Nature and Culture : Objects, Disciplines and the Manchester Museum

Nature and Culture asks how objects were collected and displayed in the twentieth century. It explores natural and cultural objects in the Manchester Museum, a major university collection. How did these specimens come to be there? What happened to them in the collection, and who used them? -- .

This is a vital new work; the first to take the University of Manchester''s Museum as its subject. By setting the museum in its cultural and intellectual contexts, Nature and culture explores twentieth-century collecting and display, and the status of the object in the modern world. Beginning with the origins of the Manchester Museum, accounting for its development as an internationally renowned university museum, and concluding at its major expansion at the turn of the millennium, this book casts new light on the history of museums.

How did objects become knowledge? Who encountered museum objects on their way to museums? What happened to collections within the museum? How did visitors use and respond to objects? In answering these questions, Nature and culture illuminates not only the history of one institution, but also contributes to wider discussions in the history of science, cultural history and museology.