New York Morgan Library and Museum

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Title

New York Morgan Library and Museum

Catalog Entry

While scouring the internet for possible artifacts, I had the mind to search for libraries and museums who had already taken my idea of further learning into action to see how many existed, if any at all. I came across a museum in New York named the Morgan Library and Museum, which seemed to be exactly what I had been imagining in my head. It is an almost perfect example of exactly the kind of learning younger kids should be getting when they go to visit a museum; there is art, artifacts, books, and all sorts of displays and collections to enjoy and read. The Museum and Library are not one in the same make as the library portion is set in its own space, which varies a little off what I was hoping to find, but the idea to move the two buildings together was in place, and this made it a solid candidate to talk about for my exhibition.

The ideal setup I would like to imagine a museum should have is the various collections and exhibits broken up into their own spaces with a small reading section for each with books documenting that culture's history and describing artifacts in more detail. On the other hand the Morgan Library has its own small displays within its covered shelves and offers ample opportunities to study more about the various collections within its walls. This is the early stages of encouraging both young and old visitors to take a chance to slow down and learn more about these amazing artifacts of history and the cultures that created and founded them. If learning about the world’s history is still important, I believe this could be an extremely effective way of showing the younger audience how fun and easy reading can be.

One thing I found interesting about the Morgan Library and Museum is its history and many different opportunities it has and still provides to those who visit its halls. The building is funded by both government funds and private donations to keep its halls stocked and buildings sustained, making it openly available to the public with additional benefits provided by the generous donors. One of these benefits is the college programs they offer; this gives students a chance to take internships, fellowships, and even long-term employment for those looking for jobs in fields of study and researching various cultures, history, etc. Many students benefit greatly from these openings and are given a chance to open their lives to the study halls and extensive collection of books the library offers in their research. This is the kind of furthering learning that is actively benefiting students' lives and allowing them chances to earn money, establish relations with recommendations and referrals, and give them access to all sorts of reading materials for their studies. I love this idea of supplying people with this kind of knowledge and availability to aid them in their growth as students, professionals, and researchers alike. If more museums had this kind of funding and insight, then I believe the growing number of students would be able to prosper and find ample opportunities to increase their growth and pursuit for knowledge.

If museums like the Morgan are so beneficial, how come there is so little demand for this kind of educational haven for students in this society that deems schooling so important? I believe that the social norm of learning has become going to school and spending 5-8 hours in classes studying various subjects has become a standard method of teaching. From my perspective it almost looks like people have forgotten that there are opportunities to learn outside of the walls of a high school or college campuses. If you introduce children to museums and libraries like the Boston Library, the Morgan, or even your local library, you give them a chance to expand their interest in learning to grow that much more. I know from personal experience that some museum visits in middle school and high school were made because we were exploring a topic in our classes and would go to these museums to show off the topics in the form of the various displays and exhibits these museums held. I feel as if these trips were both beneficial and hurt our education because some could interpret the idea of going to places like the museums and libraries in our areas as only places to look at displays and materials available to complete work and to not search for potential interests. A question I would like to ask is instead of assigning projects to research then visiting these museums and libraries to give chances to find information on these topics, why not just let the kids go to a museum or library of their choice and pick something that interests them? In my experience it is so much more motivational to write and research about topics you have even the slightest bit of interest in so would that not make more sense to encourage kids to seek their own interests at the point in their life where they have time to do so? I truly think it is a huge missed opportunity to provide younger kids a chance to find different historical periods, cultures, foreign countries, or even local lore when they still have the attention span and time to find it interesting. At further stages of learning in college I think it is evident that most students spend the majority of their time typing out essays and writing up homework for classes that they get burned out from the work. So why not introduce future hobbies, jobs, and personal interests in the fields of study that are shown off in libraries and museums?

There are places in the world that are similar to my idea of a place of learning in which younger audiences can walk in and learn more than just what certain artifacts look like and where they are from. I love to see these opportunities to learn be provided to students both young and old from all these various places of learning, and I would love to see more show up in the future as we progress as a society.

Bibliography

"Home." The Morgan Library & Museum. Web. 28 Apr. 2021.

McNeely, Talena. "Boston Historical Sites: 21 Must-See Stops for History Buffs." Tripster Travel Guide. 23 Jan. 2020. Web. 28 Apr. 2021.

Catalog Entry Author(s)

Dominic Malo, Student, Fitchburg State University

ALFA Mentor

Veda Ross

Photographer(s)

Kisha G. Tracy

Citation

“New York Morgan Library and Museum,” Cultural Heritage through Image, accessed March 29, 2024, https://culturalheritagethroughimage.omeka.net/items/show/170.

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