Robert Jameson (1774-1854) and the concept of a 'public museum'

Abstract

Attention is drawn to Robert Jameson’s distinction between “the public” and “the working classes” in relation to the audience for the Natural History Museum of the College (later the University of) Edinburgh. This distinction is discussed, together with specific usage of the related term “closed”, in the context of recent theoretical studies on the creation and construction of the public and a public sphere during the nineteenth century