ABSTRACT
Autodidactism is a very natural way of learning in a museum. Anyone deeply interested in a topic will try to access the relevant knowledge, either through talking to people, reading books in libraries, visits to museums, or searches on the Internet. The subjects studied by the autodidactic visitor to museums may not be taught in schools: they may be ‘hobbies’ sometimes supported by weekly or monthly periodicals which are another communal source of learning, giving advice for example on medicinal plants, cooking recipes, hunting for mushrooms, stamp collections, games such as chess, mechanics, or do-it-yourself jobs. Interest in truly academic matters may be less common, but subjects which have a romantic flavour, allow for day dreaming and have a poetic or emotional background-such as astronomy, dinosaurs, botany, alchemy, history etc.—attract a great number of people with genuine interests. Because many of these visitors write to the museum curators with questions, comments or alternative personal theories, we see something of the nature and passions of this curious cohort.
