2026

William J. Buxton, The Museum as Large-Room Pinball Machine: A 1967 New York City Seminar featuring Marshall McLuhan, Harley Parker, and Museum Professionals (Edmonton: U Alberta P, 2026), with essays by Gary Genosko and David Howes

While the work of Marshall McLuhan continues to attract considerable attention, one of his most notable contributions has largely been overlooked. It took the form of the prominent role he played co-moderating (with Harley Parker) a seminar attended by over eighty persons examining the communication of museums with their publics on October 9 and 10, 1967. Under the auspices of the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) and funded primarily by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), it was held largely at the premises of the Museum on Fifth Avenue. The report occupies a unique place with the vast ouvres of Marshall McLuhan. Rather than having something written or said by McLuhan in isolation from others as its point of reference, the report is entirely based on McLuhan in dialogue with a broad range of interlocutors; he participated in these dialogues largely as part of a dyad formed with Harley Parker. Indeed, one could argue that it was Parker rather than McLuhan who did most of the heavy lifting for the seminar. This involved not only its planning and the delivery of its summation, but also picking up the slack when McLuhan fell ill early on. The report also sheds considerable light on the state of museology in mid-century America. It was the stated goal of McLuhan and Parker to disrupt conventional museological practices and to raise questions about the deeply held beliefs of museum officials. The planners of the seminar believed that those working in museums could benefit from exposure to the ideas of the two moderators. But by inviting Jacques Barzun to deliver the final address—largely challenging the views of Parker and McLuhan—this meant that the status quo could emerge from the seminar unscathed and that the feathers of the museum elite would largely remain unruffled.