Don Draper's suit and Gutenberg Bibles - American museums get new donations
Two donations - one of pop culture, the other with more historical significance - will enrich museum-goers' experience in the US
The role of museums in the history of mankind cannot be underestimated. Because of museums, we see treasured artefacts, whether they are linked to milestones in history or popular culture, which give us the flavour of what life was like at any point in time. An appreciation of the past, as it were.
It makes two recent donations in the US all the more notable.
In one, Don Draper is headed for the Smithsonian. The grey suit and fedora worn by actor Jon Hamm as the enigmatic lead in the television series Mad Men will join the permanent collection at the Washington museum in a ceremony later this month to join such items as Archie Bunker's armchair (from All in the Family) and the Fonz's leather jacket (from Happy Days).
Another donation with more historical significance is going to Princeton University in New Jersey, which will receive six 15th-century prints of the Bible, donated by a wealthy benefactor and bibliophile as part of a "treasure house" of rare books.
That donation will have the highest value in the Ivy League school's history.
The Gutenberg Bible editions, printed in 1455, are exceedingly rare and beautifully illuminated, and represent the first substantial edition of books printed by movable metal type. The process revolutionised the distribution of knowledge throughout Europe. Princeton is deciding whether to make the Gutenberg Bibles digital.