Museums and the shipwrecks of history

Two myths shape both the critique and defence of museums: their analogy with the ark, i.e. the space built to preserve objects, and the capacity to pass on information across different times, geographies, and languages. This paper elaborates on three case studies – Richard Owen’s Museum of Natural History in London; two museum centres in Kentucky, dedicated to proving the historicity of the Genesis Flood ; and the recent fire that devastated the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro – in an attempt to ponder over the human and non-human contingencies that shape the coming into being and the ending of collections.