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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00312
- Thesis Title
- OBJECTS OF CULTURE: COLLECTIONS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLAND 1800-1880
- Author
- ANASTASIA FILIPPOUPOLITI
- E-mail
- afilipp AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2005
- Number of Pages
- 275
- University
- UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER (UK)
- Thesis Supervisor
- PROFESSOR SIMON J. KNELL
- Supervisor e-mail
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- ENGLISH
- Department / Discipline
- DEPARTMENT OF MUSEUM STUDIES
- Copyright Ownership
- ANASTASIA FILIPPOUPOLITI
- Languages Familiar to Author
- GREEK, ENGLISH, ITALIAN, DUTCH
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- science collections, science museums, history of collecting, history of museums, history of science communication, history of science exhibitions
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This thesis focuses on the concept of “object’s cultural biography” and captures particular episodes from the formation and utilization of a certain category of material culture which is - broadly - defined as the “scientific instrument collection”. The examined collections were formed in nineteenth-century England by scientific societies, university departments and private collectors. Parts of these collections are today the core exhibited material in the history of science galleries in national and other museums in England. The analysis made in this thesis is enlightened mainly by the methodology of micro-history and cultural history of science. It sets the argument first by examining the lives of these collections as functional tools in scientific activities; then, it moves on to follow the trajectories that these collections pursued mainly in international exhibitions and local festivals. Eventually these trajectories invested collections with new cultural values. On one level, this research grasps a number of the multiple meanings of material culture of science in nineteenth-century England identifying some of the changing values that permeated objects. On another level, the thesis attempts to compose a prehistory of the science museum in the sense that it looks at collection management issues and exhibition design prior to the establishment of the leading science museums of the country. The primary material of the thesis is composed by original unpublished documents located in British libraries and scientific archives. The analysis is interdisciplinary making use of theoretical perspectives on material culture studies, historic museology, cultural history of science.