{"id":376,"date":"2019-04-15T15:02:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T19:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=376"},"modified":"2019-04-18T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T18:08:32","slug":"the-national-museum-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=376","title":{"rendered":"The National Museum Lives!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Diana Beltrao de Macedo<\/em><\/p>\n

The National Museum of Brazil was founded in 1818 by Dom Joao VI. Initially called Royal Museum and located at Rio de Janeiro, the space was created with the purpose of stimulating the scientific knowledge in the kingdom. At that time the royal family had recently moved out from Portugal and settled in Brazil, giving the status of most important colony to Brazil. With a collection of over 20 million objects \u2013 the biggest in Latin America \u2013 the museum has long been recognized as a landmark for natural history and anthropology research. Among some of its most famous pieces were Luzia, the oldest fossil found in the American continent, and the meteorite Bendeg\u00f3, Brazil\u2019s biggest meteorite. The museum was also recognized for its Egyptian collection \u2013 the largest in Latin America \u2013 which was inherited from the Imperial family.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Museum celebrated 200 years of existence but the present it received was not one everyone expected: on September 2nd,<\/sup> a fire consumed 92.5% of the collection along with the museum\u2019s main building (a historical structure that once was home to the Imperial family). The loss was incalculable; objects thousands of years old became ashes within an hour. Since that day, the museum\u2019s employees and researchers have been working on a series of initiatives to rebuild the institution while keeping it active at the same time. A campaign entitled \u201cThe National Museum Lives!\u201d was crafted by the staff with the purpose of developing initiatives to promote what was left of the museum after the fire.<\/p>\n

In one of these initiatives, the National Museum, in partnership with Google Arts and Culture, has created a webpage for people across the world to be able to experience a little bit of what the museum was before the fire. Through this link,\u00a0<\/a> viewers can learn more about the institution\u2019s history and go inside the museum on a guided tour with Google\u2019s street view. The website also features highlights of the collection, like the fossil Luzia, where the viewer has access to high definition pictures and can read descriptions of these objects. The website is written in English and it is 100% open to the public.<\/p>\n

Another initiative is called \u201cMeeting with the Community.\u201d Every Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the museum\u2019s educators and volunteers set up a tent in front of the burned building to showcase materials from their teaching collection and promote educational activities to the public. In this free initiative, the staff selects different materials in accordance with the week\u2019s theme. Some past themes were evolution and marine biodiversity, for example. The teaching collection contains over 1800 zoological, geological, and paleontological materials that were not affected by the fire. Besides attracting people to the museum and educating them about natural history, this program is also an opportunity for the museum to show this collection and advertise that it is available for rental by individuals or institutions.<\/p>\n

After a few months, the rescue team still works assessing the damage as well as trying to find a way to recover the old structure. Through this very detail oriented work, the team has been able to find pieces \u2013 or part of them \u2013 that were lost in the fire. These findings, along with documents from the museum\u2019s library \u2013 that was not affected by the fire \u2013 are now being displayed in an exhibition. The National Museum, in partnership with the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), built an exhibit, which is being displayed by the later, with the motivation of promoting the museum and showing the public what the rescue team has been able to recover so far. Entitled \u201cThe National Museum Lives \u2013 Rescue Archaeology\u201d, the exhibit is free for the public and displays around 180 objects \u2013 of these around 103 have been rescued after the fire \u2013 with the purpose of showing the public that the museum is still alive and producing knowledge.<\/p>\n

Even though the fire was a devastating event that marked the National Museum\u2019s bicentennial history, they have been fighting every day to overcome the difficulties and thrive. Projects like the Google Arts and Culture website, the \u201cMeeting with the Community, and \u201cThe National Museum Lives – Rescue Archaeology\u201d exhibit are just some examples of what the institution is doing to remain active and productive despite the recent events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Diana Beltrao de Macedo The National Museum of Brazil was founded in 1818 by Dom Joao VI. Initially called Royal Museum and located at Rio de Janeiro, the space was created with the purpose of stimulating the scientific knowledge in the kingdom. At that time the royal family had recently moved out from Portugal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The National Museum Lives!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[613,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-museums","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}