Museum International No 190 (Vol XLVIII, n° 2, 1996)

Natural history museums

C O N T E N T S Editorial

Front cover

Dossier: Natural history riauseunas atid tbe environment

Lions of the Atlas region on display in the gallery of extinct animals,Natural History Museum,Paris. Q Laurent Bessol,M N H N Back cover Whale skeleton in the Natural History Museum,Paris. Q C.Lemzaouda,MNHN Editor-in-Chief:Marcia Lord Editorial Assistant:Christine Wilkinson Iconography: Carole Pajot-Font Editor,Arabic edition: Malimoud El-Sheniti Editor,Russian edition: Tatiana Telegina Advisory Board

Gael de Guichen,ICCROM Yani Herreman,Mexico Nancy Hushion,Canada Jean-PierreMohen,France Stelios Papadopolous,Greece Elisabeth des Portes,SecretaryGeneral,ICOM,ex officio Roland de Silva,President, ICOMOS,ex officio Tomislav Bola, Croatia Shaje Tshiluila,Zaire Q UNESCO 1996

Management

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Natural history museums and the global setting Andreas L.Steigen

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The ‘greening’of natural history museums S.AI. Nnir

Back to basics Eii-ikGr.anqvist

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Aesthetics in the service of science:the Grande Galerie de l’Évolutionin Paris Jacques Maigret

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Exhibiting the environment:Oregon’sHigh Desert Museum George S.Gardner

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The Mexican Bird Museum:an urban garden

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Inventorying biodiversity:an African perspective Joi-isKonzeii

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Natural history museums and cyberspace C.Weinniei; A k Ei.ixofi-Stax$orcland A.L. Gardner.

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Changing knowledge,changing museums Michael Ruse

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Published for the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization by Ulackwell Publishers. Authors are iesponsible for the choice and the presentation ofthe facts contained in signed articles and for the opinions expressed therein,wliicli are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.The designations employed and the presentÿtion of material in Mirsei~m Imei-~zatioi~al do not imply the expression of any opinion wliaeoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country,territory,city or area or OF its atitliorities,or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or houndaries.

No. 2 , April - June 1996

teaches nature Yani Herveinan

The State Hermitage Museum:a modern challenge .Stuai-t Gibson

Profile

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The Museum of the Irish Famine Terence Du.y

Conservation

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The conservation survey:identifying preservation problems Graenie ‘Gardiner

Features

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Books

Illicit traffic Technology update Professional ne,ws

ISSN 1350-0775,Mzrsezrin I?~ternatio~zal (UNESCO,Paris), No. 190 (Vol.48,No.2, 1996) O UNESCO I996 I’ublished by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UII)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

STOLEN Sous-boisavec daims dans une clairière (Undergrowth with deer in a clearing), early nineteenth-centuryoil on canvas by Théodore Tiipin.de Cresse (notsigned). The painting shows n forest clearing riiith two large trees in the centreforeground,infront of ruhich is CI group offiue deer standing or lying doozun; another deer can be seen on the right. i%e canuas runs crudely clitfrom itsframe rising n craz-knife.The inueiztory number Pi.1.234: stamped in indelible ink, isprobabhiuisible on the back of the caizuas.Dimensions 71X 94.5c m Stolen on 11Janriay 1995from a naiiseiim in Paris.(Reference95/4624/DANIntetpolFrame.)

Photo by courtesy of the ICPO-Interpol GeneralSecretariat,Lyons (France) ~

Editorial The 1992 Earth Summit was a historical watershed, raising environmental issues to unprecedented heights of global consciousnessand concern.Formally known as the United NationsConferenceon Environmentand Development,the Rio deJaneiro Summit enshrinedtheprincipleof‘theintegraland interdependentnatureoftheEarth,ourhome’. In the words of its Secretary General,Maurice Strong,it ‘igniteda wildfireofinterestand support at every level of society in every corner of the planet’and made evident the ‘compellingneeds for action . . . to forge this second industrialrevolution- this ecorevolutionthatisessentialinorderto shifttheworld onto a new pathway to a more secure, sustainableand equitable future’. The groundwork for such an ‘eco-revolution’ was laid in the main agreements adopted at the Summit:the Rio Deckdration on Environmentand Development;Agenda 21 the Programme of Action for SustainableDevelopment,adopted by 178 governments;and the Convention on Biological Diversity,which entered into force in December 1993 and has now been ratified by 127 states.All three texts emphasize the overwhelming importanceof public informationand education:‘environmentalissuesare best handled with theparticipationofall concernedcitizens ..by making informationwidely available’ (Rio Declaration); there ‘is a need to increase public sensitivity to environment and developmentproblems’and ‘todevelop support programmes to involve young people and childrenin environmentand developmentissues’(Agenda 21); ‘awareof the general lack of information and knowledge regarding biological diversity’and the ‘urgentneed . . . to provide the basic understanding upon which to plan and implement appropriate measures’,governments must ‘facilitatethe exchange of information,from all publicly availablesources,relevantto the conservationand sustainableuse ofbiologicaldiversity’ (Convention on Biological Diversity).’

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Suchrareunanimity ininternationalcirclesbearswitness to the near-universal recognition that,to quote from the Preamble of Agenda 21,‘Humanitystands at a defining moment in history . . . confronted with a perpetuation of disparitiesbetween and within nations . . . and the continuing deteriorjtion of the ecosystemson which w e dependfor our wellbeing.’And if education in the broadest sense is the key to solving these problems, museums have a role and a responsibilitysecond to none. With this in mind,Mziseiinz htemntionnl asked a number of specialists throughoutthe world to share their views on the challenge to natural history museums today,focusing on the range of problems confronting them as they seek to reflect the host of current environmentalissueswhich demandnew visions and new approaches.W e were largely inspired by the work ofAndreas Steigen,Presidentof the ICOM InternationalCommittee of Museums and Collections of Natural History,whose article ‘Scientificilliteracy:a challenge to natural history museums’zwas nothing less than a call to arms,enjoining natural history museums to respond to the ‘deepand well-foundedconcern for nature and speciesin natural ecosystemsthreatened by human activityor commercialinterests’. His active participation in preparing this issue was invaluable. M.L. Notes 1.The full text of the Convention may be obtained froin the Secretarkat to the Conventionon Biological Diversity,15,Chemin des Anémones,CH-1219Châtelaine,Geneva,Switzerland.For further information on Agenda 21,kindly contact the Bureau for the Co-ordinationof Environmental Programmes,UNESCO. 2.Mziseirni hzterizntioizal,No.188,Vol. 47,No.4,1995. ISSN 1350-0775,Mzuerrin iiiiemalio>za/(UNESCO,Paris), No. 190 IVOI.48,No.2,1996) Q UNESCO 1996 I’ubiisiied by Uldckwell I’ul>lisliers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JP IUK)and 238 Main Street, Cambridge,MA O2142 (USA)

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Natural history museums and the global setting Aizdvens L. Steigen

Andreas L. Steigen is associateprofessoi at the Centrefor Studies of Enuironment a n d Resources at the University of Bergen, Noniiay,a n d former head of the iiniriersityk&ILiseuni of Zoology.He is president of Natllist, ICOiWk International Coinmitteefor fiiz~seums and Collections of Natural Histovy.In this introdiictoy article he describes IJOLLJ the cziwent environmental situation radicnlLv affects the Loay natziml histoiy mbseums inzrsffiinction.

IvIuseumshave alwaysreflectedhistory.It is a consequenceofthemuseum conceptitself and oftheevolutionofcollections.Although environmental change may increase the scientificvalue of collections and the information value of exhibitions in natural history museums,the present globalsituationcalls, first and foremost,for placing the natural history museum into a context of responsibilities and commitmentfor the future. Not since 1972 has &fusemi International contemplatedtopicsespecially significantto these museums.Over the past twenty-five years, our understanding of nature and naturalprocesses,and ourperception of the world and ofhumanity‘splace in nature,have radically changed,perhaps more than w e comprehend.The understanding of social behaviour inhumanshas been put on an evolutionary basis through sociobiology;research in geneticstells us that most,perhaps all,diseases may have some genetic cause; the eradicationof smallpox is a triumph for epidemiology;the AIDS epidemic has altered human health and behaviour.Indeed, everyday lifehas been transformedformost people on planetEarth.The microprocessor revolution,biotechnology,the population increase,thefresh-watercrisis,globalwarming and climate change,soil erosion and pollution are all elements of a multifarious change. The end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the USSR and the integration of Western Europe,the dismantling of apartheidinSouthAfrica,arebut a fewofthe dramatic new political aspects with unpredictable consequences. There is a growing awareness of how human beingsalter theirenvironmentandwith it has come widespread concern for the future.Availableinformationtellsusthatthis anxietyisjustified.Our CommonFutirre,the report of the United National World Commission on Environmentand Development in 1987,and the R.io Conferencein 1937,are

landmarksofpoliticalawarenesswhichhave influenced management and legislation in many countries;they have also brought about a greater understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of the challenges and problems facing humankind.

No escape from the laws of nature

The laws of nature were not invented by clever scientists working in the natural sciences.They were discovered and described by scientists and,whether w e like it or not,they are omnipresentand govern all activities in the universe. W e live in a science-dominated society where,paradoxically,scientific illiteracy is widespread.The persistenceofnatural laws is not easily understood by the generalpublic which all too easily forgets (and sometimes deliberately overlooks! the fact that these laws are crucial elementsin both the framework and the matrix of societies.A social systemthatviolates thesecond law ofthermodynamics-which tells us that each timew e use energy some of it w i l l be lost as heat to the environment-willdestroy the material foundationsfor its existence,disintegrate and eventuallyperish.The increasedaccumulation ofheat in the atmosphere correlatedto a raised concentrationofcarbondioxideis not a fancyideaofscientists,but a consequence of the sFcture of the CO,molecule itself.

A crisis is a turning point for better or worse. Previous crises in the history of humanity have led to inventions,migrations,starvation and war.Since the advent of agriculture, societies have met with crises on a local or regional scale.The developmentofagriculture itselfmay have been influenced by overpopulation and over-exploitationof natural resources in a particular area. Whole societies and cultures have disintegrated.Bi-itthose events

ISSN 1350-0775,Afirseim inteixntionnl (UNESCO,Parisi, No. 190 (Vol.rH, No. 7.1996) Cl UNESCO 1996 I’ublished by iilackwrll I’ublishcrs. 108 Cowley Road,Oxford.OX+ 1JF iUK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge. MA 0714 (USA)

Natural history museums and the global setting

also spawnedprogress and new and more sophisticated utilizationofnaturaland biologicalresources.The present situation is quitedifferent,forneverbefore hasthe use of non-biological resources been more extensive,encompassingthe entireplanet.

first message is: planet Earth can hardly support humankind today.

The secondmessage tellsus thatthe human populationisincreasingexponentially at an annualnet increaseofmore than 90 million. i l l Within a few years,global population w Humanity’sactivitieschangesoil,water and pass G billion and might double before the atmosphere.Using all their brilliant intelli- year 2050.However,these figures do not gence and ingenuity,human beings have truly reflect the gravity of the situation as an ongoing they count only the number of heads and turnedthe earth into a test-tube, experiment which has, in fact,lasted for not the number ofconsumer units on earth. thousands of years and has engendered Energy use reflects resource use,so let us many irreversible outcomes.For the first apply it as a unitforcomparison.inthisway time in the history of the planet,an organ- w e can see that the average American ism,the speciesHomosapiem,liasbecome consumes over thirty times more energy the agent of the mass extinction of other than the average Indian.If the energy conorganisms.Previous extinctions have been sumption of the Indian is counted as one caused by major events such as climate unit,we could say that there are almost 8 change or colliding meteorites,but this is billionAmerican citizens!And yetw e know not the case today.The experimentis now that any activity following an exponential catalysed by over-exploitationofresources, pattern w i l l eventually destroy itself.The pollution,overpopulation and human self- power ofexponentialityis difficultto imagishness.The effects and consequences of ineandeasilyunderestimatedforthesimple this vast removal of biological information reasonthat thepath ofexponentialdevelopfrom the biosphere is unknown,as evolu- ment is historical:what w e observe today is tion itself is unpredictable.W e do know, a delayed response;what happens tomorhowever,thdt earlier extinctions dramati- rowisa consequenceofwhatw e do-ordo cally changed life on earth. not do today.

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Three messages Global food production is reaching its limits.The green revolution gave us more food for a rapidly growing population,the biotechnologicalrevolutionmay notdoso. Soildestructionand lack of freshwater are stronglyimpedingfoodproduction.Today more than 40 per cent of the earth’sreliable,fresh-waterresourcesare being used annually,mostly for agriculture.Other estimatesindicate thatHomosapieiismaybe exploiting,directly and indirectly,a third ofnetprimaryproductionphotokynthesized by theearth’splantseveryyear.One billion people are still inadequately fed.So the O UNESCO 1996

Thethirdmessage isthatthegreatdisparities in wealth, possibilities and expectations between and within countries are an economic and ethical time-bomb.As w e enter the new millennium,80 per cent of the worlds population have access to 20 per centofglobalwealth.The remaining 20per cent, who control 80 per cent of world capital and resources,w i l l put much effort into protecting their wealth and privileges. Thesethree dimensionsofman’secological niche foodproduction,populationgrowth and global and nationalinequality are the main forcesshapingour future.They are at theheartofwhatisoftencalled ‘theenvironmental crisis’,the widespread fear that w e

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Aiadmzs L.Steigen

aredestroyingtheearth.Butit ismore accurate to say that what is being changed is the present environment and its ability to support ourneeds:therew i l lalwaysbeanenvironment onearth,but it may,however,become hostile to humans.So the cmx of the crisis isneither the planet nor the environmentas such but rather the societies of the future; whatisatstakeisthelife andwelfareoftheir citizens,and eventually humanity itself.

Since nature always fluctuates with both natural cycles and unexpected changes,in an ecolate economy all use of biological resourcesshould be sub-optimal.All activities should take the second law of thermodynamics seriously.And this principle can be extended further:nothing can be completed with an efficiency of 10Q per cent. The account is always negative.This is the consequence of the second law for all aspects of human life,not only in technolIn other words,w e are facing a human ogy, industry and transport, but also in crisis,with many possible consequences. activities regarded as social or cultural. The global village may turn into a global battlefield where disintegrating societies To be Sustainable,a society must manage and fight in a ruthless struggle for resources usematerial,biologicalandhumanresources and survival. Climate change may shift insuchaway as notto impedethefulfilment balances between the rich and the poor. of the needs of future generations. it is The countries of the north, with their probable thata sustainablesocietycanonly complex,unstable and nervouseconomic survive if founded on humanism,national systems,may faceself-amplifiedeconomic and internationalsolidarity and consensus. setbacks.Seriousrecessionsmay be sparked Theworld today isdominated by inequality, off by events in other parts of the world. excessive self-indulgence,and increasing Ecological change may force millions of fundamentalism in politics and religion. people to emigrate.The rich countriesw ill Material and biological resources are badly be constrainedto reduce their pollution as managed,whereasvaluablehumanresources economic growth and industrializationin are exploited for selfish benefits.The realithe Third World seriously increase emis- zation of a sustainable society confronts sionsto the atmosphere.This can be diffi- humanity with the unresolved problems of cultto explain to the unemployed.Eventu- environmentaldestruction,mismanagement allythewealthyw i l l have to substitutetheir and myopic politics.Thefactorsthreatening quality of lifefora basic standard ofliving. the global environmentand hindering sustainable development cannot be understood if the social dimension is omitted. Thus,theimmediatechallengeistopavethe Ecolacy,biophilia and the way fora politicalclimate permittingradical dangerous electron changes in economy,legislation,manageLiteracy and numeracy are skills required ment and responsibilities if w e are to avoid in a modern society.But humanity’sinis- a global struggle for limited resources. management of the earth tells us that ecological insight is just as important.The Do natural history museums have special AmericanecologistGarretHardinhascalled obligationstoact?Notnecessarily.Museums this ecologicalskill‘ecolacy’. Inthe ecolate are not ethical entities.But people working society individuals,corporationsand poli- in the museum are individuals with ethical ticians accept that laws, principles and obligations.Natural history museums have limits of nature are real and cannot be huge collections of valuable specimens. evaded.All human activities are based on Through exhibitions and other activities, this simplefact:to acceptnature as it really theyact as an interfacebetween scienceand the public,establishing a contact that most is;nothing more;nothing less.

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Natural history museums and the global setting

scientists and research laboratories do not have.This opens great possibilities for conveying information and insight and places new responsibilities on museums. But although natural history museums the world over have taken seriouslythe threat to our common naturalheritage,fewhave demonstratedconcernabouttheneed fora sustainable society,nor have they recognizedthat humans have bonds with nature which are an integral part of human nature itself,a conceptthatE.O.Wilson atHarvardUniversity has called biophilia.Yet,by using the principlesand ideasofecolacyandbiophilia, museums may open up new avenues in working towards a sustainable future. But there may be rough waters ahead.A natural history museum presents objects and artefacts to the public. Concepts and principles are displayed through text,pictures and dioramas.Adults and childrenare informed through demonstrations,lectures and courses.Interested amateurs and lay people have the opportunityto meet specialists.These activitiesare time-consuming and expensive. O n the other hand, the ‘electronification’of natural history museums is popular and relatively inexpensive, andwe findthatmuseumstodayare increasingly filled with television screens,computers with interactive programs,and buttons to be pushed.One might get the impression that the electron is the central artefact of naturalhistory,and thatthereasonforsome of the gadgets is to manipulate skilfully the same elementary particle. Virtual reality w i i l soon find its way to the natural history museum.It can take one to the rain forestand show animalsthat might not be seenonarealvisit tothesameforestsince they are often hidden in the trees. It can enable us to experience the extinct ciclids of Lake Victoria, electronically restored from the late Dr Greenwoodscollection in the basement of the Natural History Museum inLondon.Lostbiodiversity regained! O UNESCO 1996

Nevertheless,various electronic devices definitely have their place in museums. The use of e-maillias increased internationalco-operationbetweenmuseums,and the numberofmuseum home pages on the Internet grows daily.This is inexpensive communication with great potential.W e must simply be on guard to ensure that virtual reality does not wipe out actual reality,and that the excitement and fascination of new technology with great possibilities in the museum do not distract attention from the most serious issues facing us today. The articles in this issue’sspecial dossier delve further into the many aspects of natural history museums.S. M.Nair discusses how museums, through exhibits and educationalprogrammes,can act ethicallyto changevalues,attitudesand (hopefully) behaviour. Three case-studies are presented: from the Grande Galerie in Paris (Jacques Maigret), the Museo de las Aves de México at Saltillo (Yani Herreman) and Oregon’s High .Desert Museum at Bend (GeorgeS.Gardner). Together,these three rather different museums depict an interestingcollageofnatural history.From an African perspective,the problems in coping with and accessing too much,and often too complicated information, are considered by Joris Komen.C.Wemmer and his colleaguestakeus on ajourneyinto cyberspace showing the advantages and possibilities offered to practical museum work from information technology.And lest w e forget that the majority of the museums of the world are small institutions with very limited resources, E. Granqvistdiscusses their situation.Finally, Michael Ruse points out that there is a philosophy behind‘ the way a museum presents itselfto its visitors,and questions whether museum professionals are aware ofhow prevailingphilosophicalparadigms may penetrate our thinking and influence exhibitions. 7

The ‘greening’ of natural history museums S.M.Nair

A strong aduocate of the natitral histoy tnirseiirn5- educational missioii, the author bas had ninple oppoi-tzini[y topiit his idem intopracticeCISfoiinder and director of the National Mifieurn of Natirval Histo y in N e w Delhifor more than twenty years.H e is uicepesident of the ICOM Natirral Histoty Corninittee and the fiiineirms Association of India, a n d serves as aduiser of the World Wide F u n d for Nature India.H e bas received internatioiial recognition through theJ. D.Rockefeller III F u n d Felloulship,the H o m i Bhabha Fellorushap and the Smithsoninn National M u s e u m Act Fellou~shp.H e waspresented with the Distinguished Scientist Aruardfor 1993/ 94 b y the Gover-nment of Indiafor his contribution to enuironinental education a n d mriseology.

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denotes the beginning of interactivity in natural history museums.Borrowing from the success of science and technology museums,natural history museums now use animation techniques in certain kinds of exhibits,for example,to show how blood circulates and how the brain works, to demonstratebioluminescence in organisms,etc.Audiovisual aids such as guideo-phones,films and videos are of great help in explaining complexphenomena or in depicting certain biological processes that cannot be readily explained through static displays.They improve the commuBased on themannerinwhich theycarry out nication potentialof exhibitsshowing anithese functions,natural history museums mal locomotion,migration, animal and may be classified into three distinct catego- plant behaviour, evolutionary processes ries. The first consists of the collection- and a host of other phenomena. oriented museums, where collections and related research (taxonomy in most cases) Discovery rooms, live corners and occupy a pivotal role.The second represents public participation thosemuseum thatgive attention to exhibit presentation and education along with their traditionalcollectionand researchfunctions. Visitor participation as an effective means The third comprises the smaller number of of communication has found a place in contemporary museums that consider edu- many modern natural history museums. cationas theirprimarypurpose and relegate This rangesfrom the simple act ofpushing a button to animate an exhibit to such all other functionsto a supporting role. experiencesas walking through a diorama The transformation from a collection- and being in the midst ofa natural habitat. oriented museum to one that gives pride Interactive displays add another dimenof place to display and education has sionby involvingthe visitor in the manipubeen brought aboutby the need to cater to lation of the exhibit, much like piecing the growing museum audience and to together a jigsaw puzzle. sustainthe public interest and support on which the future of many institutions de- The concept of the discovery room is a pends.This change is taking place in one major contributionto the interactive learnway or another in all the major natural ing process of children;it is based on an history museums around the world.While approachwhere ‘learningis fun’and unindioramas depicting natural habitats of ani- hibited, and where children are free to mals and plants and thematic exhibits handle,manipulate,play and interact with dealing with various biological phenom- specimensand exhibits.The National ivluena are widespread,collectionsof bottled seum of Natural History at the Smithsonian was the first specimens of animals and herbaria rarely Institution inwashington,D.C., appear today.Demonstrationsusing speci- to develop such a room;it was followedby mens,models or live exhibits have added the AmericanMuseum ofNatural History in a new dimensionto communication,which New York,the Academy ofNatural Sciences

Traditional museums of natural history have a more or less common story of origin. Most evolved from collections of curios, souvenirs brought home by explorers, trophies resulting from hunting expeditions and collectionsmade by scientists. Today,the main functions of natural history museums are: the collection and preservation of objects;collections-based study-and research;exhibit presentation and display;and educational communication ordisseminationofinformationforthe benefit of the public.

ISSN 1350-0775.M u s e u m I~tternntiom?l(UNESCO,Paris),No.190 (Vol.48,No.2,1996) Q UNESCO I996 Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford. OX4 1JF IUIO and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

The ‘greening’of natural history museums

An exhibit at the NatioiialMuseznvi of Natural Histo-): N e u Dehi, sym bolizing hzmani2.y destroying the very basis of its existence.

in Philadelphia,the Field Museum in Chcago,the Denver Museum of Natural History,the Natural HistoryMuseum inVienna, along with a host of others.In India,the NationalMuseum ofNatural History inNew Delhi and the Regional Museum of Natural HistoryinMysore opened discoverycentres for children.

Some museums have also pioneered the concept of ‘livecorners’as an interactive facility for visitors.Museums such as the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco,and the DiscoveryPlaceat Charlotte,North Carolina,have full-sizeaquariums which are part ofthe exhibitgalleries. Live corners in the form of small aquariums, terraria or exhibits of live birds, reptiles,snakes,bees,ants,etc.,were introduced in the Boston Museum of Science, the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley,California,the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History,and the Natural History Museum in Geneva,to name but a few, to provide visual relief as well as lessonsin animalbehaviour to help visitors handle and examine animalsat close quarters. The live coral-reefexhibit and the InsectZoo at the Smithsonian,and the live tropical-forestexhibitat theDiscoveryPlace, are good examples of educationallyeffective live corners in museums.

ties for visitor interaction.Biological conceptspresented in the form of games,quizzes and information-retrievalsystems have today become effective tools for conveying directional and programmatic information to visitors on such themes as classification, evolution,and food chains.Most museums of science and natural history in Australia, Canada,continentalEurope,theUnited Kingdom and the United States,have introduced computer and videodisc technologies very successfully.Some of the best examplesare to be found at the Exploratoriuin in San Francisco,the LawrenceHall ofScience,the Museum ofScienceand IndustryinChicago, the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto,and the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City. The National Museum ofNatural History in New Delhi has also developed a Bio-Science Computer Room along these lines,as has the RegionalMuseum ofNaturalHistory in Mysore.

Along with advancesin the field of exhibition techniques, innovations have also enhanced the educationalmission ofnatural history museums. Until recently,museum education was limited to guiding visitors in the galleries, providing film shows and organizing occasionallectures for the benefit ofthe public.With the rapid advance of information technology and communication media, which have beThe electronic media and computer tech- come available to the mass public,musenology have also opened up new possibili- ums have to explore new methods for O UNESCO 1996

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Jbsiit1X e!fornature il:self, .Educationalprogrammes that involve visits to wildlife and other natural habitats have a key role to play;with carefulplanning and execution, they can help develop a keen sense of observation and understanding of nature, especially among children.

A hnncls-on exhibitfor children nt the Discorieyi Room of the National&Iiiseiim of NaturalHistoy,Nelu Delhi.

The National Museum ofNatural History in New Delhi has a large number of such programmes,particularly for the benefit of children and schoolteachers.Field trips to fulfilling their educational role in order to national parks and wildlife sanctuariesare avoid becoming obsolete.They have to regularfeaturesofthe museum,which also face increasing competitionfrom cinema, operates a school loan service of curricutelevision,video, theatre,trade fairs and lum-orientedexhibits for enriching classother attractions that vie with each other room instruction in biology. Temporary for a place in the average person’sleisure- exhibitions are organized by the museum time agenda.Those museums that have not only on its premises but also in other respondedto this challengehave come up strategiclocations,and a community enviwith innovative programmes thatpromote ronmental awareness programme is conobservation,questioning,testing,correla- ducted through film and audiovisual prestion and evaluation,and are aimed at entations in different housing colonies of ensuringa rewardingexperienceofeduca- the city and in far-flungareas on request. tional enrichment. Many natural history museums now have separate education With most major natural science museums departments charged with the responsibil- located in large cities, the growth of reity of structuring,programming and con- gional and neighbourhood museums has ducting various activities. been a significantresponse to the need to reach out to the general public.The develMuseums are not (and should not be) like opment of mobile museums is an attempt monuments,only to be visited and admired. to go still further in this direction.These This is all the more true for natural history call for specialized planning skills and museums which have understood that an associate operational and administrative emphasis on environmental education and work in an entirely differentway than in a public awarenesscannotbe achieved solely traditional museum context.They have a through exhibits and activities confined tremendousvalue for extensioneducation withinthe institution’sfourwalls.The muse- in rural and semi-urbanareas where muums must have recourse to real-life sihia- seum facilitiesare laclung. tionsto provide learningopportunitiesto its clientele.Educationaloutreachprogrammes play a leadingroleand can be most effective Environmental education: in the form of field trips. a total picture Educatorsin naturalhistory museums realize that the museum is only a promotional agency for nature education and not a

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The question ofmaintaining and preserving our environmentis ofgreater relevance and significancetodaythaneverbefore,because 0 UNESCO I996

The ‘greening’of natural history museums

ofthe degradationalready sufferedby natural eco-systems.Natural history museums can undertake the task of communicating information and creating public awareness through the medium of the exhibits and activitiesthat they have at their command. The number of natural history museums that have attemptedto tackle environmental issues by these means is,however,relativelysmall.TheAmerican AssociationofMuseumspublishedanexcellentbook,Milseunis aiid theEizuiroizmeat,’ in 1971,and the Museum of Civilizationin Quebec City,Canada,issued a publication entitled The Rise of Eizviroiaineizt~lismitz Mzisetinis‘ in 1992.These broadly represent the concernof museum professionals on the “greening”of museums. The first publication states: The intellectual, scientific and artistic authority of museums commands great respect.Museums have seldom applied their inîluence to public issues;but the time has come when these institutions, which throughtheyearshave preserved man’streasuresand nourishedhis spirit, must also apply themselvesto the preservation of an environment fit for life. The book provides outlines,themes,techniques and illustrations that museums can adapt for developing exhibits and programmesrelevantto environmentaleducation.The authors of the secondbook note that Museums are not at the centre of the powerfulsurge in interestshownby the public forenvironmentalconcerns,and dis sets them farapartfrom the press or television.Environmentalissuesarejust barelycreeping intotheworld ofmuseums.Indeed,the literature on the subject of the environment - so abundant today - remains completely silent on 0 UNESCO 1996

museums and exhibitions.The great potentialthatmuseumshaveinpromoting public awarenessabout the conservation of our natural heritage needs to

be exploited fully.

Within the two decadesthatseparatethese landmarkpublicationsmuch hashappened to awakenconcernforenvironmentalconservation all over the world.These issues have been reflected somewhatin the role played by museums, albeit not significantly enough.This is a challenge and a responsibilityas well as an opportunityfor natural history museums today. An understandingof the need for conservation and wise use of natural resources can be achieved only through a basic knowledgeof the plants and animalsthat exist in nature,their inter-relationships, the factors that contribute to the maintenance ofbalanced ecosystems,what happens when these systemsare disruptedor destroyed, and how humanity itself is affected by suchimbalances.Thus,exhibits on several aspects of ecology,wildlife and conservation could be developed.A gallery on the theme ‘HowNature Works’ or ‘UnderstandingEcology’can be ofvital interest.Aspects of the interdependence of living organisms in various natural habitats could be portrayed here. The wholequestionofbiological energy,starting with plants that capture sunlight to synthesize basic carbohydrates,and the flow of this energy through herbivores, predators,etc.,leadingultimatelyto death, decomposition and natural recycling of energy,can form an excellent theme to demonstrate the fundamental interrelationship between living organisms and the physical environment.Food chains in differentecosystems,the role played by various organisms in maintaining them and how human interference has brought about disastrous consequences can also

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S.11% Nnir

A ‘kntieretrnil’for uisitors to the exhibition on Environment and Development ovganized by the&liiserim of LVatimzlHistoy in N e w Delhi.

be demonstrated through well-conceived exhibits.In dealingwith the environment, it is important to provide a positive outlook, emphasizing the human role in ensuring a better environment for the future,rather than presenting a ‘doomsday’approach. One ofthe pioneering effortsto focusattention on humanity’sthoughtlessdestruction of nature and itspossible impacton human survivalwas a special exhibition organized in 1969 by theAmerican Museum ofNatural History in New York entitled Can filan Sriruive?Around the same time,the Natural History Museum of the SmithsonianInstitution set up a temporary exhibition called Endangered Animals. The Cleveland Museum ofNaturalHistorysetup an exhibition during this period focusing attention on conservation of nature.From such modest beginnings,naturalhistorymuseums slowly startedwaking up to the new challengesof representingcontemporaryconcernsonconservation of natural resources,adding another dimension to their traditional role of documentingand displayingthe marvels of nature. New gallerieson ecology and the environment have been opened during the last twenty-fiveyears in a number ofmuseums: the British Museum (Natural History) in

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London,the Science Museum in Paris,the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the Milwaukee Public Museum,the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History,the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Smithsonian Institution,the Australian Museum in Sydney,the National Museum of Natural History in New Delhi,among many others,representthis new surge of interest and concern for promoting environmental education through museum exhibits.

Special programmes for special groups

The educational mission of the museum cannot be fully accomplished without specificprogrammesand activitiesdesignedfor various target groups,such as schoolchildren,college students and youth,teachers, families, handicapped persons, villagers, farmers and,of course,the general public. One of the most important contributions that natural history museums can make to environmental education for schoolchildren is to develop projects and activities that enrich the curriculum and supplement and complement formal learning. This is possible only if teachers are made aware of the processes involved in in0 UNESCO I996

The ‘greening’of natural history museums

troducing environmental topics.Orientation and motivation ofteachers as efficient communicatorsto promote environmental education at the school level therefore assumes great significance.The role of the natural history museum should be to provide assistance,incentive and guidance to teachers not only by utilizing the infrastructure of the museum but also by using nature itself as a teaching laboratory.An imaginative teacher should be able to develop a large number of teaching aids and resourcematerials which generate interest and excitement among students. Such projects can combine an element of discovery,innovation and ingenuity leading to a high degree of environmental awareness and a commitmentto conservation.

museum and at outside venues;contests and competitionsfor childrenand adolescents and the use of innovative communication media such as puppetry, dance, drama and street plays,make a dynamic contribution.It is only through such wellconceived and well-executededucational programmes and outreach activities that natural history museums can fulfill their obligation to society and face the challenges of change by becoming relevant to public education on the conservation of biologicaldiversityand thewise utilization of natural resources.

Notes

1.American Association of Museums, Another concern in the creation of envi- Musezims and the Enuironii~ent:A Handbook ronmental awareness is the fact that most for Ed~ication,New York,Arkville Press, people have no idea how they may con- 1971. tribute to environmental conservation. Bombarded with informationaboutdefor- 2. Jean Davallon,Gerald Grandmont and estation,pollution,destructionof wildlife, Bernard Schiele, The Rise of etc.,many people feel helpless and cyni- Eiîziiroiiii7entalisin ill Mziseir?ns,Quebec City, cal,not to say apathetic,about the prob- Musée de la Civilisation,1992. lem.W e have to changesuch attitudesand this is possible only by relating environmental issuesto everydaylife.The factthat conservation can begin at home and become a way of life, firmly ingrained in personal habits and ethics, needs to be emphasized. Wise utilization of natural resources, conservation of energy and water, recycling materials, cleaning and greeningone’ssurroundings,safeguarding bodies of water from pollution,avoiding excessive noise, etc., are all matters to which everyindividualcan contribute.The direct linkage of these actions to environmental protection can be demonstrated through museum exhibits and educational programmes.

A bird-watcbirzg oeitreach progmnz m e orgazized at the Rangmznti~ittziBird Sailctuaiy by th?Museum of Natilral Histo y in Mysore.

Temporary exhibits on these themes should also be organized,both within the O UNESCO 1996

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Back to basics Eilzk Granquist

n e sinall 117 ziseiirn,the simple, iizexpensiL1e exhibition,arid a retumi to tried and true inethods of display,Fnake up Eir-ik Granqvist’srec@e for bringing the iiatzird his tog^ inliseuin into the forefroizt of ecology edzicntioiz.The author trained as a mzfieiim taxidermist at the ZoologicalAhiseiim of the Univelsity of Helsinki, and irt Suieden niad Gennany.H e was assistant to the directoi-aiid tmidennist at the Mifiée des Sciences Natrirelles, Orléans,France,for fouryears, and then served as conservator at the Zoological &Izfieiim of the University of Bergen,N o m q y , mid the Zoological M u s e u m of the Uizii~eeusityof Helsinki, Finland.H e is atpresent director of theprivate inuseuin Préhistorama,Musercm of the Origins and Evolution of &Ian, Bidon,France, and also teaches at ICCROM in Rome.

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W e all admire the great natural history good to nature.Protectingnature is not to museums in New York,Milwaukee,Lon- abandon it, but to take care of it. Human don and the recentlymodernized museum beings themselvesare a part of nature and in Paris.Other large natural history muse- as a result of their activities many species ums around the world also work with are sufferingwhile othersare proliferating. impressive budgets and staff to maintain W e cannot eat stones,nor can w e survive important public exhibits and,above all, without killing,and w e cannot discrimimajor scientific collections and research nate against one speciesbecause it is small projects.These are the museums w e tend and favouranotherbecause it is big.There to have in mind when w e refer to natural isno essentialdifferencebetween a shrimp history museums;however,this makes it and an eagle.They are both living creaall too easy to overlook that a natural tures and if one of them is numerous history museum might also be something enough to necessitate substantial culling, else. w e have to make use of it in the sameway that w e use trees for timber. W e live in a world where humanity is increasinglyurbanizedand where realcon- In a natural history museum w e learn tactwith nature is disappearingat the same aboutthe species.W e seethe animalsfrom time that interest in nature is greater than close range and learn more about them.If ever before. Looking at nature films on taxidermy is well done,they look lifelike. television takes us into a dream world Yet in many countriestaxidermy has been where the humming-bird might be thirty almost banned or,at the very least,made centimetres long and the blue whale ten. increasingly difficult.One has the feeling Schools give greater importance to teach- that it seems more important to protect ing about cell construction and amino dead birds than live ones. One of the acids than to the subject of the species arguments that I have often heard is that themselves.And yet,w e cannotlearnecol- dead birds along the roadside should not ogy without knowing about the species. be touched but should re-enter the W e talk about the whale and the seal and recirculating chain of nature.But what use may have very strongopinionswhile know- are they in fertilizingthe paved road?Dead ing nothing aboutthem nor even recogniz- animals,whether or not members of proing thatthere are many differentspeciesof tected species,should be used for educaboth.Some are in danger ofextinctionand tional purposes.Their handling is easy to some exist in such great numbers as to control and they serve a better purpose need an annual huntforsubstantialculling. than they would if left to rot on the The words ‘species’and ‘race’are used roadside. interchangeablybecause knowledgeis no longer there. When I was teaching taxidermy and the care of natural history collections at the The generation that had a poorer educa- UNESCO-sponsoredmuseologicaltraining tion in biology has reached adulthood and centre in Niamey,Niger,I was vehemently isnow responsibleforlaw-makinginmany attacked by another UNESCO specialist: countries. It often demonstrates what I ‘Taxidermyshould not be used any more would call a nature-protectingfundamen- inamuseum!Very good picturesnow exist talism. This attitude must be combated and there is a zooin the capital-we do not because it is dangerous for our surround- need stuffed birds!’My reply was that for ings and has alreadydone more harm than criiicational purposes,a picture is nn sub-

ISSN 1350-0775.M u s e u m Iraternntiund (UNESCO.Paris), No. 190 CVol.48,No. 2.1996) (ClUNESCO 1396 Published by Bkdckweii Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

Back to basics

stitute for the real object and that the Niamey zoo contained very few animals from the Sahel and none whatsoeverfrom the Sahara (allhaving died at one time or another). Although a zoo allows us to see living animals,our attention is more often captured by what the animal is doing;w e might see it at only a distance or not at all if it is sleeping in a corner.While some species do breed well in zoos and many animalsare saved from extinctionbecause ofsuchbreeding,others do not livewell in captivity.A dead animal is simply lost if it does not serve an educational purpose in a museum.And while an animal in a cage might suffer,the one in the museum diorama does not. In 1973 when I was collecting in Botswana for the ZoologicalMuseum of the University of Helsinki,I became acutely aware of the need for a natural history museum there.With a twenty-year-oldLand Rover bought and repaired on-site,I set out for

the Kalahari desert. As a professional,I knew very well the Steenbok antelope from literature and could describe its colour,how it lived and what it looked like, but I had never seen a real one before. Nevertheless,when I shotone I was taken by surprise-I would never have believed that it could be so small!When I returned to the capital,Gaborone,people were very interested and asked:“What animals are out there in the Kalahari? What do they look like? Are there many?” City people knew nothing about nature in their own country.Years later when I mounted an exhibit about nature in Africa at the Zoological Museum of Helsinki,I was surprised to find that zoologists themselves also knew nothing about the species on display.The exhibitw a s obviouslyas much an educational experience for professionals as it was for the.general public.Today Botswana has one of the best developed museum services in Africa, and Helsinki has one of the best exhibits about African

Reindeer btinter and hisprey in the sozithei.lz France of 15,000 years ago.Froin a diorania in the Pi-éhistorania Museum at Bidon, France. O UNESCO 1996

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Eirik Grangvisl

Animals liriing in Kvnibiosis in tbe KalahariDesert.From a diorama in the Zoologicalhluseutn of the üiiiuersi{v of Helsinki,Fidand.

nature in Europe. The result has been significant co-operationand tourism development.

Laying the cornerstone of ecology education

W h y a m I writing all this?In order to say that w e need natural history museums and that they are the cornerstones of education aboutnature.Without knowledge about the species,nature-protecting laws and hunting laws remainwords on paper,without effect.H o w can people protect and exploit parts of nature if they do not know what exists in their own country?Education cannot be based only

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on large museums in capital cities.Small museum units must be spread out over the country and school collections must be encouraged as in former times.W e must also recognizethata stuffedbird in a private home is an importantcontributionto education.It awakens the child’sinterest and adds to the adult’sknowledge. Many developing countries have no natural history museum at all,and those countries that do have them do not have enough. Small units are needed that do not require great expense (this is occurringwith good resultsin the Scandinavian countries). In many cases they can be self-sufficientthrough entrance fees and museum shops. 0 UNESCO I996

Back to basics

A numberofnaturalhistorymuseumshave been modernized in such a way that they now resemble beautifulmodern art museums;in many of them I have felt that in sucha pleasant atmosphere,only the disco music was missing (not to mention the educationalvalues). The larger museums that update their exhibitshave such sums of money at their disposal that smaller museums or poorer countries may be totally discouraged from trying to build up a collection.But a natural history museum does notneed to be so expensive.The vast array of electronic technology available today shouldbe used ifmoney is available, but it is not indispensible.What is needed is know-how,and this is rarely found.The education of museum taxidermists and exhibition specialists must be adapted to prevailing conditions.Expensive silicones and glues are not always necessary when the same results can be obtained with plaster and burlap. There is no sense in training museum specialists who are to work in developing countries to use only costly materials,which w i l l be too expensive,if not totally unavailable,locally.Free excelsior might be found at the village market and sawdust obtained from the carpenter,and both could be better materials than imported polyurethanes;the finished product would certainly have as great an educational value as one made expensively.

that attracts the eyes;by looking at it at length,the visitor begins to discover and learn and might even read the accompai l l have been nying text.The message w received. I have always taken great pleasure in seeing children return again and again to the museum and adultsbring their guests to enjoy and learn at the same time.

M y advice then to natural history museums is to use dioramas,use plaster and burlap and the local carpenter and hunter.Take careof dead animalsby the roadside and use them for education. Forget the protection fundamentalists but provide education! Otherwise, we shall have nothing left to protect and may cut the rug out from under our own feet as living species in the world that is ours.Governments should assist in this process and should recognize the contribution of small private museums,especially when they are maintained by competent people who love nature and who w i l l pass on their knowledge to future generations.It is often said that a museum should not be commercially run.I do not understand why, if it has cheaper entrance fees and can give the same or better educational service than a traditional non-commercial museum that operateswith a deficit and is heavily subsidized.Such museums need not be costly and if they provide a livelihood The best way of demonstratingbio-diver- for dedicated specialists,so much the sity to the general public is by using better. dioramas. Unfortunately,over the years many European museums mounted My own private museum about the evosomewhat risible dioramas and the lution of humanity is both a good and medium itself was condemned. This is bad example.It has been a great success regrettablesince,ifwell made,there is no with the public, and its dioramas are better way to get the message across to the used as illustrations in television,films public than a diorama which shows the and books.The building is rented annumammals,birds and insects as well as the ally forthe same amount as it would cost botany and geology of an area.The dio- to buy a private home, but it is now rama should be like a beautiful picture collapsing and has been declared a O UNESCO 1996

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Eirik Gmnquist

Above:A Nordic lynx against the red sky of the rising siin in the northem taiga. F m m a dioramna in theZoological&Iuseitm of the.UnivevsiQJof Helsinki,Finland.

danger to the public and the collections. However,with the help of a recent bank loan thisw i l l all change.I intend to build a better building myself and w i l l also improve the museum. A great deal can

be done with enthusiasm and idealism. As Professor Saraswat from the N e w Delhi Natural History Museum said,‘If you do not have money, just start to w work!’

Below:Typical birds of the French Atlantic coast.From n diorama in theMisée Anirnalier,Ville-sois-Anjou,Frnike.

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O UNESCO 1996

Aesthetics in the service of science:The Grande Galerie de l’Évolutionin Paris Jacques Maigret

i%e Grande Galerie de l’Évolutionof the NationalMuseuni of Natural Histoiy i?z theJardin des Plantes in Paris was inaugurated on 21June 1994 by President François Mittelrand. 2732s was the outcome offirieyeam of effortdevoted to reflectioiiand design.Jacques Maigret is chief curator of the Grande Galerie.An oceanographer andfish-iesbiologist,be worked as researcher iFz WestAfn‘ca uhwe he held theposition of curator of the Maritime Museum at Gorée (Dakal; Seizegal), before being appointed director of theAqua&?zof theMonaco Oceauographic Museum. In 1990,be joined the team 1-esponsiblefor the nzuseologicaldesign of thefuture Galerie .deI’ÉYolutioonand later took chatge of the Coilsewation and Collectiotis Depai-tlnent.

When,in 1988,a prqgramme had to be put forward for the restoration of the main gallery of the Museum of Natural History, which had had to be closed for safety reasons in 1964,it was no longer possible to readopt those principles which had structured the exhibition in 1889. Museums,as a reflectioryof science,no longer seek to show but also to explain to a constantly better informed public the major principles that govern the way our planet operates.The theme of evolution was chosenby the museum researchersas the idea to underlie the future permanent exhibition of the renovated gallery. According to this theory - nurtured in the Jardin des Plantes through the work of Buffon and Lamarck,before being formulated by Darwin in England - it was quite logical to make the gallery the first museum devoted to evolution.Under the

aegis of the Planning Unit led by Michel Van Praêt, in collaboration with the researchers of the museum laboratories,a synopsis was drawn up to set out the framework for the architecturalcoinpetition,which was won by the team led by Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro,assisted by René Allio for the scenography. This was the first time a film director had been invited to contribute to designing the permanent exhibition of a scientific museum. The task was to transform the sturdy century-old building into a genuine centre of scientific culture, a showcase that would illustrate the concepts devised by science in the making. It was no mean ambition,as w e wished, through the concept of evolution,to i) DolpIJiiis in the aquatic species al-en, which sz~vroundsvisitors.

ISSN 1350-0775,Museum International (UNESCO,Paris), No. 190 (Vol.48,No.2,1996) O UNESCO î996 Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK) and 238 Main Street, Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

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Jacques Maigret

which written explanations are more readily understood than a three-dimensional presentation in an exhibition.

A skeleton of the black e m u in the extinct animczk gallery.

Act 3,devoted to ‘humankind,a factor in evolution’, raised the problems ofevolution in relation to human activity since human beings began to transform the planet fortheir own use some 10,000years ago.The difficultywasto avoid producing an ecological exhibitionbut ratherto preserveourtheme of evolution through explanations that would make the visitors more aware of theirresponsibilityfor the future ofthe planet.The gallery of extinct species, locatedintheformerbird gallery,which had been restored to its original state, would contribute to strengthening the argument. The gallery is now open and the exhibition,the objectofourimaginationforsome show visitors how scientists,by means four years,has been exposed to the critiof doubt,questioning and hypotheses, cism of the public and to the much sterner whether verified or not, had built and judgmentofourresearch colleagues.Overfashioned the theory of evolution over all the response has been positive. The 200 years. W e wanted the public to media have unanimously welcomed the understand that science does not give restorationand reopening ofthe building. definitive answers but offers explana- There has been a.massresponse on the tions which,in turn,raise new questions. part of the public as over 1 million people have visited the gallery since it.reopened its doors.The various processes that have Evolution,a synopsis for a enabled this new gallery to be created are permanent exhibition worth analysing here. The synopsis divided the exhibition into three acts: Act 1presented ‘thediversityoforganismsin the diversity of environments’.The aim was to show life as w e discoverit today.

Act 2 described ‘thehistory of life and the mechanisms of evolution’.This is a very complex act in scientific terms in 20

Evolution is an abstract concept that is easier to explain and to show in a book, thanks to photographsand diagrams,than in a museum.Just placing an elephant,a giraffe,an eagle and a panther side by side is not enough to explain what links or relates them to each other.Such notions require explanationsthat enable the links and relationships between species to be revealed.The Museum’sGallery of ComO UNESCO 1996

Aesthetics in the service of science:,The Grande Galerie de l’Évolutionin Paris

parative Anatomy, inaugurated in 1898, with its accumulation of skeletons and anatomical preparations, already represented an attempt to do this but,though thatapproachprovided proofofevolution, it could not grapple with its mechanisms. This is precisely what w e have attempted to ao in the new Gallery ofEvolution ofthe Jardin des Plantes, particularly in Act 1 where the scenography devised by René Allio tries to put across the message of the diversity of life. The aim was to suggest rather than to state: ‘to work through allusion rather than through illusion’,as Paul Chemetov wrote.Any representation of nature in the museum was rejected; thereforetherewere to be no dioramas or, exceptin certaininstances,any reconstruction of environments.The setting,lighting andrelationshipsbetween thevariousspecimens conjure up the ideas that underlie our message.

tion.As forthe lighting:it was designed to be specific to each exhibit, rather than the overall ambient lighting effect used in the Louvre. In this way, each display cabinet becomes a miniature theatrical stage.’

An example: the marine environments

Five environmentswere chosen:abyssal plains,hydrothermal springs,coral reefs, pelagic environmentsand sea shores.The centre of the exhibitionspace is occupied by the aquatic species area,which brings together in a circular composition around the visitor all the major species: fish, dolphins and a giant squid. The fish, placed on glass plates, give the impression of floating in space as if in the sea. The upper part of these plates diffuses white light evoking the luminosity of the The discourse appeals to the emotions as sun through’thesurface of the sea,while the visitor is immersed in an atmosphere the lowerpart conjuresup the darknessof that evokes the environments without ex- the sea depths:blue light for the pelagic plaining how they operate.The aim is to environment of the Mediterranean and help the visitor to understand how living green light for the Breton littoral. The organisms adapted and diversified in re- pelagic species occupy-the upper and sponseto the constraintsof those environ- middle parts of the plates,all of the same ments.René Allio’sscenography has con- form and colour.An -attentivevisitor will tributed considerably to structuring the perceive the typicalfeaturesofadaptation message: to lifeunderwater.Conversely,the coastal species tend to occupy the lower part of Instead of an accumulation of objectç, theplates,nearerthe sea-bed,so to speak. w e chose a narrative, a scenography A wide variety of forms are represknted with appropriate lighting and sound including flat fish,skate and a sea horse. effects.Our basic task was to work with The similarly wide variety of colours rethe lighting and sound effects. This flects the multiplicity of ecological envigallery is better equipped than the best ronments.Short videos,lasting between theatres and has a better sound system 60 and 90 seconds,referred to as ‘visual than the best concert halls. The comsurprises’areshownthroughouttheaquatic poser, G.Boeuf,has done a marvellous species area and contribute to conveying job .withhis ‘nature symphony’ which the message.In the coastal environment, restitutes the sound of the wind in the the distribution of fauna depends to a forest,preferable by far,in m y opinion, large extent on the presence and location to plastic artefacts of woodland vegetaof algae; two ‘visualsurprises’describe O UNESCO 1996

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Jacques Maigret

A showcase in the exhibit on marine environments.

this distribution:the first,‘TowardsLight’ visualizes plunging from a depth of less than 30.metres down to the Laminaria, while the second,‘HighTide - Low Tide’ shows the distribution of species according to sea level. In the corresponding display cabinet,this distribution is shown on one side thanks to algae positioned in tufts on transparentmetacrylateplateswhile the animals corresponding to each level take up all the remaining space,the length of a line engravedin the glass symbolizing the sea bottom.Each of the display cabinets has been organized so as to evoke the variousenvironments,thediversityofforms of life and the’abundance and distribution of speciesin such a way that each conveys a specific message,but in relation to the others.This act,which is essentiallyvisual, is deliberately bereft of any scientific explanation sinceforeach particular environment only two panels of 600 letters,describing.the environments and the major principks underlying the distribution of plants and animals,are provided.

by its scientific or common name,and its position in the classification (group,class and family). They should be regarded with respectto each other,the purpose of the scenographybeing merely to heighten thevisitor’scuriosity.The emotionaroused does stimulate this curiosity but the answer is not always explicit.Our message issuggested,allusive.Only a fewwordsor sentences would have been enough to structurethe message,by adding a thread that would have guided the visitor in his marvelling. The spectacle is certainly a fine one but w e may well ask ourselvesif w e have responded fully to the desire for knowledge that prompts a visit to the Natural History Museum. This is the question w e must answer before continuing our work.Nothing is ever definitive. Any creation,ecen the most perfect,should be analysed in a climate of uncertainty,with the constant desire to improve it in order to respond to the public’s expectations. The Galerie de l’Évolutionhas opened and must now live and ‘evolve’.

O n entering the gallery,thevisitor is faced with discovering life in several selected environments.In actual fact, the speciNote mens exhibited have little individual importance even if each is identified either I, Paul Chemetov in La Vie,,’ 23 June 1994. 22

C3 UNESCO 1996

Exhibiting the environment:Oregon’s High Desert Museum George S.Gardner

In the taortl2-westernUnited States,an unusual Zndoor/outdoorinuseuni dramatically demonstrates the inapact of bunians on the enviromnent.Live niziinals and living habitats educate the public about the regiota’svast resources and the need for coiaservntioii and protection.George S.Gal-dneris a museum planning consultant based at Ossining,N.Y.;he has spent more than twenty years problem solving with the American Museum of Natural Histoy.

Visitors are able to take a walk through time in the Center’s Hall of Exploration and Settlement.Eight fui! size,diorama-style exhibits similar to those at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria include such scenes as a Northern Paiute Indian camp (c. 17901, a fur-trader’scamp,pioneer emigrants, explorers and surveyors,hardrock and A museum has been built at Bend, Or- placer miners, a buckaroo ranch and egon, the High Desert Museum, which bunkhouse, and an old pioneer comtells the story of this rugged land.This munity. This town is based on Silver museum is well worth a visit and is fast City, Idaho, and is complete with a becoming one of the museum highlights saddle-maker’s shop, a bank and a ofthePacificNorthwest.Founded in 1974, Chinese mercantile shop.These scenes the museum firstopened its doors in 1982. come to life with realistic sound effects it is a non-profit making, regional mu- of running water,bird calls, the clang seum with a mission ‘to broaden the of a blacksmith’s anvil and backknowledgeand understandingofthenatu- ground human conversations. After ral and cultural histov and resources of leaving the ‘walkthrough time’,visitors the High Desert for the purpose of pro- can enter the Spirit of the West Gallery moting thoughtfulmanagement decisions providing textual information and addithat w i l l sustain the region’snatural and tional artefacts. Adjacent is a historic library and the Brooks Galleryfor changcultural heritage’. ing exhibits. The museum building is an excellent example of the vernacular,exposed timber Bats, owls and a sawmill architectureoftheNorthwest.Designedby architectRobertHyde,with PietroBelluschi as consultant,it surroundsthe visitor with The museum’ssecondmajor exhibitarea soaring spaces,naturally finished wood is called the Desertarium,a 240 mzliving surfacesand is at the same time very much complex,showingbats,burrowing owls, in scale with the visitor.It is what I call gopher snakes,kangaroorats and other a ‘visitor-oriented’museum, presenting small and seldom-seen animals of the ideas and concepts by simple,direct and High Desert.Referring to this biota,Don Kerr,founder and president,says:‘Peoappealing means. ple who get into their cars and roar out In 1989 the Earle A.Chiles Center on the into the desert don’teven see it.’ The Spirit of the West was added to the Desertarium presents multilayered inoriginal complex increasing the indoor formation about the region and allows exhibition space to three times the the visitor to make his or her own original area. This wing was designed judgements about how its natural reby Garfield-Hacker and Associates of sources should be managed. Another Portland.GHA is also currently working feature of this exhibit area is the on expansion plans for a new wing Stream Habitat,an ecosystem that incordesigned to house a Native Peoples porates a tank holding live trout and collection. other aquatic life. i)

The High Desert is a vast region of timberlands, rivers, sagebrush flatlands, saltmarshes,volcanicformationsand desert plateaux spanning portions of eight states of theUSA and BritishColumbiainCanada. It stretchesfrom the slopes of the Cascade Range in the PacificNorthwest eastward to the Rocky Mountains.

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George S.Gardner

example of what a new kind of museum can do to make its exhibitsmore alive and exciting.Porcupinesare the second largest rodent in North America,second only to thebeaver,and theporcupinefamilyis one ofthemore popularofthe outdoorexhibits here. Cactus, Spike and their offspring, Thomdyke,who was born at the High DesertMuseum,are the stars ofthe habitat. Docentsgive porcupinepresentationsfour times a day during the summerseasonand visitors can learn all about these animals and their formidable quills.

lihe inilsetma, with its exposed timber architecture typicalof the region,is set among ponderosa pines.

Probably the most visible wildlife of the High Desert are the birds of prey.Hawks, eagles and turkey vultures are frequently seen soaring over the wide open expanse of the desert. Owls are often heard, or Outside the Desertarium and the main seen,as they leave their daytime roosts at complex,a self-guidedtour leads the visi- twilight.The museum occasionallyreceives tor to experience the living habitats care- injured birds (all birds of prey are profully sited in natural settings among the tected by Federal law under the Migratgry ponderosa pines. There are more than 8 Bird Act) which are then sent to other hectaresofnaturetrails and outdoorexhib- facilitiesin the region to be rehabilitatedif its. These trailside exhibits sit within the possible and returned to the wild. Those environment to which they belong, for injured specimens&at have sustained seexample, a sheepherder’swagon in an riousinjuriesand cannotbe returnedto the aspen grove,river otters diving for fish in wild are given a home and are used in a fresh-waterpool, a turn-of-the-century education, research and breeding prosawmillin a clearing between intersecting grammes. logging roads,live porcupines amid second-growthpines.Visitors are encouraged In its birds-of-preypresentations,offered to explore the multiplicity of High Desert throughout the day,the museum shows environments.The live animal component both nocturnaland diurnalhunters.Volunof the museum is somewhat similar to the teersexplain the hunting and eating habits outdoor habitats at the Arizona-Sonora of such birds as owls,falcons,hawks and DesertMuseum inTuCson.Insteadofview- turkey vultures,and the visitor can get a ing mounted specimens of the taxider- close-up,eye-to-eyeview of these fascimist’s art the visitor can be stimulated to nating creatures. learn from the living animals and birds. Perhaps the singlemost popular attraction is the otter exhibit,which offers visitors opportunitiesto view live otters in a naturalisticsetting on land,in thewater,underwater and in a den. This is an excellent

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A man with a message The story behind the museum is equally fascinating.It is the story of the driving forcethat created the High DesertMuseum O UNESCO 1996

Exhibiting the environment:Oregon’sHigh Desert Museum

- Donald M.Kerr,its founder and presi- The overwhelming message ofthis instident.This 46-year-oldOregonianformerly worked as a biologist for the Nature Conservancy,but his intense interest in the history of the region and its early settlers prompted him to dream of creating a museum to celebrate this story.The original idea,as Kerr conceived it in 1974,was to present the natural and cultural history of Oregon to a museum audience.This conceptwas expanded to encompassthe entire High Desert region,also known as the Intermountain West, and to educate the public about the vast human and naturalresourcesofthe area.Kerr’sinterest in zoology and particularly in predators and the emotionally charged issues concerning predator control,between sheepranchers,politicians and conservationists, led him to develop the ideaswhich would one day become the underlying philosophy of the High Desert Museum. In his words: ‘Youcannot understand or objectively view a conflict unless you see all related aspects of a subject.’

tution is the impact of humans on the land. Trapping, mining, farming and fencing the range have dramatically altered the environment.One of the museum’sprimary missions is to show visitors that the High Desert needs conservation and protection.Don Kerr’svision led him to seek out a group of likeminded Oregonians whose goal was to make natural history more accessible to the public and to foster an understanding and wise stewardshipof the region’s resources.The concept attracted initial support from key private foundations and individuals,and in 1979,a commitment of land from Brooks-Scanlon,Inc., Bend’s largest employer at the time, literally put the museum on the map 60 hectares located 10 kilometres south of Bend on busy US Highway 97.

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Ground breaking for the mugtum took place in 1979 and dedication ceremonies were held in September 1981. By then,#

Galley featuring A .nzericans( $tis‘tS knownfor theirpicineering w c in the West in such fields as geology d palaeontology. O UNESCO 19%

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George S.Gardner

,

major supporters included some of the state’smost influentialfinancial and political leaders.They worked hand in hand with a cluster of dedicated members and volunteers.Currently,the museum receives no state,county or local government support.

Native Americanheritage centre.Thisfacilitywillbe the core and impetusforthe next developmentphase and capitalexpansion drive. It w i l l be built to house the Doris SwayzeBoundsCollectionofNativeAmerican artefacts recently donated to the museum.

The museum opened to the public on 39 May 1982.In place were a main building with an orientationcentre and a coreseries of cultural and natural history exhibits. During the first fiscal year of operations some 68,000people visited the museum.A five-yearplan was developed for the second phase of growth,including construction of maintenance and supportfacilities, and the outdoor live otter exhibit.In 1989 the 2,600 mzbuilding addition was completed containingtheEarleA.ChilesCenter on the Spirit of the West as well as the Brooks Gallery for changing exhibits.Annual attendanceforfiscalyear 1991/92,the tenth anniversary of the museum’s opening,was over 202,000!

The quality ofexhibit design at this institution is very high but according to Jack Cooper, communications director,credit for the creative approach goes not to one individual but to a dedicated design team led by the curatorial and administrative staff.

O n the drawing boards there are now plans for another wing to house a major

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The High DesertMuseum is a prime example of what can be achieved in ten short years when a unique vision is teamed with innovativefund-raisingand the dedication of a whole host ofdonors,staffand volunteers. The museum adds to the cultural experience of Central Oregon and provides a series of wonderful exhibits that help visitors to this museum come away with a better understandingofthe environment of the High Desert region.If you are in Oregon,don’tmiss it.

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.,,

The Mexican Bird Museum:an urban garden teaches nature YaniHeweman

m e twoyear-oldMexican Bird Museuin was specificallydesigned to educate the public and has become tbeprinc@al visitor attraction in the northern city of Saltillo,proving that natural history inuseuins can be as attractive aitd popular as art museum. Its architect and designer, Yani Heweman, explains how this came about.She is on the faculty of the UniversidadNacional Aut6noma de México and is a m e m b e r of ICOM’sExecutive Council.

Natural history museums were an outstanding development in the history of Mexican museums,as in that of the museums ofmost LatinAmerican countries.One has only to review this history to realize their impact.Ail over Latin America major museums were set up - the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Science Museum and National Institute of Scientific Research in Argentina,the National Museums of Natural History in Chile and in Mexico to cite but a few. Their efforts in the fields of educationand researchundoubtedlyplayed a vital role in the dissemination of knowledge concerning the natural sciences and the local environment as a part of the nationalheritage.Nevertheless,astheyears have gone by, this type of museum has received markedly less attention in the nationaldevelopmentplans of the various countries. Although Mexico has a long tradition in the dissemination of science, public museums having this theme are noticeably fewerthan anthropologicaland historical museums.These exist in their own right separatelyfrom the natural history museums,contrary to the situationin other countries,such as Argentina,Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States. For another thing,art museums occupy an honourable second place in number and importance in Mexico. The Natural History Museum of Mexico City, which was built and inaugurated more thanthirtyyearsago,at the same time as the world famous Museum of Anthropology,was until very recently the biggest and most important museum of its kind in the country.Itwas commendedin 1964by Georges Henri Rivière for its innovatory museological and educational approach, far removed from the taxonomicapproach of the traditional natural history museum. Emphasis was placed on making visitors aware of the country’snatural heritage. Another feature was the introduction of

summer courses,which were continued without interruptionover a period ofmore than twenty-fiveyears,and travelling exhibitions on themes relating to the national flora and fauna.Many Mexican biologists owe their vocation to this museum! In recent times,the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México,the country’sleading .educational institution, opened the Universum, a museum devoted to the dissemination of science. The Kite Museum,inaugurated a couple of years ago, also devotes a large section to the natural sciences and ecology. Nevertheless,the outlook for natural history museums and similar institutions such as botanical gardens is unpromising. Surprisingly, the situation worldwide is very much the same,according to what I was able to observe at the last meeting of ICOM’sInternationalCommitteeforMuseums of Natural History. Despite the fact thatthesemuseumsare undoubtedlypopular with the general public,have a tremendous appealforchildrenand have irrefutably demonstrated their effectivenessas an educational tool,they have fallen out of favour with governmental decision-makers and well-financednon-governmental organizations,unlike art museums,which are widely appreciated. Compared with historical museums,natural history museums have not been invested with qualitiescalculatedto promote or enhance identities.Nor have they been equippedwith the interactivedevicesenabling visitors to repeatthe type of physical experimentswhich make scienceand technology museums so highly attractive.Yet natural history museums are more important today than ever.Their subject matter, directly related to the environmentand its protection makes, or should make them an essential component of the various)

ISSN 1350-0775,Mzlseitm Intenialional (UNESCO,Paris), No.190 (Vol. 46,No.2,1996) O UNESCO i996 Published by Blackwell Publishers,106 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 236 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

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YaniHerreman

Thegarden,exhibit hall windows and education area.

countries’ development plans. They are the museums of life,and never before has it been so vital to raise awareness of biodiversity, ecology, pollution, genetic engineering and many other aspects that affect us.It is oniy through knowledge of the environmentin which w e live that our attitudesw i l l really change.The role these museums can play in bringing about that change is paramount.

than 10 per cent are devoted to natural history.AU this w i l l give some idea of the importance of an initiative which culminated with the inauguration of a museum that turned a page in the life of a northern Mexican city.

The foregoing applies of course to all countries.For the developed nations with high technology,it is important to raise awareness among the general public and decision-makers.Forthedevelopingcountries,the need to educate the people isthe primary consideration.As environmental education has proved the best way of protecting the environment,why are museums not used more for these purposes? W h y do governments,aware of the situation,avoidtakingmuseums into accountin their legislation on the environment?

SaltilloisthecapitaloftheStateofCoahuila. An eleven-hourdrivefromMexico City and four hours from the United States border, Saltillo is very near to Mexico’sthird most populous city Monterrey. Monterrey is the most highly industrializedcity and has considerable economic resources. Over the past few years,it has also encouraged cultural development on a large scale and now has a number of high-quality art museums with national and international exhibitions.This situation has drawbacks for Saltillo with its much smaller population and resources, which incline it to depend on its neighbour.

Mexico is no exception.Of the 800 or so museums existing in this ‘country fewer

‘Thecomplex and beautiful world’ of birds

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TheMexican Bird Museum at Saltillois due tothe initiativeofa prominentlocalcitizen, Don Aldegundo Garza,a bird-fancierwho managed to direct and co-ordinateefforts, resources, petitions and imponderables with a view to ‘providinga new facility to enable his compatriots and foreigners to know the complex and beautiful world of Mexico’s birds. An integral part of the’ country’swealth, it is essential for the people to learn to value and preserve it.’ His private collectionofMexican birds,the origin of the museum,is outstanding for various reasons.Two of these are relevant here. First,with more than 1,500specimens representing 70 per cent of the country’sornithological diversity,it is one of the most complete collections.Second, it was assembled over a period of fifty years for the purpose of educating the 28

O UNESCO 1996

The Mexican Bird Museum: an urban garden teaches nature

people in regard to ornithology,thus promoting the preservation of the natural heritage.What is more,the state government was persuaded to assign to the museum the former St John Nepomucene College, a building dating back to the middle of the eighteenth century,situated in the historicalcentreofthe city,to which the communitywas traditionallyattached. In this way, not only was the building preserved,but good use was made of its space and public image to bring the new museum closer to the bulk of the population.The decision turned outtobe the right one,forthe area has taken on new life and the community has responded well. The architectonic plan included the basic services of an institution of this kind.Of particularnote,inadditionto displayareas, arethosesetasideforeducationalactivities and research,in accordance with the educationalpurpose mentioned earlier.Attention was first given to the siting and planning of educational areas,with a view to catering for as many schoolchildren as possible. The research areas were designedfornationaland foreignresearchers and included open storage space.

i%e ‘walktt!!rozigij’ of a t@ical wood of the Coahuila region.

programme,in conjunctionwith the planning of complementary aviaries for outdoor display. The display rooms proper were situated aroundthegarden,affording a through view from within and without.

The 1,500stuffed specimens designated for display were arranged in five sections One ofthe most diFficultproblemsto solve or units, specific ornithological informawas undoubtedly how to pesent more tion being combinedwith ecologicalconthan 670 species of stuffed birds.An illu- cepts,with the emphasis always on the sion of au,freedom and space,which we preservation of the environment.Mexico’s connect with birds,had to be created by variedgeographicalareaswere represented showing the visitor specimens of the col- by means of dioramas,some quite huge, lectionwith the supportofthe present-day with the help of audiovisual aids. Other museographicalresourcesavailablewithin museographical elements introduced ina limited budget. cluded a ‘walkthrough’of a typicalwood of the Coahuila region, recordings and The plan pivoted on the garden at the unconventional technical resources,the centre of the building.Thick with trees,of object being to efface as far as possible which there are few in the surrounding the traditional image of an institution of area,it was used to implement a nesting this type and to convey pleasurably and

‘Notuke a museum’

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e

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YnniHerremnn

It would be premature to state that the Mexican Bird Museum has contributed to the preservation of the country’savifauna. Nevertheless,as Don Aldegundo Garza’s collaborator and the person who planned and designedthe museum,I can safelysay that Saltillo before and Saltillo after the museum is not the same place. Indeed, According to its curator, biologist Isabel wealthy and influential people in Saltillo, Morh,the main purpose ofthe museum is eager to participate actively in the preserto cater for the public,the initial aim of its vation of the environment,thought that founder.In 1994 itwas attendedby 104,977 when a natural history museum was actuvisitors,thatis,an averageof8,748amonth ally set up it would become the most or 336 a day.(By comparison,the Univer- importantone in Mexico and undoubtedly sity Centre received 1,700visitors a month, one of the most outstanding in Latin the ContemporaryArt Centre 300,and the America.It would makeSaltillo a city with CulturalCentre850).Attendance figuresin great potential for the tourist trade. A 1995 remained unprecedentedly high for survey in connection with the public is Saltillo.Visitors to the Bird Museum came currently being carried out but w i l l take from all thirty-twostates of Mexico, but time to yield practical results. chiefly from the region, and from the United States. The museum’s well-kept The project as implemented so far has visitors’registerindicatesthat72.3per cent shown that museums with natural history of the visits were local, 24.3 per cent themescan be as attractive as art museums nationaland 3.4per cent foreign.Some 67 and can likewise have a stimulating effect per cent were regarded as general public on a population.To prove this,you have and 33 per centas schoolvisits.Fewerthan only to go to Saltillo and ask a taxi-driver 50 per cent of the visitors pay for admis- to take you to the Mexican Bird Museum. No directions w i l l be needed! sion.

effectivelythe beauty and magnificence of Mexico’sbirds.It is perhaps because of all this that the museum is,in the words of a schoolchild,‘notlike a museum’,and that nearlytwoyearsafteritsinaugurationit has now become the foremostattraction in the city.

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O UNESCO 1996

Inventorying biodiversity:an African perspective Joris Komen

Although the increased awareness of biodiversity prese~ationhas highlighted the crucial role of biological collectioils in nauseums,seemingly little attention has been given to the urgency of inventory work.InJoris Komen’sview, making a collection accessible and useful to the world community should be a major museumpriority.i%e author is curator of birds at the National Museum of Namibia.He has spent nanny years ‘,workingon the endemic avifauna of the south-westekarid zone of Africa, focusing on behaviouraland vocal character conparisom,mathg s-ystems and other ‘non-traditional’ biological systematic nzetbods.

Museums the world over act as storehouses for artefacts, objects and specimens representativeof human culture and the environment.Most museum visitors never see these collections;they see only selections of items presented in public exhibitions.People seem to know very little about the value of these ‘hidden’ collections and how they are used.Typically,they expect to see curiosities,and this expectationis aggravatedby the supposedly ‘enterprising’ and ‘market-oriented display and education policies of many museums.These policies are justifiedwith appeals to economy,an effacing conviction that museums w i l l only survivea grim economicfutureon the back ofshowmanship and box-officeappeal.

collectionsfound in museums.These collections,and especially their inventories, are vital in providing fundamental biodiversity information,and also play an important role in environmental impact assessment. Accordingly, if biodiversity conservation programmes are to be accountably implemented, museums w ill need to play a front-linerole in identeing naturalheritagematerialsthat warrantprotection,and it would be beneficial to have a well-informedsocietywhich recognizes, endorses and supportsmuseums’custodianship of such heritage,without harbouring expectations of seeing dodos on display.

The biodiversity crisishas become a priority in the global environmental commuTopresentsucha criticalview ofmuseums- nity, focusing considerable attention on may seem unjust, but I believe that w e the urgent need to inventory and describe have to assert their roles and responsi- all living species.The 1.4to 1.8million bilities and, especially,the role of their species described by taxonomistsaccount collectionsand associatedinventories,their for less than 15 per cent of those that expertise and documentation,in the com- actually exist!’ Aithough the increased munity at large.It is inconceivable that a awarenessofbiodiversity preservation h m largenationalmuseum would ever be able highlighted the crucial role of biological to display for public viewing any more collections in museums, seemingly littie than a tiny fraction of the collections in its attentionhas been given to the urgency of custody.However,this does not prevent inventory work by most museums. such a museum from providing a significant service to society by using its collec- Thisisespeciallynoticeable inmuseumsof tions forthe creation and dissemination of developed countries.Less than 1 per cent new knowledge. ofthe informationin theworld’smuseums is computerized,and,despite the fact that Museums shouldbe unanimouslycommit- museums in the developed world hold ted to popularizing the usefulness of their hundreds of years of biodiversity data in collections,as clearly mandated by their their collections,few of them have essencustodianship. Biodiversity conservation tial biodiversity information immediately programmes demand greatly enhanced to hand.2Indeed,when one asks the simknowledgeand understandingofthecom- ple question,‘Whatspecies of birds colposition of ecosystems,and the detection lected in Kenya do you have in your of environmentalchange is dependenton collections?,the inevitableresponse from comprehensiveunderstandingofeffective most museums in developed countries is bio-indicators. Therecognitionofbio-indi- ‘We‘can’tsay for sure’or ‘Comeback in cators involves substantial inputsfrom the five to ten years’time,and we’llbe able to taxonomic expertise and natural history help you!’ ISSN 1350-0775,Museum Intemational (UNESCO,Paris), NO.190 (Vol.48,NO.2,1396) 8 UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,O X 4 1JF 0and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

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Joris Komen

simplify,simplify,simplify

There are glaring examples of such museums to be found all over Europe, many of which have become extremely populartouristattractionsin recentyears, but have concurrently lost considerable credibilityas scientificpowerhouses.For example,some 1.5 million bird specimens are housed in beautiful conditions at the Natural History Museum at Tring, outside London; these collections are currently maintained by a skeleton staff of only four persons,and their computerized inventories are at a very early stage of development.This,in spite of the museum having an implicit commitment to biodiversity in its mission statement, and having established a co-operative programme to develop global capabilities and resources for the study of biodiversity.3Altruistic indeed,but it neatly sidesteps the fact that the museum’s own computerized inventory initiatives leave much to be desired.

Many,if not most,countries are signatories to the International Convention on Biological Diversity,resulting from the United Nations Conference on Environmentand Developmentheld inRio deJaneiroin 1992.An importantobligationofthe signatoriestothe Convention is the development of local, nationaland regionalstrategiesforthe conservationandsustainableuseofbiodiversity. However, such strategies may, in reality, undermineanimmediateand urgentobligation to the developing world.These strategiesensurethatexpertsremainemployed in locally focused initiatives,without explicit commitment to the veiy countries most desperately in need of the essential biodiversity informationhidden in the museumsofdeveloped countries.Thesemuseums should be encouraged to adopt a concrete commitment to developing countries;after all, the sheerbulk oftheir collections originates in the very countries that now urgently need the information!

O n the other end of the scale, many natural history collections in Africa are under-utilized,ignored or simply forgotten.In Africa,museums are isolated,enjoying oniy limited local, regional and international contact and scientific collaboration.In many instances these relationships are based on short-termsupplyand-demandinitiatives,primarily the result of locally curtailed financial,logistic and, especially, intellectual support. It may .therefore come as a surprise that many African museumshave been strongly committed to biodiversity inventories for some time now.A good example is the Centre for Biodiversity at the National Museums of Kenya,which is well on its way in developing a computerized database and monitoring centre forbiological resources in East Africa.*Similar centres have been initiated in Namibia, South Africa,Uganda,Zimbabweand elsewhere in Africa.

The biodiversity inventory bandwagon is sagging under a fantastic load of money blithely spent on technology in support of complicated inventory programmes,highpowered computersystems,and huge,centralized databases,which rely on the collation of data from many different sources, and which can rapidly become outdated and even restrictive.Increasinglyprominent in museums is a fiercely defended conviction that detail is essential.It appears that inventorying of collectionsby highly qualified personnel is rationalized by adding complex details;admittedly,this may vitaiizeanotherwiseincrediblyboring and arduous task but it does not,however,facilitate the rapid retrieval of essential biodiversity information.inattemptingtoinventoryeverything ingreatdetail,the essentialsare simply not being computerized fast enough.

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Inventoryingbiodiversity:an African perspective

Budgetary constraints are cited by most African museums as a primary reason for slow or limited computerizationof collections. Other limiting factors include the conservatism of the senior (and usually older!) administrative staff in many museums,a paucity of computer-literatestaff, and a plethora of ‘unfriendly’software packages being used in the computerization ofcollectioninventories.Thevery lack of discernable ‘multi-platform’ compatibility and standardization in database software is a grave cause for concern,as this inevitablyputs off any aspiringnewcomer to ‘databasing’,and severely limits the exchange of data.Inthe casesofmuseums with large collections,the very enormity of the task has resulted in slow starts in computerization. Thereare probably fewerthan 100taxonomists employed in permanent research posts in museums and allied institutions in Africa,the majority ofthesebeing in southernAfri~a.~ Theconservationofbiodiversity and the descriptionofunknown speciesin Africa is largely dependent on the state of taxonomicresearch as well as the present and future potential for employment and funding in this field at museums. Biodiversity data are essential for education programmes which,importantly,provide theammunitionforcareerrecruitment drives in developing countries. Throughout the world,the distribution of taxonomists is ill-matchedto the speciesrichness of taxa and to work remaining to be done on different groups.The vertebrate faunaare studiedby a disproportionately high number of taxonomists,while invertebratetaxa are neglected.It is necessary to redress this imbalance globally,by encouraging the inventorying and taxonomic research of invertebrate groups. Worldwide description rates of new taxa areunacceptablylow,given the urgency of O UNESCO 1996

the task,and a revisionof museum working methodology is clearly necessary! Besides the description and identification of species,existing collections must be computerized with an immediatefocuson collectionlocality and date information so as critically to identiSr the biogeographic areaswhere new specimensshouldstillbe located and collected.Furîhermore,museum scientistsshould be engaged intaxonomic work,as well as in recruiting and trainingothersto become adept at computerized inventorying and field collecting. The brilliant conceptof ‘parataxonomists’, developed and successfully implemented by theNationalBiodiversityInstitute(INBio) in Costa Rica,shouldurgently be adopted by more museums throughoutthe world? Some radical methods should be adopted to inventoryessentialbiodiversity information. Simplified,minimal inventory programmes, limited to as few data-entry fields as possible (taxonomic name,locality and date), shouldbe developedin such a way as tofacilitatetheiruse by computerilliteratepersons.Suchrelationaldatabases, with enhanced iconographicand multimedia capabilities, should be cross-linked with locality gazetteers and geographic informationsystems,withouteffectingcomplicated training processes for the personnel involved in data-capture.By implication,considerablymore expertiseisneeded in the actual development ofappropriate software. W e should be implementing long-term institutionalmechanisms toencourageand facilitate the supply of expertise from developed countries and, furthermore, enhance and optimize the use of such capabilities already in place in Africa. Local,regional and international operational partnerships, based on mutual interest in museum-based material,

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informationand research resources,have become increasingly viable as a result of improvedmeans ofcommunicationand,in particular,the rapidtransferofinformation made possible by computer technology.It followsthat museums should increasingly be able to host and assist each other, providing appropriate support and faciiitates for research,training,technological exchangeandpubliceducation.Ultimately, museums should evolve beyond pandering to myopic public voracity for exhibitions and rather define themselveswithin the context of their substantiverole in the responsible service of society.

Notes 1.P.H.Raven and E.O.Wilson, ‘AFifty-Year Plan for Biodiversity Surveys’,Science,Vol.

258,1992,pp. 1099-1100. 2.C.K.Yoon,‘CountingCreatures Great and Small’,Science,Vol. 260, 1993,pp. 620-2.

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3. The Natural History Museum,Annual Reportfor Science, 1992,London,The Natural History Museum, 1992.

4.National Museums of Kenya,Saving a Nations’sFinite Variety.ne Biennial Report of the National Iliuseums of Kenya July 1980June 1991,Nairobi,National Museums of Kenya,1991.

5.D.R. Drinkrow,M.I. Cherry and W.R. Siegfried,‘TheRole of Natural History Museums in Preserving Biodiversity in South Africa,’South African J o ~ ~ t ~ofaScience, l Vol.

90,1994,pp. 470-9.

6.P.Alberch,‘Museums,Collections and Biodiversity Inventories,’Trends in Ecology and Evolution,Vol. 8,1993,pp. 372-5. 7.R.G h e z ,‘BiodiversityConservation through Facilitation of its Sustainable Use: Costa Rica’sNational Biodiversity Institute’, Trenh in Ecology and Evolution,Vol. 6,1991, pp. 377-8.

O UNESCO 1996

Natural history museums and cyberspace C.Weminer,M.E~xon-Stanfordaiad A.L. Gardner

‘Thenzuseunzs bave been reincanzated in electronicform.’So say three e@erts from the Smithsonian Institution,who describe how the latest technologies areplunging the museum straight into the heart of the battle to safeguard biodiversity.Chris Wemmer is associate directorfor Coizseivation of the SmittJsoniaii Institution’sConservation and Research Center,a 1,255hectare breeding and researchfacility of the National Zoological Park.Mignon Erixon-Stanford is the Smitlxonian ’sInternet co-ordinator andplays a major role in web development,sojlware management, programming and teaching.A.L. Gardner is a IuildlijÎe biologist with the United States Department of the Interior’s National Biological Service and stationed in the National Museum of Natural History where he is curator of No?-tb American mammals. The authors thank Drs Wayne Mathis and Michael Stuewe,as well as Lee Woodman, Carl C.Hansen,and Joe Russo for information and helpful suggestions.

The computer age stands to change the world in ways never imagined,even in sciencefiction;and with each new development,technologyoffers greater potential to accessand useknowledgeon anew scaleof time and efficiency.Tropical ecologist Dan Janzenobserved,‘Forthefrsttimeinhuman history,thereare the opportunities,and the beginnings,of open and massive intra-and inter-societyflows of biodiversity information,somethingthatwas alluded to through “publication”but in factnot evenminimally achieved as compared to what is to come.’l Are the world’s natural history museums prepared to seize the electronic opportunities on their doorstep?

they appear to be silentabout its conservation.The problem is thatmany visitorsleave themuseum believingthatnatureand exotic culture are alive and well,that the earth’s natural wonders continue to flourish in splendid isolation.Ofcourse,nothing could be furtherfromthetruth.Biologicaldiversity is threatened by a multitude of processes and factors,overt and insidious,direct and hidden,and the museum that fails to make that point also fails its responsibility to society.A natural history museum’sresponsibility is to educatevisitors about the natural world,its interrelationships,how it functions,and whatfactorspromote,sustainand damage it.

The modem natural history museum can boast a pedigree of classicalancestry going

In an era of inevitable and accelerating change,what is the relevance of museums back to Zeus’nine daughters the muses to life on earth?The golden days of Victowho disclosed to mortals the magic of the rian natural history are gone, and the arts and the mysteries of science. Even challengesto museums have undergone a today, the classical legacy can be deci- paradigm shift.One expert observes that phered clearly from architectural features, ‘naturalhistory museums are at a tuming which impart a sense of the ecclesiastical. point in their history.They can now play a And not surprisingly,museums are often centraland criticalrole inthe development perceived to exist in a time warp,as institu- of research leading towards . . . conservational dinosaurs,ornate but out of context, tion of bi~diversity.’~ as reliquariescelebratingobjects ofthe past and faraway places.Museum curators,like The museums have been reincarnated in scientists in general,have been popularly electronicform,and in the following paraportrayed astheultimate ‘nerds’inpursuitof graphs w e discuss their application for theesotericand monastically insulatedfrom education and research,as well as other society.In a time of shrinkingbudgets,the means by which natural history museums value of museum science has even been can play a greater role in dealing with the questioned by the giants,for example,the biodiversity crisis. BritishMuseum,where thewinds ofchange are claimed by some to have swept the galleries clear of scholarship.2 Computer access to research

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coiiections

What greater tragedy could befall research museums than loss of support when the significanceof biodiversity is being celebrated as the key to saving the earth‘s biological wealth? Ironically,while those who studynaturein museums-systematists - can be counted as sympatheticto nature,

Themicrocomputerispre-emptingtheledger and file card as a means of maintaining specimen information. Major museums around the world are entering their collection holdings into computerdatabases.The task is tedious,but the rewards are great.#

ISSN 1350-0775,Museum International (UNESCO,Paris), No.190 (Vol. No.2,1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published byËlackwel1 Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,O X 4 1JP (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA3

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C.Wemnaer, M.Erkon-Stanford a n d A.L. Gardner

Native American basketware dernonstrates the szrccessfidapplication of bar-coding to label a n d reference an extensive collection.

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species.Sincetheprocessleadingto species determinations can take years, a profiie system was established to identlEjwhere specimens,batches,and regional sub-collectionsresidewithinthe successionalprocess of curation.The museum’sfish collecSuch databases greatly increase collection tion,on the other hand,numbers a mere accessibility to researchers and educators. 500,000lots (a lotcan be a singlespecimen, W i t h the aid of electronic image scanners or two or more catalogued under one and bar coding, electronically capturing number). Computerization of the fish colbasic information on collection holdings is lectionbegan in the 1970sand has evolved no longer a daunting task for the collection in pace with an ever-changingtechnology. manager,and no longermust the researcher Nearly 240,000lotshavebeen cataloguedin visit the museum in order to pour through the past two and a half decades.The most the files or cabinets for information on expedientsolutionto thedilemmaof‘where labels.Usingcomputers,inventorydatabases to start’is to computerizeall new accessions canbe quickly searchedby region,country, and to capture data retrospectively from collector,or species,and the information previous work as time permits. can be transmitted electronically to the specialist in a neighboring city or on the Speciesexistingeographicspace,andtradiother side of the world.If a requesting user tionally systematistshave relied upon maps does not have access to e-mail,a printed based onlocalitiesvoucheredby specimens copy can be received by post.In addition, to.plotthe distribution of taxa. Whatever the compactdisc now gives museum users forma distributionmap may ultimatelytake, the possibility of viewing archival materials it is an axiom ofgood sciencethatit must be and delicate objects without having to han- based on discrete localized samples.Geodle the specimens.Vast numbers of photo- graphicInformationSystehs(GIS) aretheregraphic images can be digitally stored on fore a vital electronic means of plotting CDs,for use by researchersand educators. geographicdata.‘GISshould be an integral part ofthe collectionmanagement system’: Computerizing collections is still a time- and not simply a post-analytictool for the consumingchallenge for any museum w ith generationofrangemaps.The adventofthe extensive holdings. Imagine the time re- GlobalPositioningSystem (GPS) is another quired to computer catalogue the electronicinventionwhich is now making it Smithsonian’sinsectcollection,which num- possibleto pinpoint collecting siteswhile in bers 33 müiion specimens.W i t h such an the field with minimal effort.By communienormous collection the first step was to cating with satellites, these hand-carried develop a comprehensivespeciesinventory devices secure exact co-ordinatesof their for the identified specimens.To deal with geographic location. specific information on specimens,several ordershave been selectedforapilotproject, .Sharingexpertise electronically and all new material is bar-coded as it is accessioned into +e collection.Active collections have large fleets of specimens in A small but growing legion of biologists variousstagesofcuration.Unidentifiedspeci- and parataxonomists in the developing mens have to be sorted into higher taxa world areseekingtechnicalassistancefrom down to families,and fha!!y generii and the museum and academic communities. O UNESCO i996

Natural history museums and cyberspace

Museums are not designed to deal with environmental crises,and while few systematists consider themselves conservation practitioners,their expertise is in demand by those working in the trenches of conservation.The need is notonetowhich museums should turn a deaf ear. The crusadeto inventorythe biota ofprotected tropical areas,the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI), requires accurate speciesidentificationsand descriptionsofnew species of a wide range of taxa;the demand is greatestforplants and insects.The problem is that identificationservicescannot be provided on the scale needed. Taxonomists are a limited commodity and many have neither the time nor persuasion to provide suchservicesatthe levelneeded. Incentivesystems of museums and universities rarely reward specialistsfor providing identificationservices.Togetherwith philosophical and organizationalmodifications, electronic technology offers several solutions.Some of the following initiatives are already underway,but the process is not unified within any given museum. Applications on the Internet,such as the World Wide Web (www>, electronic mail, file transfer,and gopher,offer efficientand speedy communication on a global scale, but linkage with the developingworld is a challenge.Currently,computertechnology has penetrated most developing countries, chiefly in the private sector and to a lesser extentinuniversitiesand largeconservation NGOs,but not the museums or the ministries that oversee wildlife and protected areas.Access to this technology could have major benefis for biodiversity knowledge. Thefrrststepistoassistcriticalorganizations in acquiringcomputersand computerskills. By using computers, developing-country conservationNGOs,museums,and wildlife departments could have global access to scientificknowledgeon an unprecedented scale. The creation of a network of elecO UNESCO 1996

tronic linkages is already providing listings of systematists and literature,museum-collection inventories,electronic identification aidsandtrainingopportunities.Repositories of research publicationsand the latest findings could easiiy be searched by subject or geographiclocation.Discussiongroupscould forge relationshipsbetween scientists and the ecologically minded public,and could fosterresearchcollaborationandreinforcelongdistanceprofessionalrelationships.Filetransferis alreadybringing aboutspeediermanuscript reviews for professionaljournals.

In the National Museuin of Natural Histoy y’s Botany Departlizent,n pilot program electroiiically scam the labels of GO,O00 speciinens a great time-and labour-sauing device to capture information for coinputei-izeddatabuses.

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Since the advent of numericaltaxonomy in the 1960s,computer-aidedspecimenidentificationhas grown steadily.As thepower of microcomputers has increasedthe dichotomous key has given way to interactive identification tools,including multi-access keys,expert systems,hypertext,and neural networks5Each system has certain advantagesand limitations,but thereislittiedoubt that they offer far greater flexibiiity than traditional dichotomouskeys.The potential for Internet access to these as weli as to traditional keys representsa significant advance in internationaloutreach.Computeraided identificationtools are most likely to develop in affluentcountries,and for those taxa on which amateur interesthas fostered attentionand encouraged thepublicationof field guides and keys (e.g. Lepidoptera, Coleoptera,birds,reptilesand amphibians, and orchids,to mention a few).

A daunting task awaits the museum staff when collections arrive from oceanographic sampling or extensive arthropod surveys.The sorting centre,as a specialized 37

C.Wemmer,M.Erixon-Stnnford and A. L. Gardner

museum unit,is a promising concept for hastening the curatorial process. Biotechnicianssort specimens,which are then passed on to curatorsand specialists.Taxonomic skills are difficult to secure in the developingworld.For museums interested in outreach to developing countries,the sorting centre is a convenient medium for trainingparataxonomiststhroughintemships.

Electronic media and museum education

The ‘public’function (versus the research function) is for many museums the oniy function,and to farewell in this enterprise, themuseum competesfortheentertainment dollar.Many museums seem to be successfullytracking the developmentofelectronic technologyintheir growingemploymentof electronic media and interactive information systems. Museum scientists have a criticalrole to play in assuring the accuracy of the information. Unfortunately,this is often a poorly compensated service function of scientific staff. When well done, however,museum visitors get more than a vicarious experience;they are stimulatedto learnand takehome ameaningfulmessage.

Several approacheshave been used to tap the systematic expertise of museums for tropicalconservationthrough international outreach programmes. A well publicized example is the Rapid AssessmentProgram (RAP) of Conservation International (ci). These are ecological intervention teams that quickly appraise the species richness and diversity of selected groups in an area ‘todecide which tracts of imperiledtropicalforestsarethemost deservingofprotec- Museums are well versed in creating extion-decisionsthat are all too often based hibits that touch the senses and stimulate on politics or oppominity,and not biol- visitors to ask questions and learn.Elec~ g y ’The . ~ teams rely heavily on satellite tronic exhibits,with pictures and text,can imageryand aerialreconnaissance,and the supplementphysical exhibits,making the requirementfor field surveysmeans work experience richer and more meaningful. for systematic biologists,who are often Transistorized audio guides are an examloaned from the museum and botanical ple of an early educational innovation garden community. which communicatesa great deal of information without the effort required to read Trainingcantakemany forms,butwhen amu- signs.More recently,the multimedia elecseum offers internshipsto museum person- tronicexhibithas introducedan interactive nel from developing countries it advances dimension that simulates the role of a biodiversity researchand educationinthose teacher.With an electronic ‘clicker’, the parts of the world where the threats are visitor can simply point to the menu on greatest.The costs of an internshipare rela- screen and pursue a large number of tivelymodestcornparedwithtrainingcourses, information pathways.The medium is curand sustained relationshipsbetween sister rently limited in that the computer-visitor institutions often have rewarding mutual interaction cannot be enjoyed independbenefits for both staff and programmes. ently by a large number of visitors.Since Once the internship has been completed, the possessor of the clicker controls the education can continue if the intern has information choices, democratic leaderaccessto publishednewslettersandupdates shipisrequired.Museumshave also started totrainingmanualsontheWorldwideweb. to provide interactivemultimedia programs Any activemuseum can offeran impressive in CD-ROM format for sale in the home menu of training topics that would benefit consumer and education markets. With developing-countrymuseums. funding from various publishers, the 38

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Natural histoy museums and cyberspace

Smithsonian is working on the production ence.As the treasure trove of electronic Gene Feldman,programmer of the of several CD-ROMS in diverse subject data begins to collect,w e must cull,shape, Internet version of the Ocean Planet areas,and the results are promising and and organize it into useable and manage- exhibit,demonstrates n ‘virtualinmeurn W o n the World Wide Web. marketable educational products. Thus, able information for our audience. the museum experience may be reviewed Notes electronically at home, in the classroom or at the community centre. An added advantage is that disabled visitors with 1. D.Janzen,‘WildlandBiodiversity limited mobility are now able to explore a Management in the Tropics:Where W e Are Now and Where Are W e Going?’,Vida range of subjects from their desktops. Silvestre Neotropical,Vol. 3, 1994,pp. 3-15.

Finally,the cutting edge ofelectronicmedia -virtual reality- is indeedbecoming reality. A visitor entersa room,dons a headset,and moving a cursoracrossthe screen,clickson a picture or zoomsin on a particular object. The viewer is then drawn into a real-life drama through video footage and stereophonic sound to experience the capture, radio-collaring,and translocation of rogue elephantsin the steamy junglesof peninsularMalaysia.W i t h another clickthevisitor is rocketing into space and viewing the Malay peninsulafrom a satellite,where the successive movements of the translocated rogue can be tracked dailyfrom incoming satellite signals.More clicks and the viewer is immersed in a labyrinth of sounds,images, photographs,and other information about thingsneverbefore experiencedinthisway.

W i t h theadventofelectronic mail,publishing and virtual reality, museums are no longer constrained to a physical dimension.Museums canbecome more involved in outreacheducationby encouragingstaff to contribute teaching modules to a curriculum, by making available the combined knowledgeofleading-edgeresearchers,by hosting seminarsand conferences, and by fostering a strong ‘electronic’ presO UNESCO i99U

2.E.Culotta, ‘ScientistsProtest Museum Cuts’, Scieence,Vol.248,1990,pp. 619-20. 3.P. Alberch, ‘Museums,Collections and Biodiversity Inventories’,Trends in Ecology and Evolution,Vol. 8,No.10,1993,pp. 372-5. 4.P. A. Buckup,‘TheUse of Geographic Information Systems in Systematic Biology’,in R. Fortuner (ed.), Advances in CompterMethods

for SystematicBiology:ArtificialIntelligence, Databases, Computer Vision,pp. 341-9, Baltimore,JohnsHopkins University Press, 1993. 5. See R. J. Pankhurst,‘Principlesand Problem of Identification’,in R. Fortuner (ed.), Advances in ComputerMethodsfor Systematic Biology: ArtificialIntelligence, Databases,Computer Vision,pp. 125-36, Baltimore,JohnsHopkins University Press, 1993;‘TaxonomicDatabases: the P A N D O R A System’,in ibid.,pp. 231-40;M.Dallwitz, ‘DELTA and INTKEY’,in ibid.,pp. 287-96. See also M.Edwards and D.R.Morse, ‘The Potential for Computer-aided Identification in Biodiversity Research’,Tmzds in Ecology and Evolution,Vol. 10,No. 4,1995,pp. 153-8.

6.L. Roberts, ‘Rankingthe Rain Forests’, Science,Vol. 251, 1991,pp. 1559-60.

39

Changing knowledge,changing museums Michael Ruse

Two distinctphilosophies underlie contemporary interpretations of the histo y of science onepresents a generally linear view, the other a more socioculturalvision.meirpoints of convergence and diuergence will have a profound impact on thefiitirre of iaatiiral histoy musezims and on the way they help us to tinderstand the world around us.Michael Rilse,a meinber of both the departments ofphilosophy and zoology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada,provides n thozight-provoking analysis of these implications.

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In recent years,the relationship between museums institutionsdeeply embedded within popular culture and the discipline of the history ofscience might properly be described,not just as close, but even as intimate.This was not necessarily always so.Historians of science interestedonly in pure ideas - the mathematical details of Newton's Princ@ia for instance - may view the world of popular culture with disdain.Museums are beyond their ken. Conversely,a museum might be relatively indifferentto science as a historical entity, even though it may contain items of considerable interest to the historian of science.I have in mind those museums that are little more than cabinets of natural history the small museums in the towns ofthe South of France,for instance,which contain an ostrich egg,a m u m m y brought back by Napoleon,an eighteenth-century surveying instrument,and so forth.Great funtovisit,but more likeafleamarketthan an institutionw ith a defined philosophy of change.

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However, as the history of science has matured as a discipline,its practitioners have developed considerable interest in the ways in which ideas are transported and transformed,especially as they are made available to the non-scientist.N o w there is a veritable industry looking at museums and other organs of popular culture. Conversely, museums have become sensitized to science and its history, not the least because museums have often provided employment for those with history of science training.It is primarily the nature and implications of this second move'-especiallyas they apply to natirai history museums which are of interest here.

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I shall leave aside fascinating questions about the extent to which curators might have unconscious biases that guide them

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but of which they are unaware.I think,for instance,of the ways in which so many curators(men and women) have assumed thatmalesuniquelymake significantscientific contributions,and so portray this assumption in their displays.The key factor at issue,therefore,iswhat w e might speak of as the philosophy of the history of science that guides a museum (or a museum exhibit), which is to say the curators' philosophy of the history of science.

To simplify,there are two basic philosophies. Although they are fundamentally different,they are united in rejecting the belief that science simply happens - just one thing after another,as w e might say. Although no one would deny the very great significanceofchance intervening in even the most ordered of lives,both philosophies of the history of science think thereis method and order(ofa kind)in the way that one episode or period in the history of science follows on another.

Progressiveversus post-modernviews

O n the one hand,w e have what is surely the dominant philosophy, with (for reasonsthatI shallexplain) perhaps a particular attraction for museum workers.This is the position that sees science as being progressive,that is,as going from dark to light,from ignorance to knowledge,from simpleto complex,from worse to better.It is the philosophy at the heart of.thethinking of the late Karl Popper,especially as given in his masterwork, ïbe Logic of Scient@ Discouey.Here,w e postulate a realworld ofexistence independentofthe knowing subject (us), and w e think that genuinegains can be made inunderstanding this reality. Hence,the belief is that while all people may be of equal worth, not all cultures are likewise equal.Those

ISSN 1350-0775,Museum International (UNESCO,Paris), No. 190 (Vol.48,No.2,1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road, Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

Changing knowledge,changing museums

that lackmodern science lag behind:igno- Such a philosophy was explicit in the rant,superstitious,primitive. founding of the great natural history museums in the nineteenth century.In LonO n the other hand,we have varieties of don,at the British Museum (Natural Hiswhat (for want of a better term) I shallcall tory) it was the philosophy of Richard ‘post-modernism’. Here the existence and Owen and,following him, directors like very nature ofscienceisseenas areflection William Flower and E. Ray Lankester.In ofthe society in which it is produced,and N e w York,at the American Museum of reference to any kind ofobjectivereality is Natural History,it was likewise the phiepistemologically useless and probably losophy of the early directors,especially ontologicallyfalse.The person with whom Henry Fairfield Osborn. Today, such a this position is most readily identified is philosophy is particularly strong where Thomas Kuhn,the author of TheStructure sciencemeldswith technology,especially of Scientijk Revolutions,though there are in places like the Science Museum in now far more extreme positions than his, London and the Deutsches Museum in particularly from the so-called ‘social Munich.W e see not merely the glories of constructivists’,who see everything that the British past or the German past (all the scientistdoes as an epiphenomenonof those wonderful early automobiles!), but culture. also how machines have been improved through the ages.Note how flight is alMany post-modernistswould simply deny ways reserved for the end,though in fact progressper se.Others might allow some ballooning came before the locomotive. sort of progress in a socialdimension,and hence inasmuch as science reflected this Not that such progressionism is missing changeit, too,is progressive.A sciencethat from museums of natural history.A paris sensitive to women, for instance,has ticularly good exampleis found inParis,in progressed beyond a science that is not so the newly opened Grande Galerie of the sensitive.But either way,there is no ques- Museum d’Histoire Naturelle,in theJardin tion of getting closer to disinterested real- des Plantes.A strongly progressionistdisity.FollowingtheinfluentialFrench thinker play of the evolutionary history of life is Michel Foucault,most would argue that backed by an equally strong display ofthe ultimately it all comes down to a question progressionist history of science,from ignorance to the double-helixmodel of the of power. DNA molecule.Unmistakable is the mesI have spokenofthe progressivist position sage that then w e saw through a glass as being the dominantposition,and hinted darkly,if at all,and now the glass has been that there are reasons why it would be cleaned and polished. popular in museums.This followssimply because museums are expensive places to Let m e stressthatI am not sayingthatthere run,and the patrons -be they individuals, is something wrong with a progressivist organizations or public bodies want display-infact,Imyselfama progressionist something for their money. And by and about the history of science. Nor am I large, traditionally,this something is a saying,what one tends to find particularly picture of progress,of the value of educa- in technology museums,that it iswrong in tion,ofthe triumphsof reason and human itselftopresentprogressionismin anationingenuity,ofthe virtues of the society in alistic context. Great Britain, Germany, which w e live. France and the United States,to take four

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Michael Ruse

View of the earth and marine environments in the Natural Histoy Muselm in Paris.

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examples,all made massive individualcontributions to the history of science and technology.And,after all,why shouldnot a major functionof a museum be to inculcate a senseofnationalpride?As an Englishman, my heart wells before PuffingBilly as much as it does before a Shakespeare folio.

A ‘privilegedplace’for science?

It is interesting to note,however,surely reflecting increased historical sensitivity, how the better quality displays are fully aware cif the Transnational nature of the best science.To the progressionist of the O UNESCO 1996

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Changing knowledge,changing museums

traditionalilk,science has no sex or age or nationality,and the good museum shows this.Again picking up on the natural history example of the Grande Galerie, a particularly good example of this transnationalphilosophy at work can now be seen in Paris.Given that the theme of the museum is evolution,much is made of the history of the idea of evolution.Yet in the place made sacred first by Buffon and thenby Cuvier,in a city park dominatedby a statue of Jean-Baptistede Lamarck,the major display in the museum is given over to the Englishman Charles Darwin,author of i%e Origin of Species,discoverer of the laws of natural selection. This same museum shows historical sensitivity in another respect also,namely that belief in the progressionism of science

does not necessarilymean a blind belief in progressionism in every sense. In fact, thereismuch inthemuseum to wam ofthe dangers of science and technology,and particularly how in the biological and agricultural realms this can have absolutely disastrouseffects onthe biosphereand the denizens thereof.One long hall running the fulllength ofthe museum is given over to endangered and extinct species - species,thatis,endangered or extinct through the agency of humans, usually humans using theproductsofscientificand technologicaladvance,be they guns or pesticides with foul side-effects. Turning now to the alternative philosophy,that of post-modemism,given that it is a philosophy that rather demotes (deconstmcts) the privileged place of#

Interactive display in tht?gak?JJ of extinct animals in theNatural Histoiy Museum in Paris. 0 UNESCO 1996

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Michael Ruse

Perhapsmot a full exemplificationof this philosophy but certainlyone infected by it in the realm ofnatural history is that staged at the Museum ofScience in Barcelona on theAmazonianrainforest.Deliberateeffort is made to portray the lives of the indigenous people as harmonious and in some At least, let me qual@ this. It is not a sensenatural,in no sense inferiorto thatof philosophy to appeal to traditional spon- European civilization.A major influence sors.However,responding to increasingly here,of course,is something much older strident demands of minorities and other than post-modernism:rather a f o k of groups with special interests and needs, holism,where man and nature are’seen w e find that (speaking generally) increas- naturally as in integratedbalance and postingly this philosophy of the history of Enlightenmentscienceis seenasthethreat. sciencemakes someinroadsatthe popular But, implicitly, there is a critique of level,and without denying that they may progressionism. be causes of change rather than passive recipients this has a knock-downeffect The question remainsnow ofthe extentto on museums. which these two main philosophies of the history of science can help us to look Less directly in natural history,perhaps forward,in the design of natural history at least,at first and more inareas dealing displays,accepting that the world faces directly with humankind. I a m amused, ever-greaterchallenges-pollution,deplethough not surprised,to find that in a tion ofnaturallivingresources(such as the recent issue of this magazine,the curator Atlantic cod), over-population,global of a newly opened museum of religious warming, and more - and that a major life and art stated explicitly:‘StMungo’sis function of museums is to educate and not an “objective”museum. It exists ex- influenceopinion.This is not,of course,a plicitly to promote a set of values:respect function exclusivelyfor,perhaps not even for the diversity of human beliefs.”More the primary task of,the historian but it is in the area of science,w e find that today a challenge. the Ontario Science Centre is likewise embracing such post-modernisticsubjec- Prima facie, w e might think that the tivity. At this very time, the Centre is progressionist philosophy would incline .preparingan exhibit on human biology us towards technological solutions,and - genetics,eugenics,IQ and the like that the aim thereforewould be to present which is intended to take a very non- these in displays;not so much the use of judgemental attitude towards the sup- technology as such in displays,but the posed advances of science. Rather the portrayal of technology as the answer to implication is to be that, as society life’s problems. This might perhaps be changes, so also do OUI:views (preju- done in a historical context (as is the case dices perhaps) about human biology, somewhat in the Museum d’Histoire and that truly the way to judge the Naturelle) where past problemsare shown science is (in the best constructivist susceptibleto science-fuelledtechnologimanner) from the perspective of moral cal solution,with the implication(implicit desirability rather than in terms of ap- or explicit) that today’sand the future’s proach to some fictional reality. problems are likewise soluble. science in society,we can readilysee why w e should not expectso greatan impactin museums. Where now are the glories of discovery,of triumph over ignorance?it is simply not a philosophy to appeal to sponsors.

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Changing knowledge,changing museums

Conversely, the post-modernist/ conshctivistphilosophy inclines us more towardssocialsolutions-w e must change societyrather than look for quick technological fixes and hence the displays would be aimed at conveying this message.W e might,for instance,show episodes from the past where die solution lay in changing attitudes and society,rather thanin scienceand its effects.Good examples might lie in methods of conservation or waste disposal and the like.

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However,while these intuitionsaboutthe rival approaches are surely not entirely mistaken,w e can now see that they are simplistic.The traditional progressionist can certainly be sensitive to social problems and aware that the solutions do not necessarilylie simply in more scienceand yet more science.The Grande Galerie in Paris explicitly progressionist in its attitude to the history of science - clearly shows this. Conversely,if w e argue that science reflects society’s goals, and if those goals,inasmuch as they are made possible,incorporatethescienceand technology of society,then there may well be a place for even more science (albeit perhaps.scienceof a different kind) than before.I have inmind here somethinglike a sensitive and minimalist approach to conservationorto resourcebuilding,which might nevertheless depend on very sophisticated computer models, showing where the fine line lies between inadequacy and excess.

to ourselves,to our audience,and to our patrons,to articulate as clearly as w e can ourguiding philosophy,forthe reasonthat all (including ourselves) may understand our aims and for the reason thatthese aims may be achieved as well as possible. W Note 1.Mark O’Neill,‘Exploringthe meaning of life:The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art’,Museuin biteniational,No. 185, i995.

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The crucial point is that in natural history museum displaysattempting to educateon social and environmentalquestions,there is surely a place for exhibits or displays sensitive to the history of science major figures,achievements and so forth. Our philosophy of the history of science w i l l play a major role in our aims and actions. This is no bad thing.However,w e owe it

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7be ‘treeof euolzitioti’it7 the Natural Histoty 12luseirm in Paris

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The State Hermitage Museum: Sttiart Gibson

m e legenday HermitageMuseum has sliavived tpheaudsthatfaiiother mifieiinzs have had to confront.Britperhaps its greatest challenge lies in thefirtiireas it prepares to withstand a dramatically changing economic climate.Stuart Gibson is theDirector Generalof IdéeArtistique Internationaleand an aduiser to nonprofit cicltirralinstitutionsand governmentsin theformer socialist countries.H e recently orgnnized an intemationalinter-governmental conference in Ulan Bator,Mongolia, on jïcnding culture in countriesin transition to a market economy.H e is also a constiltantto theMinisty of Cacltirre of the Netherlands on internationalfrcnd raising, to üNESC0 onfr~nd-raising and management development in the culture sector in theformer USSR,and currently a consultantto the State HernitageMuseum on orgnnization and international

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The .State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg(kussianFederation)has been called the ‘Jewelin the Crown’ of St Petersburg.The museum came into being with the purchase,by Catherine the Great in 1764,of 225 paintings by Dutch and Flemish masters for her new royal residence, the Winter Palace. Under Catherine’sreign, the Imperial collection grew rapidly. In 1772 she purchased 600 paintings from L. A.Crozat, Baron of Thiers, and later constructed three new buildings along the River Neva to house her expanding collection. In the mid-nineteenthcentury another building,the New Hermitage,was added to house the museum’smain collections. Over the years other collections were acquired,including Scythian and Greek gold excavated from the south of Russia in the 1830s,Greek and Roman antiquities in 1861, Oriental, Byzantine and

medieval objects in 1884,and arms and armour in 1885.Today the Hermitage houses one of the largest and most impressive international art collections in the world,including French,Italian and Spanishmasters,Impressionistmasterpieces,Egyptian and Arabic antiquities,and Russian icons.In total there are over 3 million objects in the Hermitage collections.Equally impressive are the museum’sfive buildings and 353 rooms representingRussian Baroque and Neoclassical, as well as classical,Renaissance and German Neoclassical architecture. The museum buildings have remained relatively untouched and today the Hermitage is the single surviving mid-nineteenth-centurypalace-museum in virtually unaltered condition.

Over theyears,the Hermitagehas endured ,repeatedthreats to its existence.In 1837 a

ISSN 1350-0775, MifieurnInranntionnl (UNESCO,Paris), No.190 CJol.48,.No. 2,1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published by BlackwellPublishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (UK)and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,M A 02142 (USA)

The State HermitageMuseum:a modern challenge

firedestroyedmost oftheWinter Palace.In 1854 Czar Nicholas I sold off over 1,200 paintings in the Hermitage collectionsbecauseoftheir‘lackofartisticvalue’.During the 1917 Revolution,theWinter Palacewas stormed and the Hermitage collections threatenedby mobs.In the 1930s some of the best ofthe museum’spaintings,including Rembrandtsand Raphaels,were soldto obtain foreign currency.During the German siege (June1941 to January 1944) of St Petersburg (Leningrad), most of the museum’scollections were evacuated to the Urals, while the Hermitage staff remained behind protecting the museum during the continuous bombardment of the city.Today the Hermitagefaces a new threat.In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the financial and social chaos accompanying it, the Hermitage is confronting a unique challengeas it strives to maintain itself during the current economic transition. The Hermitage reflects the crisis facing most cultural institutions in the former O UNESCO 1996

socialist countries.Under the socialistsystem,culture was lavishly funded through government largesse.Yet today the governmentisonly ableto provide fundingfor basic salariesand overheads.The situation is also camplicated by governmentalpreoccupation with infrastmcturalproblems, the decline in individual discretionary income upon which the culture sector must now depend,and thesector’sinexperience in promoting its interests to government and society at large.

Gallery homing the numisnzatic collection.,

internationalassistance is available on a limited scale,but it is more often predicated upon criteria that institution; in the former socialist countries cannot meet, such as fiscal accountability and appropriate management structures,or is constrained by government policies, such as import duties on foreign donations and the undefined legal status of cultural institutions. In addition, the donor countries of Western Europe, North America,and Asia-Pacificcannot, or are at present unwilling,to provide 47

St~mrtGibson

A change in direction By decree of the President of the Russian Federation,the Hermitagewas given special legal status in 1994.The museum is now allowed to receive foreign and domestic financial assistance and undertake activities to generate additional tax-free income.This has opened up new possibilities,and the Hermitage has taken several steps to exploit them.

A restorer in one of the rnarsezrm’s workshops.

funding at a level that will have a meaningfulimpact.Most ofthese countrieshave othersocial,economic and political priorities, and their culture sectors are also undergoing similar changes as they reevaluate priorities.

Given the Hermitage’srelative inexperience in donor relations and the very limited donor base in the Russian Federation, the Hermitage/UNESCO Partnership,directed by UNESCO’sProgramme for Easte m and Central Europe (PROCEED), is assistingwith the establishmentofan interGovernments in most of the former so- national network of friends chapters on cialist countries have put the culture behalf of the museum.They are intended sectoron notice that fundingin the short to createworldwide interestin the Hermitrun w i l l not be increased (in real terms) age and promote exchanges between the and institutions have been encouraged museum and artspecialistsand artloversin to seek additionalsupportfrom alterna- foreigncountries,and by extensiongenertive sources. While welcoming their atefinancialsupportforthemuseum.Since newly found independence and the ac- a friends chapter is usually initiated and companyingfinancialresponsibility,they managed by a museuh and is directed have in most cases not been given the toward its primary constituency,this apnecessary fiscal and legal tools to func- proach is unorthodox and reflects the tion effectively.Appropriate legal struc- unique circumstancesinwhich theHermittures defining their place in the emerg- age functions today. ing economies are often non-existent, and their subservience to tax legislation Recognizing the need to enhance the mumore appropriateto the commercialsec- seum’sworldwide impact,the Hermitage tor has seriously handicapped their abil- established a development department in ity to function and thrive.As a conse- early 1995.The department exploitsvaluequence,attempts at locating alternative generatingactivitiesandrelationshipswhich sources of financing have often been support the long-termgoals and financial thwarted, discouraged or disfavoured. health ofthemuseum.These includemanFor example,in the Russian Federation, agement of the museum’scopyrights and income to culturalinstitutionsis in most licences,exhibitions,museum shops,rescases taxed at rates of 30 to 50 per cent. taurants,the Hermitage Theatre,and the This is especially problematic as donors establishmentof outside funding relationare generally opposed -to having any ships with donors and sponsors.In addipart of their donation diverted to the tax tion,the museum has created a friends office to provide a point of contact within system. O UNESCO 1996

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The State Hermitage Museum:a modern challenge

the museum forfriendsvisiting the Hermitage. In time the friends office w i l l also assume fullresponsibilityforco-ordinating the internationalfriends network. One of the Hermitage’smost viable funding sources today is sponsorship.Several internationalcompanieswith apresence in the RussianFederation,alongwith Russian firms, particularly banks, are supporting the Hermitage.While this has provided the museum with much needed supplemental income,it has also enabled sponsors to be associated with one of the premier museums intheworld.To date,the challengefor the Hermitage has been less in identdyiiig potential sponsors than in exploitingthese relationships in the context of the museum’s long-term strategic priorities. This entails developing sponsorship programmes that satisfy both the museum’s needs and the donor’sexpectations.As with most museums, the Hermitage is sensitive to its domestic and international imageandtheassociationsitcreatesthrough sponsorships.The museum is determined that its need for immediate financial aid w i l l not dictate sponsorship relationships,

a policy that can occasionally result in the decision to refuse a sponsorship. Such refusals are painful for any museum,but given the current economic climate in the Russian Federation,this is especiallySO for the Hermitage.

Contributions in kind are another current source of support for the Hermitage. Of particularinterestare in-kindconsultancies, which are especially importantbecause the Hermitage is presently forbiddento use any of its operating income to engage consultants. As with most in-kind giving, these consultancies are generally limited to a specific length of time.Therefore the challenge for the Hermitage has been selecting consultancies which target the museum’s immediate needs and which the museum cancontinuetoexploitindependentiywhen the consultancy terminates.

Accounting and accountability

The Hermitage has recognized that donors are cautious about supporting institutionsthatcannotdemonstrategood i)

i%e ‘GoldenRoo???’. O UNESCO 1996

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Stuart Gibson

management, including competent and transparent accounting.Last year it issued its first annualfinancial statementdrafted by an internationalindependent accountancy and utilizing Western accounting practices.In addition,the museum is in the process of establishing a new internal accounting system adhering to Western accounting practices,which w i l l run in parallel to the Russian accounting system. This w ill allow the museum to provide present and potential donorswith a transparent on-going picture of the Hermitage’sfinancing. Soliciting funding from business,governments, foundations and trusts,and individualsrequiresa reliableand experienced management which w i l l optimize donations.The Hermitage recognizes that the organization and management of the museum must be enhanced and new skills introduced.With the aid ofagrantfromthe Government of the Netherlands,the Hermitage is embarking on an ambitioustrainingprogrammeincludingseminarsinfundraising,exhibitionmanagementand public relations led by experienced professionals from outside the former USSR.In addition, the museum is implementing a series of month-longinternshipsforHermitage staff at museums in Western Europe and North America.The museum acknowledgesthat management and organizational approaches used by museums outside the formersocialistcountriesare not necessarily applicableto the currentsituationinthe Russian Federation.Therefore the overall

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training programme is seen as a two-way sharing of ideas which w ill result in the development and deployment of management approachessensitiveto current Russian realities and the museum’slong-term needs.

A balanced view of the situationfacingthe Hermitage requires a full appreciation of the task before it. With over 1,200employees and one ofthe largestcollectionsinthe world,it must implement changes while maintainingthe day-to-dayactivities ofthe museum. It must also continue to satisfy the expectations of its traditional Russian clientele to whom the Hermitage is dedicated,while creating conditions that w i l l encourage foreign visitors and donors to return again and again. This cannot be accomplished in the short term. It w i l l requirethe resources ofthe entiremuseum organization.It is also perhaps instructive to rememberthat the Hermitageand other museums in the former socialist countries have no ready-mademodels upon which to draw. They w i l l create solutions and creative forms of financing by trial and error,based upon the hard realitiesbefore them. The Hermitage’scommitment to meeting thischallengeisa testamentto its determination to adapt to the changing world around it, while sustaining its unique position as one of the most important museums in the world and a shrine to the Russian heritage. Such courage warrants our patient support.

O UNESCO I996

The Museum of the Irish Famine: exhibiting Ireland’stragic history i%ejiear 1995 marked the 150th anniversa?yof the Great Irish Famiize.It also brought natioiinl aiid internatioiial acclaim to a nelu Irish niuseuna devoted to the bleak years of the 1840s.The cuknination of more than eightyears of dedicatedpreparation by its curator, Luke Dodd,and bis team,the museum sheds new light on old stereotypes.Dr TerenceDuffv heads the Human Rights programne at Magee College in Northem Ireland and co-ordinatesthe Irish Peace Museum Project.

There are comparativelyfew national museums devoted to the specific theme of famine.Ireland is,perhaps,unique in having opened a magnificent testimony to a complicatedeconomic,politicaland social tragedy.The Great Famine was an important happening‘inworld history and famine emigrants made a significantcontribution to the development of the United States,thus further internationalizingthe famine’seffects.It was the greatest social catastrophe of nineteenth-centuryEurope and for that reason itselfa museum is long overdue.Fittingly,the new museum is at Strokestown Park in County Roscommon on a country estate that was notorious for its brutality to tenants.The squire of Strokestown, Major Denis Mahon, is stereotypical of Ireland’s uncharitable Anglo-Irishlandlord class,exploitingrural poverty in order to clear and modernize estates.Mahon was eventuallyassassinated - a crime for which two local men were hanged.By 1850 the Strokestownpopulation had fallen by almost 90 per cent.The museum explores the significance of this symbolic episode in Irish history and links it to the global realities of world hunger. Thisis not an exercisein navel-contemplation but an ambitious effort to relate regional history to global poverty.

re-revised,so that it forms an integral component of the historical conflict between the United Kingdom and Irish nai l l tionalists. Yet the 150th anniversary w have had resonance primarily for the Irish and their diaspora.It is therefore to be hoped that the new national museum of the faminemight make a real contribution tounderstandingthe tragictapestryofIrish history and the vexed liistoriqal relationship between Great Britain and Ireland.In so doing,the museum hopes thatit w i l lnot portray the Irish purely as a nation of victims.The famine is a much more complex phenomenon than that.

Thinking of the Jewish experience,Luke Dodd regards the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.,as ‘a celebration of victimhood‘,and does not see this approach as beneficial in exploring the famine, however much the Irish suffered. Dodd would rather place the famine as an event that happened for a peculiar set of circumstancesrather than as the result of any particular policies.Moreover,he sees the Famine Museum as having direct resonance not justforthe experiencesofcountries in the South but also for the way museums portray theseissues.H e doesnot view the famine as ‘Ireland‘sholocaust’or the FamineMuseum as a kind of ‘memorial Between the famine years 1845 and 1850 to genocide’.Rather he has sought to more than 2 million Irish people perished convey the complexity of the factors that or emigrated.The results have scarred the create famine and to relate these to the country,economicallyand psychologically, contested interpretationsof Irish history. and fuelled the first waves of the Irish This has been an ambitious task. diaspora scattered across the world. Yet this is not a museum thatembodiesa sense The Famine Museum postulates a radiof collective bitterness about the past,or cal approach to history.Dodd has been one that commemoratesthe failure of co- anxious to escape from the imprisonlonialsubjugation.It is probablyfairto say ment of traditional Irish perspectives. that the historical resentments implicit in There are glimpses of the secret sociecontemporaryIrish nationalism remain lit- ties that flourishedin oppositionto landtle understood in the United Kingdom. lords,but the overallresultis notto distribConversely,in Ireland,this episode has ute blame.This museum does not seek to been written and re-written,revised and identify ‘enemies’and ‘friends’in the rich#

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The Miueziîn of the Irish Fatniize nt Strokestown House. In the lS$Os, the Pakenhana-Mnhonfamily cleared their estate of teîannts and t&s made the m e a notosiousfor landlord brutality.

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underground of Irish history.More significanthas been the attempttorecordthe past of the ‘forgottenpeople’.Dodd stresses that there are severelimitations in how far w e can actually ‘allowthe dispossessedto speak and that the Famine Museum is actually an acknowledgement that it may be ‘impossibleto articulate their experience at all’.In Dodd‘sview,it is only really possible to abstract information from the past and to represent it, as far as possible, in exhibitions.The museum is clearly not a theme park.There are many such museums elsewhere,awashwith quaintmodels of Irish cottagesand pleasantfarmingfolk, submissive to their poverty.The Famine Museum does not attempt,even if it were possible,to reconstructsuch phenomena, since this might,in Dodd’swords,‘reduce the thing.to spectacle’.The museum is anxious to separate its work from the emphasison creativere-constructionat the

Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra in Northern Ireland or Bunratty Castle in Limerick. Indeed the latter has been criticized for espousing a ‘happyfolk culture’.

Demystifying history

Nothing could be more dramatica contrast than the FamineMuseum which is keento demystify Irish history and to show the tremendous contrast in social experience. This involves unravelling the gross oversimplificationin the juxtapositionof ‘nasty landlords’and ‘poorpeasants’.Strokestown thus concentrateson elucidating the complexity ofIrish socialstructure.To do this, the museum has used a good deal of text and this gives a somewhat academic flavour to a facilitythat is designed to appeal to awide generationalaudience.However, in many ways text has to act as a substitute

O UNESCO 1996

The Museum of the Irish Famine:exhibiting Ireland’stragic history

for the paucity of visual and material possessions.In dealing with illiterate and abjectly poor peasants,this museum can do little to invent the material culture of a people who had few belongings and left even fewer to posterity.Indeed there is a referencein the museum to a socialsurvey in the 1840s which listed the domestic contents of a typical Donegal labouring family as ‘threespades,a chair,a bowl’. The Famine Museum does not attempt to artificiallyre-constructthis culture.Instead it focusesratheron matters ofdemography and population, setting these issues in socio-politicalterms. To portray the lives of the Irish during the Famine, Dodd has based the museum around fourdistinct themes:the history of the Pakenham-Mahons and their estate; the experiences of the tenants;the nineteenth-centurymedia and Ireland;and the tragic representations of the famine. A reconstructionof ‘faminevoices’and ‘famine images’are juxtaposed with the arrogance of the Pakenham-Mahonfamily as their active clearing of the estate made them notorious in Irish history. In 1847 alone,over 3,000 tenants were evicted in Strokestown,more thaninthe entirecounty of Cork in the sameyear.Thus,in November 1847, Major Mahon’s death placed Strokestown at the centre of national debate on the famirie and helped politicize the issue.So at the museum,rural poverty and social devastation are chillingly recreated.The stark confines of the famine ‘coffinships’are compared with the opulence of Victorian life among the AngloIrish gentry. Moreover, the vital task of turning an act of preservation of archives into a genuine reflection on Irish history has been remarkably executed.Perhaps the main gallery is somewhat sparse of physical heritage but Strokestown House itselfexudes history.The architecture and ambienceofthe museum arepowerfuland O UNESCO 1996

speakprofoundlyofthe contrastsbetween grandeurand grinding poverty inVictorian Ireland.Moreover,Dodd has done well to conceive and bring to fruition such an immensely potent record of the Irish tragedy and to relate it to the hunger pangs of the developing world. He argues: The museum is about trying to explain some of the very complicated political, economic and environmental causes of the Great Famine but also to get people to realize that famines are not natural and that many of the instances that held true in Ireland one hundred and fifty years ago,hold true inother parts of the world today.

This takes us as much into the highly political background ofthe Irish famine as into the realitiesofthe North-Southdivide. A common cultural stereotype which the museum confronts is the image of Ireland as the victim of English oppression,in which Irish crops were shipped off to England while Irish people emigrated or starved.The Famine Museum relates the social dislocation of mid-nineteenthcentury Ireland to the situation in developing countries.Referringto contemporarypoverty, Dodd points to comparisons with Ireland in such disasters as the Zimbabwe crop failure of 1992.In 1992,Zimbabwean crops were actually being exported to service debts to countries in the North. while the people went hungry. The museum also draws out these developmental comparisons by showing the kinship that existed between Ireland and indigenous Americans such as the Oklahoma Indians who sent money for famine relief.Having been pushed off their ancestral lands in Mississippi during the ‘trail of tears’,this tribe felt a commonality with the Irish. Ironically,many ofthe settlerswho participated in such acts of colonization were actually Irish famine emigrants.

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life,which abound in crude stereotypes and over-simplifications. So many of these books were generated by the colonial system,their dubious knowledge enthusiastically absorbed in the great houses of such families.However,Dodd is anxious to show how careful w e have to be with this material culture.As an illustration of the necessity for sensitivity,the museum includes an agricultural implementwhich loçalfolkloreassociatedwith evictionsbut which was used purely for farming.W e have to be very carefulin our assumptions aboutthepastand allthemore so when the historical events are as contested as those concerning the Great Famine.

ThatPresidentRobinsonpersonallyopened

Part of the exhibit on Irish economic and social histo y shoruivg thepreualenee of thepotato in the Irish diet.

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InDoddsview,‘Themuseum shouldmake people realizethatwe,by ourmost benign actions in the third world, have huge effects on millions who are living in poverty.’These words are echoed by the Irish President,Mary Robinson,when she says that ‘Morethan anything else,the Famine Museum showsus that history is not about power and triumph so often as it is about suffering and wlnerability’.lThe museum is introducing more objects illustrative of Irish social experience such as a workhouse table and other trappings of the outdoorreliefsystem.Thesew i l lalso point up the socialgulfbetween rural labourers and beggars in their sod-huts,and the ascendancy culture of families like the Mahons.The museum envisages a special sectionon Anglo-Irishwritings or^ peasant

the Famine Mus,eumin May 1994 is testimony of the extent to which Ireland is confronting aspects of its troubled history. As 1995 has marked the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine,the reconciliation of memories is important indeed.it is to be hoped thatthe museum may prove invaluable in helping promote a new sense of understanding about Irish history in Ireland,inthe United Kingdom,and wherever the Irish have settled.This is a significant new museum and w e would be surprised if it does not find a vital foothold in the tragic story of the Irish diaspora.

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Note 1. StephenJ. Campbell, ïbe GreatIrish Famine: Words and Imagesfrom the Famine Muserrm,Strokestown Park, County Roscommon,Strokestown,Famine Museum, 1994.

O UNESCO i996

The Conservation survey:identibing preservation problems Gvaeine Gardiner

A simple method of evaluating the condition of collectionsprovides museunis with an invaluable toolfor planning and carrying out consemation work.Graeme Gal-dinertrained as a paper conservator in London,where be now mils his own studio.Alongside bis conservation work,be specializes in designiiig aiid inplemeiiting preseivationprogranames for private niid public collections.In 1989 be set up the European A??Consetvation Trust,which is ctrrrently involved u&h various conservationprojects in Roinaizia.

One ofthe problemsofmuseum conservation management is that of trying to convince colleagues of the urgency required for the conservationand preservation of collections.After all, many museum objects have lasted for generations without such expensive programmes,and often appear to have suffered little for the want of it. So how can w e begin to quant@ the problemsfacedby collectionsina way that can easily be understood by other museum professionals,without appearing to be too alarmist? Many conservators overstate the case for practicalconservation,and in doing so do themselves more harm than good:if the problemsappear toolarge and unmanageable it is easier for the non-conservators who usually control museum budgets to write them off as unattainable.But if the same problems can be presented in a way that makes their solutions seem within reach,it ismore natural thatthey shouldbe strived for.The accountants and financial committeesthat controlexpenditureoften regardconservationasanexpensiveluxury: the problems are huge,and the sums of money that are spent on collections appear to make little difference.This is one of the reasons why museum conservation workshops tend to spend somuch oftheir time preparing for exhibitions,rather than on general collection preservation. The conservationof a small group of itemsfor a particular reason is easily understood, and in the caseofexhibitions,has obvious immediate advantages - high public profile,increased attendance figures,sale of catalogues,etc.

conservationsurvey- acompletesurveyof every item within a collection,concentrating on two factors:(a) the importance of the piece within the context of the collection (its status), and (b) its present condition.The status is defined in the report by a single letter,relating to a category of importance.The condition of the item is expressedby anumber,which corresponds to an assessment of its damage,which in turnsuggeststheconservationor preservation requirements.Using these two pieces of information it is possible to summarize the demands of the diverse parts of a collectionwithin one setoffigures,thereby unifiing the otherwise complex and confusing requirements of assorted museum possessions. The exact terms of reference for these groupings w i l l vary with the museum; however,the most important features of any surveydo not:these are simplicity and consistency.The termsused to describe an object’simportance should be universal. The more general the survey,the more importantthisbecomes,as a singleword or phrase must be as applicable to a manuscript,as a coin,a piece offurniture or any of the thousands of diverse pieces held in a museum. The terms describing an object’scondition are more specific,because they also inform us about the conservation requirements the latter differ according to the type of material it is made of.H o w many categoriesthere are within the two groups is determined by the museum,but again simplicity is the key.All curatorial and conservation staff should be able to use the categories and come to similar conclusionsabout particular collections.

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But going back to my original question:

What is the best way of presenting the preservation problems faced by collections,sothatthe solutionsareeasilyunderstood and considered to be reasonably realistic?One suchapproachisthroughthe

As much of the survey as possible should be carried out at a local level,using inhouse curatorial and conservation staff. The curators w i l l obviously know more aboutthe collectionsthan most,and as thei)

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status survey is comparative,a knowledge of the entire collectionis needed in order to make accurate decisions about individual objects. Conservation consultants may have to be brought in for certain specialist areas, to give their own assessments of the condition and conservation requirements, but this should be done within a framework already set up by the surveymanagers.By doing as much of the preparation work as possible, fewer expenses w ill be incurred by bringing in outside experts.By way of an illustration, I give below an example of the categories of status that might be used in a simple conservationsurvey,with their definitions and reasons why they have been chosen. This example is easily customized for any type of collection,but is based on those drawn up in the Netherlands for the Delta Plan,setup in 1990.Thetypeofcriteriathat is used to decide an item’sstatusw i l l have to be decided upon locally, but might includesuchfactorsas thescholarlyimportance of the object, its date and provenance,aesthetic qualities,originality and rarity,condition,value,w h o m it was donated by,and so on.

C. Minor.Important to the collectionbecause they give it depth or add significance to the overallcontext.Possibly a lesser example of a style,but individually of small merit.Perhaps items that are rarely exhibited but useful for researchers,which are likely to make up a substantial part of the museum archives.

D. Szuplzis.Whateverremains.This sounds ratherdrastic,but everything thatis left by this point cannot be important.For example,items that do not fit into the context of the collection and should never have entered it in the first place. Very badly damaged pieces that are beyond restoration may also be included in this group.

There are only four categories,which do not allow for an ‘average’middle group; this calls for some very hard and timeconsumingdecision-making. By givingeach object:a status,w e are creating an order of precedence within the collections; this might be considered dangerousbecause it inevitably leads to the question of deaccessioning,or the demotion of collections into less secure storage areas so to make spacefor more importantobjects.In A sirnpWied status assessment m y opinion this is worse than deImportant.Any item that enjoys the accessioning:it threatens the chances of highest status within the collection, that object’s future survival, which no due to uniqueness,rarity, condition, museum has a right to do,no matter how beauty or value.This category repre- insignificantthe item may be.In a perfect sents the masterpieces of the coilec- world all collectionswould be viewed as equally significant,and if museums are to tion. be regarded as preservers of our cultural Significant.Items of value to the col- and historical past,then there is an underlection,but oflesserquality than Cate- standable reluctance to de-accessioning. gory A,and individual objects within But if by such a policy the museum is able larger groups,which while relatively to maintain and preserve the truly relevant unimportant alone, do contribute to holdings in the most responsible manner the uniqueness of the group. This possible, then I believe de-accessioning categorymight representthe core of a does have a role in any museum’spreservation policy. collection.

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The conservationsurvey:identifying preservation problems

There is,however,one area of potential risk:where fashion or style is allowed to shape decisions. For example, certain schools of late-nineteenth-centuryBritish painting were almost disregarded in the decades followingthe Second World War,and were sold to private collectors forpaltry sums.Of course they are now seen in a different light,and comprise some of the most expensive paintingsto come to auction.One hopes that such mistakes w ill happen less as public awareness continues to grow,but it is difficult to know how this problem can be overcome without the benefit of hindsight,except by involving as many experts as possible in the early decisionmaking.But this could slow down,or be deliberately used to halt, survey and preservation programmes, which benefits nobody,least of all the collections involved.It is anotherexampleofwhere intelligentcompromisemay be the only, if somewhat unacceptable,answer.

A comprehensive condition report 1. Good condition.Almost no physical or

chemical damage to the binding or the text block.However,given the age of some of the objects,a certain amount of limited and containable damage is acceptable.No conservationisrequired for these,either now or in the foreseeable future (provided that they are stored properly). 2. Fairconditioiz.Someminor damage or deterioration to either the binding or the text block,or both.Generally the sewingstructureremainsintact,though the bindings might be split or worn. The paper may have suffered some chemical or physical damage,but the object requires no immediate attention, and w ill not deteriorate further given correct handling and storage. Theconservationrequirementsare only minor.

If w e combine the status assessments 3. Damaged coizdition.A bookwith more with a condition report, a very inseriousdamage,but stillrequiringreinteresting set of data is produced.Such forcementratherthanrebuilding.Howcondition reports w ill have to be more ever,the conservationprocedures may detailed in their criteria, for it is not be expensive, though it is not yet enough to say that an object is in 'good' necessary to take the volume apart. condition,without first defining what Like Category 2,they are unlikely to 'good'means when applied to that obdeterioratefurtherifhandled and stored ject.For example,in describing a manucorrectly, though their fragile condiscript as in good condition w e would tion should be noted. not use the same set of criteria as w e would for a suit of armour,even though 4. Poorcondition.These items are badly the conclusionsdrawn from such a defidamaged,and require extensive connition - that the item required no conservation.The object may require reservation - were the same for both. building in some way,and this is the Therefore,for the example given here, essential difference between Categothe condition criteria are designed to ries 1 to 3 and 4 and 5.Although the apply only to a collection of books or damage is extensiveenough to recommanuscripts,something that everybody mend that the volume be taken out of can recognize.Note that each summary general use, the text and binding is of condition includes a very brief concomplete and could be referred to servation assessment. under special circumstances. 8 UNESCO 1996

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5. Critical condition. The book is completely broken,with the binding and/ or thetextblock seriouslydeteriorated. Certain pieces may be missing.Physical and chemical damage to the paper is such that the text can no longer be read without serious risk of further damage.Any conservation treatment would be expensive. In this example there are five kinds of condition,because a manuscript in average repair w i l l come under the middle Category 3.But w e can add or take away categoriesas required;the importantthing is that there should be consistency.The conservation requirements are in no way specific recommendations,but are used as guidelines for the costing of conservation treatment.For example,Condition 5 manuscriptsw i l ltake approximatelythirty hours to conserve, Condition 4 about twenty,Condition 3 about fifteen,Condition 2 about five and Condition 1 none at all. Using this information,it is a simple task to work out how much time would be required to conserve the entire collection and,therefore,how much it would cost.

figures together one can arrive at an estimated cost for the most importantconservation work.It is also possible to list the order in which this would be carried out, and create a timetable which could, in theory,be planned yearsin advance.Likewise,one could use the survey results to give informed advice about those collections which require upgraded storage facilities,or create new and specific guidelines about loan and exhibition strategies. Perhaps,most importantly,one could argue from a position of strength for more financial support, by backing up arguments with accurate sets ofstatistics.In m y experience increased backing for conservation projects is more likely if this is the approach.

A less obvious benefit of a conservation survey is to encourage curators and conservators to work more closely together towards a goal that both undoubtedly share:the preservation ofcollections.Traditionally it has been the curators who have moulded museum policy and conservators, as relative newcomers, who have foundit difficulttofit intothe already establishedhierarchy.Many museumsstill regard the conservator as simply one of Ofcoursethecostislikelyto be enormous, the tools of the curatorial staff,and are and well beyond the means of most insti- therefore more likely to undervalue their tutions,but thennot everyitem deservesto professional contribution. In the United be conserved. This is where the status Kingdom it has taken two decades for surveybecomesuseful.Thoseitemswhich conservation departments to reach anyare regarded as Important (Stahis A), and thing like equalitywith the curatorial,and are also in poor or critical condition(Con- this shift of emphasis has created new dition 4 or 5) are of highest priority,and forms of museum management like the would come first in any conservationpro- conservation survey;this,I believe,can gramme.Therefore,using the two sets of only be for the better.

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O UNESCO 1996

Books The Handbook for Museums, Gary Edson and David Dean.(London, Routledge,1994,302 pp.)

The body of literature about and for museums and museum people has been increasing and expanding at a rapid rate over the past fifteen years.There have been gaps,however,in some areas,one of them being a basic handbook or manual for beginning professionals or novices in die museum business.In 1957 Carl E.Guthe wrote So You Want a Good Museum, a Guide to the Managenzed of SmallM u s e u m . To many of us who were beginning our museum careers about that time or even later in the 1960s it was the ‘onlypicture show in town’.A new manual or handbook has been long in coming. i%e HandOook for Museums, by Gary Edson and David Dean may be able to fill that void.It covers all the subject areas that Guthe’sbook did,plus the numerous new developments in museums since that time.Management of museums has become so much more complex,and the newcomer to tlie museum field needs to be aware of problems and practical matters,laws, ethics,and the roles and responsibilities of staff.The HandOook does a commendable job of covering all these areas.

Edson and Dean’sapproach is very forthright (almost mandatory in tone at times) in presenting the proper practices for museum people in management, collectionsmanagement and care, interpretationand communication,and professionalism and ethics.They allow little room for flexibility or differences of opinion,but that may be what a novice needs and expects when launching a new museum or embarking upon a museum career. Written in textbook style,the book emphasizes,and rightly so,the

important role of the museum in its community- the obligations and accountability that that entails -which includes more than merely management, but also the collections that are entrusted to it. It describes well the purpose of mission statements and policies for every museum (though policies in professional development and accessibility could have been added). Accessioning and deaccessioning are covered in complex detail,but exhibitions and programmes are treated more lightly.More of that is developed in the chapter on interpretation and communication.The basics of security are understandably explained,and the relevance of proper conservationpractices are discussed at length,except for the confusion in terminology (‘conservator’, ‘restorer’ and ‘technician’ usually become problems of internationaldefinitions). ‘Questionsfrom the Field’and the response add interest on practical matters,and most quotations are quite relevant,but when boxes are used interminably for them it becomes distracting while reading and concentrating on the text. The authors bring up some challenging issues,particularly those concerned with museum education and visitor learning patterns.D o w e really know how people learn in museums? Exhibition planning and design are presented very positively, even suggesting (as others have) that designers (or curators) might ‘puttheir signatures on exhibitions as artists or writers make claim to their works. While there may be some oversimplifications,there is no doubt about the book’semphasis on ethics and professionalism.It clearly states that museums are a public trust,people are as important as objects in museums,but that a museum’spatrimony may be its reason for existence.

i) ISSN 1350-0775,Musacm I?ita>zational (UNESCO,Pans), No.190 (Vol.48,No. 2,1996) O UNESCO 1996 Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (uh3 and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USA)

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Illicit traffic

The forms,the glossary,and the bibliography in the appendix are useful for the beginner,as are the codes of ethics for registrarsand curators as well as for individualswho may plan these careers. While all experienced museum professionals may not be in complete agreement with all the authors’ premisses and opinions,the book

should be on the shelves of museum libraries,museum studies programmes, new museum people,and those who have the perseverance to start a new museum. Book reviewed by Jane R.Glaser,Special Assistaizt in the ûflice of the Assistant Provostfor Arts and Hirmanities of the Smithsonimz Institution, Wmhiiigtott,

D.C.

Illicit traffic N e w international convention combats illegal art sales in the private sector

Federico Mayor,Director-Generalof UNESCO,has called on Member States to rate the new UNIDROIT Convention, a breakthrough internationalframework to combat private-sectortransactions in stolen art and cultural property. ‘TheUNIDROIT Convention marks a watershed in our common struggle to defend cultural heritage and deserves the full support of Member States,’Mr Mayor said of the new convention adopted 24 June 1995 in Rome,Italy. ‘Initiatedat UNESCO’srequest in 1984, the framework fully supports the Organization’sactivities in this field by reaching private markets where the majority of illegal transactions occur,’ he added.The new convention contains language designed fundamentally to alter market forces governing private transactions in art. It does so by confronting two salient issues ïn the contemporary art trade that effectively prevent rightful owners from locating and retrieving stolen property. 60

First,the new convention confronts legal constraintsthat impede identifying the current location and possessor of stolen cultural property.Under most existing national laws,art dealers need not reveal the ownership history of an object for sale.Cultural and art objects are the only tradeable commodities of significant value not subject to such documentation, as is required each time real estate, automobiles or treasury bonds change hands.French law in this field is a notable exception,but has not been fully enforced. Second,the new convention challenges legal obstacles that prevent the recovery of stolen cultural property once it has entered the art market.Under most existing national laws,it is virtually impossible for rightful owners to retrieve a stolen object once it has been resold to a third party.This holds true even if the object in question is widely acknowledged to be stolen,provided the third-partypurchaser was never informed or involved in the object’s theft.Australia,Canada,New Zealand and the United States,whose laws favour the original owner of stolen cultural property,are exceptions. O UNESCO 1996

The new convention challenges both of these constraints by putting the burden of proof squarely on the holder of allegedly stolen cultural property.It states that the ‘possessor of a stolen cultural object must return it’, regardless of personal involvement or knowledge of the original theft. It further denies any compensation for the return of a cultural object unless ‘thepossessor neither knew nor ought reasonably to have known the object was stolen’. No previous internationallaw goes so far in forcing potential art buyers to inquire fullyabout an object’spast ownership. This could pressure art dealers and auction houses into providing accurate documentation on every object they hope to resell.in this way,the new convention could have a powerful indirect influence on the contemporary art trade. Rome-basedUNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) designed the new convention to complementUNESCO’s1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. ‘The1970 UNESCO Convention operates at an intergovernmentallevel while the UNIDROIT Convention covers individual transactionsoutside the public domain,’ explained Lyndel Prott,UNESCO’sChief of the InternationalStandards section and one of the chief architects of the new framework.‘Together, the two conventions close many of the loopholes that had prevented courts from combating more forcefully the illegal trafficking of cultural objects.’The new framework also maintains the definition of ‘culturalobjects’found in the UNESCO Convention.The term broadly includes art,literature,scientific instruments,natural objects as well as detached pieces of objects or monuments. 8 UNESCO i996

Under the new convention,a claimant to a cultural object may choose a court either in the country of the possessor or one where the object is currently located.A claimant must file for restitution within three years after the ‘locationof the cultural object’and ‘theidentity of the possessor’have been reasonably determined.Such claims may be filed up to fifty years from the original ‘timeof theft’. However,if the object ‘belongsto a public collection’or ‘formsan integral part of an identified monument or archaeological site’,claims may be filed within a period of seventy-five years or longer,depending on existing state laws where the claim is made. Delegates from seventy countries adopted the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.France and Italy,both major artimporting nations,have already signed, an early step in the ratification process. In addition,Burkina Faso,Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire,Croatia,Georgia,Guinea, Hungary,Lithuania and Zambia have also become signatories.The framework w i l l enter into force six months after full ratificationby five countries. Ms Prott expressed hope for widespread ratification of the UNIDROIT Convention within the year.‘Ithad the full input and support of dozens ofcountries with an interest in defending their art markets,’ she stressed.‘Theirsupport suggests consensus on the broader need to defeat art traffickers,while at the same time serving the interests of legal art dealers and buyers.’ UNESCO is the lead intergovernmental agency combating the plundering and illegal export of cultural heritage. UNESCO professionals have trained hundreds of conservationexperts, customs officials and police from Cambodia to Mali.The Organization also has funded dozens ofeducationaland public awareness campaigns on this problem.

Technology update

Technology update A heterogeneous,cosmopolitan network of galleries is being put together by more than 1,600museums using the kiosks of the World Wide Web. A model of excellence and a showcase for the countries it represents,this gigantic virtual museum seeks to present the world museum heritage and at the same time satisfy the needs of education,science and tourism.Curators must therefore be sure that the information transmitted is of the highest quality and that the electronic bridges are intelligently connected.To do this they must know exactly what opportunities the Internet offers museums.

What is the internet?

The Internet transmits digital information via the world telephone network.It was born of the need to exchange data between different types of computer easily and in all circumstances.A wide range of services is available,the most common being electronic mail, interactive conversation,documentary research and games.In June 1995, 30 miIlion computers were connected to the network worldwide.The World Wide W e b (or just ‘Web’)is now the most popular,user-friendlymeans of communication between servers.The hypermedia technology on which it is based enables links to be made between images,texts and sounds from different sites,chapters and documents.Thus,users can search, retrieve data and go from one server to another simply by clicking the mouse on the icon that interests them. The on-linescanning of museums means information must be attractively presented primarily so as to interest visitors and,secondly,so as to educate them effectively. 62

The Internet can be accessed through a particular museum,such as the C N M P in Paris,in which the visitor has access, among other things,to the illustrated inventory register.By clicking in the kiosk (section of the menu containing the connections with other servers), the user can change site and find himself in Museums’ in the United Kingdom, another list of on-linemuseums which serves as a virtual library for the museums pages.From there,he may choose the United States or the rest of the world. Irbe Vatican City Museum is only a few seconds away,the time it takes to load the server’sdata onto the computer;255 images of the Vatican and 325 of the Sistine Chapel are on show as well as a large collection of engravings and illuminated books.To access this gigantic exhibition,all the ‘surfer’needs is a computer,a modem and an account with one of the Internet services.

Information available on the Internet

In addition to being another way of exhibiting collections,the Internet gives access to a huge number of databases,directories of companies providing museological services and products,lists of discussion groups and,of course,electronic mail boxes. Museological research,whether on scientific,commercial or organizationalaspects,is made not only easier but more rewarding. Museum-L4is a list of general discussion topics for museum professionals,students and other interested people.Most of the people connected at present are in Australia, Canada,the United Kingdom and the United States.Museum-Lalso offers a list of more specialized discussion groups such as AIA-L5,a list on industrial archaeology and technology, and EAAN6,the East Asian archaeology network. O UNESCO 1996

Technology update

Another type of service is provided by Museum Online Resource Review,’ which contains an extensive directory of museum-linkedresources and activities accessible on the Internet. Suppliers of products and services to the museum industry,more than 310 Web sites,an alphabetical list of over thirty discussion groups and about twenty FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites are listed here. Finally,an important part of the services Internet provides is on-line access to important databases.Jocondq8 for example,can now be accessed through the Web. This catalogue provides administrative and technical information as well as drawings,paintings,sculptures, photographs and objets d’artin more than sixty museums in France.The catalogue of the Natural History Museum9 library in London can also be accessed on the Web and lists one of the world’slargest collections of publications on the life sciences.

Informationto transmit on the Internet

The diversity of the information given on the various museum servers accessible on the internet depends more on the special nature of each collection than its type. Visitors must be provided with tourist information (opening times,history of the town,the museum and the curator), an idea of the nature of collections (index card,biography of author,acquisition procedure, newspaper articles,etc.), pictures (of rooms,the museum, the town) and a kiosk (related museum collections, resources for this type of museum, on-linelibraries,forums,site references for the museum). Image quality and the quality of the information provided under each of these headings w ill determine how much the site is used,the nature of the exchanges and its development. O UNESCO 1996

The University of California at Berkeley Museuna of Palaeoiitology lo has been rewarded for its outstanding quality by receiving the prize for the best educational site in the ‘Bestof the Web 94’competition.The UCMP is responsible for conserving palaeontological collections,research and educational back-up,and for the maintenance and development of the server.Every week it offers new exhibitions,illustrated with audio and written commentariesprepared by academics and palaeontologists.A catalogue and an index of the papers read by researchers at the museum is also accessible.For those who would like to make palaeontology their profession,a list of FAQs (frequently asked questions) will tell them what palaeontology is,the training required,the regulations governing excavations for fossils and much more besides.The organization and presentation of the various headings on the server,the museum, exhibitions,on-linecatalogue of staff and the kiosk round off this educational site,giving high hopes for the quality of the information exchanged on the Internet. Notes 1. Address of the Musée des Arts et Métien du CALM:http://www.cnam.fr/museum 2.Address of Museums:http:// www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ museums.html

3.Address of Vatican City Museuna:hap:// sunsite.unc.edu/expo/vatican.exhibit/ vatican.exhibit.html

4.Address of Museum-L’sW e b server:http:// www.aps.edu/htmlpages/museum-l.html

5.Address of M - L :listserv @cc.brynmawr.edu

6.Address of EAAN:listserv @ccat.sas.upeen.edu

63

Technology update

7.Address of M u s e u m Online Resozrrce Review: http://www.okc.corn/morr/ index.html 8. Address ofJoconde: http:// www.culture.fr(click on semicepublic d’information ceclturelle).

9.Address of the Natural History M u s e u m in London:http:// xvww.nh.ac.uk/

10.Address of the Museum of Palaeontology: http://ucmpl.berkeley.edu/

1

s

Report by Mam‘ne Olsson, technician at the National Centrefor Studyad Research in Aduanced Technologies, Dijon,France, responsible for the feasibility study and the networking of conprtem’zed and photographic inventories of mziseum collections in the Bicrgicndy region.

znterndtzonal Correspondence Questions concerning editorial matters:

The Editor,Museum International, UNESCO,7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP (France). Tel:(33.1)45.68.43.39 Fax:(33.1)42.73.04.01 Museum International(English edition) is published four times a year in January,March,June and September by Blackwell Publishers,108 Cowley Road,Oxford,OX4 1JF (Uh3 and 238 Main Street,Cambridge,MA 02142 (USAS.

Professional news SIME 1996 to be held i n Venice The 1996 InternationalMuseum and Exhibition Fair (SIME) w i l l take place in Venice from 20 to 25 April.Held for the first time in Paris in 1988, the SIME very rapidly became a must for Europe’smost progressive museums and for new museums worldwide.Attracting between 50,000and 60,000visitors,some 10,000 members of the trade and more than 1,000journalists,it is the largest event of its kind in Europe.In 1992 and 1994 it sought to analyse the issue of cultural tourism and to encourage interaction between the world of tourism and the world of culture.The Venetian venue,in the Venice Arsensal,is an exceptionally appropriatesite to reinforce economic ties between museum and monument professionals and tour operators specialized in cultural tourism.SIME is the first and only event that brings together all of the players involved in museum-relatedactivities:museums and foundations,both public and private, managers of historical monuments and sites,service providers and museum suppliers and restorers. For further information: Provinciales

64

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N e w publications Trésors des mzuéumns de France.

Published by Office de Coopération d’InformationMuséographiques, Université de Bourgogne,36, rue Chabot-Charny,21000 Dijon (France), 1994, 192 pp.,213 illus. Following in the footsteps of the great voyagers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,this richly illustrated book reveals the treasures of France’snatural history museums. Navigators and naturalists alike brought back to their native towns exceptional collectionsof flora and fauna,many of which have long since disappeared,as well as rare minerals,prehistoric re,mains,precious objects and the various creations of peoples encountered along the way - treasures which bear witness to the infinite variety of nature and human savoir$aire. The book is in essence a ‘virtualmuseum’and an incitation to visit these French museums and their incomparably rich collections.

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Advertising: For details contact Pamela Courtney, Albert House,MOMingtOn on Wye, Hereford,HR4 7NL (UK). Tel:(09817) 344. COPYRIGHT:All dghtsreserved.Apartfromfairdealingfor the purposes of research or private study,or criticism or review,as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced,stored or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the Publisher,or in accordance with the termsofphotocopying licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, the Copyright Clearance Center, and other organisations authorised by the Publisher to administer reprographic reproduction rights. Copies of articles that have appeared in thisjournalcan be obtained from the institutefor ScientificInformation,(Att. ofPublicationProcessing), 3501MarketStreet,Philadelphia, PA 19104 (USA). Printedandbound in GreatBritainby HeadleyBrothersLtd, Kent. Printed on acid-freepaper. Q UNESCO 1996