Making Egypt’s Museums
The world’s largest archaeological museum is poised to open on the Giza Plateau, building on two centuries of museum planning and development.
The Nashville Museum of Natural and Artificial Curiosities
Inspired by Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, artist and collector Ralph E. W. Earl founded a similar institution in Tennessee in 1818.
Imperial Science and the Company’s Museum
The East India Company’s London museum stored the stuff of empire, feeding the growth of new collections-based disciplines and scientific societies.
Should Museums Display Shrunken Heads?
Tsantsas, or shrunken human heads, remind us of how museums have often been founded on a violent trade in indigenous culture.
How Museums Tidy Up
Deaccessioning old works can be a complicated and fraught process. But even museums have to spring-clean now and then.
Brazil’s Museu Nacional Was More Than Just a Museum
Brazil's oldest natural history museum has burned down. The institution played a crucial part in creating Brazil's identity as a country.
Ectoplasm and the Last British Woman Tried for Witchcraft
Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan was photographed emitting ectoplasm, supposedly proof of her ability to contact the dead.
The Controversy Around the First Museum Dinosaurs
Dinosaur bones on display at the American Museum of Natural History always balanced conveying objective truth with promoting science to the public.
Reversing the Trade of Māori Tattooed Heads
Preserved heads decorated with tā moko, or facial tattoos, were sacred objects to New Zealand's Māori. Then Europeans started collecting them.
What About the Art in “Apesh*t”?
Beyoncé and Jay-Z's new music video was filmed entirely at the Louvre museum. What messages hide in the histories of the featured artworks?