Museum period rooms for the twenty-first century: salvaging ambition

Abstract

In the late twentieth century, many museums dismantled and disposed of their period rooms. Current trends, however, reveal a revival, driven by the popularity of historic interiors with the public, by the desire of museums to attract new audiences and by their need to address questions of local, social and national identity. Recent initiatives are proving controversial. This article surveys recent developments and provides a rationale for evaluating the role and merits of surviving period rooms. Further, it points to the scholarly potential of period rooms today when presented and interpreted, not as decorative arts displays or as local history narratives (or as confusing combinations of both approaches), but through the broader cross-disciplinary context of material culture studies. It calls for greater awareness of the underlying social values that each period room promotes.

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