Archive

Museums, Modernity and Conflict: Museums and Collections in and of War Since the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Kate Hill. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 2020. REVIEWED BY JASON HOUSLEY Commonly attributed to such varied personages as Winston Churchill, Herman Goring and Missouri Senator George Graham Vest, the aphorism ‘’History is written by the victors’’  pertains to the …

On Withdrawal—Scenes of Refusal, Disappearance, and Resilience in Art and Cultural Practices edited by Sebastian Eduardo Dávila, Rebecca Hanna John, Ulrike Jordan, Thorsten Schneider, Judith Sieber, and Nele Wulff. Diaphanes & University of Chicago Press, 2023. REVIEWED BY GRACIE COLLIER Museums foremost serve the public, and all too often the public is considered only in …

Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology by Samuel J. Redman. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2021. REVIEWED BY SARA POLK Gripping the nation from the very formation of the field of anthropology was the idea that Native peoples were disappearing, requiring white scientists to save their languages and material culture from a doomed nonexistence. …

The Art Museum in Modern Times by Charles Saumarez Smith. New York: Thames & Hudson, Inc., 2021. REVIEWED BY JENNIFER MOTT Charles Saumarez Smith’s The Art Museum in Modern Times serves as a type of reference for how museums have changed in the modern era. Smith, a respected Cultural Historian and former Director of both …

Museum Diplomacy: Transnational Public History and the U.S. Department of State, by Richard J.W. Harker. University of Massachusetts Press: 2020. REVIEWED BY JACOB HIGGINS Richard Harker’s book, Museum Diplomacy: Transnational Public History and the U.S. Department of State is a critical look at the program known as Museums Connect. Museums Connect, which operated between 2008 …

Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest by Laura Raicovich. New York: Verso Books, 2021. REVIEWED BY AVA OSOWICK Laura Raicovich’s book Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest challenges the museum’s perceived duty. At their core, museums and museum adjacent organizations serve the public, and many believe that, …

Libraries, Archives, and Museums: An Introduction to Cultural Heritage Institutions through the Ages. Suzanne M. Stauffer, ed. Blue Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021. REVIEWED BY KATHRYN PLANK What is the purpose of cultural institutions and what are their roles in society?  Suzanne Stauffer’s book, Libraries, Archives, and Museums: An Introduction to Cultural Heritage …

The Rise and Rise of the Private Art Museum, by Georgina Adam. Lund Humphries in association with Sotheby’s Association of Art, 2021. REVIEWED BY SYD OVERTOOM When considering where to get one’s foot in the door concerning museum work, private museums are usually not at the top of the list. As individuals interested in working …

Idea Colliders: The Future of Science Museums, by Michael John Gorman. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2020. REVIEWED BY MICHAEL CRANICK In Idea Colliders, Michael John Gorman explores the future of science museums. He quotes cellist Yo-Yo Ma about the “edge effect,” a place where spaces are created “to nurture cross-pollination of ideas” (Gorman 2020, 1). Gorman …

Doing Women’s History in Public: A Handbook for Interpretation at Museums and Historic Sites, by Heather Huyck. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020. REVIEWED BY SOFIA ANTILA Heather Huyck’s guide to interpreting women’s history, published in 2020, delves into the way women’s history has been, and should be, interpreted through oral, visual, and written sources. This …