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‘Everything passes, except the past’: reviewing the renovated Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA)
This article describes the author’s impressions of the new Royal Museum of Central Africa gallery. It discusses the successes and failures of the project, as well as its implications for UK museums.
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'½ vol. not relevant': The scrapbook of Winifred Penn-Gaskell
Ephemera in collections of science and technology museums are often understudied and even less frequently displayed. This paper argues for a re-evaluation of the scrapbook of Winifred Penn-Gaskell as a key item in her collection of aeronautica.
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A discourse with deep time: the extinct animals of Crystal Palace Park as heritage artefacts
This essay addresses the transformation of the prehistoric animal models exhibited in Crystal Palace Park from scientific models, initially yoked to British heritage through rhetoric, to objects recognised as historically significant and worthy of conservation.
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A history of amulets in ten objects
This article presents a historical survey of ten amulets using objects from the Science Museum collections. What can we learn about the place of amulets in the larger narrative of European healing from the early modern era to the present day?
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A model instrument: the making and the unmaking of a model of the Airy Transit Circle
The article investigates the construction, reception and fate of a set of models of the Airy Transit Circle (the instrument that defined the Greenwich Prime Meridian) at the Exposition Universelle in 1855 and at the South Kensington Museum.
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A royal gift? Mrs Strangways Horner’s small silver clock, 1740
This article celebrates the rediscovery of a small silver-cased clock allegedly given to Mrs Strangways Horner by Lady Archibald Hamilton on behalf of Augusta, Princess of Wales in 1740.
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A symposium on histories of use and tacit skills
The histories of use of the objects in museum collections, and the unrecorded skills of their operation, have posed pressing research questions for museum people and university scholars alike. This symposium drew together different perspectives on this emerging area of study.
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Rapid Response Collecting and the Irish Abortion Referendum
Ireland’s recent public referenda on LGBTI+ and women’s rights reflect a significant shift in Irish society. The National Museum of Ireland responded by collecting their material culture, working collaboratively with the public to fill collection gaps to better represent Ireland’s complex and difficult histories.
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Collecting the personal: stories of domestic energy and everyday life at the National Museum of Scotland
The Energise gallery at the National Museum of Scotland explores the sources, generation, distribution and use of energy and questions how science and technology transform how we power our lives. This article details three objects around which a focus on personal stories was adopted.
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Coming home - Bally’s miniature phrenological specimens
Close inspection of William Bally’s miniature phrenological specimens – a set of 60 small plaster busts – has led to a reappraisal of their origin and use. Made in 1832, they helped position Bally as ‘one of the best practical phrenologists in England’.