Overview

Museums and empire is the first book to examine the origins and development of museums in six major regions if the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It analyses museum histories in thirteen major centres in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India and South-East Asia, setting them into the economic and social contexts of the cities and colonies in which they were located. Written in a lively and informative style, it also touches upon the history of many other museums in Britain and other territories of the Empire. A number of key themes emerge from its pages; the development of elites within colonial towns and cities; the emergence of the full range of cultural institutions associated with this; and the reception and modification of the key scientific ideas of the age. It will be essential reading for students and academics concerned with museum studies and imperial history and to a wider public devoted to the cause of museums and heritage -- .

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9780719083679

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Reviews

An outstanding and original book which deals both authoritatively and perceptively with an important but hitherto rather neglected aspect of imperial cultures. It is engrossing, deeply informative and beautifully written. There is no doubt that it will make a valuable contribution to scholarship across a range of disciplines, as well as enhancing the well-established Studies in Imperialism series.' -- Dr. Nigel Rigby, National Maritime Museum.. Only a mature scholar with the range and experience possessed by someone like MacKenzie could have taken this on, and it is most welcome that he has done so. MacKenzie brings to the task the qualities that mark him out as our foremost historian of the cultures and ideology of empire: enormous span, considerable powers of synthesis, and an eye that is ever alert to significant detail. As ever, he presents his research with consummate ease and style.' -- Professor Saul Dubow, University of Sussex.. John M. MacKenzie has written a fascinating work...A review cannot do justice to the richness and value of this work -- James Beattie. Environment and History Leading imperial historian John M. MacKenzie has written a fascinating work examining the interplay between the British Empire and the development of museums. This important book brings together its authors lifelong interests- in art, exhibitions, material culture, natural history and conservation - to produce a highly readable, deeply analytical and most welcome comparative account of the emergence of colonial museums in Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Two chapters are devoted to each of the so-called colonies of white settlement, with a closing one providing a synoptic overview of museum development in colonial Asia. Each chapter examines chronologically the development of museums in different colonies. MacKenzie's primary contribution is in bringing together institutional studies of natural history and ethnography. Until this book appeared, despite the historically close intellectual and research connections between natural history and ethnography, scholars of museums had invariably sprang from research on natural history. This work examines different continents and time periods (from the eighteenth century up to the Second World War) through the biographies of particular institutions, their staff and exhibitions. This approach allows MacKenzie to draw on rich examples to evaluate factors both and common and particular in imperial museum development. It means, for example, that MacKenzie can assess the impact of very different geographical, political and ethnographical histories on the development of colonial museums. Thus, the wealth of nineteenth-century Toronto, coupled with its relative proximity to Europe and the Americas, MacKenzie relates fuelled an ambitious programme of museum founding and collections expansion to rival those of the large and wealthy institutions south of the Canadian border. This eventually resulted in the impressive Royal Ontario Museum. Others, like the Royal British Columbia Museum, MacKenzie shows, remained more modest in scope. The funding, ambitions and collections of these small museums instead focused on the local. Likewise, the reception of Darwinism differed resistant to Darwin's claims. These are just some of the many examples of the subtle differences between museums that Mackenzie's rich detail enables him to tease out. The work makes a compelling case for considering museums as complex colonial phenomena, as more than just agents of control and appropriation as has been a common refrain in more recent museum scholarship. At once imperial and national, MacKenzie demonstrates how colonial curators arranged various stuffed animals and human dioramas to relate a breathtaking narrative of colonial development, an ambitious arrangement, drawing from the 'deep time' of geological and human history designed to project into the future a colony's glorious rise. Belying the grandiosity of many of their names and intentions, MacKenzie details the fragility of colonial museums. The norm for most meant survival on minimal budgets constantly threatened by further diminishment, tiny and inadequate work spaces, and employment in institutions sliced by internal tensions are marked by internecine rivalry (not, perhaps, unlike the modern naturalist Wilhelm Blandowski. Blandowski followed established scientific precedent when he named species new to science (in this case fish) after leading members of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, but his choice of names proved rather unwise for his long term career prospects. Ceruna Eadesii, he observed, was notable for its big belly, sharp spine and forehead! The press, needless to say had a field day. In relation to government funding, MacKenzie makes the telling observation that in their attempts to secure state funding, MacKenzie makes the telling observation that in their attempts to secure state funding, museum dictators perhaps overplayed the practical and scientific aspects of their institution in aiding colonial development. For one thing, the directors' presentation of museums belied their role as entertainment. Many, indeed, attracted large numbers of visitors who sought in scientific displays entertainment (particularly among the local populations of South Africa and India). Sadly the limited word length of a review cannot do justice to the richness and value of this work. Scholars and students of empire, writers on museums and curators will find much of interest and stimulation of it. Like MacKenzie's earlier works, Museums and Empires makes a considerable contribution to studies of imperial science: in this case, to the connections between natural history and ethnography, and an institution's interactions and exchanges with other museums. -- James Beattie. Environment and History Museums and Empire is an exceptional book, and it is hard to do justice to its enormous scope, depth of study, and complete erudition. The text should be on the reading list of every Museum Studies course. -- Christine Atha. CAA the College Art Association

'An outstanding and original book which deals both authoritatively and perceptively with an important but hitherto rather neglected aspect of imperial cultures. It is engrossing, deeply informative and beautifully written. There is no doubt that it will make a valuable contribution to scholarship across a range of disciplines, as well as enhancing the well-established Studies in Imperialism series.' Dr. Nigel Rigby, National Maritime Museum.

An outstanding and original book which deals both authoritatively and perceptively with an important but hitherto rather neglected aspect of imperial cultures. It is engrossing, deeply informative and beautifully written. There is no doubt that it will make a valuable contribution to scholarship across a range of disciplines, as well as enhancing the well-established Studies in Imperialism series.' -- Dr. Nigel Rigby, National Maritime Museum.. Only a mature scholar with the range and experience possessed by someone like MacKenzie could have taken this on, and it is most welcome that he has done so. MacKenzie brings to the task the qualities that mark him out as our foremost historian of the cultures and ideology of empire: enormous span, considerable powers of synthesis, and an eye that is ever alert to significant detail. As ever, he presents his research with consummate ease and style.' -- Professor Saul Dubow, University of Sussex..

Author Information

John MacKenzie is Emeritus Professor of Imperial History, Lancaster University and holds Honorary Professorships at Aberdeen, St Andrews and Stirling, as well as an Honorary Fellowship at Edinburgh.

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