Taxacom: Natural history museums in decline

[Frederick W. Schueler]

On 30-Jun-23 10:59 a.m., Richard Zander via Taxacom wrote:
> An interesting article on the increasing irrelevance of natural history museums to government is at:
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.biotaxa.org%2Fmegataxa%2Farticle%2Fview%2Fmegataxa.7.1.2&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C95319a36bd61410a2d9b08db798ac647%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638237410440652880%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XkR086U0mxukcJaE4cF9FSGl3a385H935%2FpigOsZclw%3D&reserved=0
> 
> Anything like this happening at your institutions?

* here's a verse from an autobiographical song from 1986:

I remember back six years ago
This free-lance life we chose.
How every day the news would say
Some museum was going to close.
Oh, I could have tried to get a job,
But I’m not one of those.
I like being free, and that makes me
An idiot, I suppose.

The hypothesis has been expressed that commercial governments supported 
museums because natural history knowledge could promote economic growth, 
but that in the 1970s when museums began to put out lists of 
rare-&-endangered species which would require protection, this was seen 
as inhibiting economic exploitation of habitats, and funding was 
accordingly cut back.

I've tootled for some decades that if humanity is to live in 
co-operative understanding of their territory, then natural history 
museums are the primary institutions of sovereignty, since they are 
where we know our relatives and neighbours, but this isn't an idea that 
has been taken up by others.

fred.
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          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
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