To survive financially and to be able to improve, one must cater to the tastes of the public before attempting to refine and fashion these tastes. When Barnum proclaimed his intention of making the Establishment attractive and popular to all and to not depend solely on the scientific public for support, he made sense. There's a danger for an aquarium to lose sight of the public with the best of intentions, to pursue a purist ideal of professional aquarists in which a well educated elite might find satisfaction but which would have limited public appeal. It was as though the sole function of the exhibits was to amuse and distract, to attract by appealing to the public's most superficial instincts. It is a betrayal of the very sentiments that led to the birth of aquariums in general and certainly contrary to what the Boston Boston Aquarial Gardens pretended to be at its beginnings.
Modern aquariums face a similar dilemma.
The initial dialogue with the public should be in a language that can be understood. Rather it would seem that there must be a continual reevaluation, a constant examination of conscience to assure that a proper balance is maintained, without allowing the institution to be confined to a particular preconceived idea. It is vital that the dialectic be active enough to permit revisions and recognize exaggerations. But there is another aspect of aquariums that involves neither amusement nor education. It needs neither words nor explanations but leaves viewers free to admire and fantasize on their own terms and perhaps forget their troubles for a while.