Museums and Empire : Natural History, Human Cultures and Colonial Identities: Curating Empire : Museums and the British Imperial Experience

Ben Dibley

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    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.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)274-275
    Number of pages2
    JournalAustralian Historical Studies
    Volume45
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • museums
    • Great Britain
    • colonies

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