Lost in the museum : buried treasures and the stories they tell / Nancy Moses.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Moses, Nancy, 1948-

Contributor:

• George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Museums--Collection management.
• Museums--Collection management--United States.
• Museums--United States.
• Museums--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia Region.
• Museums.
• Pennsylvania--Philadelphia Region.
• United States.
• Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Local Subjects:

• Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

Physical Description:

ix, 167 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : AltaMira Press, [2008]

Summary:

Few beyond the insider realize that museums own millions of objects the public never sees. In Lost in the Museum, Nancy Moses takes the reader behind the Oemployees onlyO doors to uncover the stories buried--along with the objects--in the crypts of museums, historical societies, and archives. Weaving the stories of the object, its original owner, and the often idiosyncratic institution where the object resides, the book reveals the darkest secret of the cultural world the precarious balance of art, culture, and politics that keep items, for decades, lost in the museum.

Contents:

• John James Audubon's birds, Academy of Natural Sciences
• Blaschka sea animals, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
• Franklin B. Gowen's bowl, Historical Society of Pennsylvania
• Pessaries, Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
• Skull of a prehistoric Peruvian child, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History
• Ker-Feal, Barnes Foundation
• Plan for the dome of the United States Capitol, Athenaeum of Philadelphia
• John Brown's pike, Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia
• Summer garments of a Tibetan princess, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-158) and index.

Local Notes:

• Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.
• Athenaeum copy: Gemmill fund bookplate.
• Athenaeum copy: Includes a chapter on the Plan for the dome of the United States Capitol in the collection of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.

ISBN:

• 9780759110694
• 0759110697
• 9780759110700
• 0759110700

OCLC:

155756281

Online:

The George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund Home Page