I actually avoided addressing this in my last post since I didn't want to
dilute my main point about the "user".

It is my understanding (from fairly limited reading) that the Iraqi National
Museum was a colonial undertaking by the British following World War I when
they took over the territory from the Ottoman Empire.  While it may have
existed in some form before then Gertrude Bell (an amazingly complex
character) devoted much of her later life to organizing it -- when she
wasn't creating the borders of the country (really!) and campaigning to
bring in King Faisal from Lebanon to be the first "elected" ruler.

This is not to say that a museum fostered by a colonial power cannot become
an important part of an independent nation's culture (I believe Nigeria is a
good example), only that the Iraqi people might not have had the strong
connection to their museum's collection that many of us are assuming they
did.

janice

Janice Klein
Director, Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Kendall College
[log in to unmask]
www.mitchellmuseum.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of David E. Haberstich
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 12:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: It IS important, but is it a museum?


In a message dated 4/23/2003 10:50:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< It is true, we are all upset over the loss of Iraqi objects.  (Some of us
 more upset than others.  ;-)  )  No one is upset over the loss of the
 exhibits.  I would argue that this is due, at least in part, to the fact
 that there weren't any.  I have read that the Iraqi National Museum had
 been closed for five years.  (Even when it was open, it was clearly part of
 the regime's mantle of power.  It was not a people's palace, a place for
 public discourse.  Such discourse was not possible under Hussein.  But I
 digress...)  In the eyes of the people, this was not a museum at all.  It
 was another government warehouse, full of wealth the regime had looted from
 its people.  Now the people were taking their heritage back.
  >>

Gene, I'm curious about how you know what the Iraqi people thought of the
museum and how they didn't consider it a museum.  Can you substantiate this
or is it just an assumption?  So some of the people took their heritage
back--and smashed it to smithereens.  Is that what they think of their
heritage?  Others apparently were professional thieves, according to experts
quoted in the newspapers, who carried off this "heritage" to sell it outside
Iraq.

So there weren't any exhibits--despite the fact that smashed exhibit cases
are visible in the photographs.  Ah, but very few people saw the exhibits,
therefore they didn't exist?  I see.  How many viewers does it take to make
an exhibit an exhibit?  What do we call a would-be exhibition before anyone
sees it?

If the Museum of the American Indian is not a museum until it opens to the
public, what is it before then?  What do we call it?  Please provide a word
so that we can name it to your satisfaction.

Two other Smithsonian museums are currently closed for renovation, the
National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Apparently by your reasoning they have ceased to be museums.  If so, what do
we call them in the interim while they're closed?  What's the word?
Wait--the Portrait Gallery recently held an exhibition in another
building--did it become a museum again during the course of that exhibition,
or doesn't that count because it was in another building?  If it did count,
is the Portrait Gallery currently a non-museum again?  Should closed museums
be pressured to rename themselves?  Is a "Gallery" still a gallery when it's
closed?  Would "collection" do?  (The American Art Museum used to be called
the National Collection of Fine Arts--even when it was open and had
exhibitions.)

For that matter, does a museum cease to be a museum when it closes for the
evening?  Yes?  What is it, then?  No?  Why not?  How many hours, days, or
weeks does a museum have to be closed to the public before it ceases to be a
museum?

Since you seem to agree (gasp! at last we agree on something!) that some
institutions with exhibitions, such as airports, shopping malls, etc., are
not museums, what's that extra something that makes an institution a
museum--or am I making too great a leap in assuming that you agree that a
museum is an institution of some sort rather than an exhibition per se?  Why
don't all exhibitions define a museum?  Is it fair to assume that you're now
admitting that the bald assertion that exhibitions define museums was
incomplete?

Finally, if a museum does not need to have a collection to be called a
museum, what do you call a museum (an institution of some sort with
exhibitions) which also has collections?  What's the word?

(Obviously, I think my dictionary definition of a museum is easier to
explain
and utilize.  I find an implicit need to submit candidates to a single
person
to see if they qualify as museums a bit cumbersome.)

About that analogy concerning the chemical constituents of a 150-pound
person
and their limited value: I don't think anyone ever said they added up to a
person--just a human body.  Getting the words right is important.

David Haberstich

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