Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2143097
H. Wickstead, P. Knowles
ABSTRACT Recent years have seen greater interest than ever in the small volunteer-run organisations that constitute the majority of British museums today. Rather than comparing the histories of small museums to those of larger institutions, we approach small museums as part of a local network of voluntary associations. Using the small town of Herne Bay as a case study, we show how associational culture historically empowered middle-class men who were members of men-only clubs. Clubmen connected to London-based museums took over civic museum campaigns, eventually directing governmental funding towards the museum and gaining control of the formerly female-led public library. Associations shaped museum education, so that different subjects were offered to male, mixed and female audiences. Women’s societies were directed towards local history. Analysis of how mechanisms of exclusion operate in homosocial associations can supply novel perspectives on the histories of gender and class-based exclusion in small museums.
{"title":"Men-only clubs and museums: associational culture and the gendering of Herne Bay’s museum between the wars","authors":"H. Wickstead, P. Knowles","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2143097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2143097","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent years have seen greater interest than ever in the small volunteer-run organisations that constitute the majority of British museums today. Rather than comparing the histories of small museums to those of larger institutions, we approach small museums as part of a local network of voluntary associations. Using the small town of Herne Bay as a case study, we show how associational culture historically empowered middle-class men who were members of men-only clubs. Clubmen connected to London-based museums took over civic museum campaigns, eventually directing governmental funding towards the museum and gaining control of the formerly female-led public library. Associations shaped museum education, so that different subjects were offered to male, mixed and female audiences. Women’s societies were directed towards local history. Analysis of how mechanisms of exclusion operate in homosocial associations can supply novel perspectives on the histories of gender and class-based exclusion in small museums.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41728855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2142411
Daphné Sterk
ABSTRACT This article aims to shed light on the little-known history of the Hong Kong City Hall Museum. Housed in the old City Hall between 1869 and 1933, the museum was intended as a place of entertainment and education for the residents of the British colony, including Chinese people. Dedicated to research and seeking the dissemination of knowledge through scientific displays of natural history specimens and artefacts, it was to be an emblem of Hong Kong's modernity and embody a certain degree of ‘civilization’. However, the City Hall Museum never lived up to the expectations it initially had raised, and its collections remained disappointing and inconsistent. This failure was perceived as a stigma for the colony. This paper intends to offer an understanding of why this institution, during its more than sixty years of existence, failed to gather sufficient organisation and resources to support itself and ended up disappearing from memory.
{"title":"The forgotten museum of Hong Kong: a place of unfulfilled ambitions (1869–1933)","authors":"Daphné Sterk","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2142411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2142411","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article aims to shed light on the little-known history of the Hong Kong City Hall Museum. Housed in the old City Hall between 1869 and 1933, the museum was intended as a place of entertainment and education for the residents of the British colony, including Chinese people. Dedicated to research and seeking the dissemination of knowledge through scientific displays of natural history specimens and artefacts, it was to be an emblem of Hong Kong's modernity and embody a certain degree of ‘civilization’. However, the City Hall Museum never lived up to the expectations it initially had raised, and its collections remained disappointing and inconsistent. This failure was perceived as a stigma for the colony. This paper intends to offer an understanding of why this institution, during its more than sixty years of existence, failed to gather sufficient organisation and resources to support itself and ended up disappearing from memory.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47889820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2157160
G. Verhoeven
ABSTRACT During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World War and the economic slump of the Great Depression, the government launched one of the most ambitious construction projects in Belgian history. At the Parc du Cinquantenaire an impressive ensemble of buildings, halls and galleries was constructed during the 1920s and 1930s to house the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History. Drawing new evidence from the archives of the museum, newspaper articles, and parliamentary proceedings, this article will examine how the curators in chief managed to secure enough funding for these ambitious projects in times of deep economic crisis. It will be argued that this tour de force was the result of a combination of factors, including intense lobbying, putting forward convincing arguments, and deploying a pragmatic realpolitik.
{"title":"Filling the bottomless pit: Financing the construction of the Royal Museums of Art and History in interwar Belgium (1919–39)","authors":"G. Verhoeven","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2157160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2157160","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT During the interwar years, when Belgium struggled to overcome the destructions of the First World War and the economic slump of the Great Depression, the government launched one of the most ambitious construction projects in Belgian history. At the Parc du Cinquantenaire an impressive ensemble of buildings, halls and galleries was constructed during the 1920s and 1930s to house the collections of the Royal Museums of Art and History. Drawing new evidence from the archives of the museum, newspaper articles, and parliamentary proceedings, this article will examine how the curators in chief managed to secure enough funding for these ambitious projects in times of deep economic crisis. It will be argued that this tour de force was the result of a combination of factors, including intense lobbying, putting forward convincing arguments, and deploying a pragmatic realpolitik.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48988776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT In the nineteenth century, Croatia was a semi-autonomous province in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Zagreb was the capital city and the national and political centre. Since most of the Croatian provincial governments in the so-called Dualist Period of Austro-Hungarian history (1867-1918) were formed by pro-Hungarian parties, the Zagreb City Government took on the role of promoting Croatian national identity by launching and supporting cultural projects and initiatives. It was in this atmosphere that the Zagreb City Museum was founded in 1907 as a new institution where narratives about the history and culture of the city started to be shaped through cultural and historical evidence that also served to represent the Croatian nation and national identity formation. This continued in 1918 when Croatia found itself stripped of all autonomy in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/ Yugoslavia. The significance of the Zagreb City Museum and the local government in sustaining and reinforcing the Croatian national discourse came to the fore again in 1925 with the celebration of the millennial anniversary of the Croatian kingdom. This article explores the main protagonists and the underlying ideologies behind the early work of the Zagreb City Museum and its nationalist agenda.
{"title":"Representing the capital of a nation: Zagreb City Museum between Austria-Hungary and Yugoslavia (1907–1925)","authors":"Dragan Damjanović, Ž. Miklošević, Patricia Počanić","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042105","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the nineteenth century, Croatia was a semi-autonomous province in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Zagreb was the capital city and the national and political centre. Since most of the Croatian provincial governments in the so-called Dualist Period of Austro-Hungarian history (1867-1918) were formed by pro-Hungarian parties, the Zagreb City Government took on the role of promoting Croatian national identity by launching and supporting cultural projects and initiatives. It was in this atmosphere that the Zagreb City Museum was founded in 1907 as a new institution where narratives about the history and culture of the city started to be shaped through cultural and historical evidence that also served to represent the Croatian nation and national identity formation. This continued in 1918 when Croatia found itself stripped of all autonomy in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/ Yugoslavia. The significance of the Zagreb City Museum and the local government in sustaining and reinforcing the Croatian national discourse came to the fore again in 1925 with the celebration of the millennial anniversary of the Croatian kingdom. This article explores the main protagonists and the underlying ideologies behind the early work of the Zagreb City Museum and its nationalist agenda.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42503721","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2042070
Aleksander Łupienko
ABSTRACT Severely repressed after the anti-Russian uprising, Warsaw entered a period of forced centralisation in the Empire after 1881, with all elements of Polish history and traditions erased form school textbooks and public life. This article describes the urban revival at the end of the nineteenth century, which also included the rehabilitation of Warsaw's central historic space. The revolution of 1905 led to the possibility of establishing institutions which could be in charge of monuments and of disseminating knowledge about the urban past. The Old Town became quite fashionable among the Polish intelligentsia, whose wealthier representatives bought homes, including one that was turned into the city museum. In 1912 a large exhibition of Warsaw's past displayed pieces from the final decades of the eighteenth century. The museum, its locality and the historic exhibits were proof of the historic consciousness of the groups involved in its establishment, their national ideal, as well as the mission of propagating knowledge among the less conscious urban population. This process was part of the cultural and political modernisation of the urban society, which developed alongside other important issues, including discussions about the re-establishment of self-government in the city and abandoning its fortress status.
{"title":"A museum or a sanctuary of memory? The impact of a non-existent city museum in Russian Warsaw (1905–1915)","authors":"Aleksander Łupienko","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042070","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Severely repressed after the anti-Russian uprising, Warsaw entered a period of forced centralisation in the Empire after 1881, with all elements of Polish history and traditions erased form school textbooks and public life. This article describes the urban revival at the end of the nineteenth century, which also included the rehabilitation of Warsaw's central historic space. The revolution of 1905 led to the possibility of establishing institutions which could be in charge of monuments and of disseminating knowledge about the urban past. The Old Town became quite fashionable among the Polish intelligentsia, whose wealthier representatives bought homes, including one that was turned into the city museum. In 1912 a large exhibition of Warsaw's past displayed pieces from the final decades of the eighteenth century. The museum, its locality and the historic exhibits were proof of the historic consciousness of the groups involved in its establishment, their national ideal, as well as the mission of propagating knowledge among the less conscious urban population. This process was part of the cultural and political modernisation of the urban society, which developed alongside other important issues, including discussions about the re-establishment of self-government in the city and abandoning its fortress status.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44808692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2042085
Adrian Mitter, Peter Oliver Loew
ABSTRACT This article explores the work of Erich Keyser, the creator and director of the State Regional Museum of Danzig History, which also functioned as the Museum of the Free City of Danzig. We discuss how Keyser conceptualised exhibitions, organised the collections and interacted with visitors. The article examines the way that Keyser envisioned the role of the museum as an educational and political space, where a transfer of knowledge took place, including right-wing and anti-Polish interpretations of the city’s past. In addition, the museum in Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk) serves as a case study for the analysis of the relationship between urban and rural space in city museums. The ambition of the exhibitions went beyond a representation of Danzig’s urban past, which led to an innovative attempt to combine urban and rural history in the frequently changing displays. Finally, the article discusses the significance of location for this city museum. It was somewhat exceptional, as it was a city museum located in a rural setting in the former Abbot’s Palace in the suburb of Oliva (Polish: Oliwa). Throughout we discuss the intersections of museology, political propaganda, education and nationalism in a city–state setting.
{"title":"Exhibiting city, region and Germanness: Erich Keyser and the State Regional Museum of Danzig History (1927–1939)","authors":"Adrian Mitter, Peter Oliver Loew","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042085","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the work of Erich Keyser, the creator and director of the State Regional Museum of Danzig History, which also functioned as the Museum of the Free City of Danzig. We discuss how Keyser conceptualised exhibitions, organised the collections and interacted with visitors. The article examines the way that Keyser envisioned the role of the museum as an educational and political space, where a transfer of knowledge took place, including right-wing and anti-Polish interpretations of the city’s past. In addition, the museum in Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk) serves as a case study for the analysis of the relationship between urban and rural space in city museums. The ambition of the exhibitions went beyond a representation of Danzig’s urban past, which led to an innovative attempt to combine urban and rural history in the frequently changing displays. Finally, the article discusses the significance of location for this city museum. It was somewhat exceptional, as it was a city museum located in a rural setting in the former Abbot’s Palace in the suburb of Oliva (Polish: Oliwa). Throughout we discuss the intersections of museology, political propaganda, education and nationalism in a city–state setting.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48332852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2042077
Marcin Szerle
ABSTRACT Political decisions taken after WWI resulted in significant geopolitical shifts in the South Baltic area. Due to the unfavourable stance of its new neighbour, the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk), the reborn state of Poland decided to build its own independent port in 1920. The village of Gdynia, where the investment was located, underwent a serious transformation over a decade. It became a large urban centre of international economic significance: Poland's gate to the sea. The new Polish state began by strengthening its position in the region through searching for historic contexts and points of reference. Evidence of Polish and Slavic heritage was discovered and gathered. Folk tools and products were collected too. In the face of Gdynia and the region's economic and social transformations, they were gradually replaced. Some of the items ended up in the City Museum which was established in Gdynia. This article discusses how the institution strove to reinforce its leading role in the region.
{"title":"The port city of Gdynia and its City Museum in the 1930s","authors":"Marcin Szerle","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042077","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Political decisions taken after WWI resulted in significant geopolitical shifts in the South Baltic area. Due to the unfavourable stance of its new neighbour, the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk), the reborn state of Poland decided to build its own independent port in 1920. The village of Gdynia, where the investment was located, underwent a serious transformation over a decade. It became a large urban centre of international economic significance: Poland's gate to the sea. The new Polish state began by strengthening its position in the region through searching for historic contexts and points of reference. Evidence of Polish and Slavic heritage was discovered and gathered. Folk tools and products were collected too. In the face of Gdynia and the region's economic and social transformations, they were gradually replaced. Some of the items ended up in the City Museum which was established in Gdynia. This article discusses how the institution strove to reinforce its leading role in the region.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47857749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2042069
Heidi Hein-Kircher, Tanja Vahtikari
ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, cities from the Austro-Hungarian, Prussian and Russian Empires gained new importance and developed ambitions to become regional and/or national centres. City museums became key vehicles with which to advance this project. Before 1918, modern urbanism was tightly interwoven with projects of nation building. After the First World War, and within the context of newly independent states, this interdependence between urbanism and nationalism was further enhanced as cities served as national capitals and important representatives of the new state. Providing case studies of Warsaw, Prague, Zagreb, Gdańsk (Danzig), and Gdynia, this special issue examines the modernising role of city museums in multi-ethnic East Central Europe, from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. It provides important insights into the interplay of modernisation, urbanism, and nationalism, as well as the negotiation of community and identity at various levels. Urban heritage is often regarded as a product of recent postmodern economic and societal changes. Exploring the history of these city museums shows that the uses of the urban past, and the relevance to urban history in the present, have longer historical trajectories. This issue aims to provide the incentive for further, synchronically and diachronically comparative and complementary research.
{"title":"City museums in the emerging cities of Eastern Europe, 1880–1939: Introduction","authors":"Heidi Hein-Kircher, Tanja Vahtikari","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042069","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the late nineteenth century, cities from the Austro-Hungarian, Prussian and Russian Empires gained new importance and developed ambitions to become regional and/or national centres. City museums became key vehicles with which to advance this project. Before 1918, modern urbanism was tightly interwoven with projects of nation building. After the First World War, and within the context of newly independent states, this interdependence between urbanism and nationalism was further enhanced as cities served as national capitals and important representatives of the new state. Providing case studies of Warsaw, Prague, Zagreb, Gdańsk (Danzig), and Gdynia, this special issue examines the modernising role of city museums in multi-ethnic East Central Europe, from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. It provides important insights into the interplay of modernisation, urbanism, and nationalism, as well as the negotiation of community and identity at various levels. Urban heritage is often regarded as a product of recent postmodern economic and societal changes. Exploring the history of these city museums shows that the uses of the urban past, and the relevance to urban history in the present, have longer historical trajectories. This issue aims to provide the incentive for further, synchronically and diachronically comparative and complementary research.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41617049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2022.2042074
J. Ira
ABSTRACT From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Prague transformed from the provincial hub of Bohemia to a modern metropolis, head of the Czech nation, and capital of the new Czechoslovak state. This article explores what place Prague City Museum inhabited during this process. In particular, it looks at how the role of the museum was debated concerning its location and construction, in the meaning-making practices related to its collections, and in reflections on its somewhat weak outreach to the larger public. Analysis of the museum’s permanent exhibitions as well as four temporary exhibitions organised in 1895, 1916, and 1934-35, shed further light on how the city was conceptualised and its national historical narrative interwoven with that of its urban past, while also discussing various modes of representation and signification used in promoting its existence.
{"title":"Displaying city and nation in the Prague City Museum (1883-1938)","authors":"J. Ira","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2022.2042074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2022.2042074","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Prague transformed from the provincial hub of Bohemia to a modern metropolis, head of the Czech nation, and capital of the new Czechoslovak state. This article explores what place Prague City Museum inhabited during this process. In particular, it looks at how the role of the museum was debated concerning its location and construction, in the meaning-making practices related to its collections, and in reflections on its somewhat weak outreach to the larger public. Analysis of the museum’s permanent exhibitions as well as four temporary exhibitions organised in 1895, 1916, and 1934-35, shed further light on how the city was conceptualised and its national historical narrative interwoven with that of its urban past, while also discussing various modes of representation and signification used in promoting its existence.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42701409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-12DOI: 10.1080/19369816.2021.1990594
Kamila Kłudkiewicz
In European countries at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a trend to create regional museums. In Prussia they were opened in the capitals of twelve Prussian provinces, and they had an important role in shaping the regional identity of the province. In three German regions, the situation was more complicated, as they were inhabited by representatives of another nation: the Province of Posen with a Polish population and Schleswig-Holstein with a Danish population, and Alsace inhabited by the Alsatians, a region situated within the Empire but strongly influenced by Prussia. In these regions, museums operated against the complex historical background and collecting conditions, and their functions and goals were often viewed with indifference or hostility by the local non-German population. In Schleswig-Holstein, the point of contention were prehistoric relics, including the famous Flensburg collection, created by Danes and taken over by Prussians. In Poznań, the German museum ignored the Polish audience, following a policy that aimed at strengthening the local identity of German residents. The museum in Strasbourg tried to exert similar influence, focusing on the historical and artistic ties between Alsace and Germany. However, the Alsatians themselves already sought their own, separate local identity.
{"title":"Regional identity and national identity. Provincial museums in Prussia at the turn of the twentieth century","authors":"Kamila Kłudkiewicz","doi":"10.1080/19369816.2021.1990594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19369816.2021.1990594","url":null,"abstract":"In European countries at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there was a trend to create regional museums. In Prussia they were opened in the capitals of twelve Prussian provinces, and they had an important role in shaping the regional identity of the province. In three German regions, the situation was more complicated, as they were inhabited by representatives of another nation: the Province of Posen with a Polish population and Schleswig-Holstein with a Danish population, and Alsace inhabited by the Alsatians, a region situated within the Empire but strongly influenced by Prussia. In these regions, museums operated against the complex historical background and collecting conditions, and their functions and goals were often viewed with indifference or hostility by the local non-German population. In Schleswig-Holstein, the point of contention were prehistoric relics, including the famous Flensburg collection, created by Danes and taken over by Prussians. In Poznań, the German museum ignored the Polish audience, following a policy that aimed at strengthening the local identity of German residents. The museum in Strasbourg tried to exert similar influence, focusing on the historical and artistic ties between Alsace and Germany. However, the Alsatians themselves already sought their own, separate local identity.","PeriodicalId":52057,"journal":{"name":"Museum History Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41679415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：