Tim Daniels asked about the history of house museums, a topic that
interests me too.  There are two distinct directions in house museums:
famous residents and furnishings.  They clearly have different roots.  Mt
Vernon seems to be the first 'famous resident' house museum (1850s), unless
you count Sir John Soane's Museum in London (1813), which is a bit of a
crossover between the two types and a standard antiquarian museum.
 
For re-created houses, specially interiors, the origin seems to be in the
great exhibitions of the 19thC - I think the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition was the first, with its colonial kitchen.  However, I seem to
recall that there is a slightly earlier room re-creation in the town museum
at Deerfield (not Historic Deerfield), which has displayed much the same
contents (except for fashionable re-arranging) since the early 1870s.
 
I don't think there is any good thorough published study of this
phenomenon, though there are plenty of partial references.  Here are a few:
 
John Herbst, 'Historic Houses' in Leon and Rosenzweig, History Museums in
the US (1989)
 
Brief mention in Edward Alexander, Museums in Motion (1979)
 
I'd be interested to hear what other Museum-L readers know or think.
 
Linda Young
Cultural Heritage Management
University of Canberra
Australia
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