Museums, education, history, politics, current events, and puppies
"...but then history does not only consist of documents."
- John Lukacs
The Fire at the L’Institut d’Egypte a “great loss”
On Sunday the Institute D’Egypte caught fire and burned. The Institute was established in 1798 by the French, and held an estimated 200,000 volumes, including rare accounts of Egypt in the 18th Century. I must confess I had no knowledge of the Institute before yesterday, but because I, like many privileged folks in the developed world, have access to Wikipedia, I know it is an important building, and an important repository of information. Yet most Egyptians don’t have that luxury. As Larry Rothfield points out, neither the protesters, nor the military seemed to know this was an important building containing books and manuscripts.
This is actually tragic. When museums are damaged, it doesn’t just effect the people of the region (though it certainly...
THIS. Wikipedia exists in Egypt. Poor people can use wikipedia, brown people can use wikipedia, people in the...
Oh my god. I had no idea this happened. Is anything salvageable? Which parts of the Institute were the worst hit?
Reblogged for both the tragedy and this kick-ass commentary.