Object of the Week

"A museum is the memory of mankind.”
- Philippe de Montebello, former Metropolitan Museum of Art director

In celebration of International Museum Day on May 18th, this week’s object is a postcard depicting the Louvre. To honor International Museum Day, here are some interesting facts on the development of museums in the US:

- Peale’s Cabinet of Curiosities opened in 1786 in Philadelphia and was one of America’s first museums. Like many early US museums, the objects on display in the Cabinet of Curiosities documented the history of the discovery of America. The museum contained portraits of George Washington and bones from a North American woolly mammoth. Museums in private homes were also common in the 18th century

- In the 1840s, P T Barnum bought up museum collections like Peale’s, creating museums of curious objects and living curiosities. Such early museums were essentially “freak shows”, with little order or organization of the items collected.

- In contrast, in 1829 Englishman James Smithson left his estate to the US with the purpose of founding “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”. In 1846 Congress established the Smithsonian Institution, hiring a scientist to run it with a focus on scientific experimentation rather than the display of objects. The Smithsonian is now the world’s largest museum, with 19 museums, the National Zoo, and multiple research facilities.

- Now, there are more than 17,500 museums in the US. 850 million people visit US museums annually, compared with the 140 million people who attend major league sports events.

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