MUSEUMS  AS  ARTIFACTS:   HOW  ARCHITECTURE  AND  HISTORY  INFLUENCE     MUSEUMS  AND  THE  VISITOR  EXPERIENCE       HONORS  THESIS         Presented  to  the  Honors  Committee  of   Texas  State  University-­‐San  Marcos   in  Partial  Fulfillment   of  the  Requirements         for  Graduation  in  the  Honors  College           by     Amanda  Marie  Magera         San  Marcos,  Texas   May  2013 MUSEUMS  AS  ARTIFACTS:   HOW  ARCHITECTURE  AND  HISTORY  INFLUENCE     MUSEUMS  AND  THE  VISITOR  EXPERIENCE               Thesis  Supervisor:     ________________________________   Neill  Hadder,  Ph.D.   Department  of  Anthropology           Second  Reader:     __________________________________   Stephen  Awoniyi,  Ph.D.   Department  of  Health  and  Human   Performance         Approved:       ____________________________________   Heather  C.  Galloway,  Ph.D.   Dean,  Honors  College Table  of  Contents     Abstract  ..........................................................................................  1   1.  Introduction  ................................................................................  2   2.  History  ........................................................................................  5     2.1  Collection:  Temples,  Cabinets,  and  Galleries  ...................  5     2.2  Audience:  The  First  Museums  Go  Public  ........................  11     2.3  Environment:  In  and  Out  of  the  “White  Box”  .................  19   3.  Museum  Critiques  ......................................................................  28   3.1  The  San  Antonio  Museum  of  Art  ...................................  30   3.2  The  McNay  Museum  of  Modern  Art  ..............................  35   3.3  The  Alamo  .....................................................................  40   3.4  The  Blanton  Museum  ....................................................  45   3.5  The  George  Washington  Carver  Museum  ......................  49   3.6  The  Pacific  War  Museum  ...............................................  53   4.  Conclusion  ..................................................................................  60   5.  Figures  .......................................................................................  61   Works  Cited  .................................................................................  113 Abstract     The  Built  Environment  of  a  museum  provides  a  backdrop  for  every  activity   undertaken  in  a  museum.  It  can  complement,  distract  from,  or  remain  invisible  besides   the  collections  the  museum  contains,  but  always  has  an  effect  on  the  visitors  who  come   to  view  those  collections.  This  thesis  will  explore  the  Built  Environment  of  the  museum,   particularly  its  effect  on  museum  visitors,  through  a  survey  of  its  historical  use  and  its   use  today  through  the  case  studies  of  six  museums  in  Central  Texas.           1 1.  Introduction     The  museum  is  a  unique  and  complex  form  of  communication.  It  uses  numerous   media,  both  verbal  and  not,  to  create  an  experience  for  a  visitor  that  is  like  no  other.  A   museum  is  curated,  through  the  selection,  arrangement,  and  description  of  objects,  but   also  communicates  through  human  and  technological  tour  guides,  audio  and  video   displays,  and  the  built  environment  of  the  museum.  This  thesis  will  explore  the  built   environment  element  of  a  museum’s  created  visitor  experience,  which  includes  both  its   exterior  architecture  and  its  interior  design  and  its  greatly  influenced  by  the  history  of   the  museum  in  the  particular  and  museums  in  general.       For  much  of  the  20th  century,  museums  have  been  dominated  by  the  “white   box,”  an  attempt  to  remove  context  from  the  museum  and  “let  the  art  speak  for  itself.”   However,  this  has  not  always  been  the  case.  From  their  conception  during  the   Renaissance  to  today,  a  museum’s  built  environment  has  been  used  to  create  a  variety   of  experiences  for  their  visitors.  From  displays  of  power  to  displays  of  national  pride,  a   place  of  study  to  a  place  of  entertainment,  the  built  environment  of  the  museum  has   been  used  to  direct  the  visitor’s  experience.   In  the  most  general  sense,  the  built  environment  is  any  modification  made  to  the   environment  by  humans.  This  includes  most  obviously  any  sort  of  building,  but  also   constructed  spaces  such  as  squares  and  parks,  as  well  as  streets  and  other  connectors   (Eriksen  and  Smith  4;  Lawrence  and  Low  454).  While  a  place  may  have  a  built   2 environment,  the  same  can  also  be  said  for  individual  buildings.  The  arrangement  of   rooms,  style  of  walls,  and  other  parts  of  the  building  share  in  defining  the  space   (Lawrence  and  Low  454).  This  built  environment  may  be  a  conscious  construction,   meant  to  create  a  very  particular  effect,  or  a  simple  realization  of  traditional  styles,  the   effect  of  the  building  having  been  defined  long  ago  and  recaptured  in  each  new  building   (Lawrence  and  Low  466).  Buildings  may  also  be  repurposed  from  the  architect’s  original   plan.  In  these  cases,  a  new  built  environment  can  be  layered  over  the  old  or  the  original   built  environment  altered  to  suit  the  new  purpose.  However  the  built  environment  is   decided  upon,  it  reflects  the  cultural  connections  of  the  people  who  design  and  build  it   (Lawrence  and  Low  472).   For  a  museum,  I  have  chosen  to  define  the  built  environment  as  the  physical   mechanism  through  which  the  purpose  of  the  collections,  through  curation,  is  conveyed   to  some  audience.  The  purpose  and  collections  of  the  museum  influence  the  built   environment  while  the  built  environment  influences  the  curation  of  the  collections  and   how  the  purpose  is  conveyed  to  the  audience.   This  purpose  has  changed  radically  since  the  first  formal  museums  opened  in  the   18th  century.  Each  change  in  purpose  and  audience  has  seen  a  corresponding  shift  in  the   dominant  built  environment  for  Western  museums.  After  exploring  how  these  shifts   affect  the  dominant  built  environment  historically,  this  thesis  will  look  at  six  of  today’s   museums  and  analyze  how  they  relate  to  this  narrative.     The  six  museums  have  been  drawn  from  the  Texas  Hill  country  and  I-­‐35  corridor   and  include  the  San  Antonio  Museum  of  Art,  the  McNay  Museum  of  Art,  the  Alamo,  the   3 Blanton  Museum  of  Art  at  the  University  of  Texas  at  Austin,  The  George  Washington   Carver  Museum,  and  the  National  Museum  of  the  Pacific  War.           4 2.  History  of  Museums:  Their  Purposes  and  Architecture     Today’s  museums  come  from  an  idea  attributed  to  the  Ancient  Greeks  and  given   form  by  the  Renaissance.  Museums  have  gone  through  numerous  changes  from  the   time  of  their  inception  until  now  and  each  change  has  written  itself  into  the  built   environment  of  the  museum.  As  the  museum’s  purposes  and  audience  changed  through   history,  so  too  did  its  form.     2.1  Collection:  Temples,  Cabinets,  and  Galleries   The  word  “museum”  comes  originally  from  the  Greek,  mouseion,  by  way  of  the   Latin  musaeum,  for  a  place  where  the  Muses  dwell  (Findlen  23;  Alexander  and   Alexander  3).  The  Muses,  a  set  of  nine  goddesses,  watched  over  and  served  as  the   inspiration  for  everything  from  poetry  to  history  to  astronomy  (Alexander  and  Alexander   3).       One  famous  house  of  the  Muses  was  the  Alexandrian  Museum,  of  which  the   Library  of  Alexandria  was  a  part.  The  Museum  existed  from  the  3rd  century  BC  to  the  3rd   century  AD  (Alexander  and  Alexander  3).  The  Museum  functioned  largely  as  an  academy   or  university,  with  scholars  coming  from  all  over  the  known  world  to  learn  and  work  on   their  own  theories.  However,  the  Alexandrian  Museum  also  contained  numerous   artifacts  and  objects,  as  well  as  gardens  and  a  zoo,  all  meant  for  the  inspiration  and   edification  of  those  who  visited  it  (Alexander  and  Alexander  3).   5 Rome  also  displayed  objets  d’art  as  spoils  of  war  and  articles  of  beauty.  Mostly   statuary,  these  objets  were  displayed  in  the  public  baths  which  were  prevalent   throughout  the  empire  (Alexander  and  Alexander  4;  Gielbelhausen  224).  When  Rome   moved  from  the  traditional  polytheism  to  Christianity,  the  power,  and  the  objects,   moved  from  the  temples  to  the  churches.  When  Rome  fell,  it  was  the  churches  and   monasteries  that  preserved  and  hoarded  these  items  (Duncan  251).  Knights  also   brought  back  objects  from  the  Crusades  for  the  glory  of  God  and  king,  and  these  objects   enriched  the  treasuries  of  both  kings  and  cathedrals  (Alexander  and  Alexander  5).   Despite  the  extensive  collections  of  the  ancient  and  medieval  world,  the  modern   definition  of  the  museum  truly  comes  from  the  Renaissance  (Alexander  and  Alexander   5).  The  classical  origins  of  the  idea  would  be  incorporated  later,  with  the  first  formal   museums.  The  time  just  before  the  Renaissance  saw  precious  items  begin  to  be   concentrated  in  private  hands,  collected  by  those  individuals  with  wealth  and  power.   This  trend  would  continue  into  and  beyond  the  Renaissance  and  form  the  basis  of  many   of  the  first  museums.   With  the  resurgence  of  classical  knowledge  during  the  Renaissance,  those  who   could  afford  it  gathered  items  from  the  world  over,  ranging  from  biological  specimens  to   ancient  artifacts  to  rare  books  and  paintings,  to  place  under  one  roof  for  study,   entertainment,  and  prestige  (Duncan  263;  Findlen  36-­‐38).       Private  scholars  gathered  their  collections  into  what  would  come  to  be  known  as   Cabinets  of  Curiosities.  These  cabinets  were  analogous  to  the  study  or  library  and  were   filled  with  an  eclectic  mix  of  natural  and  manmade  objects  and  artifacts  (Giebelhausen   6 224;  Alexander  and  Alexander  5).  They  allowed  scholars  to  hold  a  plethora  of  objects  in   their  own  hands,  the  better  to  attempt  to  fix  their  place  in  the  universe  and  in  relation   to  all  the  other  items.  Of  course,  not  all  cabinet  owners  had  a  scholarly  bent.  Some   preferred  collecting  oddities  in  order  to  impress  their  friends  and  acquaintances  (Olmi   132-­‐33).  These  personal  and  private  Cabinets  of  Curiosities  served  as  a  quiet  place  to   study  the  macrocosm  in  microcosm.  The  cabinets  brought  a  representation  of  the  larger   world  into  a  small  enough  space  that  the  items  were  convenient  to  study.   The  Cabinets  of  Curiosities  were,  or  were  modeled  after,  studies  and  libraries,   private  places  of  contemplation.  However,  the  nature  of  scholarship  required  this  space   to  be  semi-­‐public,  as  both  friends  and  strangers  came  to  view  the  collection  and  use  it  as   a  resource  in  their  own  studies.  These  rooms  were  often  literally  full  of  objects,  from   specimen  jars  and  stuffed  animals  to  Greek  vases  and  Egyptian  jewelry  covering  every   available  surface,  packed  into  shelves  and  tacked  up  on  walls.     The  owners  of  these  Cabinets  could  vary  greatly  in  social  standing.  While  wealth   was  something  of  a  prerequisite  for  a  truly  diverse  collection,  collectors  with  less   disposable  income  limited  themselves  to  a  single  genre  of  item;  shells  were  particularly   popular  in  the  Netherlands  as  a  collector’s  item  for  the  common  man  (Scheurleer  157).     At  least  one  of  these  Cabinets,  if  a  slightly  exaggerated  example,  is  still  extant  in   its  original  form.  Dating  to  the  late  18th  and  early  19th  centuries,  Sir  John  Soane’s  large   collection  was  given  into  the  care  of  the  British  Government  with  the  condition  that   nothing  be  removed,  added,  or  changed.  Covering  the  space  of  three  town  houses  in   central  London,  the  museum  displays  both  the  eclectic  nature  of  Soane’s  collecting  and   7