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Come on, even you have to admit how much Minnesota homerism there is. Seriously, the poster putting MN above Philadelphia or Boston, 2 of the most historic cities in this nation, both chock full of museum, is just laughable.
I really wasn't slighting AIC. It is a GREAT museum. The new wing is AMAZING. It is the second largest in terms of gallery space and one of best in world. My point was that MFA Boston is second largest collection in terms of objects art (clearly) (amd third in gallery space). AIC collection is approximately same size as Philly and Harvard. All great museums.
For those who have not been yet the new Harvard Art Museum is a great take and worth a visit on your next trip to Boston.
Also I agree completely with kidphilly about the Philadelphia cultural offerings being superb, which you may remember is what I said in my initial post: That Boston and Philadelphia were better museum cities, top to bottom, than Chicago. This is a point I would continue to maintain even after recently spending 5 days in Chicago ( Though I will agree AIC and Field are ABSOLUTE WORLD CLASS GEMS), and overall Chicago is a world class city for museums. The small museums, history museums and university museums in Boston and Philly are better and give them the edge.
My list goes
very tip top tier.C/N.Y
top tier: Boston/Philly/Chicago
Next Tier: L.A/San Fran etc
Philly is not top tier, it's art museum gets fewer visitors than Seattle's, and half as many as Boston.
Ha half of Philadelphia is a Museum. I locked my keys in my car outside of Ben Franklins grave last week. Philadelphia history happened here unlike DC were the Federal govt fills up the museums with things from around the country. So I rate your comment a 2/10. Going by your logic Walmart is the best store in America because the most people go there.
Ha half of Philadelphia is a Museum. I locked my keys in my car outside of Ben Franklins grave last week. Philadelphia history happened here unlike DC were the Federal govt fills up the museums with things from around the country. So I rate your comment a 2/10. Going by your logic Walmart is the best store in America because the most people go there.
The question is about museums, not historical sites. Philly has low educational levels, which could be why it's so underwhelming in this regard.
The question is about museums, not historical sites. Philly has low educational levels, which could be why it's so underwhelming in this regard.
yep all uneducated and horrible museums like the barnes, PMA, Franklin Inst, Rodin, Penn Museum, Constitution Museum, Revolutionary War Museum under Const, National Jewish History, National African History, etc.
Even a plethora of smaller interesting museums like Magic Gardens, Mutter, Please Touch etc not worth any time or visit not to mention the many great museums in the area like Brandywine, Michener, or Mercer...
Ha half of Philadelphia is a Museum. I locked my keys in my car outside of Ben Franklins grave last week. Philadelphia history happened here unlike DC were the Federal govt fills up the museums with things from around the country. So I rate your comment a 2/10. Going by your logic Walmart is the best store in America because the most people go there.
Like some of the muesems in NYC as well. None of that stuff occurred there so what kinda stupid point is that? There are muesems in DC which occurs to what happened there as well same with NYC and other cities.
IN the UNited States the Met has about 13,000 paintings in their collection (and over 2 million "objects of art) by far biggest
The MFA in Boston has 9174 paintings (and 450,000 0bjects) easily second largest
The Harvard Art Museum has 5708 paintings (and 250,000 objects)
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has 4402 paintings (And about 220,000 objects, also no ancient stuff all at PENN)
The National Gallery has 3532 paintings and not sure how many objects but it is NOT encyclopedic collection only has American European and Contemporary
The AIC has 2372 paintings and about 250,000 objects
MOMA in NYC has 2800 paintings AND sculptures (can not search for paintings alone) and 130,000 objects (again not encyclopedic)
So AIC while one of great museums in world is based on objective data, a smaller collection. IT does have second largest building space in North America. West Coast museums not even close in depth and breadth. Source for this is websites of each of these museums. easy to look up if you want to.
No one ever disputed that DC and NYC are clearly top 2.
These numbers are useful as a guide but they do not tell us what is actually in the collections. In other words, it is numbers but not necessarily quality.
The older and larger cities in the 1800s, mostly in the North from say from Boston westward out to Kansas City, began their collections in the 1800s when it was still easy to collect old world masters from Europe or ancient Greek, Roman & Egyptian sculptures. The rise of nationalism has made it harder to collect such international items now.
A good example of this are the huge ancient obelisks called "Cleopatra's Needle". New York, London and Paris all have one that they brought over in the 1800s. It is difficult to imagine today's Egyptian government to allow 3 of its ancient monuments to be transferred out of the country, at least without major protests.
Thus you tend to find more of older and the rarer art works in northern cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, St Louis and Kansas City. One major exception I know of outside the North is Los Angeles, which I believe was able to catch up by taking over major private collections.
The question is about museums, not historical sites. Philly has low educational levels, which could be why it's so underwhelming in this regard.
What exactly does educational quality in post-industrial America have to do with museum quality? These great museums have been around far longer than bad public education in inner cities. And I'm not sure how you could say the quality of museums in Philadelphia is "underwhelming."
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.C/N.Y
