Teaching with museum collections: exploring comprehensive didactic use

The rise of object-based education in American museums was frequently in conflict with core preservative impulses in the sector that regarded removing collections and art objects from the dangers of handling and use as a central function. In creating so-called "teaching collections" intended for direct didactic access and use, museum educators were afforded a second-tier collection of objects that they (and sometimes their students) could handle and use in the service of learning. Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments is currently experimenting with a radical reframing of these parameters of access, understanding that unused collections are useless and presuming that all holdings should be available for direct didactic use. In conversation with Christopher Miller’s use of historic Atwood’s machines for Close Looking and Design Thinking; with Elizabeth Cavicchi teaching through Democratic Science; and reviewing multiple ongoing research projects utilizing historic instruments, I propose an outcome-based reassessment of risk that prioritizes student engagement and contextualization as primary goals of curation and care.