'History and Reality Have Become the Same Thing': City Museums and City Plans in London, 1912–2012. Issue 1 (January 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sandweiss, Eric
• Is Part Of: Museum history journal. Volume 7:Issue 1(2014:Jan.)
• Page Start: 2
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2014-01
• Subjects: Museums -- History -- Periodicals; Museum techniques -- History -- Periodicals; 069.09
• DOI: 10.1179/1936981613Z.00000000018
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1936-9824

Abstract

<abstract> <title> <x content-type="archive" xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec> <p>The Museum of London's recent reinterpretation of a large portion of its permanent exhibition offers occasion for a look at the intertwined fates of urban planning and museology across a century of metropolitan change. This article examines the ongoing efforts of one of the world's pioneering city museums to memorialize an urban past in a manner never quite free of the hopes and assumptions of the urban present. Considering display techniques, artefact selection, and audience response, I look at London as an exemplar of the complex relation of urban historical narratives and planning visions in a period that has seen a loss of faith, across the developed world, in the perfectability of urban plans. </p> </sec> </abstract>