Museums hold the collected objects that have come to us from the past, and which now constitute one of the most important ways in which we can understand that past. Museums are social phenomena characteristic of the modernist Western tradition, and their collections of both human and natural history material are a significant part of how that tradition has shaped itself. This book explores the nature of museums, of their collections and of the objects which form these collections; the psychological and social reasons why people collect; and the nature of relics, fetishes and systematic assemblages. It considers the nature of the curatorial process and the narratives it produces: collections in store, acquisition and disposal, documentary description and exhibition. It discusses how museum objects operate as signs and symbols, as mediators of a functionalist perspective in a world of goods, and as actors in the process of change. It examines the relationship between museums, museum objects and ideology and concludes with an attempt to define the curatorial project.

Museums, objects, and collections: A cultural study (Leicester Museum Studies)

Susan M. Pearce

Reference

Leicester University Press

Museums Objects and Collections (Leicester Museum Studies)

<p>This book examines the historical context of museums, their collections, and the objects that form them. Susan M. Pearce probes the psychological and social reasons that people collect and identifies three modes of collecting: collecting as souvenirs, as fetishes, and as systematic assemblages. She considers how museum professionals set policies of collection management; acquire, study, and exhibit objects; and make meaning of the objects in their care. Pearce also explores the ideological relationship between museums and their collections and the intellectual and social relationships of museums to the public.</p>

MUSEUMS, OBJECTS, AND COLLECTIONS

Arts & Photography

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Smithsonian Books

Addressing archaeological curators, including museum staffs, the author of this book considers those museums which undertake the preservation, better recording and interpretation of the stored material culture of the past (up to about 1700; after this date the material belongs to the social historians), and of its associated archive. Several themes run through the book: the nature, care and the interpretation of the material culture archive; the principles by which the archive is presented, and the legitimate relationship between the museum archaeologist and their public.

Archaeological Curatorship

Smithsonian Institution Press

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Books by Susan M. Pearce