Transferring Sinosphere Knowledge to the Public: James Summers (1828-91) as Printer, Editor and Cataloguer

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-84
Author(s):  
Uganda Sze Pui Kwan
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Book History ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
British History ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
King's College ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Ardent Supporter

Abstract James Summers occupied the professorship of Chinese for two decades at King’s College London. He was also a trailblazer in promoting the study of Japanese culture in Victorian Britain, but he has been an underrated and understudied figure in British history. Summers was an ardent supporter of modern printing. He believed printed media was the most effective medium to transform British perceptions of Asia, which in turn would help support Britain’s foreign political, commercial and missionary enterprise. He also orchestrated the printing of catalogues and journals in his capacity as library assistant to the British Museum and the India Office Library. He even set up his own press to print a newspaper in order to disseminate knowledge of East Asia to a broader readership. Based on primary materials that have rarely been used before, this paper positions Summers in the study of book history, material culture and print mediums in order to reassess his pioneering efforts in Sinological studies.

Corruption and the Public Service Ethos in Mid-Victorian Administration: The Case of Leonard Horner and the Factory Office*

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (575) ◽  
pp. 860-891
Author(s):  
Ian Cawood
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Abstract While the problem of political corruption in mid-nineteenth century Britain has been much studied, the experience of corrupt behaviour in public bodies, both new and long established, is comparatively neglected. This article takes the example of one of the first inspectorates set up after the Great Reform Act, the Factory Office, to examine the extent of corrupt practices in the British civic state and the means whereby it was addressed. It examines the changing processes of appointment, discipline and promotion, the issues of remuneration and venality, and the relationships between inspectors, workers, factory owners, the government and the wider civil service, and the press and public opinion. The article argues that the changing attitudes of the inspectors, especially those of Leonard Horner, were indicative of a developing ‘public service ethos’ in both bureaucratic and cultural settings and that the work of such unsung administrators was one of the agencies through which corrupt behaviour in the civic structures of Victorian Britain was, with public support, challenged. The article concludes that the endogenous reform of bureaucratic practice achieved by the factory inspectorate may even be of equal significance as that which resulted from the celebrated Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854.

scholarly journals MATERIAL TURNS IN BRITISH HISTORY: IV. EMPIRE IN INDIA, CANCEL CULTURES AND THE COUNTRY HOUSE

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Margot C. Finn
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
East India Company ◽  
First Century ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
British History ◽  
Country House ◽  
The Public ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
The Public Sphere

ABSTRACTThis lecture seeks to historicise the so-called cancel culture associated with the ‘culture wars’ waged in Britain in c. 2020. Focusing on empire and on the domestic, British impacts of Georgian-era imperial material cultures, it argues that dominant proponents of these ‘culture wars’ in the public sphere fundamentally distort the British pasts they vociferously claim to preserve and defend. By failing to acknowledge the extent to which eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British men and women themselves contested imperial expansion under the aegis of the East India Company – and decried its impact on British material culture, including iconic stately homes – twenty-first-century exponents of culture wars who rail against the present-day rise of histories of race and empire in the heritage sector themselves erase key layers of British experience. In so doing, they impoverish public understanding of the past.

A JACOBEAN ANTIQUARY REASSESSED: THOMAS LYTE, THE LYTE GENEALOGY AND THE LYTE JEWEL

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 169-205
Author(s):  
Arnold Hunt ◽  
Dora Thornton ◽  
George Dalgleish
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
British Museum ◽  
British History ◽  
Geoffrey Of Monmouth ◽  
British Library ◽  
Lines Of Descent ◽  
New Evidence

This paper discusses two objects once owned by the antiquary Thomas Lyte (1568–1638). The Lyte Genealogy, now in the British Library, is an illustrated pedigree of Britain’s monarchs, tracing the royal succession through multiple lines of descent from the Trojan prince Brute. It demonstrates the importance of antiquarianism, and the continuing relevance of the traditional British history derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth, in supporting the legitimacy of the Stuart succession. The Lyte Jewel, now in the British Museum, is a tablet miniature containing a portrait of Jamesiby Nicholas Hilliard, presented to Thomas Lyte by the king as a reward for his work on the Genealogy. New evidence points to the king’s jeweller, George Heriot, as its likely designer. Together, the Lyte Genealogy and the Lyte Jewel offer new insights into the antiquarian pursuits of the early Stuart gentry and the intellectual and material culture of the Jacobean court.

Vitruvian Character: The Case of the Egyptian Museum

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Khaled Asfour
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Spatial Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
The World

In Vitruvius’ treatise, what makes good architecture is its ability to communicate to the public particular messages that reflects the program of the building with spaces and components arranged in an orderly way. According to Vitruvius these messages when acknowledges by the public the building posses strong character. This research discusses this idea by reflecting on the 1895 competition of the Egyptian Museum project. Marcel Dourgnon, the French architect of the winning scheme, showed profound understanding of character resulting in a building that had positive vibe with the local community.  Today Vitruvius’ idea is still living with us. Norman Foster succeeded in upgrading the British Museum in a way that addressed all cultures of the world through his grand atrium design.  Similarly, Emad Farid and Ramez Azmy revived the presence of the Egyptian Museum in public cognition.  Spatial experience that evokes similar perceptions to all its visitors is a timeless piece that transcends cultural boundaries.

Water Pollution and Its Impact on Environment of Society

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Thyagaraju
Keyword(s):  
Water Pollution ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Biological Entities ◽  
Micro Organisms

The present seminar paper mainly highlight  the concept of  water pollution, causes of water pollution,  Its Effects, Elements of  pollutants, Methods  used to prevent the water pollution in environment  and the mandatory initiatives taken by the concerned authorities for prevention of  water pollution. Water   is essential for survival of all living organisms on the earth. Thus for human beings and plants to survive on land, water should be easily accessible. The term “Pollution” is generally refers to addition of any foreign body either living or non – living or deletion of anything that naturally exists. The basic Sources of Water pollution causes due to Culmination into lakes, rivers, ponds, seas, oceans etc. Domestic drainage and sanitary waste, Industrial drainage and sewage, Industrial waste from factories, Dumping of domestic garbage, Immersion of Idols made of plaster of Paris, Excess use of Insecticides , pesticides, fungicides, Chemical fertilizers, Soil erosion during heavy rains and floods, Natural disasters, tsunami etc. General pollutants  which are also caused for water pollution  which include Organic, Inorganic, and Biological entities, Insecticides, Pesticides, Disinfectants ,Detergents, Industrial solvents, Acids, Ammonia fertilizers, heavy metals, Harmful bacteria, Virus, Micro –Organisms and worms, Toxic chemicals. Agricultural lands become infertile and thereby production also drops, Spread of epidemic diseases like Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid, Diarrhea, Hepatitis, Jaundice etc. The  basic responsibility of the Government, NGOs, National Pioneer scientific Research Institutions may conduct  research oriented programs on control of water pollution by create  awareness among the public through mass media and Environmental Education on recycling units,  and  water treatment plants must be established both at domestic levels and Industry levels, Every citizen must feel responsible to control water pollution. There have been many water pollution prevention acts that have been set up by the governments of the world. But these are not enough for permanent water pollution solutions. Each of us needs to take up the responsibility and do something at an everyday at individual level. Otherwise we can’t survive in a society forever in a future. 

The public's view of public health in mid-Victorian Britain

Urban History ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sigsworth ◽  
Michael Worboys
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Health Reform ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
The Public ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Public Health Reform

What did the public think about public health reform in mid-Victorian Britain? Historians have had a lot to say about the sanitary mentality and actions of the middle class, yet have been strangely silent about the ideas and behaviour of the working class, who were the great majority of the public and the group whose health was mainly in question. Perhaps there is nothing to say. The working class were commonly referred to as ‘the Great Unwashed’, purportedly ignorant and indifferent on matters of personal hygiene, environmental sanitation and hence health. Indeed, the writings of reformers imply that the working class simply did not have a sanitary mentality. However, the views of sanitary campaigners should not be taken at face value. Often propaganda and always one class's perception of another, in the context of the social apartheid in Britain's cities in the mid-nineteenth century, sanitary campaigners' views probably reveal more about middle-class anxieties than the actual social and physical conditions of the poor. None the less many historians still use such material to portray working-class life, but few have gone on to ask how public health reform was seen and experienced ‘from below’. Historians of public health have tended to portray the urban working class as passive victims who were rescued by enlightened middle-class reformers. This seems to be borne out at the political level where, unlike with other popular movements of the 1840s and after, there is little evidence of working-class participation in, or support for, the public health movement.

scholarly journals Astronomy to understand a human environment

1998 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 211-213
Author(s):  
S. Isobe
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Set Up ◽  
School Period

Astronomy is an important science in understanding a human environment. However, it is thought by most politicians, economists, and members of the public that astronomy is a pure science having no contribution to daily human activities except a few matters relating to time. The Japanese government is studying a reorganisation of our school system to have 5 school days per week, instead of 6 days per week, and this July its committee made a recommendation to reduce school hours for science and set up new courses for practical computers and environmental science. I currently made a proposal. It is very difficult for most of the school pupils, who will have non-scientific jobs, to understand science courses currently taught in school, because each science is taught independently from the other sciences. Therefore, their knowledge of sciences obtained during their school period does not greatly help their understanding of global environmental problems.

“Mummymania”:mummies,museums and popular culture

1970 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmine Day
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Museum Visitors ◽  
Archaeological Ethics ◽  
The Public ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
Ancient Egyptian ◽  
Anthropological Study

This lecture presents the major findings of the first anthropological study of British and American “mummymania”, the public fascination with ancient Egyptian mummies, and its associated myth, the mummy’s curse: a belief that those who interfere with Egyptian tombs will be punished. The study incorporates museum-based field research, textual sources, film analysis and material culture studies. Originally lay critiques of archaeological ethics, curses were appropriated by the mass media, which reduced public sympathy for them by associating them with evil living mummy characters. Fictional mummies? abject traits later came to symbolise old age, decay, pollution, death and differencenegative concepts with which museum visitors now associate real mummies. Museum displays inadvertently remind visitors of stereotypes and museums may exploit stereotypes for profit or employ staff who elaborate curse myths. In my view, museums could do more to counter stereotyping by addressing visitors? predisposition to regard mummies with abhorrence and derision.

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