At the end of the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the Ark of the Covenant is packed up in a crate and shoved deep, deep, deep into a warehouse filled with crates — all identical. Will anyone ever find it again? It seems unlikely.
The same goes for collections in real-world museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution. Somewhere, in a huge warehouse, are artifacts that arrived there 100+ years ago and have never been touched since.
Amazingly, some of those artifacts were once alive.
In fact, buried deep, deep, deep in a warehouse are fish, bugs, birds, fungus and slime mold that have never been logged, named or studied. They may hold the key to evolutionary theory, the cure for cancer or proof that we come from star stuff. Right now, though, those life forms are as inaccessible as the bottom of the sea.
Richard Lane of New Scientist recently wrote an opinion piece about museums and the International Year of Biodiversity (2010). In it, he suggests that museums can be the key to understanding and preserving biodiversity.
He points to collections: “These vast, painstakingly assembled collections of animals and plants are more than mere relics: they offer snapshots of past biodiversity.” He also points to the educational power of museums: “museums can play a crucial role by helping to engage people’s interest [in biodiversity].”
It would be wonderful to believe that Lane is correct — that museums can and will make the effort to dig into their collections to study and exhibit their incredible and surprising holdings.
As a museum professional from way back, though, I’m a little concerned. In recent years, museums have moved further and further away from the practice of exhibiting their holdings — instead creating crowd-pleasing blockbuster exhibits intended to bring in the ticket-buying public.
I’m not saying I have anything against a Harry Potter exhibit — I love the guy! But it’s tough for elderly collections of slime molds and mammal bones to compete with Quidditch, no matter how cleverly they’re exhibited. I suspect it will take more than an official “Year of Biodiversity” to push museums back toward their roots.
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