All Museums Are the Same

...at least, it would seem that way if I didn't have friends to read the labels.

I spent a decent chunk of my childhood visiting the American Museum of Natural History, and I went back with my girlfriend yesterday, for the first time in almost ten years. One difference I noticed was that many of the labels are now printed on plastic, using easy-to-replace cards. Back in the day, the dinosaur names were set in stone. Literally. Which, in retrospect, made it difficult to update to the latest scientific information.

Even as a kid, when my vision was much better, I never really read the labels. I could just have easily been going to an art museum. The dioramas were my favorite part -- I went back to see them, and was relieved to find out that they were still intact -- but I still can't tell you exactly what they represent. They just look cool.

True, a museum staff goes to great lengths to arrange its exhibits in a form of narrative, so that you get the story of the species or artist without having to read a word. But, really, without those descriptions, the story usually isn't too important. Museums, to someone like myself, are about seeing cool stuff and wondering how they made it.

I will say, those stone labels were really big and easy to read. Maybe it's because fewer people had glasses back then?