The Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia

Don't worry, I didn't take pictures. You can thank Google.

Today our class visited The Wagner Free Institute of Science. The first thing I can say is that The Wagner Institute is a truly unique place. Immediately upon entering the building, one is flooded with the sights of an antique library and a large auditorium with some very effective acoustics. The museum, established in 1855, houses all manner of artifacts of natural science from the mid to late 19th century. The real substance of the museum is on the second floor, where there is a huge room filled with rows of display cases. These display cases hold all manner of animal (mainly taxidermy or skeletal), vegetable, and mineral. I found the positioning of the particular displays to be very intriguing. From the entrance, one finds minerals and fossils, followed by all manner of sea creatures (notably, two Tarpon on the walls that I estimated to be at least 5ft in length, each), and then bugs of all sizes. Next were amphibians and reptiles, followed by a colorful and varied collection of birds. After that were marsupials, and then mammals. At the very end of the displays devoted to mammals were the primates, which were positioned in a line leading, rather conclusively, up to man. The human was notably placed front-and-center of the room. It gave one an impression of some extraordinary significance to man, as though to say "Here is the ultimate culmination of years of evolution, man."

I found myself almost put off by the idea of homo sapiens as the ultimate goal of evolution. However, this was the conclusion I expected from a museum that hasn't changed much since the 1880's (and I wouldn't be surprised by this conclusion in a modern museum, either). In fact, I was very impressed to see that the setup of the displays hasn't changed much in over a century.

Seeing The Wagner Institute provided a good grounding for the article we were asked to read beforehand. The article discussed some issues with museums that are constantly modernizing, especially that they are all focusing on entertaining children. I was glad to see that the Wagner had not done much changing, because major changes would cover up what the museum once was. The preserved museum acts as an exhibit within itself, a 19th century museum on display. I was also very happy to see that, while the museum's audience is often children, the museum took almost no measures to cater specifically to children. The museum kept a mature and interesting tone to it. On the whole, I was very impressed and pleased with The Wagner Institute.