Children's and Educational Museums, History of

Museum as Educator

The concept of the museum as educator reflected not only a new approach to learning, but also a new approach to the organization of knowledge. No longer a “cabinet of curiosities,” the museum in the United States increasingly became a popular educator. The growth and development of children's and educational museums and their association with the schools was a logical extension of this concept. Implicit in the idea of the museum as educator was the notion of the museum as a “mass” educator. More than any other formal educational institution during the late nineteenth century (including libraries), the museum was perceived as being capable of teaching all classes of society.

It was the great international expositions that were primarily responsible (during the nineteenth century) for popularizing the idea of the museum as a means of mass education. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 was the first of these “world fairs.” Its purpose was to promote and encourage English industry by comparing it with that of the other major industrial nations of the world. The Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876 was the first international exposition to be held in the United States. Not only did the Centennial Exposition encourage the extensive development of industrial and natural history exhibits, but it also demonstrated their educational value to a large cross-section of the population.

The Centennial Exposition directly contributed to the establishment of several major museums throughout the United States, including the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Later expositions (including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis) also contributed to museum development in the United States.

By the 1890s there was an increasing realization, however, that a museum differed from an exposition or fair in both its aims and methods. The exposition was primarily concerned with the promotion of industry and commerce, whereas the museum had as its primary purpose the teaching of a lesson inherent in an exhibit. Both museum curators and educators in general became increasingly aware of the need for people to learn not only through the written and spoken word, but also through objects.

...