The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century
Frances Lincoln, 2021
Throughout their history, museums have stood as repositories of humanity’s greatest cultural and scientific achievements. But museums are not simply about the past. As indices of what we value and deem significant in the world today, and therefore what we feel we must preserve for future generations, they tell us a lot about how we see the future too.
This book charts the evolution of museums, from their origins in princely collections and cabinets of curiosity, through the Enlightenment, the reforming ideals of the 19th century, to the emergence of the modern museum and the global museum of today. It explores the tight relationship between museums and architecture, between institutions and their manifestations in built form. It argues that architecture is as important to the conception of museums as their collections and their publics.
The Museum emerges at a time of unparalleled reflection for museums as they belatedly grapple with the colonial origins not just of particular institutions, collections or objects, but of the very idea of the museum as a project of the Enlightenment. This has been thrust into even sharper focus through the upheavals brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The book is, therefore, both a timely reminder and reappraisal of the history of the museum and how they have evolved over time, and a powerful reflection on the challenges they presently face and the opportunities they have to reinvent themselves for the 21st century.
The book has been translated into Czech, French, Georgian, German and Japanese. A Chinese version is forthcoming.
