Issue 7.1 of Museum History Journal includes a fascinating collection of essays that explore different approaches to collecting, the representation of ideas in science and medicine, the origins and development of museums in cities and in association with different types of parent institutions, and the ways in which museum retail practices have changed over time to meet the demands of their audiences. These articles are representative of the broad reach of museum history which the editors of this journal are keen to encourage.
The forthcoming issues of the journal will be devoted to specific themes: issue 7.2 is devoted to the life, collections, and museum of General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (1827–1900). His collections were acquired by the University of Oxford in 1884, thus promoting the teaching of anthropology. The guest editors for this issue — the working title of which is General Pitt-Rivers and the History of Museums, 1860–2015 — are Alison Petch and Jeremy Coote. Issue 8.1 has its origins in the 2012 conference of the Museums and Galleries History Group, ‘Cultures of Curating: Curatorial Practices and the Production of Meaning c. 1650–2000’, which was held at the University of Lincoln, UK, 12–13 July 2012. Our guest editors for this exciting issue, featuring key articles from the conference, will be Kate Hill and Sarah Longair.
This issue sees the arrival of Jeffrey Abt, Professor in the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, Michigan as the new co-editor for Museum History Journal. He will be known to many MHJ readers through A Museum on the Verge: A Socioeconomic History of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1882–2000 (which received the 2002 Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan); an essay in A Companion to Museum Studies and his most recent book, American Egyptologist: The Life of James Henry Breasted and the Creation of His Oriental Institute (2012). Jeffrey has been a member of the Editorial Board for the journal since its inception.
Peter Davis and Jeffrey Abt