Museums are where we put our best stuff. An item might belong in a museum if it’s rare, expensive, irreplaceable, or so ordinary and beloved it becomes extraordinary. A self-portrait by Vincent Van Gogh, a can of SPAM, a Romanian mud hut, a narwhal horn, a discarded red stiletto: They can all be found in a museum somewhere in the world.
But exhibitions in museums are more than mere collections of striking items. Museums are vital institutions that take on the tasks of collecting, interpreting, and caring for artifacts so they can be experienced by the general public.
The Ancient Greek word mouseion means ‘seat of Muses.’ In classical antiquity, a museum was a place for contemplation and philosophical debate. When art moved from the open air, larger-than-life statuary of the Greco-Roman era to more intimate, human-scale paintings and objects, the definition of museum changed, too. It became a place to visit to see art — and anything placed in a museum became art.
In this episode, we romp through the delightful hoarding behavior behind Renaissance Wunderkammers, learn about the first museum curator (spoiler: It was a woman!), and celebrate the majesty of the Louvre. Then we recommend books that transported us to museums around the world, including two nonfiction books devoted to art appreciation, a historical novel about 17th-century Amsterdam, coffee table books that celebrate cabinets of curiosities, and a fantastical story that goes behind the scenes of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.
Read the full transcript of Museums: A Gathering of Muses, A Clutch of Curators.
Princess Ennigaldi-Nanna was the curator of the world’s first museum in the ancient city of Ur. She was also a high priestess.
Agatha Christie also has a special connection to Ur.
SSoP Podcast Episode 21 — Trains: Better Than Planes and Cars. Fight Me.
Dave earned his master’s degree at The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.
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There’s an art museum on the moon. Here’s the Wikipedia page about the Moon Museum, and more about it from MOMA.
Statement 2: There’s a natural history museum - which is otherwise operating as you might expect — except that it’s got an insect problem. It’s infested with little blue shiny beetles from the Amazon. It’s the Finnish Natural History Museum. The BBC has a piece on the museum filled with venomous spiders that just won’t die. And if you want to feel oogey, you can go deep into details about the Chilean recluse spider.
Just in case you need to know more about the tulip crisis of 1637: The Real Story Behind the 17th-Century ‘Tulip Mania’ Financial Crash.
Judith Leyster, the first woman admitted to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke.
Ben Street is the author of How to Enjoy Art: A Guide for Everyone; visit his website. In this video, he takes us on a tour of the National Gallery in London.
Mel mentioned novels set in Cabinets of Curiosities that she’s enjoyed. They are: The Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris; The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hartall; and all of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries by Deanna Raybourn, including A Curious Beginning and A Murderous Relation. The most recent installment An Impossible Imposter has Stoker, Veronica’s paramour, restoring the taxidermy of a thylocine (!), which we talked about at length in our podcast episode about Tasmania.
Charlotte Mullins is the author of A Little History of Art; visit her website. Here she is, talking about her book with Yale Books:
The Period Rooms at the Met are fantastic. The book Period Rooms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is available to read online or download for free. There are thousands of free publications from the Met online.
There’s a new Afrofuturist Period Room at the Met:
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