Pardon my ignorance about Madame Tussaud's! I'm going there next year
and will inform myself properly. However, it's not my fault if a "wax
museum" decides to become a "real" museum! Obviously, wax figures and
displays themselves can become historic artifacts in a museum. Anyway,
I'm not "judging" what is or isn't a "real" museum; I thought we were
just discussing definitions. Whether or not Madame Tussaud's itself
transcends the "wax museum" category, I think I would still argue that
an institution which displays--EXCLUSIVELY--tableaux which simulate
historic figures and events would not fit into what we normally call a
museum. The wax-museum experience for the viewer--however educational it
might be--is very different from the experience of viewing real
historical artifacts. And the issues for the staffs of the two
institutions are different. --David Haberstich