Hidden Treasures: What Museums Can't Or Won't Show You

by Harriet Baskas

While there are more than 15,000 museums in our country , visitors get to see only about  five percent of any institution’s collections. Most museums simply don’t have room to display everything they’ve got. However, there are a wide variety of surprising and intriguing reasons that, for example, the Smithsonian Institution doesn’t display its collection of condoms, Florida's Lightner Museum locks up all but one of its shrunken heads, and a world-class stash of Japanese erotica (shunga) art was kept in the Honolulu Museum of Art's storage until only recently. Each item or collection included in this volume is described and placed in context with stories and interviews that explore the historical, social, cultural, political, environmental, or other circumstances that led to keeping that object or group of objects out of public view--the ultimate museum buff's voyeuristic experience. Color photographs of the artifacts are included.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art, Adult, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[lara phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

great fun. From radioactive artifacts to stuff that's too fragile, theftable or racist to exhibit, learn what your local museum is hiding from you.

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist]

Hidden museum treasures. I am such a nerd. Nerd. NERD. NERD.

and I love it and wouldn’t change it for the world.

What I learned right away is that when you are the only guest in a small museum that doesn’t get many out-of-town visitors, the volunteer on duty is apt to follow you around. Sometimes it’s due to a mistrust of outsiders. More often it’s simply because it’s nice to have a curious visitor—or any visitor—come through the front door. Partly to be polite, and partly because I’m just a nosy person, I’d often ask my museum “minder” to tell me about his or her favorite things on exhibit. That way I would usually learn about a local treasure I might have otherwise overlooked…

This really isn’t limited to small museums. I’ve come across this in a number of NYC museums both small and large. I’ve found some really cool treasures like the Staten Island Museum’s “Diver Man”, the Tiffany Lamps at the NY Historical Society and the Queens Museum’s World’s Fair collection (including its smaller, pre-renovation one). But I love it whenever and wherever it happens.

The main reason most museums rarely or never display some very significant and intriguing objects is actually sort of boring: From the smallest community museum to the largest branch of the Smithsonian Institution, at most museums there’s just barely enough room to display more than 5 or 10 percent of their holdings at any one time. And space isn’t the only issue: A lot of great things stay tucked away because they are just too old, too fragile, or too likely to be ruined by exposure to humidity and to light. And museums are in the business of keeping things safe and intact for a long time.

While the space issue is beginning to be addressed with renovations and expansions to museums around the world, the preservation one to me is most interesting. With all the advances in science and technology, it’s crazy to think there haven’t been more advances in preservation techniques in order to be better able to display some of these true treasures. And to be honest, I never thought about the safety piece. Museum curators sure face a number of unexpected challenges in planning their exhibits. To that end, Ken Arnold at the Wellcome Center in London had some interesting thoughts:

“One of the great myths of the museum world is that we should perpetually strive to put as much of our collections on show for as long as we can,” says Arnold. “My sense instead is that one of the most important roles of the museum is precisely the opposite: namely to keep safe material that is off display and at rest, so that it can then be rediscovered and reinterpreted afresh when it has had a chance, if you like, to recharge its batteries.”

While I do agree with him, I also think there’s a happy middle ground between never showing the item(s) and risking their survival and I truly hope that can be found.

A nice surprise in reading this book was learning about more museums/topics. I know the NYC museum landscape fairly well, and to some extent I know the major east coast museums. But there are so many museums about which I had no clue and can’t wait to see eventually.

Overall, a really good read/guidebook to some of the US & London’s best museums. I am so far off course for this year’s reading goal. Ooph

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so loved this book! I'm really into quirky offbeat factoids, so I knew that I'd love this even before I read it. I also think that my mom and my aunt would really like this book. It's pretty short, but it's chock full of cool stuff that museums around the country can't or won't show to the public. And there's photographs! So if you check out this book, you actually do get to see the stuff that the museums don't take out of storage! Some of it is kind of expected, like the nude (contemporary) painting and the bit of Marie Curie's radium (too radioactive) but quite of few of the objects were unexpected and had really interesting back stories, like the Invisible Art (literally can't be displayed; it's invisible. You have to "think deep" to "get" this one, wink wink) and the Coded Message in a Bottle from the Civil War and the lock of George Washington's hair. My personal favorite entry in the book? "Swastika and KKK Quilts: Yakima Valley Museum (Washington)" The explanation behind these quilts and their pairing and how they came to be in the museum's collection is just incredible!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oddball collection of strange, gross, stealable, radioactive or controversial items that museums don't exhibit. The book grew out of a NPR project & it's very cool in that "stay in your car til the end of the story" way. It's intriguing hearing what each museum offered up and why those items are rarely or never displayed.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book about the stories of the unseen treasures of museums. My favorite items: the 618 boxes of Andy Warhol's stuff and the lifelike statue of "Linda." A fun and quirky read for history lovers.

[Laura Madsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book for fellow museum nerds: it talks about artifacts that can’t be displayed because they’re too fragile, valuable, creepy, weird, or radioactive; plus items of sketchy provenance or which have been or should be repatriated.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun notes on what's hidden away in museums large and small, and the very varied reasons why!

[Debra Ainsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joy to read

Interesting facts, makes me want to visit the hidden places in museums. Road trip time? I think so! Enjoy light reading

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that there was more information about each artifact instead of so much about each museum's collections.

[Carye Bye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harriet has done it again! What a great book! An Enthusiastic 5 stars! I had it by my nightstand table and read 2-3 entries a day. Out of all the museums covered, I think I've only been to 1-2. Impressively curated and enjoyed all the stories, good balance and variety and a really great tribute to all the hard work and dedication museums of all kinds and sizes all around the US and the difficult and interesting process on what goes on view and what does not. Also the layout of the book is very nice and enjoyed having a large picture or two for each item. Putting this kind of book together with 50+ different museums is no easy task. Brava!

In Portland I'm the LML -- Local Museum Lady and I love museums so very much and have admired and enjoyed all of Harriet's museum books over the years as she's covered the NW quite often. I am like her I not only love museums but I love what goes behind the scenes, the curators, the collections, the why and what!

What a fantastic book that would be fun for anyone who is curious and loves roadside attractions, museums, and the odd story to pick up a read a chapter or two, or a museum aficionado like myself.

[H. Givens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book for a museum enthusiast to have as a coffee table or bathroom book. However, the marketing was a little off -- It tries to look like some kind of expose, but actually these objects are displayed on occasion, and if they "can't" be shown it's generally because they no longer belong to the museum or because they're too fragile. Not as nefarious as the title wants it to be. Also, each section is really about the museum at hand, with extra attention paid to the object in the title. Could've titled each section by the museum, with a subtitle of the main objects, instead of the other way around. More pictures would've been nice, too, since I can't travel to all these places (much as I'd like to!) Still, since I CAN'T do the traveling, it was fun to have this written "tour" of sorts.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like the written portions of this got a little long at points; telling more about the museums themselves than the objects they contain. I would have liked to see more pictures of these "hidden treasures". Some of the objects included are very cool --although, I would like to point out that if they DO occasionally "come out of the vault", I wouldn't call them hidden. I would have included ONLY items that are never/have yet to be shown to the public.

[Charlotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot say too little about this book. If you actually purchased this book, you have my sympathy. There is nothing new in this book, and certainly nothing you couldn't find on the Internet within five minutes. Thank goodness I checked it out from the library, because I would be kicking and screaming to get my money back otherwise. Go get a root canal instead. Seriously.

Sorry, Ms. Baskas.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an employee of a small museum with many an oddity in its collection, this book was really fascinating. It looks at some of the reasons museums choos not to put certain items on view: They don't have the right light/temperature/humidity control; the item is too valuable (people might steal it); the item is too controversial; too darn big; too darn small... A fun tour through some of America's largest and smallest Museum and the stuff they keep behind closed doors.

[Heather Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book to read on a plane, meaning it holds your interest really well and its easy to pick up and put down. Really fascinating. It made me realize that what we see in museums is unfortunately a filtered part of history. I felt sad for people who couldn't handle seeing nude pictures in a museum. Made me appreciate the museum curator even more.

[Charles M.]

Excerpts of those artifact and documents held by various museums across the USA; and why they do not or cannot display such. Such pieces include cross sections of the human anatomy, a paper mache scupltor of Richard Nixon arm wrestling with George McGovern, etc., etc., etc. Interesting and fsacinating!

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

i imagine you will find this book about as interesting and exciting as you would a day at the museum... perhaps somewhat less so.

[Sherry (sethurner) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by this skinny book, and now I wonder what we're not seeing in local museums, especially smaller local ones.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an enjoyable and fascinating look into the recesses of a variety of museum collections.