![Atop Empire State- in construction; Chrysler Bldg & [Daily] News in middle foreground. (1931)](http://www.retronaut.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Atop-Empire-State-in-construction-Chrysler-Bldg-Daily-News-in-middle-foreground.-1931--199x123.jpg "Balancing on the Empire State, 1920s")
‘The Mundaneum, an institution created in 1910 by Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine, aimed to gather together all the world’s knowledge. An Archive with more than 12 million index cards, some consider it a forerunner of the internet. Otlet dreamt that one day all the information he collected could be accessed by people from the comfort of their own homes.’
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Thank you to Spiegel
This capsule was curated by Otto R. Claudia Heydorn
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood… Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.”
Daniel H. Burnham
US architect & city planner (1846 – 1912)
That’s not Charles Darwin in the second picture is it?
Could they have picked a worse name than “The Mundaneum”?
The Mundaneum didn’t go much of anywhere, but it did give Otto Neurath some ideas for his Museum of Society and Economy, about the first modern information design scheme.
“some consider it a forerunner of the internet”
Hmm… seems like an archive to me, or a library… I definitely wouldn’t consider it a forerunner to the internet for a few of reasons:
1. I don’t see any advertisements anywhere
2. Serious lack of porn
3. It contained useful information that could be easily
accessed.
The list could go on and on, but I think I made my point.