Why travelers visit museums (in places like Iceland), and what they find there

“You can’t ever really know what a museum will offer you until you get there.” – Kendra Green

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Kendra discuss their own earliest fascination with museums (2:40); the appeal and particularities of Icelandic museums (10:00); museums as a form of national identity (24:00); the relationship of collecting to the creation of museums (35:00); and museums as a way of engaging with one’s imagination (46:00).

 Kendra Greene is a writer, artist, and author of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See. She has worked at various museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Chicago History Museum. Karen is currently Associate Editor of prose at the Southwest Review and a Fellow at Harvard University’s Library Innovation Lab. For more about Kendra, check out http://akendragreene.com.  

Notable Links:

• Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (museum)
• Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago museum)
• La Brea Tar Pits (Los Angeles attraction)
• Icelandic Phallological Museum (penis museum)
• Museum of Jurassic Technology (Los Angeles museum)
• Cabinets of curiosities (pre-museum collections)
• Jack London (author)
• John Steinbeck (author)
• Nábrók (Icelandic necropants)
• Egil’s Saga (Icelandic saga)
• The Tourist, by Dean MacCannell (book)
• Elgin Marbles (Greek sculptures)
• Petra’s Stone Collection (museum)
• Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft (museum)

This episode of Deviate is brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. Airtreks is a distributed travel company with employees working from all corners of the world to help with your flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The Airtreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, but can customize to fit your journey.

This episode of Deviate is also brought to you by Tortuga Backpacks, which set the standard for the best, most durable, organized, and comfortable travel backpacks. Tortuga products also include daypacks, duffels, and other travel accessories, which are all made with the traveler in mind and have been featured by Wirecutter, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, and many other industry outlets.

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

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