o o o What was What in the World?^®o o o o o

What in the World?^® was the Museum's popular weekly half-hour television program which was first seen in 1951 and which ran for 14 years. By the early 60s it was one of the oldest programs on television, bringing positive reviews and a steady stream of fanmail to the Museum which continues to this day.

On each What in the World?^® program, four or five unidentified objects were presented to a panel of experts who were asked to guess what each piece was, where it came from, how old it was, and how it was used. Objects were selected from storerooms and had never before been seen by the panel. Before the experts guessed, the audience was told what the object was, and, during the course of the program, could watch the thought processes of real --and often fallible!-- anthropologists and archaeologists.

After they had completed their identification, the moderator, Froelich Rainey, Director of the Museum, told them whether they were right and if not, gave the correct identification. [That's Rainey in the photo above; he created the original show.]

In 1952, What in the World?^® received the Peabody Award, television's most coveted honor, "for a superb blending of the academic and the entertaining." Soon after, it inspired a British version called Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? which appeared on BBC.

What in the World?^® was a successful pioneer TV show, proving that a museum could use a new medium (TV). Can we do it again with the new media available in our digital age?

photos + text: Museum Archives

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