Useful Objects

Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America

Gebonden Engels 2021 9780197553480

€ 111,60

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Useful Objects examines the cultural history of nineteenth-century American museums through the eyes of writers, visitors, and collectors. Throughout this period, museums gradually transformed from encyclopedic cabinets to more specialized public institutions. These changes prompted wider debates about how museums determine what objects to select, preserve, and display-and who gets to decide. Drawing on a wide range of archival materials and accounts in fiction, guidebooks, and periodicals, Useful Objects shows how the challenges facing nineteenth-century museums continue to resonate in debates about their role in American culture today.