Date of Award
Summer 8-19-2014
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA Museum Professions
Department
Language/Literature /Culture
Advisor
Martha Easton, Ph.D
Keywords
P.T. Barnum, Reform, Dime Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, New York Historical Society, philanthropy
Abstract
New York City's most recognizable museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History came to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century thanks to the support of wealthy benefactors. At the same time, social reformers, mostly Protestant and middle or upper-class, were combating the vice and poverty that they saw in the diversifying city with a moralizing rhetoric of character building. This paper will show that these two movements, the rise of Philanthropic Museums and the Social Reform movement were connected and that the large temple-like museums that thrive to this day were viewed as a way to improve the moral character of the poor by imposing the standards of the wealthy.
Recommended Citation
O'Connor, Meaghan, "Robber Barons and Humbuggers: The Rise of Philanthropic Museums in Nineteenth-Century New York" (2014). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). 1959.
https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/1959
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Social History Commons, Social Work Commons, United States History Commons
