The First Museum

Today, we began our journey at the American Philosophical Society, where we viewed many very old and very rare documents, and learned how to curate a museum exhibit. We saw an 80 pound book by Audubon filled with life-size pictures of birds (some now extinct), that was worth millions of dollars. The cabinet below holds the five volumes, each of which is about 5 feet high!

They had original copies of the Declaration of Independence, as well as Ben Franklin’s own annotated copy of the Constitution. There was a document signed by the first four presidents, as well as others who agreed to help fund an exploratory journey before Lewis and Clark — like an 18th century Go Fund Me page.

We were shown a copy of Copernicus from 1685 with annotations, pictures directly from the lunar landing, and a NASA engineer’s notes from the day of the Challenger disaster.

History met current events as we looked at a piece of fake news created by Ben Franklin (see photo above)! He used his skills as a printer to create a completely fake edition of an existing newspaper. The story it told, of hundreds of scalps taken by Indian allies of the British during the American Revolution and sent to the king as a gift, was intended to turn public opinion against King George. So fake news has a longer history than we thought.

Across the street, in the American Philosophical Society Museum, we learned how they put together an exhibit. The APS Museum is in Philosophical Hall, which was the site of the very first Natural History museum in the United States. The American Philosophical Society is celebrating its 275th anniversary this year, with an exhibit of some of their treasures.

In the museum exhibit creation presentation, we learned some essential questions museum curators ask themselves every day when working:

  • How exactly do you put together a museum exhibit?
  • How does one acquire all these fantastic documents? (Spoiler Alert: They buy them at auctions, trade for them, or sometimes even bet on them.)
  • Why is it important to conserve these artifacts?
  • What is the APS’s role in getting people to think scientifically?
  • Why does it all matter? Who cares?

These all were answered by the presenters. We later walked to Reading Terminal Market for lunch, where we waited (not in vain) in excruciating long lines, and had to weave our way through droves of people, including some from a librarian conference and jury duty. Carmen’s cheesesteaks, and Soul Food came out as clear winners, though. We got back around 2:15 to discuss what we are doing next week.

 

Designing our own exhibits.

Miles explaining his exhibit.

 

Looking at photographs from the Apollo 11 moon landing. Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence is at the bottom right.

-Miles

2018 Experiences, Cabinets of Curiosities