Exhibiting the Empire

Exhibiting the Empire considers how a wide range of cultural products were used to record, celebrate and question the development of the British Empire. It provides a significant and original contribution to our understanding of the relationship between culture and the British Empire. Individual chapters bring fresh perspectives to the interpretation of media, material culture and display and their interaction with the associated history.The empire was exhibited for a variety of reasons: to promote trade and commerce; to encourage emigration and settlement; to assert and cement imperial authority; to digest and display the data and specimens collected from voyages of exploration and missionary endeavours undertaken in the name of empire; and to celebrate and commemorate important landmarks, people or events in the imperial pantheon. Exhibiting the Empire considers a broad sweep of 'imperial moments' and media that includes paintings, prints, photographs, panoramas and 'popular' texts to ephemera, newspapers and the press, theatre and music, exhibitions, institutions and architecture. This collection is used to highlight the contingent and changing nature of imperial display as well as its continuing impact in Britain throughout (and beyond) the country's imperial meridian. Written by leading scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, Exhibiting the Empire will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in British history, the history of empire, art history and the history of museums and collecting.