“Nada puede dar una idea de ella sino es la vista”

Abstract

Early on and after it reached its political independence, the elites in charge of the Republic of Chile made various attempts to create a museum for the country, which finally became a reality in 1841 under the title “Museo Nacional” (National Museum). This article examines the movements in the very notion of museum that circulated both among those elites and among those who undertook the task of bringing the project to fruition, identifying different shifts in its use and meaning. In a genealogical journey through the history of the Museo Nacional de Chile during the nineteenth century, this article posits that its definition was plastic in nature, which allowed it to be used for different purposes. During the first half of the century, this plasticity enabled the hierarchization of its properties, relegating the exhibition of collections to a secondary role. During the second half of the century, however, Rudolph Philippi, its director, would lead a modernization process that would attempt to inscribe the institution under his charge in the canons of the modern Western museum. In this process, the visual consumption of collections would become intrinsic to the notion of the museum. Its “optical” nature and the importance of the visual in the ways of experiencing it would demonstrate, as I postulate here, a relationship between the museum, observational practices, and national identity. As Philippi affirmed, nothing but sight could give a person an idea of the collection of “Chilean nature.”