Why do we have museums? - J. V. Maranto

View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-h...
Museums have been a part of human history for over 2,000 years -- but they weren't always like the ones we visit today. J. V. Maranto uncovers the evolution of museums, from the first museum in 530 BC (curated by a princess) to PT Barnum’s freak shows and beyond.
Lesson by J. V. Maranto, animation by Zedem Media.

[@noahfrench7412]

The Gift Shop of Gift Shops will be the best sequel ever c:

[@coenvannoord4976]

Would the giftshop of giftshops be a place where you can buy an intire shop as a present?

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

Coen Van Noord maybe it sells tiny models of other gift shops

[@user-ry5xu9pz7n]

That would be too disappointing.

[@user-ry5xu9pz7n]

I mean, to Alison Jones

[@josefholzer2433]

I couldn't find online store.

[@BrainStuffShow]

Well done TED animation explaining why we have museums.

[@ShibashishMahapatra]

Hope you improve

[@jjmaker6422]

Cfcjyfcyurcyrcjyrdu5r

[@brinagirl9464]

Love it

[@CraftedTomLion]

Next video: Why do we have gift shops? hehe

[@MsSBVideos]

+Tomeow To get the museum more money, even if the things the gift store sells have nothing to do with the museum.

[@isaacbakan1295]

There is the Internet but that also has the money issue as Internet access and computers are not free

[@ftnluizin3318]

super poop

[@jjmaker6422]

👎👎👎

[@pournima8096]

The last bit about the accessibility of museums is of importance. My educational institution was the former residence of the British Governor of Bombay Presidency. We hold heritage walks, free of costs, for those interested in the history of the monumental structure. Free tours of such structures encourage research and a public engagement that is much needed for society as a whole to navigate their pasts.

[@Webber-sr3xk]

Museums of ancient rome be like “And here this vase from... well... yesterday”

[@clintgolub1751]

😂 Truthfully though, the ancient Greeks both collected and venerated the ruins and artifacts of the ancient Mycenaeans 1000 years before them whom they viewed as a much greater civilization than their own. Greek mythology and Homer’s epics like ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey” depict both real and fictional moments from that much older age leading up to the Macedonian Empire of the 800’s B.C. And going back even further than that, even those ancient Mycenaeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians of 1,200 B.C., and later the Achaemenid empire (before Persia) and Assyrian (before Babylonian) believed the cultures that inhabited Mesopotamia 1,000 years before them such as the Akkadian Empire of the early 2,000’s B.C. were closer to astrological truths and the divine nature of the gods. If we trace the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism (which was the precursor to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and have TREMENDOUS similarities to Zoroaster’s cosmology), we go all the way back to the ancient city-state civilization of Sumer back in 3,000-3,500 B.C. and beyond which in turn considered itself very modern in comparison to the small kingdoms that pre-dated even that. Pretty much everything after the invention of agriculture in 10,000 B.C. slowly allowed human culture to flourish and coalesce into tribes, then small settlements, and thanks to increased trade, towns, cities, kingdoms, and finally continent-ruling empires 6,000 years ago. Looking at mankind’s history through this lens really does make our history from the Renaissance to now seem insanely modern! Centuries really aren’t that long if we’re being totally honest; it’s just our lifespans are so pitifully short, we loose sight of the macro view of things on a millennial level. And even then, 6-7,000 years of human development in language and culture is nothing in comparison to the eons our planet, Earth has evolved from 4.5 BILLION years ago. The real kicker here however is that throughout almost the entirety of human civilizations, we’ve always felt we were worse off than the preceding generations. The ancient Assyrians believed they were living in the last days, and in 700 B.C., the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote in his book “Works and Days” a sequence of metallic ages depicting the ages of man, but they are degradations rather than progressions. Each age has less of a moral value than the preceding one. Of his own age he says: "And I wish that I were not any part of the fifth generation of men, but had died before it came, or had been born afterward."

[@28Superficial]

Love watching the Ted-Ed videos, they're so fun and the voice over are so good!

[@Aritul]

I was just going to say that.

[@localtriggerfan1998]

"Just step into the wardrobe here. There you go. And we'll tour...NARNIA."

[@kenbobca]

Very good video, I always learn something while watching TED-ed. Thank you.

[@merrymachiavelli2041]

It's weird, in the UK almost all museums are free, I didn't realise you had to pay in the US. Do you have to pay for all of them?

[@derekmaynard1767]

I am yet to see a museum with free admission

[@MuddieRain]

Only the bad ones cost money.

[@SaraNicole613]

I live in the U.S. and my family pays for a yearly membership. It works for multiple museums across the nation and some zoos (we've used it in TN, NC, and FL). All we have to do is show our membership card at the gate and we're allowed on through without paying any extra. I think it's something in the range of $30-$50 annually.

[@merciadragon9425]

They are FREE in Australia too.

[@brian7168342]

The payments for such things are probably made through taxes. If the gov't owns them, the people pay for it, but not directly.

[@Theodora111Theo]

"GIFT SHOP OF GIFTSHOPS" DINGIT... I ACTUALLY LAUGHED AT THAT TERRIBLE JOKE. X'D

[@redstranger6772]

Then sans came to be.

[@jessicaduvon565]

TanTinTon Me too!

[@ntfrmhr]

i dont get it lol

[@TheRyanLamont]

I love museums so this was fascinating to me!

[@lindseymiller5520]

Love it!! Would love one focusing on art specifically

[@sindarinelf1]

Museums aren't free in my country Latvia, but they cost very little to enter! 1EUR, 2EUR, along those lines... I didn't even think that in US it might cost so much that someone can't get in... Also I didn't realise that in US museums aren't just public exhibition houses... They don't do any experiments or anything along those lines in our country... it's just exhibition, that's it!

[@ShibashishMahapatra]

Museums are not just for exhibition. Only a small part of some museums are while a much larger part is reserved for experiment. A museum has a lot more things than those that are publicly displayed.

[@wyattwalker4866]

Did any. One else think the part when the guy is walking through with the kids looked like the foster home for imaginary friends?

[@cattidesjar4229]

Warriorwyatt10 0 yes me too! I thought I was the only one!

[@joemedlen2924]

Immediately I thought that

[@dreamoftheendless7159]

SAME

[@azipoor3468]

I remember that I always fell asleep when I went to a museum(held by school) or I visited the restaurants or cafes beside those museums😄

[@Gears456123]

We watched this in class today, awesome

[@fjmh3933]

My favourite museum is the Story Museum in Oxford, it's great fun and I loved it when I was younger.

[@k.a.s1812]

I don't really know why but I would love to hear whoever does the narrations for these videos to do audio books

[@jupitired777]

these lessons are great

[@kbinsobeih]

this is incredible. btw i noticed in your videos sometimes the bg music is too high, it affects the voice over.

[@misssym769]

P.T. Barnum. Wow. This was actually in "The Greatest Showman". Wow wow

[@nalulumbay]

very well explained.

[@qaz8904]

that had some great history

[@td5760]

3:48 Is this where The Greatest Showman took inspiration with?

[@mengkunsi9811]

Amazing

[@strange_and_magnificent]

Great 👍 Ted ED!

[@MsSBVideos]

Have you ever visited the store of stores or resteraunt of resteraunts?

[@snowballeclipse4991]

lol

[@annarose3354]

Good point about ticket prices, I think museums should be free for everyone, adults included. Where I live in Aus generally only children are free. Sometimes the temporary exhibitions can be a bit expensive, and of course they're often the best ones.

[@KFunMuseum]

very nice video.

[@Wanderingby]

Shocking lack of mention of musuems in the UK - Victoria & Albert or the Sir John Soane

[@ssebuyungochris5735]

This is great to know

[@niory]

many firsts were in Iraq ! its trully tragic what became of Iraq today ... a state of constant chaos ... the world has lots of ressons to do everything in their power to stop whats happening there and start digging for more History on that land

[@ShibashishMahapatra]

It was Persia, after all.

[@niory]

***** suadi arabia was the birthplace of Islam and not Iraq :)

[@niory]

***** Baghdad in Iraq was build by the Islamic abbasid empire *Caliphate* and was the capital of the Islamic empire and the capital of all knowledge for hundred of years ! so Iraq has a big rule during the Islamic period which back then was quite admirable

[@ShibashishMahapatra]

sara meachel 'Capital of all knowledge', I wouldn't agree to that.

[@badneighbour999]

***** and for the huns that catholiscm survived

[@uriituw]

Why does there need to be a ‘price of entry’ discussion at the end?

[@enigma1865]

In my research, I noticed most Lincoln museums were closely related to the Dime Museum tradition.

[@DrN0rd]

I got that foster's house of imaginary friend's reference! :D

[@nighttimetelevision2969]

This video makes me want to visit a museum 😂

[@tigerwa]

No mention of the Ashmolean?

[@vl2809]

good video... unfortunately, this time you missed some crucial steps (clearly in favour of institutions known in the US). for example the very first institution called museum, the 16th century "museo" by italian historian Giovanni Dosio, a building at lake como where he collected portraits of important men of history. Or the very first art museum open to the public, the Pinakothek in Munich. Also, the predominantly royal Wunderkammern started off in the late 15th century and became really big in the 16th century, so it's a bit misleading to cite an example of the 17th century, whilst leaving out the 16th century entirely.

[@apoorvatripathi4322]

your comment must be pinned'

[@alejandroojeda6604]

did they mention any european museum beyond the seconds dedicated to the Louvre?

[@addamtan1791]

sid Meier's civilization V background soundtrack. did I heard it right?

[@JacktheRah]

You could have mention that in Germany after a old law all museums which aren't founded by a privat person are free to visit on sundays.

[@user-zl3hn1bm7g]

The gift shop of gift shops will cost a lot of money to enter. It has many gift shops in it. LOL

[@MuseosAbiertos]

hey, the link to TED lesson is broken :-(

[@SharonLinfromTaiwan]

I love it!!!!

[@simonmalaga]

i not like

[@andhikasoehalim3170]

The front of the museum looked a bit like the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends building.

[@bulbs_]

In the uk museums (or at least most) are free to enter.

[@cattidesjar4229]

I love Addison Anderson's voice!

[@CoolGirl007]

I remembered the ticket charged for entering du louvre is quite expensive

[@user-gs3ju7vy6z]

What an amazing period! We discovered extraordinary secrets on the tour, and it's like time travel so that you could see how Chinese people were doing 100 years ago. @

[@pipercharms7374]

I feel like this is more of an American perspective? In the UK and I assume other countries Museums are free to enter? Also maybe its just my biased british learnings but I heard the first museum open to the public was Ashmolean Museum, yet theres no mention of that here,

[@dhruvsauran871]

My mam is showing this to me , thanks for making me sad

[@Michael-xm4ux]

museum is the second choice when you failed at the bank

[@Skandar0007]

Yes, you pay for admission in the US but you get to see the best.

[@varunprakash6207]

Museum - Greek word - Muse collection of our ancient material preserve to showcase to the people 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@flavialuz6221]

pq o video é ingês e o titulo portugues?

[@TalDreamcast]

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends... anyone?

[@illanalevi6091]

the gift shop of gift shops :)

[@matildawolfram4687]

Thanks to the author of the channel for a very fascinating tour! When visiting another city or country, every educated person must visit a museum. Visiting museums is very useful and fascinating. A love for the "eternal" and "beautiful" is awakened in a person, the beginnings of greatness and respect for history are inculcated. It is impossible to turn the excursion into something banal, ordinary and boring. The person should be a comprehensively developed person, cultured, educated, critically and analytically thinking, with knowledge of foreign languages. It is the knowledge of a foreign language that opens wide prospects for a person to realize his/her creative potential, career and financial growth. I would like to recommend the practical training course by Yuriy Ivantsiv "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign language", where you can find lots of useful information how to learn a foreign language quickly. Learn a foreign language and realize your creative potential on an international scale! The international community needs creative ideas!

[@espiinasnegras]

In méxico almost all museums are free 1 day per week, others are free all the time. :)

[@xSCHEF]

The Rijksmuseum, one of the worlds greatest museums and the home of Rembrandt and Vermeer and numerous other great artists, was opened in 1800, 40 years before 'the founder of museums' Burnum. America hur dur.

[@wrcclim3602]

It's after!

[@vennonetes4805]

Wasn't the first museum open to the public the Musei Capitolini opened to the public in 1734 by Pope Clemems XII?

[@Vexsus22]

"she must of had interesting parties." /wink ..... hrrmmmm

[@santiago24601]

ikr

[@deleted-something]

museums are a part of society,

[@TurnipBoy666]

you mean the museum age factorial yeah, i did it again

[@Jordan-vr7ip]

A Museum is like humanity's resume'. If aliens ever visit us and want to know everything about us and Earth we take them to a Museum.

[@stevenn9072]

Is anyone else reminded of fosters home for imaginary friends intro?

[@wyattwalker4866]

YES THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING

[@pontusedberg]

i want someone to build this, and have your voice as an audio tour, :3, also interesting what gitftshop of giftshop sells,

[@jumbochamploon2591]

probably gift shops.. but what do THOSE gift shops sell?

[@ThePrikoki]

@ 2:20 , speaking of western ignorance, where is the Black Sea on the map behind he tour guide?

[@XSpamDragonX]

Isn't the plural of museum "musea"?

[@crymea]

museums of museums of museums of museums of museums.

[@bruh-bn3ni]

museums are the best

[@jjmaker6422]

Come in here~~~\/

[@abdelhaykabani8264]

كمتعلم للغة الانكليزية عندي سؤال أتمنى أن تقع عليه عين المترجم و الذي هو كالآتي : أخي الفاضل أظن أن الترجمة لهذه الجملة: " temples built for the Muses, the goddesses of the arts and the sciences هي : معابد بنيت من أجل الآلهة اليونانية التي هي آلهة الفنون و العلوم" و قد استندت في ذلك على الثقافة اليونانية فهل هذه الترجمة صحيحة؟؟ لأن الترجمة في الفيديو تقول أن Musesمعناها مفكرون و ليس آلهة

[@nevercallmebyname]

the gift shop of gift shops doesnt sell gift shops does it? because that would be excessively dumb

[@Anappel90]

Actually the Ennigaldi's cylinder shown as an arctifact is the label of one od the pieces.

[@tanyushing2494]

+1 culture

[@dilanmachado4239]

US=>35000 museums Rest of the world= about 20500 museums This is weird

[@wrcclim3602]

4:56 Actually, it's the modern age.

[@pfgram292]

Would the catholic monasteries be considered museums because of their vast recordings of literature?

[@YdeB]

I believe a vast collection of literature is usually described with the word 'library'-

[@mariamawda1075]

the first museum was created in 530 B.C in what is now Iraq ✌✌

[@cadensacc]

People here from school!/ ms saad

[@coenvannoord4976]

The problem with museums is that they are to far apart i have to take a train to go to a museum o natural history wich realy bums me out

[@ebrahimjamshid8328]

Da fuck Is it only in the U.K. Where museums are free for all.

[@BallotBoxer]

I think all museums should strive to be objective as possible. Present the facts in a neutral space so the viewer can learn. I don't like biased museums like the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY. If you haven't heard of it, the museum skews scientific discoveries to conform to biblical interpretations.

[@Pilum1000]

I don't think that museums have anything to do with the circus. Barnum is he there or not Barnum. in fact and in essence

[@miriga3927]

Museum are quite similar to a circus back then, though they had acts and such, people came for the novelty of an exotic animal of an unordinary person- museums were just scientific oddities not so mischievous different .

[@thomasthecommentrater3703]

TEDed, Museums, its all Theodore Roosevelt.

[@UatuOmega]

So THAT'S what Addison looks like... ;)

[@annissagultom6213]

Talk about western ignorance, why no mention of colonialism and it's role post Renaissance era in the "development" of museums? This video needs a sequel

[@hihowareyou4087]

I thought it was cause we researched archeology

[@Fellinline]

What do you mean? Museums are free? You just put like £5-£10 in the donation box if you want?

[@bookdream]

IronicallyNonIronic No, not always, I've been to the Museum of Natural History many times, you just have to give some donation. Even a penny I think. I just drop pocket change.

[@TheSwedishHistorian]

+Daniel H taxes

[@lightbulbbuilder7681]

+Daniel H In many museums I have visited traveling around the United States I had to pay a pretty hefty price, even though most turned out pretty lame. The Museums in Washington DC though (which are the best museums) are free to the public. Though, most museums I have been to in the United States are not that way...

[@per_ringnes]

all museums should be free for everyone, and be funded by the government, by the tax payers money. just like schools, hospitals and libraries.

[@MrQwerty2524]

So Museums belong in museums? *Mind blown*

[@gregoriarodriguez8159]

sad bit true

[@Zestrayswede]

Yo dawg...

[@Franciscavid]

and then the internet came

[@soapymarshmallow]

clay labels. claybels

[@Montork]

women invented museums. but then women invented sewing, textile arts, cooking,.. art.

[@emackb1457]

montork I don't think women invented art. That's a very narrow view of the world to assume just one gender invented art.

[@Montork]

????? some of the earliest recorded art is hand spraying.. hand prints left by spraying paint around the hand, its a complex process involving a bowl of pigment and a hollow tube... anyway, the vast majority of the hand prints where from females... like 75% female. these are placed all over, even alongside cave paintings of horses and other animals.

[@Montork]

the thing i find most odd is your strange double standard. its narrow to assume just one gender invented something......... ....... and yet what has been done the majority of recorded history? but then the idea that only one gender did something becomes an issue only when females are getting credit for something? thats bullshit.

[@emackb1457]

montork I am a female, I am not being sexist against women, or not giving credit where it is due. I just don't think it is necessary to attach art to any one gender.

[@Montork]

it's not. but people are more then happy to do it.

[@osGFXman]

and now google make it digital! #google_art_project

[@timurtheterrible4062]

"Just step in closet"

[@s8ntiago]

Kewl