摘要：This paper explains how and why many American museums of science andnature moved away from the traditional content and methods of natural historyin the period from 1930 to 1980. It explores diverse motivations for the shift fromdead, stuffed displays to live, interactive exhibits, and the consequences of thatshift for museums as both educational institutions and as institutions of research.Ultimately, it argues that debates over museums' content and display strategiesdrew strength from and reinforced a profound transformation in the institutionalhistory of twentieth-century American science and technology: namely, theseparation of research and public education. By the late 1960s, the Americanmuseum landscape had been transformed by this development. Older naturalhistory museums competed for visitors and resources with 'new' style sciencemuseums, and although both remained popular cultural institutions, neither hadachieved a coherent new institutional identity because debates about the role ofthe museum in science continued. Thus, we suggest, in the mid-twentiethcentury natural history and science museums were more important in both thehistory of biology and the history of science's public culture than has previouslybeen acknowledged
关键词：natural history; science centres; hands-on exhibits; United States
