Science in Museums

Part 2

by David Bradley

Museums are of course as diverse as any other area of human culture from fine and decorative arts to antiquities and archeological to ethnographic and natural history, and medical. The type of research might involve reconstruction, preservation, examination, analysis and dating. In terms of research, as with any scientific endeavor, a detailed understanding of the contextual relevance of the research subject is crucial but while the tools of the trade may be similar context underlies the differences between museum and academic research. Although that is perhaps only in as much as research focuses around on collection materials. The questions being asked can be very similar - asking about the material itself or asking 'what does this material tell us about pattern and processes in the outside world?'

Robert Ross Director of Education of the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York was on the faculty at Shizuoka University in Japan and has now been working at PRI, which is loosely affiliated with Cornell, for the same length of time. 'We are doing scientific research within the museum. I do believe some of our research is different from that in some large museums with large staffs of researchers, because ours is so tightly integrated with public education,' he says.

In making the move from a university to a museum, the job and not the type of building should perhaps be one's guide. Some museum researchers in hindsight realize just how narrowly focused their university work was in comparison. 'Researchers may be surprised to find greater fulfilment at a museum and to enjoy considering doing and conveying their research in entirely new contexts,' says Ross.

'The oldest and most common route is by being a recognized expert in your field and affiliating with or being hired by a museum,' says Michael Lewis, Curator of Archaeology in the Maxwell Museum at the University of New Mexico. 'This route,' he adds, 'does not necessarily require an advanced degree, though recently strong emphasis is placed on the Masters Degree as a minimum, preferably the PhD.' Moreover, in today's museum world, the emphasis is on attracting research dollars and this generally requires an advanced degree, such as a completion of a credible online masters degree program, and a research history.


Read on... Museum Researchers