The Smithsonian Institution (operating 14, or is it 15 (?!) museums and
other public facilities) has debated admissions fees for years.
Currently, admission is FREE, but you might notice some strategically
placed donation boxes at three of their largest museums (American
History, Natural History and Air & Space). You might try directing an
inquiry to the Smithsonian's Visitor Information Center phone line at
(202) 357-2700. I believe The Washington Post has covered this issue a
few times in the past 5 years or so.

Also, try the National Park Service to request information on their
admission policies. In the recent past I have paid admission to the
Grand Canyon and Mt. Rainier. Recently Grand Canyon admission fees have
made newspaper headlines too.

Also, there is much written about public institutions (The Metropolitan,
Smithsonian, etc.) that charge for "blockbuster" shows. I don't know if
this is a sub-topic of the project you describe below.

Good luck.

Laura Ryan
[log in to unmask]
***Note: The opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily those
of my employer.***

> ----------
> From:         Henry B. Crawford[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:         Friday, October 31, 1997 11:38AM
> Subject:      Admission charges
>
> Friends,
>
> I have an undergraduate student volunteer who is doing a paper on the
> issue
> of admission charges for government (city, county, state, or fed.)
> museums.
> I have directed him toward all the printed literature I could think of
> (he
> found some information in _Curator_ on his own), but he needs opinions
> from
> the field.  This issue pops up once in a while on M.-L, so I thought
> I'd
> throw it out there again for his benefit.  He's looking for informed
> opinions, possible literature citations, interesting conference
> sessions
> attended, etc.  He is leaning toward admission charges as a positive
> thing,
> but wants to state good cases for both admission charges as well as
> free
> admission.  He is interviewing some people here, but opinions from
> other
> museum people are an important part of his information gathering.
> Please
> reply.
>
> Cheers,
> HBC
>
>
>
> *****************************************
> Henry B. Crawford        Curator of History
> [log in to unmask]     Museum of Texas Tech University
> 806/742-2442           Box 43191
> FAX 742-1136             Lubbock, TX  79409-3191
>                WEBSITE: http://www.ttu.edu/~museum
> **********    "Living History Rocks!!"    **********
>