Creating the V&A: Victoria And Albert's Museum (1851–1861) (V&A 19th-Century Series) - Hardcover

Bryant, Julius

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848223498 ISBN 13: 9781848223493

Publisher: Lund Humphries, 2019

Synopsis

Creating the V&A tells the definitive story of the formative years of London’s world renowned Victoria and Albert Museum and the gathering of its early collections in the decade between the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the death of Prince Albert in 1861. The story of the V&A’s genesis is often centered on the first director and first curator (Henry Cole and J. C. Robinson), and their competing agendas for design reform and connoisseurship. And yet there is an untold story of how the young royal couple for whom it is named were highly instrumental in the establishment of the museum, as public supporters and large-scale lenders before a permanent collection was in place. The book is also full of fascinating and colorful stories of the strategies deployed to harvest treasures on the market as the young museum sought to fill its rapidly expanding buildings and compete with the British Museum and the Crystal Palace. For anyone interested in the history of collecting and curating, and for all fans of this legendary London museum, Creating the V&A explains how the foundational collections established parameters which still inform the museum’s collecting policies, role, and identity today.

About this title

About the Author

Julius Bryant is Keeper of Word and Image at the Victoria and Albert Museum and author of Designing the V&A: The Museum as a Work of Art (1857–1909) (Lund Humphries, 2017).

About this edition

• Publisher: Lund Humphries
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1848223498
• ISBN 13: 9781848223493
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176