"The Origins & Early Development of the Nova Scotia Museum 1868 - 1940" c. Catharine Lorraine Arseneau, 1994 A Thesis Submitted in Partial EW.filment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies at Saint Mary's University, Septeiâ>er, 1994 The^s Approved By: Dy/uames Morrison (Supervise. ) Dr Colin DC Hovell (Reader) kary Sparling ^ (Reader) National Library' Bibliothèque nationale 1 ^ 1 ol Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographic Services Branchdes services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa. Ontario Ottawa (Ontario) K1A0N4 K1A0N4 ypuf A4* Vo/rf O j( Mr Nütrê félétûtXê THE AUTHOR HAS GRANTED AN L'AUTEUR A ACCORDE UNE LICENCE IRREVOCABLE NON-EXCLUSIVE IRREVOCABLE ET NON EXCLUSIVE LICENCE ALLOWING THE NATIONAL PERMETTANT A LA BIBLIOTHEQUE LIBRARY OF CANADA TO NATIONALE DU CANADA DE REPRODUCE, LOAN. DISTRIBUTE OR REPRODUIRE, PRETER, DISTRIBUER SELL COPIES OF HIS/HER THESIS BY O U VENDRE DES COPIES DE SA ANY MEANS AND IN ANY FORM OR THESE DE QUELQUE MANIERE ET FORMAT, MAKING THIS THESIS SOUS QUELQUE FORME QUE CE SOIT AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED POUR METTRE DES EXEMPLAIRES DE PERSONS. CETTE THESE A LA DISPOSITION DES PERSONNE INTERESSEES. THE AUTHOR RETAINS OWNERSHIP L'AUTEUR CONSER VE LA PROPRIETE OF THE COPYRIGHT IN HIS/HER D U DROIT D'AUTEUR QUI PROTEGE THESIS. NEITHER THE THESIS NOR SA THESE. NI LA THESE NI DES SUBSTANTIAL EXTRACTS FROM IT EXTRAITS SUBSTANTIELS DE CELLE- M A Y BE PRINTED OR OTHERWISE CI NE DOIVENT ETRE IMPRIMES OU REPRODUCED WITHOUT HIS/HER AUTREMENT REPRODUITS SANS SON PERMISSION. AUTORISATION. ISBN 0-612-00918-1 CanadS ABSTRACT The Nova Scotia Provincial Museum was founded in 11368. In 1994, 126 years later, the heritage community of Nova Scotia is reeling as this Museum undergoes, what some have called, its most radical reorganization. The Museum's management structure, funding structure, and branch support networks have all been reviewed, revised and reorganized. Is this due to the "tough economic times" of the 1990's? Or is this part of a pattern which repeats itself as a periodic response of a socially sensitive and public-serving institution? The Nova Scotia Museum has been growing for the last 126 years, its growth has required it to stay abreast of changing social needs, public expectations and the government's financial capabilities. Nova Scotians have supported museums individually and collectively through government for over a century. But, it is only recently that researchers have begun to look, assess and challenge the role these institutions play in society. Museums are often regarded as virtuous institutions dedicated to the preservation of natural and human history which is then interpreted and exhibited for the public. The tools of interpretation and exhibition are powerful mediums and therefore analysis and critique are essential in order to fully comprehend the museum's role in relation to the contemporary needs of the public it serves. This thesis will examine the origins and early development of the Nova Scotia Museum and its development from 1868-1940. It will examine how the Museum, through its collection, responded to the needs of the Nova Scotian public and how these needs affected the evolution of the Museum as an institution. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many persons who with out their help this thesis could not have been completed. I especially would like to thank my thesis advisor Dr James Morrison for his guidance and wisdom. To all the stêiff of the Atlantic Canada Studies program who through their course-work help prepare students for the thesis, thank-you. I would like to acknowledge the Nova Scotia Museum and its staff who supported this study. I am indebted to the staff of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia for assistance and cooperation. Most importantly, I gratefully acknowledge the love and support of my husband, Mitchell Allan McNutt, for endless hours of discussion, debate, and guilt free baby-sitting. To my son, Bennett James McNutt, I dedicated this work as a building block for our future and with whom I look forward to a life-time of exploring the world's museums. Ill Introduction The past is always altered for motives that reflect present needs. We reshape our heritage to make it attractive in modern terms; we seek to make it part of ourselves, and ourselves part of it; we conform it to our self-images and aspirations. Rendered grand or homely, magnified or tarnished, history is continually altered in our private interests or on behalf of our community or country.^ In Nova Scotia there exists a long tradition of collecting. Since the early explorers, humankind has gathered samples which exhibit the natural history and culture of this province. In a broader context, the institutionalization of this human disposition towards collecting can be traced back to the Alexandrian Museum, an institution devoted to learning founded by Ptolemy Soter in 332 B.C. Ptolemy's "mouseion", literally a place where the muses dwelt, was a place for contemplation. The Mouseion of Alexandria, consisted of a collection of buildings, a library, botanical and zoological collections, and objects such as astronomical and surgical instruments. The institution was essentially what we might call a university or a philosophical academy. The name mouseion was given as a tribute to the muses, mythological figures symbolising the humanities, including history, tragedy, comedy, music, dance, astronomy, oratory, love poetry and the epic. The Greek term mouseion is the root from ' David Lowenthal. The Past is a Foreign Country. (New York: Cambridge University Pres'sji 1Ô85) p 348. IV which derived the Latin term museum, the contemporary term for such institutions of learning and collecting. Later, the Romans continued the tradition of collecting and were the world’s first massive collectors. Acquiring often by conquest, the Romans gathered predominantly paintings and sculptures. Objects were displayed in public gardens, theatres and baths very unlike the Greek temples. It was not until the Middle Ages that the term museum is widely used again and then mainly in the realm of church collections. The Church throughout the Middle Ages collected art, gold works, jewels, rich fabrics, relics and manuscript writings. The Crusades acted as a vehicle for many collectors to acquire exotic art objects. Many of these collections were displayed in cathedrals and monasteries. The modern museum, says J. Mordaunt Crook, is the product of Renaissance humanism, eighteenth century enlightenment and nineteenth century democracy.^ The sixteenth century collectors began to throw off the confines of superstition and take a keen interest in the world around them, progressing towards a scientific method. Through this period two museological terms were employed: the cabinet and the gallery. The cabinet was usually a square-shaped room filled with stuffed animals, botanical rarities, small works of art, artifacts, and curios. The gallery, a long hall lighted from the side, came to signify an exhibition area for pictures and sculptures. Sixteenth century collecting spread beyond the exclusive domain of the Church to include the secular rich and powerful. Such ^ Edward P. Alexander. Museums in Motion. (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1986) p 8. collections were not open to the public but remained the hobby of the elite. The sixteenth century also saw the rise of the university where botanical collections were used for scientific research by physicians and botanists.^ During the seventeenth century the museum returned to the public forum. In 1671 the first university museum was open to the public at the University of Basel and only twelve years later the second at the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. Such emancipation of museums may have been in response to Francis Bacon's writings in The New Atlantis in which he visualized a national museum of science and art for the purpose of study and display. As progressive as this theory seems, museums were public but not universally accessible as admission fees barred all but the elite. During the eighteenth century, concerned with discovering the basic natural laws that governed the universe and humanity, connoisseurs collected natural specimens as well as human artistic and scientific creations. These collections were to educate and aid in humanity's progress towards perfection. Out of this philosophy was founded the British Museum in 1753 and the Louvre opened as the Museum of the Republic in 1793. Most importantly, a shift from private collections to national (and democratic) collections had taken place. The eighteenth century also saw the beginning of American museums which from their inception were aimed at public education and profit. Owned or sponsored by independently-wealthy philanthropists, museums ^ Archie F. Key. Beyond Four Walls: The Origin and Development of Canadian Museums (Toronto : McClellend and Stewart Limited, 1973) p 22-20. VI such as the Charleston Museum (1773) and Peale's Museum (1794) were founded. Later examples include Barnum’s American Museum (1841) and the Smithsonian Institution (1846). The popularization of museums and the democratization of modern life was exemplified throughout the mid to late nineteenth century in the popular World Fairs and Industrial Exhibitions. London's Crystal Palace was the site of the first World’s Fair in 1851 followed by the International Exhibitions of 1862 and 1865, the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the Philadelphia Exposition of 1C76, the Chicago World Fair in 1879, the Colonial Exhibition at Amsterdam in 1883, and the Paris World's Fair in 1889. Such expositions and exhibitions dedicated to the display of progress in the arts, sciences, and manufacturing also had a profound effect on museum collections and development. Still two more influences of the nineteenth century impacting upon the development of museums were the promotion of public education as a means of economic success and the rising sense of nationalism.