The Temple and the Forum: American Museum and Cultural Authority in Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, and Whitman

The rise of the museum as a cultural institution in 19th-century America brought with it many contested notions—of what artifacts merited preservation or display and the role of museums in public life and the cultural marketplace. In The Temple and the Forum, Les Harrison excavates the shared concerns and practices of 19th-century American museums and the literary produc...