1st Edition

Museums in the Second World War Curators, Culture and Change

By Catherine Pearson, Suzanne Keene Copyright 2017
296 Pages
by Routledge

296 Pages 65 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

296 Pages 65 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Exploring the role of museums, galleries and curators during the upheaval of the Second World War, this book challenges the accepted view of a hiatus in museum services during the conflict and its immediate aftermath. Instead it argues that new thinking in the 1930s was realised in a number of promising initiatives during the war only to fail during the fragmented post-war recovery. Based on new... Read more

Timeline: Major events around the Second World War and the Home Front Introduction: a new perspective PART I: 1918–1939: Between the wars Chapter 1 Between the wars: museums and cultural politics Chapter 2 Charting progress: the Markham report Chapter 3 Museums before the war: the context for reform Part II: 1939–1940: At the start of the war Chapter 4 Confronting conflict: collections, closings and openings Chapter 5 As war begins: from propaganda to recognition PART III: 1941–1944: During wartime Chapter 6 State support: the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) Chapter 7 Temples to the arts Chapter 8 Planning for peacetime PART IV: Reflections on wartime practice Chapter 9 Community engagement, education and exhibitions Chapter 10 Audiences in wartime Chapter 11 Memory and identity Chapter 12 Museum staff and the war PART V: 1944–1949 The aftermath of the war Chapter 13 A national museum service: the final bid Chapter 14 The post-war decades: museums in the aftermath of war PART VI: 1950–1964 From austerity to reconstruction Chapter 15 Towards a regional service Chapter 16 Conclusions: museums forget their past

Biography

Catherine Pearson, Author, Independent Historian and Scholar, UK. She is the editor of the journals of museum curator, E.J. Rudsdale, 1920-1951.



Suzanne Keene, Editor, Reader Emeritus at University College London. She has a number of published books on museum collections, most recently co-authoring Museums and Silent Objects: Designing Effective Exhibitions.