Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence

by Edward P. Alexander

Alexander brings to life the stories of twelve ambitious leaders from the United States and Europe who helped shape the future of the museum world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Museums, History, Art, Museology

428 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Edward Porter Alexander was a famed museum administrator, historian and educator. Born in Keokuk, Iowa, he earned degrees at Drake University, the University of Iowa, and Columbia. After spending a decade working at various state historical societies, he served from 1946 to 1972 as a vice-president for interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg. He moved on to found the Museum Studies program at the University of Delaware, and to author several books on the history and function of the museum in America.

Reviews

[Tiffany]

Ermm... It was okay. It was a little dry overall, and kind of dragged on in a lot of chapters. I get that this is about the people behind the museums, and about the museums, but it felt like ... I don't need to know *every* detail about each "museum masters's" life, and I don't need to know every detail about each of the museums.

AND! The pictures are terrible! Most of them are really bad black-and-white photos and drawings, so black that you can't make out many details in a lot of them.

The book *did* have some interesting stories, though, about how a person's life led to his or her involvement in museums, and each chapter definitely did have a couple of good tips about museums -- either their content, how they approached their audience, or administration.

Overall, though, it was just okay.

[Mary Warnement]

I picked this up to read the chapter about Wilhelm Bode and the Berlin museums he oversaw. Very interesting, especially since it was written before fall of wall. His off-hand comment that the Neue Museum would need to be completely rebuilt had little hope that it would happen; and I have seen first-hand the wonderful newly built Neue, along with the renovated other museums on Museum Island. I'm also reading Charney's Stealing the Mystic Lamb and the chapter about the late 19th c and WWI obviously include similar material.
I may read other chapters. He commented on how Bode's arrangement differed from the MFA Boston's style where popular art was displayed for the public and lesser known works reserved elsewhere for scholars; however, there was no footnote. I'll have to check the Bib. I wonder where that second site was?

[Karin]

The who's who of the museum field. An interesting look at how some of the big and most well-known institutions started and the people behind them.