Episode Details

In episode 42 of The Whole Shebang podcast, Raquel gives a brief museum history and public history overview, explaining how museums grew from colonial-era “cabinets of curiosity” filled with taxidermy, minerals, art, ethnographic objects, and mythical “specimens,” and how wealthy collectors led to public institutions like the British Museum. She connects early collecting to the origins of archaeology in Egypt and Mesopotamia, including Victorian mummy unwrapping parties and the British Museum–funded excavations of Leonard Woolley at Ur, alongside Howard Carter’s Tutankhamun discovery. The episode also covers Canadian museum studies experiences at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, Indigenous heritage, language revitalization via Nuuchah-nulth radio, and BC treaty history. They discuss cultural heritage crime, looting, museum thefts (Louvre, British Museum), provenance research, the Hudson’s Bay charter auction, and repatriation debates (e.g., Parthenon/Elgin Marbles).

Follow us: 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewholeshebangpod/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.whole.shebang2025
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586061363648

Listen: 
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2437848/episodes
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1WDYurvTa3avl897E7Y2t6
ApplePodcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-whole-shebang/id1794011520
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/67d20e35-c583-41fb-ae83-f8e9aba7f016/the-whole-shebang