Digital is hot! Nowadays nearly everything and everyone is online. Within public history digitalisation seems to be the new fancy plaything, which is used more frequently. Many museums and archives started to create digital catalogue that showcase their objects. During the research for my Bachelor’s thesis last year, which was about the representation of Ganymede’s […]
To each their own historic walking tour?
Recently, I moved to Amsterdam and, so far, I don’t know my neighborhood very well. So I thought it was high time get to know my nearest environs. What could be more suitable than a walking tour through my district? After a quick search on the internet, I was sure: I was going to go […]
The overestimated value of digitization
Walking through the corridors and rooms of the Museum Volkenkunde gives you the feeling you just entered a whole different world. Exhibitions about Australian artworks and Indonesian bronzes at the one hand, and exhibitions about pilgrimages to Mecca at the other hand: every corner of our world is exhibited in this museum. On its website, […]
The “New” Muralists and “Melted” Identities
As a Greek native, my knowledge about Latino and Latin American identities was quite limited; hence I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to read the “Brokering Identities” article by Mari Carmen Ramirez. When I finished reading it, the first thing that came to my mind was a discussion I had one […]
Selling Nations. Culture as big business.
Imagine that the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum decide to loan their most valuable pieces to some museums in the USA. Its sounds crazy but apparently this things happen. Countries like Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia are so desperate for better connections within the USA, that they are willing to send their finest pieces, along […]
The Tropenmuseum: Coming to Terms with the Colonial Past?
Last week, the exhibition ‘Heden van het slavernijverleden’ (‘Afterlives of Slavery’) opened in the Tropenmuseum. On the website it says that: ‘The exhibition places the enslaved and their descendants on center stage. To initiate a sometimes difficult but productive dialogue, the Tropenmuseum has sought out personal stories from past and present that bring the history […]
Humanity studies in History and Art need more student diversity
In the book Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe. Peoples, Places and Identities (edited by Christopher Whitehead et al., 2015) curator Annemarie de Wildt writes about multiculturalism and diversity issues in the Amsterdam Museum. She takes the reader through the history of the museum which has its roots in the twenties of the last century. […]
Body for Sale: Normalizing prostitution.
In her article ‘Red lights in the Museum’ Annemarie de Wildt (curator of the Amsterdam Museum) describes the exhibition ‘Love for Sale’, which ran in the Amsterdam Museum in 2002.[1] This unconventional subject seemed like an inevitable choice for the Amsterdam Museum, since Amsterdam has a long history with prostitution and is now well known […]
Happy History! Erasure of the uncomfortable past
Recently, there has been discussion in the United States about the vast amount of confederate statues. Some of those have been torn down, which caused great resistance from people who consider it a part of American history that should not be taken away from them. This week John Oliver dedicated an entire episode of his […]
Who is the author of history? The white master as the author of black history.
By, Natalia Martínez Alcalde As museologists, historians, people who dedicate their life to the representation, edification, instruction of human past and, therefore, the construction of contemporary individual and social identities, there is a fundamental question we need to keep in mind: Who is the author of history? “History does not have an author.” You might […]