Introduction: Why I want to read The New Museum

My name is Alex Hampton. I am a first year Museum Studies graduate student, and I particularly love natural history museums and zoos. I just moved to Indianapolis from Louisville, KY after finishing my undergrad degree in History at the University of Louisville. I worked 3 summers in the Education Department of the Louisville Zoo, and thus, my background is in working with animals and children.

I chose to read The New Museum because I am very interested in museum history-- especially late 19th and early 20th century museum history. The ideas of innovators are always fascinating to read about, and it seems that Dana had a great deal of vision when it came to the future of museums. The summary of the book contains excerpts from the introduction written by Stephen E. Weil. Weil's praise of Dana really sold me on this book! Weil specifically says that Dana was the first to discuss the informal nature of learning in museums, which is a topic I have found interesting this semester.

For someone with a degree in history, I cannot claim to love history the way that it seems other people can. I was fairly certain after completing my degree that I did not want to pick up another history book for at least the next five years, but ultimately I enjoy trying to trace ideas back to their sources. I am looking forward to getting to do just that with some of the ideas that are very relevant to the museum field today.