On Saturday, November 23, 2002, at 05:17 pm, Tony Woolrich wrote:
> 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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