Museum History

London, 1895. Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton have been hired by the Natural History Museum to find out who deliberately smashed the fossilised skeleton of a small dinosaur. At first Daniel is reluctant to take the case, pointing out that they deal in murders, not vandalism. But then one of the attendants in the dinosaur room is murdered, his body found tied to a dinosaur skeleton and a note pinned to him saying 'The price of betrayal'. As Daniel and Abigail investigate, they must negotiate a web of legal and professional tensions.

The must-read exploration of the earliest human ghost stories from leading expert Irvine Finkel, author of The Ark Before Noah 'It's enthralling stuff, mixing the scholarly with the accessible and placing storytelling right at the heart of the human experience.' - History Revealed There are few...

Capitol City's Natural History Museum is haunted—or at least that's what someone wants people to think. But Wilson Kipper, son of the museum's head paleontologist, knows better. When the mysterious occurrences go from spooky to dangerous, the museum is forced to close its doors. Can Wilson and his friends get to the bottom of things, or will the Natural History Museum be closed for good?

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient...

Bloomsbury presents The History of Art in One Sentence written and read by Verity Babbs, with Dom O'Keefe. With an exclusive bonus chapter only in audio and some extra content with the author herself! What’s so special about Dutch paintings of cheese? When does Art Nouveau become Art Deco? Why...

Spanning a million years of history, the mysteries in this book include fabled relics, legendary cities, mythical species, and undeciphered languages that have bedeviled seekers for centuries.

“This daughter of Mary Shelley delights and excites the border between story and science.”―Samantha Hunt “A novel about what we want and also what we can’t escape.”―Allegra Hyde “A haunting chord of a novel that will hang in the air long after you turn the final page...

This collection contains: Twelve Years a Slave, Up from Slavery, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, The Life of an American Slave (Fifty Years in Chains), The Experience of Rev. Thomas H. Jones, Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave, From Log Cabin to the Pulpit, and many more.

Brought to you by Penguin. A quirky, joyful queer love story about a lonely museum worker who falls in love with a statue of Venus Rika Horauchi’s new part-time job is to converse with a statue of Venus – in Latin – every Monday, when the museum is closed. Initially reluctant, Rika starts...

The sea is the largest museum on earth, with more than a million lost ships resting in its depths. Those shipwrecks date back thousands of years, some from civilizations long vanished, others from more recent history. Some are famous, others obscure and unremembered but each has a story to tell. In The Great Museum of the Sea, archaeologist, museum director, television host, journalist, and award-winning author James Delgado takes the listener on a personal tour of the world's wrecks, including many of the more than a hundred lost ships he has personally discovered and investigated.

Jennifer Chiaverini’s beloved and bestselling Elm Creek Quilts series returns with the first Elm Creek Quilts novel since 2019’s The Christmas Boutique. Summer Sullivan, the youngest founding member of Elm Creek Quilts, has spent the last two years pursuing a master’s degree in history at...

A fascinating biography of the philanthropist Albert Barnes, whose pioneering collection of modern art was meant to transform America’s soul From prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new art collector biography of America’s first great collector of modern art...

Escape into this hugely enjoyable, big-hearted and beautifully written novel, set in Vallerosa, a European country you’ve never heard of before. FIND YOURSELF IN VALLEROSA, A PLACE LOST IN TIME Vallerosa is every tourist’s dream – a tiny, picturesque country surrounded by lush valleys and...

The British Museum devoted itself to acquiring historical artifacts that showcased the influence and prestige of the British Empire, as well as the facilities in which to house them, surviving wars, financial challenges, controversies, and political pressures. In the process, it became one of the British Empire’s greatest cultural jewels, and to this day, it holds the distinctions of being the world’s first national public museum and the most venerated museum of its kind in Britain.

Catherine the Great ushered in the Russian Enlightenment. She had an unmatched passion for the arts, and she began a private art collection that would eventually evolve into galleries upon galleries of historical treasures shipped in from all over the world. This fabled museum was none other than the Hermitage, located in the heart of Saint Petersburg, a city founded by the imperial empire's very own Peter the Great.

On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum's castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last—disaster to upend a museum in the United States. The Museum explores the concepts of "crisis" as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. 

Art looting is commonly recognized as a central feature of Nazi expropriation. After the war, the famed Monuments Men (and women) recovered several hundred thousand pieces from the Germans' makeshift repositories. Well-publicized restitution cases, such as that of Gustav Klimt's luminous painting featured in the film Woman in Gold, illustrate the legacy of Nazi looting in the art world today. But what happened to looted art that was never returned to its rightful owners?

The fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial residence of the kings of France and then into the world's greatest art museum.

"A yearning rush that builds into a full tidal wave of desire." —Stephanie Perkins, New York Times-bestselling author of Overdue and Anna and the French Kiss DELUXE EDITION featuring printed edges! Tonight, inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art—somewhere between the hours of 8 PM and 5...

A never-before-published Dr. Seuss book about creating and looking at art! Based on a manuscript and sketches discovered in 2013, this audiobook is like a visit to a museum—with a horse as your guide! Explore how different artists—including Picasso, George Stubbs, Rosa Bonheur...