IU Art Museum sponsors Smithsonian curator's lecture about 'Holophusicon'

Adrienne Kaeppler, curator of oceanic ethnology at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History, spoke Thursday at the IU Henry Hadford Hope School of Fine Arts about her latest book, “Holophusicon — the Leverian Museum.”

The lecture, sponsored by the IU Art Museum, focused on the “Holophusicon,” also known as the Leverian Museum, the world’s first popular museum of science, curiosity and art.

The museum had a variety of rare and historic artifacts including sculptured heads
from India’s Cave of Elephanta, Oliver Cromwell’s armor and the largest collection of specimen from world traveler James Cook’s voyages.

IU invited Kaeppler to campus as a guest counselor for SoFA and she had the rare opportunity to work with the IU Art Museum during her stay, IU Art Museum Senior Academic Adviser Jennifer Wagelie said.

“Dr. Kaeppler is here to act as a guest consultant for one week to the FINA course ‘On Exhibit: the Pacific Islands,’” Wagelie said.

“She has graciously agreed to lend her extensive expertise to the students in organizing a small installation and online exhibition relating to the IU Art Museum’s collection of tapa from the Pacific Islands that will open at the end of the semester. Seizing on the opportunity of her visit, she was asked to give a lecture on her latest book.”

The lecture began after Wagelie introduced Kaeppler. Kaeppler delved into the history of the museum, which was the product of collector Ashton Lever and artist Sarah Stone.

Kaeppler chronicled the journey the museum’s artifacts and art pieces took since their days in the Holophusicon to their eventual auction in the early 1800s, when most of the objects were separated. She included descriptions of Lever’s life and photos of the objects found in the museum.  

Kaeppler said she dedicated four decades of her life to tracking down where the artifacts ended up after the auction. She said she has yet to locate some of them.

“If you ever see these objects anywhere, please let me know,” she said jokingly to the crowd.

The objects she did find were at various locations around the world such as Austria, where Kaiser Franz I owned 230 of the museum’s objects including various birds, shells and minerals.

Kaeppler received a warm reception from the crowd, which comprised both students and non-student adults. The following reception was located at the IU Art Museum, and Kaeppler was available to sign copies of her book.

Second-year graduate student and library sciences major Erin McCall said she enjoyed the lecture and gained a greater appreciation for 18th-century museums.

“The history of museums themselves is not explored as much as their contents,” McCall said. “I thought it was interesting to learn about this museum, its contents and the disillusion of the contents. It made me curious about 18th-century museums and where their contents are today."