![Science Museums in Transition Cover](https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/assets/img/jackets/large/39834.jpg)
Format: Hardback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9780822944751
Pub Date: 13 Jun 2017
Imprint: University of Pittsburgh Press
Series: Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Description:
The nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic shift in the display and dissemination of natural knowledge across Britain and America, from private collections of miscellaneous artifacts and objects to public exhibitions and state-sponsored museums. The science museum as we know it - an institution of expert knowledge built to inform a lay public - was still very much in formation during this dynamic period. Science Museums in Transition provides a nuanced, comparative study of the diverse places and spaces in which science was displayed at a time when science and spectacle were still deeply intertwined; when leading naturalists, curators, and popular showmen were debating both how to display their knowledge and how and whether they should profit from scientific work; and when ideals of nationalism, class politics, and democracy were permeating the museum's walls.