1. Introduction : interpreting museums -- 2. Negotiating the new urban environment -- 3. The public museum in the nineteenth century -- 4. The social characteristics of municipal museums -- 5. Reading the objects -- 6. Decoding the displays and layout -- 7. Consuming the museum : museum visitors -- 8. Conclusion
Summary
"This work is in part a study of the creation of professional authority and autonomy by museum curators. More importantly though, it is about the stabilization of middle-class identities by the end of the nineteenth century around new hierarchies of cultural capital. Public museums were an important factor in constructing the identity and authority of certain groups with access to, and control over, them. By examining urban identities through the cultural lens of the municipal museum, we are able to reconsider and better understand the subtleties of nineteenth-century urban society."--BOOK JACKET
Notes
Formerly CIP. Uk
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages [152]-168) and index
