The story of Irish museums, 1790-2000 : culture, identity and education / Marie Bourke.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is the first book to give a long-term and comprehensive account of the stories, the histories and the evolution of Irish museums and galleries. From 1733, when the "cabinet of curiosities" was an important asset in a gentleman's home to the new millennium, when museums and galleries are at once physical and virtual spaces, this is a fascinating history of the human desire to collect, catalogue, conserve and create stories around our shared heritage. As such, it incorporates the founding and the progression of the key institutions in Irish cultural history, the collectors and collections that form the basis of the national collections, the public role of the museum, the theoretical models upon which modern museums were established and the cross-cultural influences that allowed the museum cultures of Britain and America to find fertile ground in Ireland. In short, this is a vivid and engaging examination of why museums matter to society, and how much they matter.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part I Pre-Eighteenth Century
• 1 The Story of the Public Museum
• Part II The Eighteenth Century
• 2 Early Museological Trends in Eighteenth-Century Ireland
• 3 The Significance of the Eighteenth-Century Collections
• Part III The Nineteenth Century
• 4 Cross-Cultural Influences: Museums in Britain and America
• 5 The Role of Education in the Growth of Nineteenth-Century Museums
• 6 The Role of Antiquarianism in the Nineteenth-Century Museum Movement
• 7 A ONational¹ Museum and a National Identity
• 8 Collecting, Promoting, Exhibiting, Curating: The Broadening of the Museum Movement
• 9 The Development of a National Gallery for Ireland (1854¡64)
• Part IV The Twentieth Century
• 10 The Public Role of the Museum: Patterns and Trends in the UK and the USA in the Twentieth Century
• 11 New Ideas and Fresh Initiatives: An Overview of Museum Development in the Twentieth Century
• 12 The National Museum of Ireland: Promoting the Widest Understanding and Appreciation of IrelandâÇÖs Distinctive Culture and Natural History
• 13 The National Gallery of Ireland: Supporting, Understanding, Appreciation and Enjoyment of the National Collections
• Part V The Twenty-First Century
• 14 Combining the Virtual and the Physical:Key Developments in the Twenty-First-Century Museum
• Conclusion
• Notes and References
• Bibliography
• Index
• Picture Credits