
Mining in the Museum
Mineral Technology on Display in American History
Eric C. Nystrom(Author)
University of Massachusetts Press
Will be published approx. on 12. January 2027
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-62534-980-4 (ISBN)
Description
Examining 150 years of mining and mineral technology exhibits at the Smithsonian
Buried deep underground or cut into remote landscapes, mines are often dirty, dark, and dangerous places, located far from the everyday urban spaces that most Americans call home. Yet mining is foundational to the making of the United States, supplying the raw materials that built its infrastructure, powered its industries, and shaped its scientific institutions, even as the work itself has remained physically removed, technically complex, and culturally overlooked. Mining in the Museum reveals how Americans have encountered this vital industry not at the distant mine face, but in museum galleries. Tracing more than 150 years of mining and mineral technology exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Eric C. Nystrom shows how curators transformed ore, instruments, models, and machinery into stories about progress, innovation, and national development, and how those interpretive choices shaped what the nation remembers-and forgets-about mining.
Using mining collections as a lens into institutional change, Nystrom offers a new history of the Smithsonian and its United States National Museum, examining how curators, administrators, and policymakers debated what museums were for, which kinds of knowledge they should produce, and what objects deserved display. He follows the shifting fortunes of mineral and mining exhibits across world's fairs, scientific surveys, and changing exhibition philosophies, showing how display strategies evolved alongside professional science and public education. As mining's place in the national imagination changed, so too did its presence in the federal museum, moving from a central scientific and technological showcase to a subject increasingly preserved by regional and local institutions closer to mining communities themselves. Grounded in extensive archival research, Mining in the Museum illuminates the evolving relationship among technology, public history, and the politics of display, demonstrating how museums help define which industries, and which kinds of work, become part of the American story.
Buried deep underground or cut into remote landscapes, mines are often dirty, dark, and dangerous places, located far from the everyday urban spaces that most Americans call home. Yet mining is foundational to the making of the United States, supplying the raw materials that built its infrastructure, powered its industries, and shaped its scientific institutions, even as the work itself has remained physically removed, technically complex, and culturally overlooked. Mining in the Museum reveals how Americans have encountered this vital industry not at the distant mine face, but in museum galleries. Tracing more than 150 years of mining and mineral technology exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, Eric C. Nystrom shows how curators transformed ore, instruments, models, and machinery into stories about progress, innovation, and national development, and how those interpretive choices shaped what the nation remembers-and forgets-about mining.
Using mining collections as a lens into institutional change, Nystrom offers a new history of the Smithsonian and its United States National Museum, examining how curators, administrators, and policymakers debated what museums were for, which kinds of knowledge they should produce, and what objects deserved display. He follows the shifting fortunes of mineral and mining exhibits across world's fairs, scientific surveys, and changing exhibition philosophies, showing how display strategies evolved alongside professional science and public education. As mining's place in the national imagination changed, so too did its presence in the federal museum, moving from a central scientific and technological showcase to a subject increasingly preserved by regional and local institutions closer to mining communities themselves. Grounded in extensive archival research, Mining in the Museum illuminates the evolving relationship among technology, public history, and the politics of display, demonstrating how museums help define which industries, and which kinds of work, become part of the American story.
Reviews / Votes
"Mining in the Museum's great value is its detailed description of curatorial work, especially collecting work, and its documentation of an alternative history of museums that understands them in their own terms. It is nicely written, well organized, and easy to read, with remarkable archival sources."-Steven Lubar, author of Inside the Lost Museum: Curating, Past and Present"A major contribution that will find a wide audience, Mining in the Museum is the first work that uses the Smithsonian to probe how we as a nation think about the mining and mineral industry in American life."-Mark Hendrickson, author of American Labor and Economic Citizenship: New Capitalism from World War I to the Great Depression
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Massachusetts
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
35 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-62534-980-4 (9781625349804)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Eric C. Nystrom is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nevada Reno.