HIST 30673 History of Museums and Collecting
This undergraduate seminar examines the ways in which societies from the ancient world to the present acquire, order, and assign value to material artifacts. From ethnographic remains to natural specimens, and from works of art to antiquities, people have plundered, collected, and displayed objects across time and space. Special attention to circulation will help students analyze the processes by which objects were detached from their natural context and reinserted into thematic sets based on aesthetic, religious, political or scientific priorities that gave rise to the modern museum. Topics include the culture of learning at the Library of Alexandria, relics and devotional practices in medieval Europe, collecting exotica during Renaissance, sensory museums of the Enlightenment, and black market trade of antiquities in the present. Class includes fieldtrips to local museums, libraries, and private collections.