The British Public and the British Museum: Shaping and Sharing Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century

This book is a timely intervention in the history of museums in Britain. BP's ongoing sponsorship of the British Museum, the appointment of George Osborne as a trustee and the Museum's continued resistance to the repatriation of holdings such as the Parthenon Marbles and the Benin Bronzes have brought questions of the Museum's funding, leadership and right to the objects in its collection to increased public attention. The book reveals this is not a recent 'woke' agenda but rather part of a long history of public resistance and activism enacted through the British Museum. It presents a cultural history of the nineteenth-century British Museum, departing from traditional institutional histories by centring public perception of the museum's purpose and its uses in society.

Author: Jordan Kistler
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 05/31/2026
Series: Nineteenth-Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.38lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.75d
ISBN: 9781399523752