Making space for models: (re)presenting engineering in Scotland’s national museum, 1854–present

2016/01/02 by Klaus Staubermann, Geoffrey N. Swinney · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation #Museums and Cultural Heritage #3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage

paper · doi:10.1080/17581206.2015.1119483

openalex publication_date 2016/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

The model-making practices and the role of engineering models on display within a British (and since 1999 Scottish) Government-funded, ‘national’, museum are examined. The changing curatorial perceptions of models and their role over the 160-year history of the Museum are analysed, as are the spaces in which, and the processes by which, objects were translated and re-scaled into model form. Particular attention is focused on the Museum’s claims to ‘authenticity’, ‘authority’, ‘credibility’ and ‘realism’ in relation to models.

Cited by

• George Wilson's Map of Technology: Giving Shape to the ‘industrial arts’ in Mid-nineteenth-century Edinburgh
• National Museum of Scotland [wikipedia]

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