Author: Nicky Levell

Publisher: Horniman Museum Publications

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13:

"Through the biography of Frederick John Horniman (1835-1906), a Victorian traveller, collector, and Museum founder, this work critically reconstructs and explores the dynamic cultural network of individuals and institutions; touristic and collecting practices; textual and exhibitionary media, which interacted and generated images of the exotic Orient. Starting in the leafy suburbs of south London, this study begins by examining the afterlife of the world renowned Crystal Palace, which had housed the world's first Great Exhibition. Following its move from Hyde Park to Sydenham in the mid-1850s, this immense glass structure soon became a popular tourist destination, attracting more than a million visitors every year and transforming its once isolated rural surrounds into fashionable residential areas. Levell specifically focuses on the powerful, though selective, representations of the distant Orient at the People's Palace, which enchanted Victorian sightseers, artists, collectors, and travellers. She then looks in detail at the spectacular displays of the British Empire's 'Eastern Possessions' at the hugely popular Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in South Kensington. Together these two exhibitionary complexes, with their visually striking images of the Orient, guided Frederick Horniman's travels and also influenced the type of material that he acquired for his private Museum, which was located in Forest Hill, a short distance from the Crystal Palace. From exhibitions and collections, this monograph then moves on to explore travel and collecting. Drawing on the journal that Frederick Horniman kept during his world tours, a fascinating and richly illustrated account is given of the Victorian tourist's travels in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Japan, China, Burma (Union of Myanmar), and Egypt, describing the places he visited, the peoples he encountered, and the objects he collected. Finally, attention is turned to the extensive oriental collections, which were assembled by Horniman over a forty-year period, and placed on public display in his twenty-four room Museum. In their museal setting, these exhibits, which had been acquired from dealers, auction houses, international exhibitions, missionaries, travellers, and colonial officials, both at home and abroad, conjured up striking and alluring visions of the Orient." -- Provided by publisher.