Creating Museum Culture in Mandate Palestine

ABSTRACT:The far-reaching plans for cultural institutions envisioned by the British during the Palestine Mandate included three museums: the renowned Palestine Archeological Museum (better known as the Rockefeller Museum) in Jerusalem, the most important British cultural institution in the country, and two little-known museums, the “Northern District Museum,” a space for exhibitions at the ancient Acre arsenal, and the Palestine Folk Museum, at the Jerusalem Citadel. The article explores the role of these projects, whether completed or not, in the museum culture created by the British and the cultural politics and curatorial practices involved in the planning of these museums. We demonstrate that the museums were intended to provide a disciplinary and scientific basis for an unbiased study of the histories, peoples, and customs of the region. This, in turn, contributed to the British construction of their own image as peaceful mediators in a conflicted land.