Publisher's Synopsis
'. . . for the instruction and recreation of the people'. So ran the nineteenth-century legislation relating to municipal museums. This is the story of how a few museum curators in Britain organized themselves to form the Museums Association in 1889 and how some of their early aspirations were met, often decades later. The Museums Association was the first of is kind in the world. It pioneered the certification of museum training, the development of national standards for computerized cataloguing and the promotion of the museums' educational potential. For a period it also provided information, training and practical assistance for many of the museums in the British Empire and Commonwealth. This is the first history of the Association and Geoffrey Lewis has brought together some fascinating insights into the extent of its activity and the number of successes it achieved.
