Strong, Felicity
Museen – Orte des Authentischen? Museums – Places of Authenticity?
Museums, but also memorials and cultural heritage sites as well as archives and libraries are the guardians, preservers and labelling institutions of "authentic things" and in many respects at the same time "places of authenticity". Especially against the background of the rapidly developing digital possibilities, they are thus important instances with the claim to preserve and convey the "real" and the "true". This publication provides an insight into the breadth of the discussion on the topos "authenticity" in museums and cultural heritage.
The Volume is based on a series of international conferences of the Leibniz Research Alliance Historical Authenticity, which took place at the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum in Mainz and at the University of Cambridge between 2016 and 2019. It also takes up the discussion of previous publications of the Research Alliance.
56 Authors describe from the most diverse disciplinary perspectives in 43 comprehensive contributions and on the basis of selected case studies the most diverse dimensions of the examination of the phenomenon "authenticity" in collection, research, conservation, restoration, exhibition, learning and virtual presentation. The "types of museums" covered range from natural history- to technical-, art-, university-, research- and biographical museums. But they also go beyond this by including other collecting institutions such as libraries and archives.
The contributions are written in German or English as well as contain summaries in each of these languages. The publication is also available as Open Access e-publication.
