Collecting the History of

Technology at the National

Museum of American History
Steven Lubar
Brown University

Society For The History Of Technology, Dearborn Michigan, November 2014

The essence of professionalism is to be found in the

strong sense of high purpose and personal
responsibility and the strict intellectual integrity that
motivate the individual and guide him in the use of his
specialized knowledge. These qualities . . . mark the
museum curator and are the measure of his stature. As
a professional he is a stronghold of individual initiative
and responsibility in a world threatened by the ant
heap of collectivism.
Remington Kellogg, USNM Annual Report, 1952

Start with this quote from the 1952 US National Museum annual report.
Reflected long-held believes at the Smithsonian - back to Joseph Henry - about importance
of pure research

To declare, on the basis of its present usefulness, that

one or another area of investigation is the more
valuable is to hazard a judgment before all evidence is
assembled, as well as to encroach upon a basic freedom
freedom of inquiry.
Remington Kellogg, USNM Annual Report, 1952

What this meant in practice - curators went unjudged, and mostly unmanaged. This is part
of a long quote on why you should never tell a curator what to do - need to keep looking,
keep collecting - only the curator knows when to stop.
How to evaluate and manage curators a challenge for the SI, and especially the new NMAH

Rendering of the north front of the

new Museum of History and
Technology by Elliot Glushak in 1961.

This is carried over to the new museum, opened in 1964. The ideology of SI collecting was
shaped by natural history collecting, and how to apply it to history was a challenge.
Lots of artifacts. not so clear what the guidelines are for how to collect well.

Military history storage, United

States National Museum, early 1900s.

How many guns do you need? One of each kind? How many machine tools? Whats the rule?

Curator Herbert Collins in the

political history storage area of
the Museum of History and
Technology, 1976.

How many political buttons? What are the collections for? Display? research? Research, and
curator-driven research, usually won the argument.

We have judged it best to forego the search for the

mastermind, liberating the slaves each to function
(hopefully) as a minor Leonardo in his special sphere.
Our exhibitions represent primarily the judgment of
the curator-in-charge as to the best method of dealing
with his subject.
Robert Multhauf, Director, Museum of History and
Technology, 1965

The NMAH answer: let every curator figure it out for him or her self.

[New acquisitions] are requested or accepted by the

curators to implement their departments specific plans
and projects. Each curator had pretty much first and
final say regarding the collection process.
Guide to the Museum of History and Technology, 1968

This becomes oficial policy. First and final say.

Collecting and preserving are fundamental and

indivisible aspects of a museum's function. They are
the cornerstones of a museum's contributions to
scholarship and the measure of its success in enriching
the educational opportunities for this and future
generations.
A Report on the Management of Collections in the
Museums of the Smithsonian Institution, 1977

But there are problems. Yes, collections are the cornerstone. But there are too many

From Report on the Management of Collections in the Museums of the Smithsonian

Institution, 1977. Each department at the museum estimated how many artifacts they would
have by 2015. The dark line is the curatorial projection, the lighter, exponential, line the
official projection.

The importance of the Institution's collections is

matched by the burden and responsibility of housing
them adequately so that they can be enjoyed and
studied and can fulfill their potential of contributing to
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among
men.
A Report on the Management of Collections in the
Museums of the Smithsonian Institution, 1977

What should we do?

Smithsonian Museum Support

Center, 1981. In the background are
older offsite storage facilities.

The Smithsonians favorite answer: find more space.

The museum of the past must be set aside,

reconstructed, transformed from a cemetery of bric-abrac into a nursery of living thoughts. . . . The people's
museum should be much more than a house full of
specimens in glass cases. It should be a house full of
ideas.
George Brown Goode, first director
of the United States National Museum,
The Museum of the Future, 1889

The next three decades see many attempts to solve to the problem, including the rise of
material culture studies in 1980s, rise of interpretive collecting in the 1990s, and rise of
museum-wide collecting plans in the early 2000s. Still, though, closer to Goodes cemetery
of bric-a-brac than to a house full of ideas.

The museum might reconsider the proper connection

between collecting and research

The museum might be more transparent about

collecting, and explain it better

The museum might reconsider and broaden the

connections between collecting and exhibitions

The museum might break connection between

curatorial work and collections storage

New ways to use digital access

Looking ahead: some thoughts on potential answers to the collecting problem.