How is heritage created and re- created, shaped and reshaped, formed, reformed and transformed – or even reborn? Heritage in all its forms endures a lengthy and dynamic journey of emergence, transformation, decline and revival. An object displayed within a museum showcase may have travelled through various places and changed uses more than once before acquiri…
Professionals working with cultural heritage preservation have had to respond to difficult challenges in the last few decades, mainly brought about by globalisation, armed conflicts, natural disasters and the use of heritage as an ultimate resource to redress injustices of the past. The topics and experiences discussed in this book demonstrate that conservators may …
The Qing, the last dynasty of the Chinese imperium, ruled for over 260 years (1644-1911). At the end of the 19th century it occupied a territory of roughly 13 million square kilometres and claimed sovereignty over more than 400 million people. One of the questions this book examines is how – on a sheer logistical level – was a complex empire of this size governed before the age of telegrams…
This book presents interdisciplinary approaches to the examination and documentation of material cultural heritage, using non-invasive spatial and spectral optical technologies.
This book attempts to understand the origins and development of religious belief in Iceland and greater Scandinavia through the lenses of five carefully selected Icelandic folktales collected in Iceland during the nineteenth century. Each of these five stories has a story of its own: a historical and cultural context, a literary legacy, influences from beliefs of all kinds (orthodox and heterod…
Among our most cherished modern assumptions is our distance from the material world we claim to love or, alternately, to dominate and own. As both devotional tool and art object, the Byzantine icon is rendered complicit in this distancing. According to well-established theological and scholarly explanations, the icon is a window onto the divine: it focuses and directs our minds to a higher unde…
This book argues that the impressive range of belongings that can be connected to Duchess Matilda Plantagenet allows us to perceive elite women’s performance of power, even when they are largely absent from the official documentary record.
Museums for Peace: In Search of History, Memory and Change highlights the inspiring as well as conflicting representations and purposes of diverse museums for peace around the world. Coming from various cultural and professional backgrounds, the authors explore “what are museums for peace and what do they mean?” Some chapters introduce alternative histories of peace, conflict, and memoriali…
Mind Museums offer a fresh perspective on the heritage of mental health, bringing museums into sharp focus. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from architecture, museum and exhibition design, and heritage and museum studies, it examines former psychiatric asylums that have been converted into museums. The book presents a comprehensive investigation of mind museums, the first of its kind in…
Following conflicting desires for an Aztec crown, this book explores the possibilities of repatriation. In The Contested Crown, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll meditates on the case of a spectacular feather headdress believed to have belonged to Montezuma, the last emperor of the Aztecs. This crown has long been the center of political and cultural power struggles, and it is one of the most cont…