Museums and empire: Natural history, human cultures and colonial identities

303 Pages·2009·10.646 MB·English

by  John M. MacKenzie

Museums and Empire artwork 22/6/09 3:42 pm Page 1
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General editor:John M.MacKenzie
‘An outstanding and original book which deals both authoritatively and perceptively with
an important but hitherto rather neglected aspect of imperial cultures.It is engrossing,
deeply informative and beautifully written.There is no doubt that it will make a valuable
contribution to scholarship across a range of disciplines,as well as enhancing the well-
established Studies in Imperialism series.’
Dr Nigel Rigby,National Maritime Museum
‘Only a mature scholar with the range and experience possessed by someone
like MacKenzie could have taken this on,and it is most welcome that he has done so.
Natural history, human cultures
MacKenzie brings to the task the qualities that mark him out as our foremost historian
of the cultures and ideology of empire: enormous span, considerable powers of
synthesis and an eyethat is ever alert to significant detail.As ever,he presents his research
and colonial identities
with consummate ease and style.’
Professor Saul Dubow,University of Sussex
Museums and empire is the first book to examine the origins and development of
museums in six important regions of the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.
J O H N M . M A C K E N Z I E
It analyses museum histories in thirteen major centres in Canada,South Africa,Australia,
New Zealand,India and South-East Asia,setting them into the economic and social
contexts of the cities and colonies in which they were located.Written in a lively and
informative style,it also touches upon the history of many other museums in Britain and
other territories of the Empire.
A number of key themes emerge from its pages: the development of elites within
colonial towns and cities; the emergence of the full range of cultural institutions
associated with this;and the reception and modification of the key scientific ideas of the
age.Amajor theme is the shift from natural history to ethnographic collecting,which
helped to generate the emergence of new colonial identities by the beginning of the
twentieth century.There is also some discussion of international and imperial networks,
of the development of a professionalised museum staff,as well as of display techniques to
attract the public and create educational programmes. M
It will be essential reading for all those concerned with museum studies and imperial A
history,at undergraduate and postgraduate level,as well as among scholars in these fields.
It will also be of interest to a wider public devoted to the cause of museums and C
heritage.
K
John MacKenzie is Emeritus Professor of Imperial History,Lancaster University and holds E
Honorary Professorships at the universities of Aberdeen,St Andrews and Stirling,as well as an
HonoraryFellowship at Edinburgh University gh N
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www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
general editor John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded
more than twenty-fi ve years ago, emphasis was laid upon
the conviction that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenom-
enon had as signifi cant an effect on the dominant as on
the subordinate societies’. With more than seventy books
published, this remains the prime concern of the series.
Cross-disciplinary work has indeed appeared covering the
full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as examining
aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and
the environment, language and literature, migration and
patriotic societies, and much else. Moreover, the series has
always wished to present comparative work on European
and American imperialism, and particularly welcomes the
submission of books in these areas. The fascination with
imperialism, in all its aspects, shows no sign of abating,
and this series will continue to lead the way in encouraging
the widest possible range of studies in the fi eld. ‘Studies
in Imperialism’ is fully organic in its development, always
seeking to be at the cutting edge, responding to the latest
interests of scholars and the needs of this ever-expanding
area of scholarship.
Museums and empire
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AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND THE AESTHETICS OF BRITISHNESS ed. Dana Arnold
BRITAIN IN CHINA
Community, culture and colonialism, 1900–1949 Robert Bickers
RACE AND EMPIRE
Eugenics in colonial Kenya Chloe Campbell
RETHINKING SETTLER COLONIALISM
History and memory in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and South Africa
ed. Annie E. Coombes
IMPERIAL CITIES
Landscape, display and identity
eds Felix Driver and David Gilbert
IMPERIAL CITIZENSHIP
Empire and the question of belonging Daniel Gorman
THE EMPIRE IN ONE CITY?
Liverpool’s inconvenient imperial past eds Sheryllynne Haggerty, Anthony Webster
and Nicholas J. White
SCOTLAND, THE CARIBBEAN AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1750–1820
Douglas J. Hamilton
FLAGSHIPS OF IMPERIALISM
The P&O company and the politics of empire from its origins to 1867 Freda Harcourt
MISSIONARIES AND THEIR MEDICINES
A Christian modernity for tribal India David Hardiman
EMIGRANT HOMECOMINGS
The return movement of emigrants, 1600–2000 Marjory Harper
ENGENDERING WHITENESS
White women and colonialism in Barbados and North Carolina, 1625–1865
Cecily Jones
REPORTING THE RAJ
The British press and India, c. 1880–1922 Chandrika Kaul
SILK AND EMPIRE Brenda M. King
COLONIAL CONNECTIONS, 1815–45
Patronage, the information revolution and colonial government Zoë Laidlaw
PROPAGANDA AND EMPIRE
The manipulation of British public opinion, 1880–1960 John M. MacKenzie
THE SCOTS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Ethnicity, identity, gender and race, 1772–1914 John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel
THE OTHER EMPIRE
Metropolis, India and progress in the colonial imagination John Marriott
IRELAND, INDIA AND EMPIRE
Indo-Irish radical connections, 1916–64 Kate O’Malley
SEX, POLITICS AND EMPIRE
A postcolonial geography Richard Phillips
IMPERIAL PERSUADERS
Images of Africa and Asia in British advertising Anandi Ramamurthy
GENDER, CRIME AND EMPIRE Kirsty Reid
THE HAREM, SLAVERY AND BRITISH IMPERIAL CULTURE
Anglo-Muslim relations, 1870–1900 Diane Robinson-Dunn
WEST INDIAN INTELLECTUALS IN BRITAIN ed. Bill Schwarz
MIGRANT RACES
Empire, identity and K. S. Ranjitsinhji Satadru Sen
AT THE END OF THE LINE
Colonial policing and the imperial endgame 1945–80 Georgina Sinclair
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THE VICTORIAN SOLDIER IN AFRICA Edward M. Spiers
MARTIAL RACES AND MASCULINITY IN THE BRITISH ARMY, 1857–1914
Heather Streets
THE FRENCH EMPIRE BETWEEN THE WARS
Imperialism, politics and society Martin Thomas
ORDERING AFRICA eds Helen Tilley with Robert J. Gordon
‘THE BETTER CLASS’ OF INDIANS
Social rank, imperial identity, and South Asians in Britain 1858–1914 A. Martin Wainwright
BRITISH CULTURE AND THE END OF EMPIRE ed. Stuart Ward
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Museums and empire
,
NATURAL HISTORY HUMAN CULTURES

AND COLONIAL IDENTITIES
John M. MacKenzie
MANCHESTER
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Manchester and New York
distributed exclusively in the USA by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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Copyright © John M. MacKenzie 2009
The right of John M. MacKenzie to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD ROAD, MANCHESTER M13 9NR, UK
and ROOM 400, 175 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed in the United States exclusively by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 175 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10010, USA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC PRESS, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA,
2029 WEST MALL, VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 8022 7 hardback
First published 2009
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset in Trump Medieval
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
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To all those who over the years have ‘switched me on’ to museums: the
late Anne S. Robertson, Lawrence Keppie, Paul Greenhalgh, Charles
Saumarez Smith, Philip Taverner, Linda Lloyd Jones, Paul Atterbury,
Suzanne Fagence-Cooper, Jenni Calder, David Forsyth, Gareth Griffi ths,
Alan Borg, Julian Spalding, Nigel Rigby, Brian Durrans, Peter Funnell,
my co-researcher Nigel Dalziel, and many others.
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CONTENTS
List of illustrations — x
Acknowledgments — xi
List of abbreviations — xv
1 Introduction page 1
2 Canada: the origins of colonial museums 21
3 Canada: the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and the
Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria 44
4 South Africa: the South African Museum, Cape Town 78
5 South Africa: the Albany Museum, Grahamstown 105
6 Australia: Museums in Sydney and Melbourne 120
7 Australia: the South Australian Museum, Adelaide 156
8 New Zealand/Aotearoa: the War Memorial Museum,
Auckland 184
9 New Zealand/Aotearoa: the Canterbury Museum,
Christchurch 210
10 Museums in Asia 234
11 Conclusion 265
Index — 279
[ ix ]
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