May 9, 2008
Along with the monuments to achievements, we should also go to sobering exhibits of humankind's failures
Most travelers have a vague desire to visit the world's most famous museums of art: the Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Prado in Madrid, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Uffizi in Florence, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the various elements of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. To these should now be added museums of conscience, places that commemorate acts of inhumanity, that tell of our failures over the centuries to create a better world. It is only recently that the travel industry has awakened to this latter group of unsettling exhibits that should figure prominently in an individual's development and growth.
The museums of conscience are generally felt to be six in number:
Goree Island in Senegal, site of "Slave House," where as many as 25 million African slaves were shackled and herded into boats and sent to continents far away. Millions of them died in the course of the voyage.
Manzanar National Historic Site in California, where 110,000 Japanese-Americans, all of them full citizens, were interned from 1942-45.
The Leper Colony on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. To an almost impenetrable area flanked by steep cliffs of rock, thousands of persons suffering leprosy were forcibly sent and simply abandoned in conditions of famine, exposure and other hardships. Because leprosy (Hansen's Disease) is now under control, the colony can today be toured, led by the few remaining residents who once suffered from that disease and have opted to stay on.
The Workhouse in Southwell, Notts, Great Britain, constructed in 1842 as a model for many other such institutions, in which unfortunate people were imprisoned in circumstances of great hardship, simply because they were poor. The operation of such "poorhouses" reached a peak in Victorian times, when Britain was colonizing the world.
The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., our American equivalent of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, describing the extermination of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Tenement Museum in downtown Manhattan (the Lower East Side), re-creating the horrendous conditions to which immigrants to the U.S. were often subjected from 1863 to 1932.
Usually on our trips abroad, we visit monuments (museums) to the rich and famous. Visits to museums of conscience are a healthy counter-balance.
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The museums of conscience are generally felt to be six in number:
Goree Island in Senegal, site of "Slave House," where as many as 25 million African slaves were shackled and herded into boats and sent to continents far away. Millions of them died in the course of the voyage.
Manzanar National Historic Site in California, where 110,000 Japanese-Americans, all of them full citizens, were interned from 1942-45.
The Leper Colony on the Kalaupapa Peninsula on the island of Molokai, Hawaii. To an almost impenetrable area flanked by steep cliffs of rock, thousands of persons suffering leprosy were forcibly sent and simply abandoned in conditions of famine, exposure and other hardships. Because leprosy (Hansen's Disease) is now under control, the colony can today be toured, led by the few remaining residents who once suffered from that disease and have opted to stay on.
The Workhouse in Southwell, Notts, Great Britain, constructed in 1842 as a model for many other such institutions, in which unfortunate people were imprisoned in circumstances of great hardship, simply because they were poor. The operation of such "poorhouses" reached a peak in Victorian times, when Britain was colonizing the world.
The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., our American equivalent of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, describing the extermination of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Tenement Museum in downtown Manhattan (the Lower East Side), re-creating the horrendous conditions to which immigrants to the U.S. were often subjected from 1863 to 1932.
Usually on our trips abroad, we visit monuments (museums) to the rich and famous. Visits to museums of conscience are a healthy counter-balance.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: museums
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
