Hi Everyone,
Does anyone have anecdotal evidence for the closure and the
dispersal of the collections from Industrial Museums? Also the
sending of museum artefacts to the scrap man. I am particularly
interested in the UK context, but would be interested to learn about
the problem elsewhere.
If I can get enought information I would like to write this up for
publication somewhere, since its a problem which does not appear to
have been disussed in the national press. Industry is a major part of
our heritage and if we cannot properly do justice to it in our museums
our culture is the poorer for it.
Why are industrial museum suffering? Is it that private museums
cannot afford to keep going. Is it that curatorial staff lack a technical
background to properly appreciate what they have got?
In recent years the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum was
closed, and the Mining musum at Chatterly Whitfield went bankrupt. I
know of other museums where the industrial collections have been
watered down to free up the space for social history or hands-on
science exhibits. I have heard rumours of a number of museums
suffering but I would appreciate some facts about it, so do you know
of any journal articles I might read, please?
I have cross-posted this to other groups, so if you get it twice, my
apologies.
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