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PREHISTORIC NARRATIVES Yun Shun Susie Chung. Yun Shun Susie Chung, Museum of Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University, Fourth and Indiana Avenue, Box 43191, Lubbock, TX 79409-3191.
The general aim of this paper is to illuminate that prehistoric narratives were being constructed and disseminated by county archaeological society museums in England during the mid-nineteenth century. This was unprecedented in the callow age of museums, a phenomenal part of British museum history that has been badly neglected. This paper explores three strands concerning prehistoric narratives presented by county archaeological society museums in mid-nineteenth-century England. To demonstrate this, five case-study museums are examined: Norfolk and Norwich Museum (f. 1825); Museum of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society (f. 1840); Taunton Museum (f. 1849); Lewes Museum (f. 1850); and Devizes Museum (f. 1853). The first strand situates the multifarious ways in which the museums were translating prehistoric archaeological objects into narrative, i.e., Temporary Museums (temporary exhibitions) set up during the archaeological societies' annual meetings were important elements in the construction of narratives that were in turn reflected in the permanent museums. Narrative, in this sense, was not confined to text, but it embraced the field of discourse, exhibitions and objects. The second strand explores to whom these prehistoric narratives
were directed. The archaeological society members were the ones who were
running the museums. Prehistoric narratives were regarded as useful knowledge.
Then were the prehistoric narratives concocted for the members' own knowledge
or for the public, at large?
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