On Thu, 14 Dec 2000, Ken Deroux wrote:

> In light of the ongoing discussion on the definition of museum, does anyone
> care to comment on why the British and Canadians tend to use the term "art
> gallery" where we in the U.S. would use the term "museum"?

====================

Ken:

Purely historic and traditional.  "Gallery" probably started off as
precisely that in architectural terms in great Renaissance and Baroque
palaces and country houses, and the name was adopted in England when the
first public galleries were established 200 years ago.  Note that
German-speaking countries make the same distinction, while in
Revolutionary France there was in fact a major debate in the 1790s as to
whether "museum" or the older term of "academy" should be used for art
collections, (something also found in Italy).  (They finally came down in
favour of "Museum" for the natural history museum, "Musee" for the Louvre
and subsequently the regional and other art museums, and "Conservatoire"
for the science and technology museum.)

Though there has been a gradual convergence in the UK since the late 19th
century, it is interesting to note that government lawyers and the courts
insisted well into the 20th century that national legislation allowing
city councils to establish or support museums did NOT allow them to
establish or support "art galleries" as these were considered to be
legally quite distinct.  Consequently most if not all of the major 19th C.
local authority art galleries were each established under their own
special Act of Parliament, not under the then existing general local
government law authorising support for museums.



Patrick Boylan

=========================================================
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).