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‘The dead past under glass’: rejecting cases in early twentieth-century museum

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journal contribution
posted on 2025-01-23, 11:30 authored by Kate HillKate Hill

  

In the first half of the twentieth century in UK museums, there was a reaction against glass display cases by some curators, museum founders and visitors. Conventional case displays came to be seen as dull, and metaphors of deadness, dustiness and coldness were used to describe them. By contrast, displays which did not use cases but aimed to reconstruct the past using period rooms, parts of rooms, or entire buildings (all of which might be ‘real’ or replicas) became increasingly popular. Such displays were thought to bring the past to life, to be warm and attractive. The article traces the roots and growth of this phenomenon across a range of UK museums and curators, and argues that it demonstrates changing modes of cultural memory in the twentieth century, as democratic structures developed and entertainment cultures were profoundly influenced by developments such as cinema. For some people, the article shows, caseless museum displays were a source of new mystical and transcendent experiences giving them a much-wanted sense of contact with the past.

Funding

Society of Antiquaries of London

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

History

School affiliated with

  • Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage (Research Outputs)
  • College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (Research Outputs)

Publication Title

Museum History Journal

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

ISSN

1936-9816

eISSN

1936-9824

Date Accepted

2024-09-26

Date of First Publication

2025-01-21

Date of Final Publication

2025-01-21

Open Access Status

  • Open Access

Date Document First Uploaded

2024-09-27

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  • N/A

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