The Museum That Might Have Been: The Smithsonian's National Museum of Engineering and Industry

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Summary

Documents the early conception of a museum for the history of technology, as articulated by Carl W. Mitman, chief curator in the 1920s of the Smithsonian's technological collections. Article traces the historical shifts in attitudes towards technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum over the fifty year period, 1880-1930.

Subject

  • Taylor, Frank A (Frank Augustus) 1903-2007
  • Mitman, Carl W
  • National Museum of Engineering and Industry
  • National Museum of History and Technology (U.S.)
  • National Museum of American History (U.S.) (NMAH)
  • National Museum of American History (U.S.) Dept. of the History of Science and Medicine

Category

Smithsonian Institution History Bibliography

Notes

Molella was Chairman of the Department of History of Science and Technology at the National Museum of American History at the time. An early version of this article was presented at a 1987 "Collections and Culture" conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Contained within

Journal of the Society for the History of Technology (Journal)

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1991

Topic

  • Museum buildings
  • History of Science and Technology
  • Architecture
  • History of Technology
  • Museums
  • Philosophy
  • Museums--Philosophy
  • Museum exhibits
  • Museum techniques
  • Buildings

Physical description

pp. 237-263

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