| British Museum was the first national museum in Britain, it's also the first national museum of the world. As the proceeding and finishing of the Industrial Revolution on the first half of 19th century, the Second British Empire rose by right of superior political democracy, solid economic strength, powerful military, and large overseas colonies. Shaping nationality and enhancing national sense of pride inside the country, spreading democracy, advanced science and culture to the colonies and other small countries, Britain exercised cultural hegemony inside and over the world under the powerful Empire. As the carrier and symbol of Empire's culture, the concentration of Empire development, British Museum refracted Empire's political culture in the particular period.British Empire made foundation and support to British Museum, and made it develop into new era in the first half of 19th century, the comprehensive museum, its collection scale, use situation and service concept got a huge development and improvement. The collection scale was significantly enlarged, books, manuscripts, natural and artificial products enriched fast. Private generous donation continued, occupied a great proportion of collection enrichment. In addition to the donation, the parliament attached more important and did more generous to the museum since 19th century, it was more likely to spend public funds on national collection enlargement. Also, people's highly praise on native archaeology increased British native cultural remains. The collection scale enlarged such as never previously existed from 1800 to 1857, the purpose for public service got new development in the new era. The museum changed the strictly visit rules, abolished admission card, extended the limitation, improved the complicated visit time rules, expanded area of the reading room, with the scale enlargement, management improvement, national attention and the elites efforts, the museum's public service principle and concept constantly changed from invisible into reality.As the carrier of British Empire's culture, British Museum was not only a true geographical space, but also a virtual cultural space. The British Museum was the Empire's cultural space, the construction and management of the country to the museum shaped Empire's culture and national spirit; what's more, the elites' donation, management and use showed their identities with national spirit. The country began to pay attention to the construction of museum on the first half of 19th century, the parliament invested much funds to purchase books, manuscript, and various rare antiquities, to improve its management, and to make the public service principle more reality. TheSelect Committee on the British Museum of 1835-36 occasioned a big change to the management, it marked a new era:the national character of the Institution, and its mission as an instrument of the national culture were first clearly recognized and defined, they would indeed have been professedly acknowledged and more private thing at any period of its history. The planning and management of the museum changed from surface to essence. The elites' donation, management and use reflected the national spirit and culture. The foundation of the British Museum lay in private generous donations, personal donations was richer, and more than parliament purchase in the first half of 19th century. Series of elites put forward their views and ideas on the part of management, the most outstanding ones were Edward Edwards's "public library" and Anthony Panizzi's constructing the British Museum to be an institution for culture diffusion and public education, and making it matched with the British Empire. The elites guided the museum with their concepts.Being a national museum, the collections came from plunder except that of donation and purchase. British Museum mirrored the Empire's glory, dazzling antiquities of other countries in the museum were almost robbed in the first half of 19th century, the Egyptian antiquities department, the ancient Near East department, and Greek and Roman department were all established at this time. At this moment, Britain was striving for maritime hegemony with the countries of continental Europe in the Mediterranean, and for sphere of influence in the Middle East, the more abundant Egyptian collection in the British Museum mean stronger control to the Middle East, their deep interest in oriental culture was derived from the strong oriental ideology. The archaeology in Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin were funded by the state, for now Britain was fighting for control with Russia in this area. Greek was an European country, just like other European countries, Britain showed highly praise to Hellenism, it was searching for modernity by robbing Greek antiquities and idealizing the ancient Greek. These three department of the British Museum showed British cultural hegemony to the orient. The robbing and collection of oriental antiquities made a sharp contrast between Britain modernity and oriental ancient, the superiority feeling and national pride as Empire people arose spontaneously. The British Museum became an epitome of British Empire hegemony, even became a mirror of British modernity.From 1800 to 1857, the collections inside and over the world in the British Museum were enriched, the management was improved, the function was valued, the concept was changed, but shaping Empire's cultural space could not do without people's feedback to the museum. The museum's audiences changed slowly from elites to ordinary people, the museum developed into a public museum, and people pay more attention to its educational function, the visiting numbers increased, the admission became more convenient and humanized, and the audiences were diversified. The feedback of the audience reflected museum's political culture. Private donation to public sphere mirrored people's public awareness and patriotism, then British public's attitude to the oriental collections transformed criticism as "culture thieves" to understanding and appreciation, did not show their recognition to British Empire hegemony.The thesis discussed in four parts. The first part introduced the background of British history in the first half of 19th century, for the Empire's prosperity made foundation to British Museum's development. The part focused on British Empire's cultural hegemony internal and external by the right of strong political, economical, military and colonial power. Being the carrier of Empire's culture, British Museum developed into the height under the situation. It emphasized more on the reasons when it was established and public service tenet. In the British Museum, there were not only breathtaking archaeological collections we knew, but also the books and manuscripts by private donation and parliament purchase were important components, their number and value could not be ignored. Except for collections overseas, there were collections from national archaeological excavation.The second part discussed the political control and management of the state and elites to the museum. What's kind of museum the state wanted to construct, how to construct it, and how to spread national spirit and culture by this carrier. The state paid attention to British Museum's development, it planning, management and control to the museum experienced a transformation from invisible to the essence since 1930s. The parliament gave the museum fund support to enrich its collections, convened Select Committee (1835-36) to investigate the shortage of collections, management and use situation, and to improve them. The state shaped the cultural sphere of the British Museum. And the elites' view to the museum construction was in fact the reflection of national spirit. Private donations were much more than the parliament purchase, removed religious factors, British people's patriotism showed unintentionally. The elites' view to the museum construction transferred culture in the Victorian era, governors concerned with how to construct the museum no matter on the quantity or quality to match the British Empire, how to diffuse the culture of museum to British public, and how to truly reflect the museum's publicity. Edwards and Panizzi were the representative figures at the time, the thesis discussed about their management concepts.The third part discussed that the antiquities collections of Egypt, Assyria, Greek and Roman in the British Museum report British Empire's hegemony. Robbing antiquities of other countries showed the Empire's view to the world, it highlighted British modernity and imagined the orient by comparing with others, which were its colonies. The Egyptian collections showed British maritime hegemony, the more abundant Egyptian collection in the British Museum mean more strong control to the Middle East. The archaeology in Tigris and Euphrates rivers basin were funded by the state, for now Britain was fighting for control with Russia in this area. The Greek and Roman collections reflected The British pursuing cultural colonialism by antiquities robbing to Greek and cultural imagination. The three part collections in the British Museum showed British cultural hegemony to others, which constructed on the foundation of economical and military hegemony. The superiority feeling and national pride as Empire people deepened in the process of contrasting with others. The museum became the interpreter of the Empire's culture.The last part was the remaining comment, briefly discussed the formation of public sphere's culture in the museum. The development of the British Museum, the management of the state and elites shaped the Empire's public sphere culture, but British public's attitudes to the museum reflected their recognitions or not to the museum culture. The state political culture how to diffuse in the museum, and the culture in the public sphere could get people's recognition or not were questions we needed to discuss. The museum's audiences transformed from elites to ordinary people from 1800 to 1857, it became a public museum, where not only just a place visiting by elites or a place managed by scholars and serviced scholars, British public enjoyed more freedom and less restriction visiting into the museum. Personal donations showed public awareness and patriotism. People's recognition to the British Museum reflected their agreement with British Empire's culture. |
PDF Full Text Request