The wax museum near Dallas  burned a few years ago, so take it
off the list. I heard that the fire in some rooms was hot enough to melt
wax, but not to burn clothes, so that Elvis and Michael Jackson wound up
as well-dressed pools of wax. Nearby was the firefighters museum and hall
of fame....
 
No, I don't think that these wonderfully ghoulish museums should be a
source of worry. I would be more worried about attempts to edit the past
in the name of present-day (and astonishingly short-sighted) "political
correctness." Just the volume of responses to this request shows that it
is a subject of deep fascination for people, and yet we mostly DON'T grow
up to be axe murderers or chicken thieves. Those who forget the past are
condemned to read Santayana again.
 
We are presenting a panel at the 1995 Texas Association of Museums
meeting on a related subject: just what do you do with museum objects
that are, for one reason or another, unsettling or offensive to someone's
sensibilities? Is censorship the dark side of deaccessioning in such
instances? Be there!
 
Sally Shelton
Collections Conservation Specialist
San Diego Natural History Museum