Mobile Museums
Collections in circulation
Edited by Felix Driver, Mark Nesbitt, and Caroline Cornish
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
Felix Driver is Professor of Human Geography at Royal
Holloway, University of London and Honorary Research Associate at Kew.
Mark Nesbitt is Honorary Associate Professor at UCL Institute
of Archaeology, Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London and Senior Research Leader
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Caroline
Cornish is Senior Research
Officer (Plant Humanities) at Royal Holloway, University of London and Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
List of tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: mobilising and re-mobilising collections
'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
Format: Hardback
Size: 234 × 156 mm
372 Pages
76 colour illustrations
Copyright: © 2021
ISBN: 9781787355200
Publication: April 19, 2021
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