Sae Minohara wrote: Who is Mr.Gilman? Roger Smith answered: Well... I can't
shed any light on Mr. Gilman but my guess is he either: a) worked in a
Museum or, b) did as many of us do and visited far too many Museums in the
course of an
overseas holiday .......

Benjamin Ives Gilman has long held the office of Secretary of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston. He introduced the term "museum fatigue" in an article
for The Scientific Monthly in January 1916. This article was reprinted in
his "Museum Ideals of Purpose and Method" (1918). As Secretary of the
museum he played an important role in the building of the new premises of
the museum in 1909. He also played a role in implementing "gallery
instruction" at the museum (in 1907). Maybe he even introdcued the term
"docent". In this respect it is interesting to notice (as a European) that
Gilman was influenced by European museologists such as Lichtwark (Hamburg).
The work of Gilman (and Lichtwark) was very important for the young Dutch
 museum director Van Gelder who was the first to introduce "gallery
instruction" in the Netherlands (in the Municipal Museum at The Hague in
1914).

Peter van Mensch
Reinwardt Academy
Amsterdam

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).