TY - JOUR
T1 - Museums and Empire : Natural History, Human Cultures and Colonial Identities: Curating Empire : Museums and the British Imperial Experience
AU - Dibley, Ben
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Book review. While discussions of the relations between museums and empire are now well developed, the two volumes under review are without doubt significant contributions to this field. Each offers new insights into the complex entanglements of museums with the British imperial imaginary and the practices of colonial rule, which, in important ways, qualify accounts that would posit an unmediated relation between the institutional form of museum and the expression of imperial power. Rejecting more theoretical approaches as ones that reduce museums’ role in imperialism to mere complicity, the preferred method for the authors in both books is for a fine-grained historical analysis that draws out the agency of museum personnel, the contest of institutional agendas, the priorities of colonial administrations, and the consequences of often precarious finances. This use of historiography is powerful and in the texts under consideration this has delivered insightful, nuanced accounts of the relations between museums and empire.
AB - Book review. While discussions of the relations between museums and empire are now well developed, the two volumes under review are without doubt significant contributions to this field. Each offers new insights into the complex entanglements of museums with the British imperial imaginary and the practices of colonial rule, which, in important ways, qualify accounts that would posit an unmediated relation between the institutional form of museum and the expression of imperial power. Rejecting more theoretical approaches as ones that reduce museums’ role in imperialism to mere complicity, the preferred method for the authors in both books is for a fine-grained historical analysis that draws out the agency of museum personnel, the contest of institutional agendas, the priorities of colonial administrations, and the consequences of often precarious finances. This use of historiography is powerful and in the texts under consideration this has delivered insightful, nuanced accounts of the relations between museums and empire.
KW - museums
KW - Great Britain
KW - colonies
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:28660
U2 - 10.1080/1031461X.2014.912721
DO - 10.1080/1031461X.2014.912721
M3 - Article
SN - 1940-5049
SN - 1031-461X
VL - 45
SP - 274
EP - 275
JO - Australian Historical Studies
JF - Australian Historical Studies
IS - 2
ER -