Bakken Museum
Encyclopedia
The Bakken, previously known as The Bakken: A Library and Museum of Electricity in Life and known in the past as the Medtronic Museum of Electricity in Life, located on the shores of Lake Calhoun
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
in the United States
, is the world's only library
and museum
devoted to medical electricity
. Focused on scholars and on young people, The Bakken educates visitors about the history of electricity and electromagnetism
from 1200 A. D. to the present.
, Giovanni Battista Beccaria
, Luigi Galvani
, Giovanni Aldini
, Alessandro Volta
, Guillame Benjamin Amand Duchenne
, and Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond
and the journals Annalen der Physik
, the Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society
and Zeitschrift für Physik
.
Many of the permanent displays are interactive and suitable for children. For example, visitors can generate a 60,000 volt spark with a Wimshurst machine
. Exhibits include "The Spark of Life", "The Electrarium", "The Mystery of Magnetism", "Magnetism and the Human Body", "Batteries", "Electricity in the 18th Century" and "Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's Dream".
A huge 20 ft (6 m) lithograph of La Fée Electricité by Raoul Dufy
adorns the entrance. Aquariums hold examples of fish from South America
and Africa
that use electricity, including transparent and a black-ghost knifefish
, an electric eel
and a mormyrid
. The aquariums are wired for sound so that visitors can hear the fishes' electrical signals. The Florence Bakken Medicinal Garden and a statue of Hermes
or Mercury
, the messenger god of ancient Greece and Rome, are focal points of the grounds. A newspaper reporter once said the venue, "seems a throwback to another time when skilled craftsmen shaped stone, wood and glass into places with lasting appeal".
The Bakken was founded by inventor Earl Bakken
who was enamored with a movie version of Mary Shelley
's work Frankenstein
at a young age and grew up to build the first portable and implantable cardiac pacemaker
s. With his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie, Bakken founded the medical technology
company Medtronic
in 1949. Today the company produces cardiac rhythm, neuromodulation, spinal, biologic, diabetes, ear nose and throat and cardiovascular products and physio-controllers.
At Bakken's suggestion in 1969, Dennis Stillings who at the time worked for Medtronic in its library, began to acquire books and devices. By 1974 the collection was well known among antiquarians and was offered two lots of early electrical devices. At first stored at the Medtronic headquarters in Saint Anthony Village, Minnesota, the collection by 1975 occupied a floor in the Medtronic branch office in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
and in 1976 began to be moved to its present location.
Formerly funded by the museum, the Bakken Quartet performed chamber music
on the premises. Today the group is named the Bakken Trio and performs in Saint Paul, Minnesota
.
, founder of today's Target Corporation
. A combination of 16th century English styles including Tudor
and Gothic Revival
, the home was named "West Winds" and contains "dark wood interior paneling, open-beamed ceilings, grouped and arched windows and stained glass". The original home had fifteen rooms and eleven bathrooms. When he died in 1944, Goodfellow donated the buildings to the Girl Scouts
. The family of Richard Cornelius lived there between 1953 and 1976, after which the house became the Bakken museum.
In 1999 the museum completed an expansion that doubled its size from 13000 sq ft (1,208 m²) to 25000 sq ft (2,323 m²). A 1200 sq ft (111 m²) underground vault built in 1981 protects the collection with a constant temperature of 65 °F (18 °C) and 55 percent relative humidity.
Lake Calhoun
Lake Calhoun is the biggest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking trails, it is popular for many outdoor activities...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is the world's only library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
and museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
devoted to medical electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
. Focused on scholars and on young people, The Bakken educates visitors about the history of electricity and electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
from 1200 A. D. to the present.
Exhibits
Unique in the world, the Bakken's collection is devoted to explaining "the historical role of electricity and magnetism in the life sciences and medicine." Approximately 11,000 written works and about 2,000 scientific instruments are stored there, some specifically for electrophysiology and electrotherapeutics. The Bakken's present director David Rhees once identified the most significant holdings as works by Jean Antoine Nollet, Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Giovanni Battista Beccaria
Giovanni Battista Beccaria
Giovanni Battista Beccaria , Italian physicist, was born at Mondovì, and entered the religious order of the Pious Schools in 1732, where he studied, and afterward taught, grammar and rhetoric...
, Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani
Luigi Aloisio Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1791, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark...
, Giovanni Aldini
Giovanni Aldini
Giovanni Aldini , Italian physicist born at Bologna, was a brother of the statesman Count Antonio Aldini and nephew of Luigi Galvani, whose treaties on muscular electricity he edited with notes in 1791....
, Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Volta
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Gerolamo Umberto Volta was a Lombard physicist known especially for the invention of the battery in 1800.-Early life and works:...
, Guillame Benjamin Amand Duchenne
Guillaume Duchenne
Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne was a French neurologist who revived Galvani's research and greatly advanced the science of electrophysiology...
, and Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond
Emil du Bois-Reymond
Emil du Bois-Reymond was a German physician and physiologist, the discoverer of nerve action potential, and the father of experimental electrophysiology.-Life:...
and the journals Annalen der Physik
Annalen der Physik
Annalen der Physik is one of the oldest physics journals worldwide. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers in the areas of experimental, theoretical, applied and mathematical physics and related areas...
, the Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
and Zeitschrift für Physik
Zeitschrift für Physik
The European Physical Journal is a joint publication of EDP Sciences, Springer Science+Business Media, and the Società Italiana di Fisica...
.
Many of the permanent displays are interactive and suitable for children. For example, visitors can generate a 60,000 volt spark with a Wimshurst machine
Wimshurst machine
The Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst ....
. Exhibits include "The Spark of Life", "The Electrarium", "The Mystery of Magnetism", "Magnetism and the Human Body", "Batteries", "Electricity in the 18th Century" and "Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's Dream".
A huge 20 ft (6 m) lithograph of La Fée Electricité by Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy
Raoul Dufy[p] was a French Fauvist painter. He developed a colorful, decorative style that became fashionable for designs of ceramics and textiles, as well as decorative schemes for public buildings. He is noted for scenes of open-air social events...
adorns the entrance. Aquariums hold examples of fish from South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
that use electricity, including transparent and a black-ghost knifefish
Knifefish
Knifefish may refer to several knife-shaped fishes:* The Neotropical or weakly electric knifefishes, order Gymnotiformes, containing five families:** Family Gymnotidae ** Family Rhamphichthyidae...
, an electric eel
Electric eel
The electric eel , is an electric fish, and the only species of the genus Electrophorus. It is capable of generating powerful electric shocks, of up to six hundred volts, which it uses for both hunting and self-defense. It is an apex predator in its South American range...
and a mormyrid
Mormyridae
The family Mormyridae, sometimes called "elephantfish" , are freshwater fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest family in the order with around 200 species. Members of the family are popular, if challenging, aquarium species...
. The aquariums are wired for sound so that visitors can hear the fishes' electrical signals. The Florence Bakken Medicinal Garden and a statue of Hermes
Hermes
Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
or Mercury
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
, the messenger god of ancient Greece and Rome, are focal points of the grounds. A newspaper reporter once said the venue, "seems a throwback to another time when skilled craftsmen shaped stone, wood and glass into places with lasting appeal".
History
Earl Bakken
Earl E. Bakken is an American engineer, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and Norwegian American ancestry...
who was enamored with a movie version of Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
's work Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
at a young age and grew up to build the first portable and implantable cardiac pacemaker
Cardiac pacemaker
right|thumb|350px|Image showing the cardiac pacemaker which is the SA nodeThe contraction of heart muscle in all animals with hearts is initiated by chemical impulses. The rate at which these impulses fire controls the heart rate...
s. With his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie, Bakken founded the medical technology
Medical technology
Medical Technology encompasses a wide range of healthcare products and is used to diagnose, monitor or treat diseases or medical conditions affecting humans. Such technologies are intended to improve the quality of healthcare delivered through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment options and...
company Medtronic
Medtronic
Medtronic, Inc. , based in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the world's largest medical technology company and is a Fortune 500 company.- History :...
in 1949. Today the company produces cardiac rhythm, neuromodulation, spinal, biologic, diabetes, ear nose and throat and cardiovascular products and physio-controllers.
At Bakken's suggestion in 1969, Dennis Stillings who at the time worked for Medtronic in its library, began to acquire books and devices. By 1974 the collection was well known among antiquarians and was offered two lots of early electrical devices. At first stored at the Medtronic headquarters in Saint Anthony Village, Minnesota, the collection by 1975 occupied a floor in the Medtronic branch office in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
As of the census of 2010, there were 30,104 residents in Brooklyn Center. The racial makeup of the city was 49% White, 26% African American, 1% Native American, 14% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 5% from other races, and 4% from two or more races...
and in 1976 began to be moved to its present location.
Formerly funded by the museum, the Bakken Quartet performed chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
on the premises. Today the group is named the Bakken Trio and performs in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
.
Facility
Architect Carl A. Gage constructed the building between 1928 and 1930 as the home of William Goodfellow who is said to have wished to impress a female friend. Goodfellow is remembered as the party who sold his dry goods store in 1904 to George DaytonGeorge Dayton
George Draper Dayton was an American businessman and philanthropist.-Life and career:Dayton came to the U.S. state of Minnesota from New York in 1883. His family was one of average means, and he had hoped to become a minister, but was lured by the urge to be in the business world...
, founder of today's Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
. A combination of 16th century English styles including Tudor
Tudorbethan architecture
The Tudor Revival architecture of the 20th century , first manifested itself in domestic architecture beginning in the United Kingdom in the mid to late 19th century based on a revival of aspects of Tudor style. It later became an influence in some other countries, especially the British colonies...
and Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, the home was named "West Winds" and contains "dark wood interior paneling, open-beamed ceilings, grouped and arched windows and stained glass". The original home had fifteen rooms and eleven bathrooms. When he died in 1944, Goodfellow donated the buildings to the Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts of the USA
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad. It describes itself as "the world's preeminent organization dedicated solely to girls". It was founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912 and was organized after Low...
. The family of Richard Cornelius lived there between 1953 and 1976, after which the house became the Bakken museum.
In 1999 the museum completed an expansion that doubled its size from 13000 sq ft (1,208 m²) to 25000 sq ft (2,323 m²). A 1200 sq ft (111 m²) underground vault built in 1981 protects the collection with a constant temperature of 65 °F (18 °C) and 55 percent relative humidity.