Samuel J.M.M. Alberti – författare

In the first comprehensive study of nineteenth-century medical museums, Morbid Curiosities traces the afterlives of diseased body parts. It asks how they came to be in museums, what happened to them there, and who used them. This book is concerned with the macabre work of pathologists as they dismembered corpses and preserved them: transforming bodies into material culture. The fragmented body parts followed complex paths - harvested from hospital wards, given to one of many prestigious institutions, or dispersed at auction. Human remains acquired new meanings as they were exchanged and were then reintegrated into museums as physical maps of disease. On shelves curators juxtaposed organic remains with paintings, photographs, and models, and rendered them legible with extensive catalogues that were intended to standardize the museum experience. And yet visitors refused to be policed, responding equally with wonder and disgust. Morbid Curiosities is a history of the material culture of medical knowledge in the age of museums.

Cold War Museology is the first volume to bring together interdisciplinary and international contributions from leading practitioners and academics specialising in Cold War museology.Bringing the most recent historiography of the Cold War into conversation with museological theory and practice, chapters within the volume analyse the current condition of Cold War museology. By unpicking some of the unique challenges facing museum specialists dealing with the Cold War, this book takes a lead in developing the collection, display and interpretation of this history. The chapters question what makes a Cold War object; address the complexity of Cold War time; face up to questions of Cold War race, gender and imperialism; and reveal how to materialise the Cold War imaginary in museums. Most importantly perhaps, the volume demonstrates that, a consideration of the interconnecting forces of global twentieth-century history enables experts to add important complexity and nuance to the narratives with which they work and improve visitor understandings through innovative interpretations.Cold War Museology will encourage readers towards a more nuanced, holistic and inclusive approach to Cold War materiality in museums. It will be of great interest to academics, museum professionals and students engaged in the study of museums, heritage and the Cold War, as well as those with an interest in archaeology, media, culture and memory.

Science museums have paradoxes at their core. They must be accessible and fun while representing increasingly complex science. They must be both historic and contemporary. Their exhibits attract millions, but most of their objects remain in deep storage, seldom seen. This book delves into these conflicts, revealing the secret lives of science curators; where science objects come from and who uses them; and, ultimately, what science museums are for. With an insider’s eye, Samuel J.M.M. Alberti exposes the idiosyncratic past and intriguing current practice of these institutions, and sets out a map for their future.