Williams College, in Williamstown, MA, has collected art since the mid-19th century. In this chronological journey through American art in all media, each of 56 highlighted objects from the museum receives a mini-essay of several hundred words, signed by contributors who frequently are the acknowledged experts on particular artists or works. A full factual entry on each work appears at the back of the book, preceded by extremely brief summaries of the acquisitions histories of the overall collection's painting, drawing, sculpture, Williams portraits, prints, photographs, posters, and decorative arts. College alumni donated many items, including collections on Rube Goldberg, Thomas Nast, and the Prendergasts. This is not the definitive book on American art, but it is an excellent survey with many interesting objects not commonly reproduced. For art history collections. 64 colour & 65 b/w illustrations

This travel guide describes selected important historical relics,sites and museums in the Baltic Sea region telling the history ofthe Cold War period. There is public access to nearly all the sites included in the book. It covers places such as missile bases, large artillery batteries, secret police prisons, closed military towns, partisan bunkers, execution and burial sites, nuclear bunker complexes, secret printing houses, former Soviet sculptures and architecture along with many of the sites where important events took place, such as demonstrations, freedom struggles etc. The museums described recount the histories of the Berlin Wall, the military build-up in both East and West, the military crises, the terror of Stalin and the Communist secret police, the armed and unarmed resistance in former Soviet countries and its satellite states, the deportations of slave labourers to remote parts of the Soviet Union, the deportations to the GULAG camps and the struggles for freedom from Communist regimes in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany and Russia.

Museums are at a critical moment in their history. In order to ensure survival into the next century, museums and galleries must demonstrate their social relevance and use. This means developing their public service functions through becoming more knowledgeable about the needs of their visitors and more adept at providing enjoyable and worthwhile experiences. Museums and Their Visitors aims to help museums and galleries in this crucial task. It examines the ways in which museums need to develop their communicative functions and, with examples of case-studies, explains how to achieve best practice. The special needs of a number of target audiences including schools, families and people with disabilities are outlined and illustrated by examples of exhibition, education and marketing policies. The book looks in detail at the power of objects to inspire and stimulate and analyses the use of language in museums and galleries. This is the first book to be written to guide museum and gallery staff in the development of provision for their visitors. It will be of interest to students of museum, heritage and leisure and tourism studies, as well as to international museum professionals.

Drawing from a wide range of experience, the authors propose the simple ideas which should underpin all professional museum training courses. Organised on a modular basis Museum Basics provides a basic guide to `best practice' in every aspect of museum work, from museum organisation, through collections management and conservation, to marketing and security. It is designed for training courses, to be supplemented by case studies, project work and group discussion.