The City and the Museum: Cracow's Collections and Their Publics in the Long Nineteenth Century

Prokopovych, Markian

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that museums were an essential part of the national project in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Europe—and some retain this function even today. Classic works in nationalism studies, such as Eric Hobsbawm's, have highlighted the role they played in the birth of modern nations. Subsequent studies that focused on specific national contexts help us better understand the mechanisms by which museums contributed to the invention of national traditions as well as to the formation of historical consciousness, historical memory, and the functioning of modern states. As these and other scholars of museum history also demonstrate, museum founders, directors, curators, and the broader public were driven by agendas and aspirations other than nation-building within these larger processes. Analyzing how these agendas mixed with the aims of the national project in a specific locality in the making of museums can generate new insights into the formation of modern subjectivities in this period.

Citation

Prokopovych, M. (2018). The City and the Museum: Cracow's Collections and Their Publics in the Long Nineteenth Century. Austrian History Yearbook, 49, 166-186. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0067237818000140

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: May 1, 2018
• Publication Date: May 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jul 3, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 31, 2018
• Journal: Austrian History Yearbook
• Print ISSN: 0067-2378
• Electronic ISSN: 1558-5255
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 49
• Pages: 166-186
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0067237818000140
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1327390