Museum or Mausoleum?
by Aaron Rowell

I heard a phrase someone said in order to insult a museum.

“This museum is a mausoleum.”

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This was a scathing critique, but I get the point. There are a lot of similarities between the two. The Douglas County Museum of History and Art occupies the same historic space as the county’s Courthouse built in 1956. In the New International Architectural style it is full of marble and stone. There are rooms that are enclosed vaults. As a museum, many items accessioned by the museum were donated by the now deceased. It can be a grave place, certainly from that perspective.

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However, a museum is far from a mausoleum, with no offense to the latter. A museum serves two functions. It protects artifacts in trust, and it is a living building. The museum exists as a resource for the community, for those who appreciate history, curious tourists, the staff who preserves and cares for its treasures, or researchers who seek the information it holds. It fills many roles to present, research, and preserve history.

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A local museum fulfills this function in a unique way. It allows those in a region an opportunity otherwise unavailable. While the Douglas County Museum of History and Art does not occupy the entire building, it is a non-profit that has operated for 27 years as of this writing, 27 years of a variety of donations, accessions, and tours. There are permanent exhibits of collections from residents, existing alongside the evolving history of Douglas County thus presenting opportunities for special events and exhibits that keep things fresh. This is hardly a feature of a mausoleum.

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A museum is just a mausoleum if you allow it to be, if you just ignore it, and treat it as halls of stone full of the belongings of the dead. The people that donate to the museum give the museum life, and keep it from being a mere stale mausoleum. Contemporary donations shine a light on the magic that is Douglas County.  If a story is missing, it has yet to be donated. Do your community a service, and donate to your museum today!