university, philosophical academy, zoological and botanical park, statues, scientific instruments, animal materials

-the state and king supported the museum

-Alexander the Great's colonial collections in the Bruchium

-Euclid wrote Elements of Geometry

-scholars and scientists

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Cradle of Knowledge: The Mouseion of Alexandria

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British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK

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Founded 1753. Considered a product of Renaissance humanism, 1700s Enlightenment, and 1800s democracy.

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First and still existing public museum: 1671

Founded 1671

Originally a private collection, the university and city of Basel brought it to the public

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The world's oldest museum was built 2,500 years ago and discovered in 1925 by archaeologist Leonard Wooley. While we can only imagine how this ancient museum really looked like, we've compiled a list of some of the oldest and finest museums in Europe that you can still visit.

The world's oldest museum was built by a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago.
Early museums began as private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artefacts. These were often displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities.

The oldest such museum in evidence was Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum, dating from c. 530 BC and devoted to Mesopotamian antiquities.

In 1925, archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered a curious collection of artefacts while excavating a Babylonian palace. They were from many different times and places, and yet they were neatly organized and even labelled. Woolley had discovered the world's first museum.

It's easy to forget that ancient peoples also studied history - Babylonians who lived 2,500 years ago were able to look back on millennia of previous human experience. That's part of what makes the museum of Princess Ennigaldi so remarkable. Her collection contained wonders and artifacts as ancient to her as the fall of the Roman Empire is to us. But it's also a grim symbol of a dying civilization consumed by its own vast history. You can read the whole article here.

Some of the oldest public museums in the world opened in Italy during the Renaissance, but the majority of them opened during the 18th century.
Travel back in time while visiting some of the oldest museums in Europe:

- The Capitoline Museums (Musei Capitolini, also in the picture above), the oldest public collection of art in the world, began in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a group of important ancient sculptures to the people of Rome.

The Capitoline Museums are a group of art and archaeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. Here you can admire medieval and Renaissance art, ancient Roman statues, coin and jewellery collections, and much more.

- The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani), the second oldest museum in the world, traces its origins to the public displayed sculptural collection begun in 1506 by Pope Julius II.

The Vatican Museums are a group of museums located inside the Vatican City, displaying works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.

- The Royal Armouries in the Tower of London is Britain's oldest museum, one of the oldest museums in the world and home to the world's oldest visitor attraction. It opened to the public in 1660, though there had been paying privileged visitors to the armouries displays from 1592.

Today Royal Armouries is located at three sites across the England: in a purpose built museum in Leeds, West Yorkshire; a Victorian fort at Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, Hampshire; and its historic home at the Tower of London in the White Tower.

- The Ashmolean Museum is Britain's first public museum and the oldest university museum in the world. In 1677, it received its first collection, the cabinet of curiosities from Elias Ashmole. The following year, the building for the collection was started. It was finished in 1683.

Today, the museum houses an extensive collection of items with artistic and archaeological significance. Notable collections and items that you can admire at the museum are biblical manuscripts, drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo, watercolours by Turner, a ceremonial dress owned by Lawrence of Arabia, and more.

- The Amerbach Cabinet , originally a private collection, was bought by the university and city of Basel in 1661 and opened to the public in 1671. This event marks the opening of the first and still existing public museum in the world.

Today, the collection is part of a rich historical and cultural heritage in the city of Basel.

- The Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'archéologie in Besançon was established in 1694 after Jean-Baptiste Boisot, an abbot, gave his personal collection to the Benedictines of the city in order to create a museum open to the public two days every week.

Today, the museum is famous for its large collections of archaeology, paintings, and drawing cabinet. Popular items include several Egyptian mummies, works of art from notable Italian, French, and Spanish painters, and over 5,500 drawing cabinets collected from European schools.

- The Kunstkamera in St. Petersburg was founded in 1717 in Kikin Hall and officially opened to the public in 1727 in the Old St. Petersburg Academy of Science Building.

- The British Museum in London was founded in 1753 and opened to the public in 1759. Sir Hans Sloane's personal collection of curios provided the initial foundation for the British Museum's collection.

Today, its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.

- The art collection of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence was begun in the 15th century by Cosimo de' Medici, enlarged by his descendants, and in 1743 bequeathed by the last heir of the House of Medici "to the people of Tuscany and to all nations".

Today, this is one of the most famous museums of paintings and sculpture in the world. Its collection of Primitive and Renaissance paintings comprises several universally acclaimed masterpieces of all time, including works by Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Caravaggio. German, Dutch and Flemish masters are also well represented with important works by Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens.

- The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been open to the public since 1852.

The collection of the State Hermitage includes more than three million works of art and artefacts of the world culture. Among them are paintings, graphic works, sculptures and works of applied art, archaeological finds and numismatic material.

- The Museo del Prado in Madrid was founded in 1785 by Charles III of Spain and was opened to the public for the first time in 1819.

Today, we can contemplate in the Museum as greatest masterpieces as The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosh, The Nobleman with his hand on his Chest by El Greco, Death of the Virgin by Mantegna, The Holy Family known as The Pearl by Raphael, Emperor Carlos V on Horseback by Titian, The Foot Washing by Tintoretto, Self-portrait by Durër, Las Meninas by Velázquez, The Three Graces by Rubens, and The Family of Carlos IV by Goya.

- The Belvedere Palace of the Habsburg monarchs in Vienna opened with a collection of art in 1781.

Housed in two magnificent palaces - the Upper and Lower Belvedere, and home to the largest collection of Gustav Klimt's paintings, the Belvedere in Vienna ranks among the world's most striking and significant museums. The Belvedere holds the greatest collection of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day, placed in an international context.

- The Louvre Museum in Paris, also a former royal palace, opened to the public in 1793.

One of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument, the Louvre is a central landmark of Paris. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).

- The Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Transylvania, is housed in the palace of Samuel von Brukenthal, a Habsburg governor of Transylvania, who established its first collections around 1790. The collections were officially opened to the public in 1817, making it the oldest institution of its kind in Romania.

Today, the museum comprises European Art, Romanian Art and the Library (in the Brukenthal Palace), Contemporary Art and the Museum of History (in the Altemberger House), the Museum of Natural History, Museum of Pharmacy and Museum of Hunting.

- The Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation is the oldest in Latvia and the whole of the Baltics, and one of the oldest in Europe. The Museum is situated in Old Riga, in a remarkable architectural monument of the 13th-20th centuries - the ensemble of the Riga Dom. It was founded and opened to public in 1773 by the Riga Town Council as Himsel Museum. The rich and diverse collections of the Museum originated from an art and natural sciences collection of Nikolaus von Himsel (1729-1764), a Riga doctor.

Today the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation collections number more than 500 000 items, systematised in about 80 collections.

Source: Wikipedia and individual museum websites/Facebook pages

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The world's oldest museum was built 2,500 years ago and discovered in 1925 by archaeologist Leonard Wooley. While we can only imagine how this ancient museum...

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The Vatican established museums in 1750s

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British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK

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Imperial Institute (1926) - transitioned from serving as an index collection showcasing the British Empire's natural, industrial, and commercial resources to becoming a narrative-driven 'empire story-land.' This transformation featured dioramas, models, photographs, and maps that depicted significant events, economic activities, and geographical regions. (Shelton, 3)

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British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK

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Imperial Institute (1956) - "..moved its emphasis a third time: from commodity- to people-centered exhibits" (Crinson 1999: 109–13).

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1796 - One of the first European influenced ethnographic museum and archaeological collections emerge in India

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Lahore Museum, Mall Rd, Anarkali Bazaar Lahore, Pakistan

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Lahore Museum, Mall Rd, Anarkali Bazaar Lahore, Pakistan

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Lahore Museum, Mall Rd, Anarkali Bazaar Lahore, Pakistan

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1864

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Founded 1793

The Palace of the Louvre as the Museum of the Republic

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Louvre, in full Louvre Museum or French Musée du Louvre, official name Great Louvre or French Grand Louvre, national museum and art gallery of France, housed in part of a large palace in Paris that was built on the right-bank site of the 12th-century fortress of Philip Augustus. It is the world’s m…

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Founded 1773

Oldest museum in the U.S.

Included paid entry, entrepreneurial spirit included in the museum imagination

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Tokyo National Museum - Heiseikan, 13-9 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo, Japan

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Tokyo National Museum - Heiseikan, 13-9 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo, Japan

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Tokyo National Museum - Heiseikan, 13-9 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo, Japan

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(1872) - As an empire nation itself, Japan opened it's national museum containing "minor ethnographic collections". It wasn't until 20 years later with the introduction of academic anthropology to the University of Tokyo, coinciding with the second wave of European ethnographic museums." It then began to adopt western paradigms about race and culture (Shelton, 7).

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Founded 1846. Primarily meant for scientific research.

In 1873, became a national museum including science, the humanities, and the arts.

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American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, New York, NY

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American Museum of Natural History, 1869

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American Museum of Natural History, 1869

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Founded in 1869. Allowed the U.S. to enter the museum mainstream.

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American Museum of Natural History | Dinosaurs, Exhibits, Education | Britannica

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American Museum of Natural History, institute established in New York City in 1869. It is a major centre of research and education on the natural sciences. It pioneered in mounting field expeditions and in creating dioramas and other lifelike exhibits showing natural habitats and their plant and

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Radcliffe-Brown’s reorientation of ethno-
graphic method and subject (1947):

"claimed museography to be a branch of
ethnography; the ethnographic museum was the material archive of the people that
it studied, and the interpretation and presentation of material and non-material
culture was, he argued, inseparably linked" (Shelton, 8) --> led to the rejection of the evolutionary paradigm (focus on social structure rather than biological needs)

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Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5th Avenue, New York, NY

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Founded 1870. Allowed the U.S. to enter the museum mainstream.

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Read the history of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

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Founded 1870. Allowed the U.S. to enter the museum mainstream.

Benjamin Ives Gilman, secretary, curator, and librarian of the MFA from 1893 to 1925, thought that "a museum of science... in essence a school; a museum of art in essence is a temple" (Alexander).

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Museum of Fine Arts | History, Collection, & Facts | Britannica

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Museum of Fine Arts, cultural center in Boston with an expansive collection of art. Highlights include Asian art from four millennia BCE to modern times, a large collection of paintings by Claude Monet, a significant collection of 19th-century American art, and Egyptian Old Kingdom objects.

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"Having control over the tangible objects in
museums plays a role in having control over the intangibles” (Clavir) - in reference to the First Peoples Nation of Canada

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Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

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Founded 1899. Exemplified the U.S.'s democratic influences in dedicating museums to education and the public.

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History & Mission - Brooklyn Children’s Museum

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Our Mission Inspired by the energy and diversity of our borough, Brooklyn Children’s Museum creates experiences that ignite curiosity, celebrate identity and cultivate joyful learning. See our Theory of Change. Our History Founded in 1899 as the world’s first children’s museum, Brooklyn Children’s Museum (BCM) is New York City’s largest cultural institution designed especially for families. […]

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Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag, 1966

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Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag, 1966

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Written 1964 (when she published Notes on Camp), published 1966.

“By interpretation, I mean here a conscious act of the mind which illustrates a certain code, certain ‘rules’ of interpretation… The task of interpretation is virtually one of translation. The interpreter says, Look, don’t you see that X is really— or, really means—A? That Y is really B? That Z is really C… Interpretation thus presupposes a discrepancy between the clear meaning of the text and the demands of (later) readers."

"The modern style of interpretation excavates, and as it excavates, destroys; it digs ‘behind’ the text, to find a sub-text which is the true one."

“Interpretation must itself be evaluated, within a historical view of human consciousness. In some cultural contexts, interpretation is a liberating act. It is a means of revising, of transvaluing, of escaping the dead past. In other cultural contexts, it is reactionary, impertinent, cowardly, stifling."

“What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more… Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all… In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art."

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Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting, ~1935-2002

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Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting, ~1935-2002

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Dr. Hugh Francis Hicks was a dentist who collected lightbulbs. He had the largest personal collection in the world, 75,000. He created it into a public museum. It has since closed.

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kilokat’s ANTIQUE LIGHT BULB site : Mount Vernon Museum