The Municipal Pedagogical Museum of Lisbon: from the municipal educational complex to museums for the working classes (1875-1892)

Abstract

The Municipal Pedagogical Museum of Lisbon was part of an educational complex in the 1880s and was designed to be a national reference. Institutions such as the Froebel Kindergarten and the Superior Primary School were part of this complex, which belonged to a municipal education network. According to its director, Adolfo Coelho, the Museum would be an instrument in the reform of popular education.
This paper seeks to link the Museum’s ephemeral fate to the rationale of three documents on the action of the State, concerning museums designed for popular classes. These documents highlight a main priority: a museum for national artistic treasures and for public contemplation, rather than pedagogical and teaching museums for manual use of their collections.