record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00312
Thesis Title
OBJECTS OF CULTURE: COLLECTIONS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ENGLAND 1800-1880
Author
ANASTASIA FILIPPOUPOLITI
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
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 The primary material of the thesis is composed by original unpublished documents located in British libraries and scientific archives.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.