Museum Monday: Museum Aficionados of Reddit

I love museums. Part of it stemmed from the fact that I didn’t go to museums a lot as a child (or at least not as much as I would have liked!) And part of it was because for a period of time, I really really wanted to become a museum curator. But alas, one of those childhood dreams didn’t come true. Instead, I like to visit as many museums as I can.  However, there aren’t a lot of variety of museums in Colorado, so I often look at virtual collections. The easiest way to “curate” your own collection is through Reddit. Although you’ll often see “Porn” in the title, its part of the “Safe for Work Porn Network” and pretty much means people who like to look at said type of photos. For example:

• /r/MuseumPorn – This subreddit is dedicated to pictures of museums and how they lay out their galleries.
• /r/ArtefactPorn – My personal favorite, it has high-resolution photos of various museum objects along with more information about them.
• /r/HistoryPorn – This is historical photos and the context behind them. Beware though, they tend to like posting a lot of historical photos of awful events in history.

But there is so much more on Reddit. Anything you have questions on or interest in you can find. Here are some more I recommend.

Subreddits for those who love ancient history:

• /r/Archaeology or /r/Archeology – Get your latest archaeology news from either of these subs.
• /r/ancienthistory – Ancient History articles.
• /r/AncientCoins – Surprising this doesn’t have the P in it, but its great photos of coins.
• /r/ancientegypt – I like this one, although sometimes it turns into “I just bought this [obviously tourist made crap] what does the hieroglyphs say?”
• /r/ancientrome and /r/ancientgreece – Similar to the above.

Fossil Fan? Love Dinosaurs? Mad about Minerals? There are tons of subreddits for you:

• /r/Paleontology – Great articles about this field of study.
• /r/paleonews – Latest news.
• /r/FossilPorn – Like the other SFWP networks, great photos of fossils.
• /r/fossils – More great photos.
• /r/TrappedInAmber – Just as it says. Live out your Jurassic Park dreams of finding one with dino DNA.
• /r/fossilid – Helping people find out “what is this?”
• /r/rockhounds – Rock collectors
• /r/MineralPorn and /r/geologyporn – Beautiful rock photos.

If you are more into the Art scene, Reddit has many subreddits dedicated to famous art (as well as user created art). For the famous art I recommend:

• /r/Museum – This is a great subreddit to see and learn about famous art.
• /r/ArtPorn – More SFWP network.
• /r/ArtHistory – A catch all of various art topics.
• /r/SculpturePorn – Great Sculpture photos.

Have a question for the pros? Want to see what their world is like?

• /r/AskHistorians – This sub doesn’t mess around. Only on-topic conversations with detailed cited answers. (I almost got banned for making an Indiana Jones joke when I first found this subreddit.)
• /r/MuseumPros – A subreddit for those in the industry.
• /r/TalesFromTheMuseum – Like NotAlwaysRight or Retail Hell Underground, these are the more ridiculous stories of those in the industry.
• /r/ShovelBums – Archeologists discussion of their industry.

The above are the more professional or active subreddits. There are tons more, so check Reddit out today!