Museums And American Intellectual Life 1876 1926

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Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926

Author : Steven Conn
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN : 0226114937

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Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926 by Steven Conn Pdf

Conn's study includes familiar places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Academy of Natural Sciences, but he also draws attention to forgotten ones, like the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, once the repository for objects from many turn-of-the-century world's fairs. What emerges from Conn's analysis is that museums of all kinds shared a belief that knowledge resided in the objects themselves. Using what Conn has termed "object-based epistemology," museums of the late nineteenth century were on the cutting edge of American intellectual life. By the first quarter of the twentieth century, however, museums had largely been replaced by research-oriented universities as places where new knowledge was produced. According to Conn, not only did this mean a change in the way knowledge was conceived, but also, and perhaps more importantly, who would have access to it.

U.S. Museum Histories and the Politics of Interpretation

Author : Laura Schiavo
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2023-12-08
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781003817208

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U.S. Museum Histories and the Politics of Interpretation by Laura Schiavo Pdf

U.S. Museum Histories and the Politics of Interpretation is the first collection to examine the history of museums in the United States through the lens of the political and ideological underpinnings at the heart of exhibitions, collecting, and programming. Including contributions from historians, art historians, anthropologists, academics, and museum professionals, the book argues that museums have always been embedded in the politics and culture of their time – whether that means a reification of hegemonic notions of race, gender, and progress or a challenge to those normative structures. Contributions probe the political nature of collection and interpretation as concept and practice, and museum work as both reflective of and contributing to the politics and circulation of power in different historical moments. As a whole, the volume provides detailed readings of museums that demonstrate the ways in which these trusted cultural institutions have intervened in shifting concepts of nation, community, indigeneity, race, citizenship, inclusion, identity, localism, and memory. U.S. Museum Histories and the Politics of Interpretation makes arguments about the historically and politically rooted nature of cultural production in museums that apply to institutions across the globe. It is essential reading for students and scholars of museum studies, public history, cultural history, art history, and memory.

Do Museums Still Need Objects?

Author : Steven Conn
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2010-11-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812201659

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Do Museums Still Need Objects? by Steven Conn Pdf

"We live in a museum age," writes Steven Conn in Do Museums Still Need Objects? And indeed, at the turn of the twenty-first century, more people are visiting museums than ever before. There are now over 17,500 accredited museums in the United States, averaging approximately 865 million visits a year, more than two million visits a day. New museums have proliferated across the cultural landscape even as older ones have undergone transformational additions: from the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan in New York to the High in Atlanta and the Getty in Los Angeles. If the golden age of museum-building came a century ago, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Field Museum of Natural History, and others were created, then it is fair to say that in the last generation we have witnessed a second golden age. By closely observing the cultural, intellectual, and political roles that museums play in contemporary society, while also delving deeply into their institutional histories, historian Steven Conn demonstrates that museums are no longer seen simply as houses for collections of objects. Conn ranges across a wide variety of museum types—from art and anthropology to science and commercial museums—asking questions about the relationship between museums and knowledge, about the connection between culture and politics, about the role of museums in representing non-Western societies, and about public institutions and the changing nature of their constituencies. Elegantly written and deeply researched, Do Museums Still Need Objects? is essential reading for historians, museum professionals, and those who love to visit museums.

Museums, Monuments, and National Parks

Author : Denise D. Meringolo
Publisher : Univ of Massachusetts Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : History
ISBN : 9781558499409

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Museums, Monuments, and National Parks by Denise D. Meringolo Pdf

The rapid expansion of the field of public history since the 1970s has led many to believe that it is a relatively new profession. In this book, Denise D. Meringolo shows that the roots of public history actually reach back to the nineteenth century, when the federal government entered into the work of collecting and preserving the nation's natural and cultural resources. Yet it was not until the emergence of the education-oriented National Park Service history program in the 1920s and 1930s that public history found an institutional home. Even then, tensions between administrators in Washington and practitioners on the ground at National Parks, monuments, and museums continued to redefine the scope and substance of the field. The process of definition persists to this day as public historians establish a growing presence in major universities throughout the United States and abroad. Book jacket.

Time Travel

Author : Alan Gordon
Publisher : UBC Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2016-07-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9780774831567

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Time Travel by Alan Gordon Pdf

In the 1960s, Canadians could step through time to eighteenth-century trading posts or nineteenth-century pioneer towns. These living history museums promised authentic reconstructions of the past but, as Time Travel shows, they revealed more about mid-twentieth-century interests and perceptions of history than they reflected historical fact. These museums became important components of post-war government economic growth and employment policies. Shaped by political pressures and the need to balance education and entertainment, they reflected Canadians’ struggle to establish a pan-Canadian identity in the context of multiculturalism, competing nationalisms, First Nations resistance, and the growth of the state.

Animals, Plants and Afterimages

Author : Valérie Bienvenue,Nicholas Chare
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2022-03-11
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781800734265

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Animals, Plants and Afterimages by Valérie Bienvenue,Nicholas Chare Pdf

The sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction is one of the most pervasive issues of our time. Animals, Plants and Afterimages brings together leading scholars in the humanities and life sciences to explore how extinct species are represented in art and visual culture, with a special emphasis on museums. Engaging with celebrated cases of vanished species such as the quagga and the thylacine as well as less well-known examples of animals and plants, these essays explore how representations of recent and ancient extinctions help advance scientific understanding and speak to contemporary ecological and environmental concerns.

Museums in Motion

Author : Edward Porter Alexander,Mary Alexander
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Art
ISBN : 075910509X

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Museums in Motion by Edward Porter Alexander,Mary Alexander Pdf

In 1979, Edward P. Alexander's Museums in Motion was hailed as a much-needed addition to the museum literature. In combining the history of museums since the eighteenth century with a detailed examination of the function of museums and museum workers in modern society, it served as an essential resource for those seeking to enter to the museum profession and for established professionals looking for an expanded understanding of their own discipline. Now, Mary Alexander has produced a newly revised edition of the classic text, bringing it the twenty-first century with coverage of emerging trends, resources, and challenges. New material also includes a discussion of the children's museum as a distinct type of institution and an exploration of the role computers play in both outreach and traditional in-person visits.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History

Author : Joan Shelley Rubin,Scott E. Casper
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 1551 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2013-03-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199764358

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The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History by Joan Shelley Rubin,Scott E. Casper Pdf

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History brings together in one two-volume set the record of the nation's values, aspirations, anxieties, and beliefs as expressed in both everyday life and formal bodies of thought. Over the past twenty years, the field of cultural history has moved to the center of American historical studies, and has come to encompass the experiences of ordinary citizens in such arenas as reading and religious practice as well as the accomplishments of prominent artists and writers. Some of the most imaginative scholarship in recent years has emerged from this burgeoning field. The scope of the volume reflects that development: the encyclopedia incorporates popular entertainment ranging from minstrel shows to video games, middlebrow ventures like Chautauqua lectures and book clubs, and preoccupations such as "Perfectionism" and "Wellness" that have shaped Americans' behavior at various points in their past and that continue to influence attitudes in the present. The volumes also make available recent scholarly insights into the writings of political scientists, philosophers, feminist theorists, social reformers, and other thinkers whose works have furnished the underpinnings of Americans' civic activities and personal concerns. Anyone wishing to understand the hearts and minds of the inhabitants of the United States from the early days of settlement to the twenty-first century will find the encyclopedia invaluable.

Life on Display

Author : Karen A. Rader,Victoria E. M. Cain
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014-10-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780226079660

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Life on Display by Karen A. Rader,Victoria E. M. Cain Pdf

Life on Display traces the history of biological exhibits in American museums to demonstrate how science museums have shaped and been shaped by understandings of science and public education in twentieth-century society. Karen Rader and Victoria Cain document how public natural history and science museums’ ongoing efforts to create popular educational displays led these institutions to develop new identities, ones that changed their positions in both twentieth-century science and American culture. They describe how, pre-1945, biological exhibitions changed dramatically--from rows upon rows of specimen collections to large-scale dioramas with push-button displays--as museums attempted to negotiate the changing, and often conflicting, interests of scientists, educators, and the public. The authors then reveal how, from the 1950s through the 1980s, museum staffs experimented with wildly different definitions of life science and life science education, and how, in the process, natural history and science museums and science centers faced significant public and scientific scrutiny. The book concludes with a discussion of the ways corporate sponsorship and contemporary blockbuster economics influenced the content and display of science and natural history museums in the century’s last decades. As a dynamic historical account of how museums negotiated their multiple roles in science and society, Life on Display will attract a diverse audience of cultural historians, sociologists, and ethnographers of science, as well as museum practitioners.

The Museum

Author : Samuel J Redman
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-03
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781479809356

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The Museum by Samuel J Redman Pdf

Celebrates the resilience of American cultural institutions in the face of national crises and challenges On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum’s castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last— disaster to upend a museum in the United States. Beset by challenges ranging from pandemic and war to fire and economic uncertainty, museums have sought ways to emerge from crisis periods stronger than before, occasionally carving important new paths forward in the process. The Museum explores the concepts of “crisis” as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. Fires, floods, and hurricanes have all upended museum plans and forced people to ask difficult questions about American cultural life. With chapters exploring World War I and the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II, the 1970 Art Strike in New York City, and recent controversies in American museums, this book takes a new approach to understanding museum history. By diving deeper into the changes that emerged from these key challenges, Samuel J. Redman argues that cultural institutions can—and should— use their history to prepare for challenges and solidify their identity going forward. A captivating examination of crisis moments in US museum history from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day, The Museum offers inspiration in the resilience and longevity of America’s most prized cultural institutions.

Object Lessons and the Formation of Knowledge

Author : Kerstin Barndt,Carla M Sinopoli
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2017-09-19
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780472130276

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Object Lessons and the Formation of Knowledge by Kerstin Barndt,Carla M Sinopoli Pdf

Comprehensive overview of the University of Michigan's Museums, Libraries, and collections

Becoming African Americans

Author : Clare Corbould
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2009-07-31
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780674053656

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Becoming African Americans by Clare Corbould Pdf

In 2000, the United States census allowed respondents for the first time to tick a box marked “African American” in the race category. The new option marked official recognition of a term that had been gaining currency for some decades. Africa has always played a role in black identity, but it was in the tumultuous period between the two world wars that black Americans first began to embrace a modern African American identity. Following the great migration of black southerners to northern cities after World War I, the search for roots and for meaningful affiliations became subjects of debate and display in a growing black public sphere. Throwing off the legacy of slavery and segregation, black intellectuals, activists, and organizations sought a prouder past in ancient Egypt and forged links to contemporary Africa. In plays, pageants, dance, music, film, literature, and the visual arts, they aimed to give stature and solidity to the American black community through a new awareness of the African past and the international black world. Their consciousness of a dual identity anticipated the hyphenated identities of new immigrants in the years after World War II, and an emerging sense of what it means to be a modern American.

A Museum on the Verge

Author : Jeffrey Abt
Publisher : Wayne State University Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 0814328415

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A Museum on the Verge by Jeffrey Abt Pdf

The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of America's largest and oldest municipal art museums. However, even as the museum grew into a distinguished collection, there were threats of closure. The DIA has walked a financial tightrope since it opened just over a century ago, and was nearly closed by government funding cuts in the 1970s and 1990s. Now Jeffrey Abt tells how the DIA has had to struggle to maintain its fine art collection with barely enough income to remain open. A Museum on the Verge goes behind the scenes at the DIA to disclose the political, economic, and social forces that shaped the museum from its founding to the present day. Drawing on new archival research, Abt reveals that the growing discrepancy between the museum's size and its operating budget was the result of a century of ad hoc solutions to institutional problems that left the DIA vulnerable to annual income losses -- especially reductions of government funding. He also explains its complex relations with private and government entities and delineates the integral role of the museum's support group, the Founders Society. Abt's account is supplemented by a wealth of material, including legal documents and numerical data taken at five-year intervals from the 1880s through 2000 that is presented in both tables and graphs. The data, which comprehensively survey vital statistics such as attendance, collections growth, and finances, provide a rich resource for comparative research on other museums. As a case study of a prominent public institution, A Museum on the Verge offers an invaluable research model for scholars and museum professionals alike.

A Perpetual Fire

Author : Lara Jaishree Netting
Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013-09-01
Category : Art
ISBN : 9789888139187

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A Perpetual Fire by Lara Jaishree Netting Pdf

After serving as a missionary and then foreign advisor to Qing officials from 1887 to 1911, John Ferguson became a leading dealer of Chinese art, providing the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and other museums with their inaugural collections of paintings and bronzes. In multiple publications dating to the 1920s and 1930s, Ferguson made the controversial claim that China’s autochthonous culture was the basis of Chinese art. His two Chinese language reference works, still in use today, were produced with essential help from Chinese scholars. Emulating these “men of culture” with whom he lived and worked in Peking, Ferguson gathered paintings, bronzes, rubbings, and other artifacts. In 1934, he donated this group of over one thousand objects to Nanjing University, the school he had helped to found as a young missionary. This work offers a significant contribution to the history of Chinese art collection. John Ferguson learned from and worked with Qing dynasty collectors and scholars, and then Republican-era dealers and archeologists, while simultaneously supplying the objects he had come to know as Chinese art to American museums and individuals. He is an ideal subject to help us see the interconnections between increased Western interest in Chinese art and archeology in the modern era, and cultural change taking place in China.

Mobile Museums

Author : Felix Driver ,Mark Nesbitt,Caroline Cornish
Publisher : UCL Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2021-04-19
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781787355088

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Mobile Museums by Felix Driver ,Mark Nesbitt,Caroline Cornish Pdf

Mobile Museums presents an argument for the importance of circulation in the study of museum collections, past and present. It brings together an impressive array of international scholars and curators from a wide variety of disciplines – including the history of science, museum anthropology and postcolonial history - to consider the mobility of collections. The book combines historical perspectives on the circulation of museum objects in the past with contemporary accounts of their re-mobilisation, notably in the context of Indigenous community engagement. Contributors seek to explore processes of circulation historically in order to re-examine, inform and unsettle common assumptions about the way museum collections have evolved over time and through space. By foregrounding questions of circulation, the chapters in Mobile Museums collectively represent a fundamental shift in the understanding of the history and future uses of museum collections. The book addresses a variety of different types of collection, including the botanical, the ethnographic, the economic and the archaeological. Its perspective is truly global, with case studies drawn from South America, West Africa, Oceania, Australia, the United States, Europe and the UK. Mobile Museums helps us to understand why the mobility of museum collections was a fundamental aspect of their history and why it continues to matter today. Praise for Mobile Museums 'This book advances a paradigm shift in studies of museums and collections. A distinguished group of contributors reveal that collections are not dead assemblages. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were marked by vigorous international traffic in ethnography and natural history specimens that tell us much about colonialism, travel and the history of knowledge – and have implications for the remobilisation of museums in the future.’ – Nicholas Thomas, University of Cambridge 'The first major work to examine the implications and consequences of the migration of materials from one scientific or cultural milieu to another, it highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of collections and offers insights into their potential for future re-mobilisation.' – Arthur MacGregor