Chronicle of Higher Education contributor William Pannapacker, who recently wrote about the centrality of the library for undergraduate education, turns his attention to natural history museums in “Preserving the Future of Natural-History Museums.” Here are his recommendations (explanations and reading suggestions are available in the article):
- Do not sacrifice the history of your museum …
- Regard the museum as a palimpsest …
- Do not attempt to compete with other forms of entertainment …
- Stop condescending to children …
- Show people—in small groups—the museum behind the scenes …
- Apart from prehistoric human evolution—a branch of the history of primates—avoid anthropology …
- Stop being ashamed of dead animals …
- Encourage patrons to build their own natural-history collections …
- Teach the conflicts …
- The most important point: The world is full of simulations. Natural-history museums should cultivate the aura of the real: the rare and unique, the beautiful, the exotic, and the grotesque …
