Curiously Curated: Unusual Museums and Collections in Historical Context

Dictionary.com defines a museum as "a building or place where works of art, scientific specimens, or other objects of permanent value are kept and displayed." This post asks, how did museums get here? Who decides what is museum-worthy? Museums record history, but they also have a history as an institution, and some of those institutions, dare we say it, have skeletons in their closets. We're trying to explore some unusual collections and look at the history of museums in a new light. The items that follow cover such topics as: the immense collection of medical oddities that would later form the basis of Philadelphia's Mütter Museum; how one museum [the Yale Peabody] changed ideas about dinosaurs, dynasties, and even the story of life on earth; an insider's tour of some of the most interesting moments in American history, culled from 20 years of museum experience; a textual and visual history of civilian, military, and commercial aviation from the earliest balloon flights to today's most advanced aircraft; an exploration of human remains as objects for research and display in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a detailed and at times surprising picture of the institutional and social forces that both drove and inhibited racial justice in New York's museums*.


Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

House of Lost Worlds: Dinosaurs, Dynasties, & the Story of Life On Earth by Richard Conniff

Sex in the Museum: My Unlikely Career at New York's Most Provocative Museum by Sarah Forbes 

A Grizzly in the Mail and Other Adventures in American History by Tim Grove

5 Pointz, An Historical Journey: A Journey into the History of the World Renowned Graffiti Museum That Was Known as 5Pointz [DVD]

The Nation's Hangar: Aircraft Treasures of the Smithsonian from the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center by F. Robert van der Linden

 
Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection edited by Neil Kagan and Stephen G. Hyslop 

Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums by Samuel J. Redman 

Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power by Susan E. Cahan  

A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World by R.B. Parkinson

The New Rijksmuseum [DVD]

Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library edited by Tom Baione

The China Collectors: America's Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art Treasures by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac 

Also take a look at some curiously curated collections online!

• 51 Weird Museums Across the US
• 11 Unusual Museums
• 25 Best Museums For Weird Things
• The World's 10 Most Unusual Museums You Should Visit 

Do you have a favorite unusual museum or can you recommend a book that looks at museums from a different angle? Let us know in the comments!

And, if you are a museum fan, don't forget to check out our Museum Discovery Pass Program!

*all book descriptions are from the library catalog

New & Novel: Exhibitions

We love to go to art museums. Do you know you can still see Gods and Heroes: Masterpieces from the École des Beaux-Arts,Paris at the Albuquerque Museum until January 4, 2015? Later in 2015, we are looking forward to Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe! If you like museums too, have you checked out our Museum Discovery Pass Program yet? It ends March 15, 2015, so take advantage of it now!

However, sometimes you don't get out to museums as much as you'd like. You get busy, you don't have the cash, the exhibition you want to see isn't coming to town. One of the coolest things the internet has made available is online museums and virtual tours - you can see a list of some below.  But, also, we have a collection of exhibition catalogues available for checkout in the library catalog! Here are some of our latest acquisitions:

Manuel Carrillo: Mi Querido México by Stuart A. Ashman, curator

Kandinsky: A Retrospective with essays by Angela Lampe and Brady Roberts

Art of the American Frontier: From the Buffalo Bill Center of the West with essays by Stephanie Mayer Heydt, Mindy N. Besaw, Emma I. Hansen

Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door by Elizabeth Siegel with Brett Abbott and Paul Martineau

Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 by Kerry Brougher, Russell Ferguson and Dario Gamboni

Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine edited by Judith A. Barter

Everything Loose Will Land: 1970s Art and Architecture in Los Angeles edited by Sylvia Lavin with Kimberli Meyer

Korea: Ein Fotoprojekt = Korea: A Photo Project by Dieter Leistner

Barbara Nessim: An Artful Life edited by David Galloway

Color Rush: American Color Photography from Stieglitz to Sherman by Katherine A. Bussard & Lisa Hostetler

Art and Music in Venice: From the Renaissance to the Baroque edited by Hilliard T. Goldfarb

Brassaï: For the Love of Paris by exhibition curator Agnès de Gouvion Saint-Cyr

Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898 edited by Richard Ast

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects by Richard Kurin


Also consider taking a look-see at:

The Great Museums [DVD]

The Barnes Collection [DVD]

Louvre City [DVD]

Herb & Dorothy [DVD]

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry [DVD]

Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present [DVD]

Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can't or Won't Show You by Harriet Baskas

The Ideal Museum: An Art Lover's Dream Collection by Phillippe Daverio

Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg  

Art is Every Day: Activities For the Home, Park, Museum, and City by Eileen S. Prince [eBook]


Online/Virtual Museums (a random sampling)

The Collection Online - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Collections Online - Cleveland Museum of Art

Online Tours - Louvre Museum

Browse the Collection Online - Guggenheim Museum

British Museum - Online Tours

Diego Rivera Web Museum

Museum of Computer Art (MOCA)

Virtual Tour: The Frick Collection

Victoria and Albert Museum: Search the Collections
   

A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls

"Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the most recognized designers of his time in decorative arts, especially in stained glass. However, some lamps, windows and other decorative objects which were originally thought to be designed by Tiffany himself, are now recognized as designed and executed by a special group of women who worked for Tiffany at the turn of the 20th century. The “Tiffany Girls”, as they were called, worked for Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Women’s Glass Cutting Department of Tiffany Studios along with their department head, Ohio-born designer Clara Driscoll (1861-1944)."
~from the museum website

I recently checked out the A New Light on Tiffany display at the Albuquerque Museum & it was such a treat that I wanted to recommend the experience to everyone! I had seen Tiffany creations before, but I had never heard about the Tiffany Girls. There are many lovely Tiffany pieces to see in this exhibit, as well as a presentation of what Clara Driscoll's life might have been like-you can see a bicycle of the style she might have ridden, & even listen to a recording of one of her favorite singers. I especially liked, at the end, the representation of what a Tiffany Girl's lodging might have looked like-including some daunting looking boots!

Of course, the sad thing about the exhibit is to see so many pieces labeled "probably" created by Clara Driscoll. Apparently, the only way we know which items were created by her is from reading her letters, which, thankfully, someone held on to! Also, I discovered that you were only allowed to work for Tiffany if you were unmarried-once you married, you were expected to abandon your employment, which seems unfair for a designer of Clara Driscoll's talent.

You can still enjoy the exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum, featuring 70 Tiffany lamps, windows, mosaics, enamels and ceramics, as well as pages of newly discovered documents written by designer Clara Driscoll, until August 21st! You can buy your tickets online, but if you want to take advantage of the New Mexico resident discount, wait to get your tickets at the museum.


There is a still a considerable hold list on Susan Vreeland's Clara & Mr. Tiffany, a fictionalized account of their relationship, but the library catalog has several histories of Tiffany & Company & books about Louis Comfort Tiffany that you can check out while you're waiting! Please note that Clara & Mr. Tiffany is also available from our digital library, both as an eBook & downloadable audiobook.