Curators and Culture: The Museum Movement in America, 1740-1870

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3 The Didactic Enlightenment, 1800--1820: The Decline of the Respectability The years from 1800 to 1820 marked in museum history the era of the Didactic Enlightenment. This period witnessed the decline of the authority and power of the respectability and the corresponding rise of the middle classes to political and social influence. The French Revolution had shaken the optimism of the respectability ; now they were faced with the deterioration of their position in society and the simultaneous upswelling of power from below. These twin tremors caused them to cling tenaciously to their remaining prerogatives, while at the same time attempting to manage the behavior of the middle classes, to channel it into forms acceptable to the "better sort." The proprietors of museums, who came from the respectable classes, sought to turn their institutions into instruments for social control. Two of the established museums , Peale's and Baker's American Museum, and four museums that were to be founded, those of the New-York Historical Society , the Elgin Botanical Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and the Western Museum of Cincinnati, met this challenge in varying manners. The American Museum's new proprietors would attempt to guide the interest of the middle class toward the mysteries of natural history. Peale attempted to shape the perceptions and outlook of the rising classes by a program of popular education. The New-York Historical Society would The Didactic Enlightenment 69 withdraw from the public, harking back to the cabinet "for members only." The Elgin Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Western Museum would attempt to avoid close contact with the people by concentrating on science to the exclusion of education. This would allow them to keep the public at arm's length and still plausibly claim that their institutions were useful to the people. All, however, shared a common response in one respect: they refused to accept the new order of things and tried to control the ascending middle classes. The proprietors hardly could be faulted for resisting change, for the transformation of American society during the two decades from 1800 to 1820 was profound. It was during this time that "America changed from a tenacious traditional society, fearful of innovation . . . to a shifting, reckless and insecure world. . . . that such a shift did take place in the years between the War of 1812 and the time ofJackson is clearly evident."l The members of the respectability, however, experienced the changes long before the War of 1812. The French Revolution and the Republican ascendancy beginning in 1800 had been the opening salvos in what promised to be a long struggle to maintain status. At times, the two sides battled over important issues like the franchise, disestablishment of churches, and political contests. More often, however, the conflicts manifested themselves in trivial matters, such as complaints that the wealthier of the common people were dressing above their station and driving carriages. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, however, "there was nothing to be done about it. In colonial times, laws might be passed prohibiting the lower orders from dressing like their betters, but in . . . America that sort of legislation was no longer possible."2 A recent work by a respected scholar provides an interpretive framework for explaining this conflict between the respectability and the middle classes. Robert Wiebe, in his book The Opening of American Society, discovered two strains of thought and action in America from the signing of the Constitution in 1789 until the mid 1840s. The first was the traditional approach of what Wiebe calls the "revolutionary gentry." These upper-class leaders attempted to retain their control over society by widening the 70 The Didactic Enlightenment base of the elite, while simultaneously building a strong government to keep the masses in line with tradition. The emerging middle classes, on the other hand, sought to repudiate tradition and institute what Wiebe calls a "revolution in individual choices. " The respectability wanted "comprehensiveness"; the middle classes wanted a new, democratic society. As Wiebe saw it, "Along these two planes . . . two histories had been unfolding contemporaneously. "3 These two histories were constantly in conflict. Washington and Hamilton had represented the ideal of comprehensiveness; the advent of Jefferson's weaker government in 1800 launched the revolution in individual choices. It was not in the political arena, however, that the respectability met its downfall. Instead, the harsh realities of economics made...