%0 Journal Article %T ‘A Chamber of Noise Horrors’: sound, technology and the museum %A James Mansell %D 2017 %V Special Issue: Sound and Vision %N Spring 2017 %K exhibition history %K museums %K noise %K Science Museum %K sound %K Technology %X This article examines the 1935 Science Museum temporary exhibition on Noise Abatement, situating it in the sound historical context of inter-war Britain, and making an argument that the ‘way of hearing’ it advanced was part of an attempt to shape auditory perception in the interests of a class-bound culture of acoustic civilization. Further, the article uses this exhibition to mount an argument that museum scholars should consider sound not simply as a medium of engagement, but also as a politically interested and socially active field. %Z In taking this approach the article deliberately leaves aside several important questions relating to the practicalities of using sound in museum spaces, including issues of hearing ability/disability. %Z Newspaper clipping, ‘Noise: By Lord Elton, In an Interview’, The Sunday Chronicle, 23 June 1935, National Archives, FD1/4048 %Z Letter from Sir Henry Richards to Pelham, 9 October 1934, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 %Z File note, Proposed “Anti-Noise” Exhibition, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 %Z Typescript of a radio broadcast made by Lord Horder on behalf of the Anti-Noise League, 20 January 1935, Museum of English Rural Life, SR CPRE C/1/150/1 %Z British Medical Journal, 10 August 1929, pp 267–268 %Z Exhibit list, Science Museum, Nominal file 5134 %Z Letter from R F Millard to members of the Anti-Noise League, 14 March 1935, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Loan questionnaire, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Daily Telegraph, 31 May 1935, p 21 %Z Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Typeset description of demonstration house prepared by the buildings sub-committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Description of silent lift exhibit, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Minutes of the third meeting of the Buildings Sub-Committee of the Noise Abatement Exhibition, 6 February 1935, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z Draft of article ‘Noise and Housing’ by Hope Bagenal, National Archives, HLG/52/1210 %Z ‘Noise: By Lord Elton, In an Interview’ %I The Science Museum Group %@ 2054-5770 %B eng %U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/sound-technology-and-the-museum/ %J Science Museum Group Journal