Curators and culture : the museum movement in America, 1740-1870 / Joel J. Orosz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Orosz, Joel J.

Series:

History of American science and technology series.

History of American science and technology series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Museums--United States--History.

Museums.

Museum curators--United States--History.

Museum curators.

Popular culture--Museums--United States--History.

Popular culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume argues that a small, loosely connected group of men constituted an informal museum movement in America from about 1740 to 1870. As they formed their pioneer museums, these men were guided not so much by European examples, but rather by the imperatives of the American democratic culture, including the Enlightenment, the simultaneous decline of the respectability and rise of the middle classes, the Age of Egalitarianism, and the advent of professionalism in the sciences. Thus the pre-1870 American museum was neither the frivolous sideshow some critics have im

Contents:

Contents; Preface; Prologue: Thesis, Definitions, and Structure; I. The Curio Cabinet Transplanted to the New World, 1740-1780; 2. The Moderate Enlightenment, 1780-1800: The Museum for the Respectability; 3. The Didactic Enlightenment, 1800-1820: The Decline of the Respectability; 4. The Age of Egalitarianism, 1820-1840: The Ideal of Popular Education; 5. The Age of Professionalism, 1840-1850: The Scientists Lead the Way; 6. The American Compromise, 1850-1870: The Synthesis of Popular Education and Professionalism; Epilogue: The American Compromise and Museum Historiography; Notes

Select BibliographyManuscript Sources; Secondary Sources; Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-294) and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-8217-8

OCLC:

609839974