Posted by Arthur P Bloom on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 at 11:33PM :
In Reply to: Walter P. Chrysler Museum - Disapointed posted by Will (in MI) on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 at 9:38PM :
It is a symptom of today's society. Even the nation's most highly exalted museum, the Smithsonian, is guilty of the glitzy, shallow display and treatment of important parts of out culture.
Take, for example, the farm tractor display: One IH 1970's era diesel tractor, with a hard top and A-C.
Another example, the telephone switching history display: several fake building interiors, with random, non-operating, historically-inaccurate displays of telephone switch gear.
I know many tractor enthusiasts, and telephone "switchers", who have personal collections and displays that would put these to shame. The owners have restored their equipment meticulously, and it all works.
We are a culture that ignores our past, and venerates the new, the fast, the slick, and the disposable.
Chrysler probably has a part-time janitor/curator who dusts the stuff off, and who knows next-to-nothing about the history of the corporation.
Sigh. An unfortunate sign of the times.
End of rant. apb