Happy International Museum Day!
Did you know….?
The first museum curator was a woman. Princess Ennigaldi, daughter of the last king of the Neo-Babylonian empire, established what is believed to be the first museum, around 530 BCE, in what is now Iraq. Some of the artifacts that the princess organized in the museum date back to the 20th century BCE and have labels (carved into clay cylinders)–in three languages.
The first tyrannosaurus rex fossil ever unearthed (in Montana in 1902) has resided in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History since 1941, but it was only in 2011 that it was reunited with one of its rib bones, accidentally left behind when it moved to Pittsburgh from its previous home at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A researcher found the rib in the museum’s “spare bones box” and then a curator brought the rib to Pittsburgh–in his backpack!
Iceland’s Phallology museum contains more than 200 mammal penises, including one human penis and one elf penis (pictures are not allowed–you’ll have to go for yourself).
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and not recovered for over two years. An Italian handyman working at the museum took the painting from the wall, slipped it under his cloak, and walked out. Motivation for the crime? He was under the false impression that Napoleon had stolen the painting when he conquered Italy and thought he was righting that wrong by taking it back to Italy. In fact, it was Leonardo Da Vinci himself who had brought his now famous smiling lady to Paris.
850 million people visit U.S. museums annually, far exceeding the 140 million who attend a major-league sports event each year.
Want to learn more? Then follow Karlissa’s new blog, Museum Musings, here at dr-karma.com.
Karlissa, talking about museums.
