The Invention of the Museum as Public Institution in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Join us for the first lecture in our spring Selected Topics in Architecture series, which will focus on museum design through the ages. David Brashear, Director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art, will present “The Invention of the Museum as Public Institution in the 18th and 19th Centuries.”

The concept of the modern museum was born in the Enlightenment that swept across Europe in the 18th century. The idea of a public museum gained traction in France in the 1770s, and designs by Étienne-Louis Boullée and Jean-Nicholas-Louis Durand paved the way for the remaking of the Louvre as a public monument, under the auspices of Pierre-Francois-Leonard Fontaine and Charles Percier. A short time later, Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the Altes Museum in Berlin, and together the Louvre and the Altes Museum served as the conceptual and architectural models for many national museums to follow.

This talk will take place in Tucker Theater on the first floor of Tucker Hall. Parking will be reserved for registrants on James Blair Drive, and street parking is available on Richmond Road.