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Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access published online on January 4, 2008
Journal of the History of Collections, doi:10.1093/jhc/fhm034
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Aspirations to life

Pleas for new forms of display in Belgian museums around 1900

Liesbet Nys


  Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the volume of criticism of public museums in Belgium increased. As a result of their uninspiring design, museums were repeatedly described as graveyards that held little attraction for the public. According to reformers, new forms of presentation, with the objects arranged in context, would transform museums into living institutions, with much more appeal. In this article, the debate concerning the novel arrangements proposed for Belgian museums is examined, using five case-studies relating to various types of collection. This discourse, which is strikingly uniform in its treatment of the different kinds of museums, reveals not only the changing expectations of public museums around the turn of the century but also the resistance evoked by attempts to reform the museum system in Belgium.

Correspondence: Liesbet Nys, K.U.Leuven, Cultural History since 1750 Research Group, Blijde-Inkomststraat 21/05, B-3000, Leuven, Belgium. Liesbet.Nys{at}arts.kuleuven.be


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