Science museums occupy an important place in modern culture and each museum has a distinctive character, whether because of the building in which it resides, the collections it has acquired, the research it undertakes or the displays and public events it provides. The diversity of museums today is a remarkable feature that contributes to the public's interest in visiting science museums across the world. The evolution of the modern science museum began seriously in the nineteenth century, and museums in Britain were spurred by the Museum Act of 1845, while in the United States the Act that established the Smithsonian Institution in 1846 was an important milestone. Yet the path to today's museums has not been straightforward but has relied on developments attributable to a number of innovative individuals and institutions.
Science Museums in Transition: Cultures of Display in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America is not a collection of histories of individual museums. Most major museums have authoritative histories, and there are many books and journal articles that focus on particular museological practices such as collecting, conservation, research or education and public programmes. What this book provides is a fascinating and intriguing tour through some of the developments that have contributed to the modern science museum. Its chapters comprise papers presented at a conference on Curators, Popularizers, and Showmen: Science in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Exhibitions and Museums, which took place at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now the Science History Institute) in Philadelphia in May 2015. As with other conference proceedings, there is the difficulty of how well the selected papers address the overall thesis of the book while also providing cohesion. In the case of Science Museums in Transition, the editors, Carin Berkowitz and Bernard Lightman, have skilfully selected papers and provided a good contextual introduction.
There are several important themes running through the book that resonate with anyone who has worked in museums or studied them, and the chapters draw on examples to illustrate how individual themes evolved during the nineteenth century and laid the foundations for the modern-day museum. Three key themes are emphasized in Science Museums in Transition: displays, collections and buildings. They are not mutually exclusive and frequently interplay with one another.
The role of spectacular displays in communicating the wonders of science in the period leading to the formal establishment of museums is discussed by Bernard Lightman in ‘Science in Regents Park’ and by Katherine Pandora in ‘The permissive precincts of Barnum's and Goodrich's museums of miscellaneity’. Lightman's chapter focuses on the Colosseum in London, its changing configuration to accommodate a series of increasingly spectacular scientific displays, the entrepreneurs and designers responsible and the constant presence of financial hardship. Pandora provides an intriguing account of the role played by the showman P.T. Barnum and the author Samuel Goodrich in the popular communication of science aimed at children and families in America. Admission prices to their emporia were kept as low as possible and visits to the spectacular displays were supplemented by cheap publications to foster longer-term learning.
Several chapters address the importance of collections for museums and how they were used for different purposes. Caroline Cornish's chapter, ‘Botany behind glass’, considers the Museum of Economic Botany at Kew Gardens in London and explores how its collections had multi-purpose use – for science, display, learning and commerce. The individual specimens comprising the collection (fruits and seeds, woods, dyestuffs and medicinal substances) were supplemented by images, models and maps in the displays to give the very different approach to the study of botany envisaged by Joseph Hooker (director at Kew), and far removed from the collection of dried herbarium specimens. The inspiration for such collections and displays probably emanated from the national exhibitions held in France and Britain during the 1830s and 1840s and reflected the growing commercial interest in botanical materials from the British Empire.
Samuel Alberti's chapter, ‘This post mortem palace’, addresses the changing demands for space at the Royal College of Surgeons in London following acquisition of the medical collection of the surgeon–anatomist John Hunter in 1799, and how the changing demands and interplay between the collections and space necessitated regular review and modification through the nineteenth century. Such changes are often accommodated within the curtilage of an existing building but may involve building extensions. How spaces are reallocated within an existing building or adjusted with the benefit of an extension (though certain functions may be relocated to an external space), and how museum staff and architects work together to solve what often appear to be insurmountable challenges, are well illustrated by Alberti. How museums use space was not a preoccupation confined to the nineteenth century but has remained a recurring issue for all museums through to the present day, as collections have grown and the demands placed on different functions have changed. Spaces can appear to be in constant flux.
The chapters are well researched and well written, the photographs add value to the text, and the book is admirably edited and produced. If I have a criticism, and it is minor, it is that the cohesion of the book would have been enhanced by a final chapter mapping how the thread of diverse themes explored in the narrative has contributed to the fundamental functions underpinning the modern-day museum. Nevertheless, this book is thoroughly recommended to all historians who study museums as cultural institutions, who use museums for their research and scholarship or who visit the wide variety of museums around the world.
