Museums, Objects, and Collections A Cultural Study

by PEARCE, SUSAN

• ISBN13: 9781560983309
• ISBN10: 1560983302
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-10-17
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books

Summary

This book examines the historical context of museums, their collections, and the objects that form them. Susan M. Pearce probes the psychological and social reasons that people collect and identifies three modes of collecting: collecting as souvenirs, as fetishes, and as systematic assemblages. She considers how museum professionals set policies of collection management; acquire, study, and exhibit objects; and make meaning of the objects in their care. Pearce also explores the ideological relationship between museums and their collections and the intellectual and social relationships of museums to the public.

Author Biography

Susan M. Pearce is professor of museum studies and director of the department of museum studies at the University of Leicester. She is the editor of Museum Studies in Material Culture (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), and the author of Archaeological Curatorship (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990) and On Collecting (1995).

Table of Contents

List of plates	vi
List of figures	viii
Preface	x
Museums, Objects and Collections	1	(14)
Objects Inside and Outside Museums	15	(21)
Collecting: Body and Soul	36	(32)
Collecting: Shaping the World	68	(21)
Museums: the Intellectual Rationale	89	(29)
Making Museum Meanings	118	(28)
Meaning as Function	146	(20)
Meaning as Structure	166	(26)
Meaning in History	192	(18)
Objects in Action	210	(18)
Problems of Power	228	(28)
Projects and Prospects	256	(9)
Appendix: Models for object study	265	(9)
Bibliography	274	(14)
Index	288