The Urban Habitat: The City and Beyond

Abstract

Technical museums, descended from the industrial expositions of the 19th century, have largely preserved the ideology as well as the artifacts of that century. And technical museums have become a favorite target for historians of technology. As George Basalla has pointed out, most of them still reflect the technological utopianism that gave them birth. Basalla identified three common approaches by technical museums that have obscured accurate history: the machine portrayed as cornucopia of consumer goods; the machine as aesthetic object; and the machine as sentimental reminder of the ingenuity and naivete of a simpler and more romantic time. In each case the machine remains splendid in its isolation, divorced from those who designed and promoted it, those who worked with it, and those who lived its consequences. Thanks to corporate sponsors and a general attitude of technological progressivism, argued Basalla, the museum goer views hype instead of history.' Basalla made these observations nearly a decade ago. To judge from recent exhibit reviews, things have changed much. Larry Lankton criticized the Henry Ford Museum's Hall of Technology for exhibiting artifacts not only in isolation from one another but in isolation from social change and economic development.2 Michal McMahon's review of the National Air and Space Museum echoed all of Basalla's complaints about technological myths and promotions,