ABSTRACT
In the museum sector, it is not uncommon to hear a lament on how far “behind” institutions are with their use of media technologies. This refrain among museum professionals (Steele, 2013; Ansty, 2016) is reinforced by sector reports that have focused on a “gap” in provision (Council of Canadian Academies, 2015; Nesta, 2013). Other discourses exhort museum professionals to grasp the “new” and the “future” (London School of Economics, 2009; American Alliance of Museums, 2013–2016). However, these statements belie the long history of museum media production, that began nearly as long ago as museums did themselves. It is a rich history of collaboration with industry and media organisations, paving the way for numerous innovations and reinterpretations of museum “content.” This chapter explores early museum media through a survey of notable museum media experiments and productions, drawn from institutions such as the American Museum for Natural History in New York, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Deutsches Museum in Munich, and the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. These examples, albeit sited at large, research-intensive institutions, demonstrate that (perhaps in contrast to commonplace misapprehensions that still echo in the sector) museum professionals, in actuality, have often been very keen to adopt new media technologies as soon as they become available, and even have helped to develop entirely new technologies in order to serve particular communication objectives of their museum. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the bi-directional impact of collaboration with commercial partners, and the manner in which museums fulfil or extend their missions through the adoption of novel media forms and formats.
