This online exhibit from the Tate Britain describes private "curiosity cabinets" among European gentlemen as "collections of rare, valuable, historically important or unusual objects, which generally were compiled by a single person, normally a scholar or nobleman, for study and/or entertainment." The objects were displayed in cabinets or vitrines and arranged so as to "'inspire wonder and stimulate creative thought.'"
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| A typical curiosity cabinet. |
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Philadelphia's Mutter Museum is a medical collection of weird and disturbing oddities exhibited "to help visitors understand the mysteries and beauty of the human body and appreciate the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease."
Do any of you pin things on Pinterest? The author of this article wonders if we can think of that website -- and the internet more generally -- as a kind of modern-day curiosity cabinet.
It seems that Buffalo’s own Museum of Science grew from a wonder cabinet, or sorts. According to the museum’s website, as stewards of the public library, the local Young Men’s Association, founded in 1836, became the keeps of “all manner of curiosities and interesting objects…minerals, fossils, shells, insects, pressed plants, sea weeds and various paintings and articles of historic value. The acquisition of these specimens called for a cabinet for their display - thus began the collection that would lead to the Buffalo Museum of Science we have today.”
ReplyDeleteI have not been to the Museum of Science since I was a small child, and I even I could remember it, I assume it has changed considerably in the past twenty years. I wonder if anyone has been there recently and knows if it still retains vestiges or echoes of its curiosity cabinet origins. And if it does, does that approach to collection and presentation hinder or help its mission to improve scientific literacy throughout the region and to inspire lifelong learners.