--- "David E. Haberstich" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> In the early 1980s the name (and emphasis) was
> changed to National Museum of American History.

And now it's the National Museum of American History - Behring Center. Okay,
someone explain to me how that happened without a major brouhaha.

> For what it's worth, I recently had lunch with an administrator of the
> museum: he not only was quite unaware of the depth of our non-American
> collections, but expressed the opinion that the entire Smithsonian
> Institution should be "American" and that museums of African art, Asian art,
> and other non-American subjects don't "belong".  I find this a curiously
> parochial, if not jingoistic, view.  I forgot to ask him if he felt that the
> pandas in the zoo should be returned to China.

Well I guess it is a matter of your perspective on what a "national" museum
should be. They used to be a way for countries to show off all the stuff that
they've collected over the years. Fritz Waidacher once mentioned to me that
looking at a national museum is a good way to see what countries were important
to a particular country throughout over the course of time (whether through
trade, conquering or other means). For example, the SI doesn't have much
pre-1700 art(in comparison to other European museums) but we've got a huge
modern art collection. Obviously, the US hasn't been around that long so we
were a little late getting started with out museum collections.

On the other hand, if a "national" museum is suposed to show off the nation, it
goes to argue that their exhibits and collections should all relate to the
nation in some way. For example, an African Art museum would be out of place if
the SI was strictly "American" but an exhibit showing African art as the
origins of African-American Art would fit right in.

But as any good SI employee knows, the SI was founded "for the increase and
diffusion of knowledge", not strictly as a national museum. So I would think
that anything that "increased and diffused knowledge" would be fair game. The
arab pharmacy sounds really neat. Maybe we should come up with a list of
"hidden" exhibits at the SI that everyone has forgotten about.

> Deb, I hope you don't feel I've been picking on you as I've picked apart your
> remarks for separate replies.  It was unintentional, and I didn't mean to
> send 4 separate messages in one day--that's definitely my limit.  My
> apologies to all for being a listhog.

That's okay. I'm the list's whipping boy. ;)

Now as long as people don't start a huge thread on post limits or griping in
general about huge volume posters...

Deb

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