Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Imperial Museum'

This project explores the representation of the Holocaust in three museums: Yad Vashem in Jerusalem; the Imperial War Museum in London; and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, Poland. It uses the so-called Auschwitz Album, a collection of photographs taken in Birkenau in May 1944, as a case-study. Employing the concept of mythology in the Barthesian sense of a ‘language in which we speak’, it examines the ways in which the Holocaust is more and more a prism through which other things are viewed; a language in which other things are spoken of. Chapters 1 and 2 lay the groundwork for the results of fieldwork described in chapters 3-5. Chapter 1 is concerned with the photographs themselves. Describing the structure and content of the collection, it demonstrates the degree to which the interpretation of photographs is complicated by what the viewer brings to them. While photographs might appear to transmit information, this chapter suggests that they are better understood as reflective objects. Chapter 2 interrogates the assumptions of five “classic” accounts of the Holocaust by Raul Hilberg, Helmut Krausnick, Lucy Dawidowicz, Martin Gilbert and Saul Friedländer, in light of a proposed ‘Holocaust metanarrative’. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 engage with the particular museums on their own terms, posing questions about how they interact with the societies they are found in. Each museum, these chapters argue, raises a set of questions about the host nation’s relationship with the past. Chapter 6 looks at the specific display strategies employed by the museums to display the Auschwitz Album, considers how this relates to the broader institutional and national agendas as explored in Chapters 3-5. An epilogue takes the basic conclusion of this section – that all memory is local, and that debate about meaning is likely to be the continuing legacy – and asks if there is an alternative language in which to speak of the Holocaust.

On June 7, 2000, the Holocaust’s position as an official part of British history and memory became solidified with the opening of a permanent Holocaust exhibition within London’s Imperial War Museum. This important national museum embodies Britain's cultural memory of war, of which the Holocaust has become a central part. Situated within debates of museology and memory, this thesis offers a compelling case study on the performative role of the museum in the construction of an official Holocaust memory within Britain and its relationship to national identity. While the Holocaust has become a ‘moral touchstone’ of contemporary society it seems urgent we raise questions of not only why we remember the Holocaust, but what, exactly, it is we are remembering. The oft cited dictum to 'never forget' requires remembrance of the Holocaust to serve a purpose; so that events of Nazi Europe may never be repeated. This ambition has proven hollow, yet countries invest millions of pounds in official Holocaust remembrance, commemoration and education. What purpose does the Holocaust serve in twenty-first century Britain? Questions of Holocaust narrative, material culture and testimony dominate the study, underpinned through wider concepts of history, memory, identity and museology in a British context. Using the Imperial War Museum as a case study, this thesis presents a challenge to the place of the Holocaust within British memory of war and questions how this limiting framework affects the way the Holocaust is remembered and understood throughout British society more broadly. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of the Holocaust exhibition and its display. A history of the exhibition provides detail on how and why the Holocaust became a central theme for the Imperial War Museum, while a study of the photographic, object and testimony displays in each dedicated chapter draws conclusions on how the Holocaust is shaped within this specific context. The relationship between the exhibition displays and Holocaust education more broadly throughout Britain is explored in detail in the final chapter of the thesis. Beyond the Imperial War Museum, this study points towards the future of Holocaust memory in Britain with an aim to highlight a limited understanding of the wider context of Britain and the Holocaust within popular narratives. How Britain connects to Holocaust history and memory remains central to this research, but it also considers how Britain could connect in more meaningful ways beyond learning the 'lessons' of the Holocaust.

War museums face the challenge of representing the violence and trauma of conflict through its material remains. This thesis analyses the ways in which the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London has used its extensive and varied collections to represent warfare, from its foundation up to and including its latest redevelopment. It identifies four phases in the museum's display history. In its first decades the IWM authorities presented the museum's objects as commemorative 'relics'; tangible markers of the First World War and all those who had participated in it. Following the Second World War, the institution revised its remit to include the new conflict and in doing so placed greater value on the informative capacity of its collections. The 1960s saw another fundamental change of purpose as a new Director made historical scholarship central to the institution's displays. In more recent decades a variety of interpretive values have been applied to the museums' collections; with exhibits being represented as sculptural pieces, historical evidence, symbolic markers and 'witnesses to war'. By following the developments in the public exhibitions at the IWM this thesis reveals that, whilst the IWM has reinterpreted its collections multiple times since 1917, these 'reinventions' have been frequently contested. Furthermore, the history of the IWM is marked by notable absences and silences; fissures in an interpretive strategy considered incapable of containing some of the most traumatic associations of the collections. This provides insight into the nature of the material culture of conflict. The history of the IWM shows the meanings of the physical remains of war to be fluid; capable of repeated change according to the priorities and practices of this responsible for them. However, such remains are also powerful signifiers of conflict, and as such are subject to the divisions and controversies associated with war itself.

This thesis project examines the history, provenance, and contemporary treatment of a rare Imperial Edition of Frederick Sander’s print collection Reichenbachia, Orchids Illustrated and Described, a high-quality orchid compendium dating to the late-nineteenth century. A local philanthropist loaned the Imperial Edition Reichenbachia, number 86 of 100 to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in 2011 on a long-term basis as a promised donation. Research into the origins of this collection involves several disparate historical topics, including the Victorian period of “orchid mania,” imperialist business practices, and chromolithographic printmaking. Discussion of the transition of this collection into a museum art collection covers its consequent registration, conservation, and exhibition. Finally, this thesis project considers the advantages and disadvantages of managing an art collection at a botanical garden.

The nineteenth century is a period, when great transformations were experienced in the Ottoman Empire. Besides the political, economical and judicial changes, with the impact of the westernization process, important leaps about two important components of cultural life, museology and archeology, were realized in terms of both collecting and protecting the ancient monuments
and their exposition. As two interrelated fields of culture and sciences originated from Europe, museology and archeology were incorporated in the cultural life of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. The Ottoman Empire was acquainted with these two scientific fields through the impacts of both the museological studies in Europe and the excavations of the foreign researchers and archeologists, conducted within the imperial territories. This study aims to observe the emergence of museological and archeological studies in the Ottoman Empire and its development by the impacts of the West. In this study, the origins of the museological and archeological studies, the first attempts in the Ottoman Empire and the development in the continuing process and the judicial acts about the mentioned fields composed in the 19th century are examined chronologically. In this process of development, the works of Osman Hamdi Bey were forming an important part of this thesis.

British imperialism of the Ottoman Empire is analyzed in terms of power and influence. Changes in gender roles, nationalism, and culture are all examined through the lens of imperialism. The discourse flows thematically and discusses brief histories of both Britain and the Ottoman Empire. The construction of the Imperial Museum created a unified image of the nation through the collection of material items. As a result of European imperialism, the Ottoman Empire developed a sense of national culture.

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A presente dissertação tem como objeto de pesquisa três indumentárias que pertenceram a D. Pedro II e que por ele foram utilizadas em eventos oficiais: o fardão da maioridade (1840), a veste de coroação (1841) e o fardão de casamento (1843), que fazem parte do acervo do Museu Mariano Procópio. A pesquisa tem como objetivo percorrer a trajetória cultural das peças enfocada em três diferentes fases, desde que foram criadas no século XIX aos dias atuais, e para isso, foram consultadas diversificadas fontes em arquivos públicos, como documentos textuais (cartas, relatórios de museus e códices da mordomia-mor), artigos de jornais, coleções de fotografias, iconografias e os próprios objetos. Inicialmente, através de questões relacionadas à memória monárquica e suas apropriações na década de 1920, será analisado o momento no qual passam de herança do mordomo imperial Paulo Barbosa da Silva a mercadorias de antiquário, em 1926. Neste período, as roupas foram valorizadas como importantes relíquias históricas nacionais que deveriam ser preservadas. No segundo capítulo são analisadas como acervo museal e através da expografia, dos processos de restauração e dos registros museológicos dos trajes, buscou-se investigar suas destinações, concluindo-se que foram explorados principalmente como ―objetos-relíquia‖, e não como documentos, meios de conhecimento histórico. Por último, as características materiais e os estilos são examinados, através dos quais se pôde conhecer a procedência e os processos de manufatura, que se deram no Rio de Janeiro, possivelmente a partir de projetos de artistas da Corte. Com o trabalho, espera-se compreender os meios sociais que produziram, reproduziram e ressignificaram as roupas de D. Pedro II que vêm sendo preservadas há mais de 170 anos.
The dissertation is based on the research of three personal clothing that belonged to D. Pedro II and were used by him on special events: The Major military uniform (1840), the garment of coronation (1841) and the military uniform used on his wedding (1843). All three costumes are part of the Mariano Procopio Museum collection. The research was based on different sources from public files, text documents (letters, museums reports and codices of stewardship), and photography, iconography and journal articles and it aims to scroll through cultural history, focusing on three different stages from their creation to the present day. Initially we analyzed the period in the clothes pass the imperial butler Paulo Barbosa da Silva to antiquarian goods in the 1920‘s, through issues connection to monarchical memory and its appropriations at the time. The objects in this period (1920‘s) were valued as national historical relics that should be preserved. The second chapter is based on research of the garments as a museum collection, through expographic, restoration processes and museum documents of the costumes, with deep analyzes to investigate their destination in order to conclude that costumes had been explored only as ―relic-objects‖ and not as documents meant for historical knowledge. The final chapter concludes the research of characteristics and style of each material, leading to the origin and manufacturing processes that have taken place in Rio de Janeiro, possibly from the court artist‘s project. The work is expected to help understand the social environment where was produced, reproduced and conveyed the clothes of D. Pedro II creating awareness to pieces that have been preserved for more than 170 years.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Middle East, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa))--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2008.
Thesis Advisor(s): Lawson, Letitia ; Kadhim, Abbas. "June 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on August 26, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-48). Also available in print.

This dissertation is an attempt to solve a puzzle: how and why did the poor, remote and isolated country of Afghanistan become a site of international Muslim aspiration and imagination in the early 20^th century? To answer this question, the dissertation focuses on the creation of ‘place’ - of Afghanistan in conceptual and material terms - out of the movement through ‘space’ of Afghan and Muslim travellers, and the inscriptions of such movement in texts. Through such a study, the dissertation argues that Afghanistan’s emergence as imperial counter-space and practical base for Muslims was the product of new physical and intellectual interactions amongst Afghan and Muslim travellers, powered by new technologies of steam and print. Such an argument resituates Afghanistan in connection to larger transformations taking place elsewhere. It thus marks an attempt to write late 19^th and early 20^th century Afghanistan back into global history. At the same time as drawing Afghanistan into that larger global story, however, the dissertation stresses the distinctiveness of the ‘Muslim turn’ to Afghanistan: how many of these new physical and intellectual movements relied on older physical or imagined connections with ‘the land of the Afghans’; how other movements offered strikingly original visions of what Afghanistan was and could be; how the Afghan court fostered and encouraged such movements through its particularist policies; how Afghanistan’s seemingly remote location, on the peripheries of the religious heartlands of the Middle East and the political and economic centres of western imperialism, made it such a prominent and attractive focus of Muslim interest and action. By plotting the inter-connections of Afghan and Muslim travellers over a forty-year period, the dissertation charts how Afghanistan grew to become one of the great hopes of the Muslim world. At the same time, the dissertation charts the growing gap between the idealized representation of Afghanistan and its reality. Finally, it illustrates how the ‘Muslim turn’ to Afghanistan ended in disillusionment and disaster, on Afghanistan’s plains.

Orientador: Paulo Mugayar Kuhl
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Mestrado

This thesis explores the key permanent and temporary First World War exhibitions held at the Imperial War Museum in London over a fifty year period. In so doing, it examines the theoretical, political and intellectual considerations that inform exhibition-making. It thus illuminates the possibilities, challenges and difficulties, of displaying the 'War to End All Wars'. Furthermore, by situating these displays within their respective social, economic and cultural contexts, this produces a critical analysis of past and present practices of display. A study of these public presentations of the First World War enables discussion of the Museum’s primary agendas, and its role as a national public institution. In considering this with the broader effect of generational shifts and the ever-changing impact of the War’s cultural memory on this institution, the thesis investigates how the Imperial War Museum has consistently reinvented itself to produce engaging portrayals of the conflict for changing audiences.

The Ottoman Empire initiated a serious attempt in the archaeological exploration of ancient sites lying in its territory during the Hamidian period. By claiming ownership over the heritage of past civilizations, it aimed to counterbalance the European hegemony over its antiquities while constructing a new, “civilized” identity as part of its modernization programme. Adopting European archaeological practices, it became an active participant in the scholarly scene. Despite being latecomers and lacking sufficient resources and expertise, Ottoman archaeologists pioneered and promoted archaeology so successfully that, they were able to achieve the disciplinary criteria in archaeological practice established by their Western counterparts. However, due to ideological factors, their names are absent from the standard account of early history of archaeology while their accomplishments are yet to be recognized in historiography. This dissertation examines two excavation campaigns undertaken at Raqqa by Theodore Macridy and Haydar Bey on behalf of the Imperial Museum in 1905-6 and 1908 respectively and their finds collection housed within the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in İstanbul. While documenting these two excavations and their corresponding finds thoroughly for the first time, this study also reveals the contributions of such key figures of Ottoman archaeology to the development of archaeology during its formative years. The history of Ottoman archaeology is yet to be written. Analyzing the field methods, collection strategies, and restoration practices of the two Ottoman archaeologists working at Raqqa within a historical and disciplinary context, this study offers insights into the practice and the conceptualization of archaeology as a discipline in the Ottoman Empire, a subject that has been overlooked in scholarship. Moreover, this study demonstrates the importance of the Raqqa excavations as exceptional cases in targeting mainly ceramic finds with no interest in the architectural remains of the site, a practice contrasting with contemporaneous excavations. Besides, a collection of fairly modest components, the Raqqa finds indicate an emerging interest in the potential of artifacts as sources of information rather than being merely objects for museum display, thus representing a key milestone in the newly emerging discipline of Islamic archaeology.
Graduate
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碩士
臺南藝術學院
博物館學研究所
93
ABSTRACT A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society. Open to the public at large, it aims to promote social development by way of research, education, and recreation. Traditionally, the museum is charged with the responsibilities of acquiring, studying, conserving, and exhibiting the material evidence of man and his environment. However, with the rapidly changing pace of scientific and technical advancements and the emergence of a global digital network, the museum is entering into a horizon never before seen. To stay in tune with the new social currents, the museum’s raison d'être, mission, and orientation, as well as the very concept of “museum” itself, must therefore be re-adapted. The total collection of a nation’s artifacts is a minimized representation of her culture; it is also a manifestation of the spirit of her people. For a long time, the museum has been a repository of artifacts of all sorts, and the collecting, organizing, cataloging, registering, and authenticating, as well as the studying, exhibiting, and publishing of such artifacts are generally considered its core functions. Yet, with international exchanges becoming more and more popular in the cultural arena, the museum is switching from an institution for “historical preservation and interpretation” to one that is for the “promotion and dissemination of knowledge.” This new museum power is, to be sure, gradually transforming man’s rather limited material civilization into what may be called “an infinite spiritual feast.” To any institution of cultural artifacts, the task of managing and making the optimal use of the collection is a challenge in its own right. It is even more so when the task involves the shipping of objects d’art for loan exhibitions. The focus of the present research is on the “security” aspect of international museum cooperation, and it specifically attempts to answer the following three questions: First, what is the standard practice employed by museums of other countries to ensure the security of their artifacts on loan? Second, do museums in Taiwan have any standard measure of risk management when loaning artifacts? If so, how does that measure differ from those of other international museums? Third, what is it that makes the National Palace Museum’s scheme for risk management so special? The purpose of the research is to explore the possibility of developing from previous experiences of international cultural cooperation a set of standard, professional procedures that will effectively regulate the loaning of collections for Taiwan’s museums. When working on loan exhibitions, the lending institution would usually spell out the conditions that must be met to minimize risk. It would also require facility reports from the borrowing institutions, so that the risk indexes of the venues may be analyzed. These facility reports normally outline certain performance parameters, such as security, temperature, and relative humidity. This paper will offer an overview of some of these conditions, along with a discussion of appropriate approaches to meeting the conditions. As what has been addressed so far not only relates to the security of objects d’art on loan, but also involves museum collection management, it is suggested that (1) an official organization be established to review loan projects, (2) the insurance of the artifacts be made more detailed and precise, (3) the content of the loan agreement be rendered more comprehensive and explicit, (4) the facility and condition reports be put into more effective use, and (5) the authority of couriers be increased. Other factors of direct pertinence to these suggestions, such as language proficiency, communication methods, training of professionals and the form internationalize, will be examined as well. The launching of international cultural projects is effective in enlightening the audiences and broadening their perspectives; it is also effective in realizing multi-faceted cultural interpretation that truly transcends national and disciplinary boundaries. Insofar as museum management is concerned, it will also help promote the image of the museum and raise security awareness on the part of the museum professionals. Keywords: Risk Management, Loan Exhibition, Museum.

Orientação: José Fialho Feliciano
Pretende-se analisar neste estudo, com a desejável contextualização, a nível nacional e internacional, o Museu Colonial de Luanda, 1907-1910 – um tentâmen de Poder simbólico de apoio à Reprodução e Apologia de Soberania Imperial, em tempo dito de Império Africano – oficializado pela Visita do Príncipe Real D. Luís Filipe de Bragança, em 1907, no âmbito da Viagem Imperial que o levou do Tejo ao Atlântico e ao Índico, com retorno, 100 anos após a saída dos seus tetravôs, rumo ao Brasil. Entende-se, aqui, este Museu Colonial como representação simbólica de Poder Político Colonial e Poder Político Imperial, no somatório dos diversos acervos expostos, no interior, nas varandas e espaços envolventes do Observatório Meteorológico e Magnético; da edição do respectivo Catálogo do Mostruário de Produtos da Província de Angola; da colecção de fotografias da época, em suporte vítreo, ditas “chapas-de-vidro”; do configurador Retrato do Rei que, embora ausente, está presente; da Visita e da mobilizadora Palavra do Príncipe Real, acompanhado do seu protocolar séquito; da nobilitante arquitectura do Museu, reutilização de um antigo templo de alta torre sineira; do próprio local da realização do Museu, no seu todo, na Alta da Cidade – um centro de Poder. Releva-se como seu organizador o Director deste Observatório, Ernesto Augusto Gomes de Souza, Capitão-de-Fragata, Ajudante-de-Campo do Rei D. Carlos I e do Rei D. Manuel II, também pontualmente Governador-Geral interino de Angola, entre outras funções. Entendem-se os acervos museológicos reflectidos, em parte inéditos, como tendo sido, ontem, ilustrativos da apetitibilidade da apropriação simbólica do Outro e das suas riquezas; consideram-se esses acervos hoje “restituídos”, neste estudo, elementos potenciadores de Aproximação entre os Povos de Língua Comum, cuja Língua é ” também nossa”, dita “Língua de viagem e até de mestiçagem”, de “onde se vê o Mar”.
This study aims to reflect, with the advisable national and international contextualization, upon the Colonial Museum of Luanda, 1907/1910 - an attempt of symbolic Power leading to the Reproduction and Apologetics of the Empire, at the time of the so called African Empire – legitimized by the visit of Prince Royal Luis Filipe, Duke of Braganza, in 1907, during the Imperial Tour that took him from the Tagus River to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with return trip, 100 years after the departure of his great-grandparents bound for Brazil. This Colonial Museum is seen in this study as a symbolic representation of the Colonial Political Power and the Imperial Political Power in the sum of the various collections exhibited inside, on the balconies and the surrounding spaces of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory; the edition of the corresponding catalogue, Catálogo do Mostruário de Produtos da Província de Angola; the collection of photographs of the time, in a glass support, the so-called "glass plates"; the representative portrait of the King, who, despite being absent, is present; the Visit and the rallying Words of the Prince Royal, accompanied by his royal court; the ennobling architecture of the Museum, a reutilization of an old temple with a high Bell Tower; and the site of the Museum itself, as a whole, in the upper part of the city - a centre of Power. As its organizer, emphasis is given to the Director of this Observatory, Ernesto Augusto Gomes de Souza, Frigate Captain, Aide-de-camp of King Charles I and King Manuel II, and occasional Acting Governor-General of Angola, among other functions. The museological collections, in part unprecedented, here reflected upon, were understood, in the past, as having been illustrative of the appeal of the symbolic appropriation of the Other and its richness; these collections, today "reinstated", are considered, in this study, as potential facilitators of the reconciliation between Peoples of Common Language, whose language is "also ours", the so-called “Language of travel and even miscegenation ", from “where it is possible to observe the Sea”.

The history of the United States’ occupation in the Philippines requires an alternative archive that includes family stories, museums sites, and other memories to articulate the nearly inexplicable legacy of imperial trauma. My project foregrounds the intangible effects of American imperialism, traced in generational memories of Filipinos and Filipino Americans and their descendants. Addressing three key moments defining the Filipino and Filipino American experience: the Philippine-American War, World War II, and 21st century global capitalism, I look at how the under-the-surface, banal nature of imperial trauma’s legacy marks Filipino identity and creates blind spots in the Filipino imaginary. My dissertation examines sexual atrocities committed by American soldiers during the 1898-1902 Philippine-American War, revisits memories of World War II and the Japanese Occupation as represented in military museums in Fredericksburg, Texas and on Corregidor Island, Philippines, and concludes with the importance of the babaylan figure, from an ancient priestess tradition in the Philippines, for diasporic Filipinas to negotiate the contemporary challenges of everyday living. My dissertation examines the use of strategic storytelling to recover lost histories, heal from the past, and re-create the present.
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