This book explores the early history of the Pitt Rivers Museum and its collections. Many thousands of people collected objects for the Museum between its foundation in 1884 and 1945, and together they and the objects they collected provide a series of insights into the early history of archaeology and anthropology. The volume also includes individual biographies and group histories of the people originally making and using the objects, as well as a snapshot of the British empire. The main focus for the book derives from the computerized catalogues of the Museum and attendant archival information. Together these provide a unique insight into the growth of a well-known institution and its place within broader intellectual frameworks of the Victorian period and early twentieth century. It also explores current ideas on the nature of relationships, particularly those between people and things.

Knowing Things: Exploring the Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum 1884-1945

History

Gosden, Chris

Larson, Frances

Europe

Oxford University Press

Richly illustrated throughout, including 8 pages of color plates, An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made, and the life of the man behind it. American-born Henry Wellcome made his millions as one of the world's first pharmaceutical entrepreneurs. Drawing on his massive wealth, he planned a great museum filled with treasures from all corners of the globe, charting the history of human health from prehistory to the present day. Demonstrating what can happen when a collector's aspirations are left unconstrained by wealth, Frances Larson explores Wellcome's life through his possessions, revealing the many tensions in his character: between his talents as a businessman and his desire for scholarly recognition; his curiosity and his perfectionism; and his philanthropic aspirations and his drive for personal glory. During the opening decades of the twentieth century he acquired a collection so large that later generations of staff took to describing its contents by the ton. But Wellcome's museum was never finished, and his collection was still stored in vast warehouses when he died, unseen and incomplete.

An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World

Arts & Photography

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

A serious and seriously entertaining exploration of the dark and varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls. The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads. 25 illustrations

Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

World

Liveright

A “wide-ranging and thoughtful” (Wall Street Journal) exploration of the varied obsessions that the “civilized West” has had with decapitated heads and skulls. The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world. Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads. 25 illustrations

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Larson, Frances. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Larson, Frances

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Larson, Frances. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Knowing Things: Exploring the Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum 1884-1945

An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World

Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found

Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found