On Fri, 23 Feb 1996, Robert A. Baron wrote:

-snip-
> Interesting in this regard is Tony Bennett's (not the singer) book Birth of
> the Museum.  It documents how the institution of the museum in the 19th
> century was part of an effort to inculcate an emerging middle class with
> the values of the dominant culture.  The process by which this was achieved
> included establishing environments (museums, especially) that
> architecturally and socially would promote certain forms of behavior over
> others.

> The author sees these lessons as the state's way of asserting its power and
> authority over the masses.  How do the contributors to museum-l view the
> function of establishing normative modes of decorum in their museums?


Also see, Lawrence W. Levine, HIGHBROW/LOWBROW:  THE EMERGENCE OF
CULTURAL HIERARCHY IN AMERICA.  Cambridge:  Harvard U. Press, 1988;
paperback, 1990.

Chap. 2, "The Sacralization of Culture," has a dozen-page discussion of
museums; the notes alone are worth the price of the paperback.  Cited
therein, from a minister, in 1860:  "If we want to drive far from us, vice
and crime -- if we want to outbid the wine-cup and the gaming table . . .
[w]e must have something to claim the attention, to mould the taste, to
cultivate."  Eclectic, crowded museums soon gave way to this project. The
discussion of Shakespeare in the early republic, the growth of "musical
appreciation" studies, and much more, provide extensive context to the
role of museums as cultural and behavioral arbiter.  Highly recommended.

Also worth a look:  The chapter on Marx in Marshall Berman's ALL THAT IS
SOLID MELTS INTO AIR:  THE EXPERIENCE OF MODERNITY (1982; paperback, NY:
Penguin Books, 1988) has insightful discussion on the relationship between
the idea of "modernization" in economics and social sciences and the idea
of "modernism" in arts and culture.

It might not help in the daily grind of establishing proper controls over
collections, flogging money out of aging boomers, or keeping people's
cakehooks off the artifacts, but the interpretation of museums as social
and political constructions is a worthwhile subject for reflection.
Thanks, Robt. Baron, for veering discussion in that direction.

Matt Roth
Santa Monica, CA