Libraries and Archives

Author(s):  
Mattias Lundberg

Collecting, cataloguing, and archival practices became much more systematic in the nineteenth century, which was representative of significant scholarly networks. Focusing on the holdings of some important nineteenth-century institutions, along with some well-known collectors of the period (François-Joseph Fétis in Brussels, Giuseppe Baini in Rome, and Karl Proske in Regensburg), as well as unfamiliar figures such as William Horsley in London and Pehr Frigel in Stockholm, this chapter highlights a range of concepts that underpinned collectors’ strategies. Drawing on Raphael Kiesewetter’s 1834 categorization of collecting practices, notions of the “ancient,” the “obsolete,” and the “curious” are discussed, and tensions are highlighted between the ideas of completism and of canonicity. Additionally, Aleida Assmann’s work on “cultural memory” allows us to reconsider the “latency” of archival materials, along with the accessibility of such items within nineteenth-century culture.

Author(s):  
Nele Bemong

Between 1830 and 1850, practically out of nowhere there came into beinga truly 'Belgian' literature, written boch in Flemish and in French, but aimedat a single goal: the creation of a Belgian past and the conscruction of aBelgian national identity. The historical novel played a crucial role in thisconscruction and representation of a collective memory for the Belgian statejust out of the cradle. The prefaces to these historical novels are characterizedboth by the central role granted to the representacion of Flanders as the cradleof nineteenth-century Belgium, and by the organically and religiously inspiredimagery. Attempts were made to create an intimate genealogical relationshipwith the forefathers, in order to make the Belgian citizens feel closer to theirrich heritage. Through the activation of specific recollections from theimmense archive of the collective cultural memory, Belgian independencefound its legitimization both towards the international community andtowards the Belgian people.


2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Mehl

AbstractObara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977), the founder of Tamagawa Gakuen, and Matsumae Shigeyoshi (1901–1991), the founder of Tôkai Educational System (TES), were both inspired by Denmark and Danish education, although in different ways. Obara, a representative of the New Education Movement in Japan, became interested in Denmark when he heard about Danish gymnastics, which seemed to be ideally suited to his vision of rigorous but non-competitive physical education. In 1931, two years after founding his own school, he succeeded in inviting the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh and a group of his students to Japan. The interest in gymnastics sparked off a wider interest in Denmark. Matsumae Shigeyoshi's attention was drawn to Denmark and to the Danish folk high schools as a result of his encounter with Uchimura Kanzô. Although not an educator by training, he decided to devote his life to education. This article explores the role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae. Although they uncritically accepted a Danish cultural memory (Denmark's recovery from military defeat in the nineteenth century through spiritual strength and education) and cultivated a stereotypical image, the adaptation of this image to suit their own needs represents a highly creative process which resulted in two successful private schools.


1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDWARD TANG

With how little cooperation of the societies after all is the past remembered – At first history had no muse – but a kind fate watched over her – some garrulous old man with tenacious memory told it to his child.Henry David Thoreau,Journals (1842)In 1823, something of the bittersweet occurred in Cranston, Rhode Island: an aged revolutionary war veteran returned to his hometown after a prolonged exile in England. Hopeful about reuniting with his family and community after an absence of nearly fifty years, the old soldier was surprised and disappointed to learn that his property had been sold, his family had moved west, and few among the remaining villagers even remembered who he was. Such is the story of one Israel Potter. An adventurous fellow, he had fought at the battle near Bunker Hill, had met Benjamin Franklin, and, after being captured by the British, had roamed England after the war, continually poverty-stricken, while searching for a passage back to America. Once returned to Cranston, he applied for a federal pension for his wartime services. In all probability, Potter never received any financial compensation, but he left a narrative of his life, reminding his readers that at one point in the republic's history, he did matter.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-207
Author(s):  
Samet Budak

Abstract This article traces the history of an Ottoman legal custom related to the construction of sultanic (imperial) mosques. According to conventional narratives, the victory over non-Muslims was the essential requisite for constructing a sultanic mosque. Only after having emerged victorious should a sultan use the funds resulting from holy war to build his own mosque. This article argues that this custom emerged only after the late sixteenth century in tandem with rising complaints about the Ottoman decline and with the ḳānūn-consciousness of the Ottoman elite, although historical accounts present it as if it existed from the beginning of Ottoman rule. It rapidly gained importance, so much so that the Sultan Ahmed Mosque was dubbed “the unbeliever’s mosque” by contemporary ulema. After having examined details of the custom’s canonization, the article deals with how it left its imprint in construction activities (struggles and workarounds), historical sources, literature, and cultural memory, up to the nineteenth century.


2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Link ◽  
Mark W. Hornburg

AbstractThis article analyzes the interplay between Nazi cultural politics and regional identity in the Palatinate region of Germany through the lens of the Ludwig Siebert program. Created by Bavarian Minister-President Ludwig Siebert in the early 1930s to stimulate the regional construction industry, this program involved the conservation of medieval castles and ruins in Bavaria and the Palatinate. The renovation of these monuments, which had been central to the cultural memory and identity of Pfälzers since at least the nineteenth century, proved to be effective in mobilizing the local populace for Siebert's aims and, consequently, for the goals of the Nazi regime. Because its melding of cultural politics and regional identity helped to stabilize the regime in the Palatinate during its early years, the Siebert program provides a particularly illustrative microhistorical case study of the Nazi regime's mechanisms for creating the Volksgemeinschaft in the provinces. By focusing on the Palatinate town of Annweiler, which sits at the foot of the storied Trifels castle, a favored renovation project of Siebert's, this article offers a closely observed demonstration of these mechanisms at work.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-314
Author(s):  
KORNÉLIA DERES

The paper focuses on the methodological challenges of handling the material remains of banned theatre practices in Cold War Hungary. Focusing on the case of the collective Apartment Theatre (1972–6), it examines the relation of material remains, originally created by or for the socialist authorities in order to prove the danger caused by the collective, and the materials which were created by the group members as a countermovement to preserve their own memories and narratives. Consequently, archival practices of care as well as archival practices of suspicion together contribute to situating the collective in Hungarian and European cultural memory and theatre history.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Jill Buckland

In late Victorian and Edwardian England, there existed in performance and in popular historical imagination, a cultural memory of the nation's ancient dances. This national repertoire had largely been constructed through nineteenth-century romantic imagery of ‘olde’ and ‘merrie’ England and appeared across a wide variety of genres and contexts. Alongside the morris, country and maypole dances were courtly dances such as the minuet and gavotte which were fashionable at costume balls, salons and on the stage. These dances were also taught to children of the middle and lower classes as a means of embodying what were regarded as earlier more civilised ways of moving and social interaction, as well as celebrating and engendering a vision of England as happy and communal. This article explores this fascination with England's so-called ancient dances, in particular, the Victorian rococo minuet, as a historically and socially situated manifestation of cultural memory. It raises issues of dance and nationalism, the transmission of fashionable dances across country and class, the recycling of dance imagery and practice, and the trend towards authentication in the revival of dances for popular consumption.


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