We Love Museums!

BY: CHARLOTTE PATTERSON, EDUCATION CURATOR

My nephew, Kevin, and his family, who live in West Virginia, visited Elizabeth City a few years ago. His then four-year-old son, Caleb, was all about trains. He knew that we had a Discovery Room at the museum featuring trains— Discover the Railroad: Ride the Time Train It was an interactive space for children and families. As soon as Caleb saw me, he asked when the museum was going to be open. I was surprised to go to the Discovery Room early Tuesday morning to find him and his dad busy reconstructing the train set. He even brought his own set of Thomas trains in a carrying case to play with in the room. Caleb certainly knows his trains. He was using train language: calling trains back to the yard, repairing trains, and transporting goods to the farms and towns. His dad remarked, “We love museums!” Caleb readily agreed. At such a young age, he is already understanding the excitement and pleasure of interacting in the museum setting. This experience showed me the importance of having a safe, exciting, and interactive space in the museum for families to relax and enjoy the learning experience.

CHILDREN AT PLAY

Courtesy of the Museum of the Albemarle

So different was the museum experience for my generation. A trip to a museum meant walking in a line to just look at artifacts on display. The impression was of an old, solemn building, often dark and damp, that housed things that were unfamiliar. The connection to everyday life was somehow lost.

Encyclopedia Britannica states that museums are “institutions that preserve and interpret the material evidence of the human race, human activity, and the natural world.” People began to collect, interpret, and display items long before museum institutions were established. The Greek mouseion meant “seat of the Muses,” or a place of contemplation. In Roman times, the Latin term museum referred mainly to places of philosophical discussion. Eventually, museum became a word to describe a collection of curiosities. In the 17th century, Oxford University received a collection on the condition that a building be erected to house it. The Ashmolean Museum, as it became known, opened in 1683. By the 18th and 19th centuries, a museum was generally known as a building, accessible to the public, that holds cultural material. As society changed, the meaning began to encompass more than the building housing the cultural material. Historic buildings were restored and preserved as well as outdoor environments. The late 20th century brought inventions and growth of technology that expanded the reach of museums.

Today’s museums are happy, colorful, and active places where families can gather and enjoy the experience. The word museum now encompasses all the historic meanings. It includes the early meaning of the word—a place of contemplations—as well as the later meanings of a collection, the building, and now the experiences. Museums have life!