Revisiting the Storeroom

Abstract

This chapter opens the storeroom door. If the classification system is considered the brain of the museum, the storeroom is its unconscious mind where secrets of collection, acquisition, classification, object restoration, and display are hidden. Visible storage has been deployed since the 1970s as a planned technique for demonstrating the potential of museums and highlighting the authenticity of their displays. By melding front and back regions, visible storerooms, like others touristic sites and spectacles, lure in clientele. In bringing to light the content of storerooms, both scandalous secrets and pleasant surprises may be revealed. Storerooms are the locus of key objects in repatriation claims, as well as educational resources for museums. Storeroom innovation through recategorizing and restocking objects may become the impetus for museological change.