European city museums-some bike stuff,etc.

[shootingstar]

European city museums offer way more stuff than North American counterparts.

Some stuff I saw (http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/european-city-museums-more-than-second-cousins-centuries-of-rich-history/), which included some bike-related stuff.

I have yet to write my Copenhagen experience in a fuller way. I'll get there soon!

[badger]

ouch.

I'm not sure you can make that kind of statement without having visited all the museums in North America and Europe.

I'm sure the one you went to in Copenhagen's nice, but there are plenty of good museums in North America, too.

[shootingstar]

True, the reality is that unless we always include aboriginal history in each of our city museums in North America, a number of European cities have way longer history and it shows. North American colonization started significantly..in 1600's, 1500's in North America...???

I'll be impressed if Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal demonstrate the Bronze Age in our city history museums. I'm not talking about specialist museums like the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver which has a terrific, newly retrofitted building and collection on Northwest Coast aboriginal history (http://cyclewriteblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/aboriginal-artistic-interpretations%e2%80%94exploring-connection-disconnection-and-transformation/)and culture. It's not a city museum in content scope, it covers a whole region.

Aboriginal history is complicated because it depends on the different groups and to properly showcase their history..through their voice/lens which is abit different from non-aboriginal lens/voice/interpretation. To do it properly within city museum space on municipal space, would require alot more room. Of course it could be justifiably argued their history should not be conceptually defined by colonized boundaries of any Canadian municipality.

This is gettin' theoretical. :o But not surprising, when each First Nations group in Metro Vancouver area defines themselves more by First Nation group name, not by a Vancouver neighbourhood.

Hope you have a look how I wrote it up.

[malkin]

History is written by the victors.

[shootingstar]

Very true, malkin. Or at least mainstream history is often written by dominant culture. Whoever helps determine the learning curriculum or can attract a publisher for their history version for a book that will generate revenue.

Germany's population has become more diverse..meaning more non-German blood. In last decade or more. Is it reflected in their museums?...not that ones that I went to. Maybe it's a different region of the country.

Maybe because history is being written that there hasn't been enough retrospective time to gain new insight.

Even with omissions, and tourist oriented stuff, I still enjoyed myself there.

Sorry, I'm sure museums is a yawn-inducing topic to many folks here except maybe a bike museum. :)

An interesting Canadian museum, Canadian Canoe Museum (http://www.canoemuseum.ca/index.php/20081224119/our-canoeing-heritage/our-canoeing-heritage-main/canoeing-heritage-mainhtml)in Peterborough, Ont. I've been there and was impressed by the exhibit quality and artifacts. But no one in the photo, even suggests aboriginal heritage even in outfits.... After all, the canoe came from the aboriginal culture. :confused:

Museum has some cool Inuit sealskin, archival kayaks. So there should have been Inuit presence, visually on that pg. :confused: