Multimedia & Museums: Its Beginning

As I’ve discussed and you have surely noticed, museum goers are becoming more and more in touch with technology. The finesse in which the 74-year-old grandmother and the college student mentioned in my last blog operate their PDAs may differ. However, no matter the type of crowd these little tiny handheld devices, such as PDAs and MP3 players, are flooding the museum scene. Why wouldn’t they? They enable viewers to learn more and experience more on the spot. But these multimedia experiences in museums did not just begin with the invention of the PDA. Like all things, they have a more humble beginning.

Just as the computers we carry in our backpacks today were originally larger than the average bedroom, multimedia tools in museums also had a less than attractive beginning. In his May 19, 2006 article New York Times writer, Randy Kennedy, reports that “in 1958 the National Gallery of Art in Washington embedded transmitters under its floorboards and handed out radio receivers so the electronically inclined could listen to something called LecTour.” LecTour was a audio guide of the masterpieces in the museum. However, it suffered from poor sound quality. And unless he/she was lucky, the museum goer would have to wait for the lecture to start over to hear it from the beginning.



In 1963 the Metropolitan Museum of Art introduced its version of the technology. The sound quality was improved, but it was heavier. Kennedy states that it was so large and heavy that it was “carried around with a leather shoulder strap.”

Imagine our 74-year-old grandmother who was then 30.

Then, fast forward 40+ years. It’s the same museum and the same masterpiece she's standing in front of. Only, she isn’t carrying the leather strapped radio around her shoulder, but a PDA that fits right in the palm of her hand.

It makes me wonder, how different things will be for us 40+ years from now.