The 'Lost' Museum: the rise and fall of the British Empire in objects

关键假设：RUSI博物馆的发展和衰落清楚地展示了一种特殊的、半授权的阅读大英帝国历史的方式，从18世纪末到20世纪60年代帝国解体。RUSI博物馆，1831-1962年，是一个“失落”的博物馆，其藏品在国内和国际博物馆和私人收藏品中留下了“幽灵”的存在。它作为档案记录或影子保存在RUSI的遗产和遗产中。如上所述，我的主要方法是质疑我的假设，即RUSI博物馆的发展和衰落反映了大英帝国从18世纪末到帝国解体的历史，因为不列颠殖民地要求它们独立。这个假设是我在RUSI的策展实践和我对RUSI档案的研究形成的。首先，为图书馆和信息历史小组以及博物馆和美术馆历史小组2018年会议介绍了研究所的历史及其收藏的论文。在这些会议上，其他与会者的感兴趣的回应，以及我经常收到的关于博物馆藏品的询问，表明了人们对这座失落的博物馆的历史的持续兴趣。它几乎具有神话般的地位，因此在销售目录中将其引用到物品的来源中，即使不是经济上的价值，也会增加显著的文化价值。

Key hypothesis: the development and decline of the RUSI Museum articulates a particular, semi-authorised reading of British imperial history from the late eighteenth century to the empire's dissolution in the 1960s.The RUSI Museum, 1831-1962, is a 'lost' museum with collections that have left their 'ghostly' presence across national and international museums and private collections. It survives as an archival record, or shadow, in the heritage and legacy of RUSI. My key approach, as outlined above, is to interrogate my hypothesis that the development and decline of the RUSI Museum reflects British imperial history from the late eighteenth century to the dissolution of empire as British colonies demanded their independence.This hypothesis has been formed through my curatorial practice at RUSI and my research in the RUSI archives. This began with the presentation of papers on the Institute's history, and its collections, for the Library and Information History Group and the Museum and Galleries History Group conferences of 2018. The interested responses from other participants at these conferences, along with the regular influx of enquiries I receive about objects that were held in the museum, demonstrates an ongoing interest in the history of the 'lost' museum. It has almost mythic status, so that citing it in an object's provenance in a sales catalogue adds significant cultural, if not financial, value.