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Stories

  • Article

The birth of the public museum

The first public museums evolved from wealthy collectors’ cabinets of curiosities and were quickly recognised as useful vehicles for culture.

  • Article

A symbol of a lost homeland

The story of one protective amulet from Palestine reveals a complex tale. Encompassing the personal history of an influential doctor and collector, it provides a window onto dispossession and exile, and the painful repercussions that are still felt today.

  • Article

Why the 1918 Spanish flu defied both memory and imagination

The Black Death, AIDS and Ebola outbreaks are part of our collective cultural memory, but the Spanish flu outbreak has not been.

  • Article

Louis Wain’s cryptic cats

Once famous for his quirky cat illustrations, today Louis Wain is often portrayed as a ‘psychotic’ artist whose illness can be mapped out through his drawings. Here Bryony Benge-Abbott takes a more rounded view.

All stories (10)

Images

  • A modern block of flats contrasted with a row of unhealthy terrace houses. Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1942.
  • Medical facilities available at a modern health centre contrasted with ill health in old-fashioned housing. Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1942.
  • Medical facilities available at a modern health centre contrasted with ill health in old-fashioned housing. Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1942.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • John Heaviside. Coloured mezzotint by R. Earlom, 1803, after J. Zoffany.
  • John Heaviside. Coloured mezzotint by R. Earlom, 1803, after J. Zoffany.
  • John Heaviside. Mezzotint by R. Earlom, 1803, after J. Zoffany.
  • A horse trotting. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887.
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Catalogue

All works (146)