Focusing on the key 19th-century enterprise of collecting in museums, this work seeks to illuminate British culture of the period by examining the power that this collecting and exhibiting possessed. Through its museums, the author argues, Victorian London constructed itself as a world city.
Black (English, Skidmore College) offers an overview of Victorian museum culture followed by an exploration of some of the most famous and outlandish museums of the period. She also analyzes the methods of categorization and display used, arguing that it was through its museums that Victorian London constructed itself as a world city.
