Alexander brings to life the stories of twelve ambitious leaders from the United States and Europe who helped shape the future of the museum world.

In 1979, Edward P. Alexander's Museums in Motion was hailed as a much-needed addition to the museum literature. In combining the history of museums since the eighteenth century with a detailed examination of the function of museums and museum workers in modern society, it served as an essential resource for those seeking to enter to the museum profession and for established professionals looking for an expanded understanding of their own discipline. Now, Mary Alexander has produced a newly revised edition of the classic text, bringing it the twenty-first century with coverage of emerging trends, resources, and challenges. New material also includes a discussion of the children's museum as a distinct type of institution and an exploration of the role computers play in both outreach and traditional in-person visits.

Here is a complete introduction to the history of museums, types of museums, and the key roles that museums play in the twenty-first century. Following an introductory chapter looking at what a museum is today, Part I looks at the history and types of museums: art and design museums natural history and anthropology museums science museums history museums, historic houses, interpretation centers, and heritage sites botanical gardens and zoos children’s museums The second part of the book explores the primary functions of museums and museum professionals: to collect to conserve to exhibit to interpret and to engage to serve and to act The final chapter looks at the museum profession and professional practices. Throughout, emphasis is on museums in the United States, although attention is paid to the historical framing of museums within the European context. The new edition includes discussions of technology, access, and inclusivity woven into each chapter, a list of challenges and opportunities in each chapter, and “Museums in Motion Today,” vignettes spread throughout the volume in which museum professionals provide their perspectives on where museums are now and where they are going. More than 140 images illustrate the volume.

This new volume tells the story of some of the paintings rescued by the the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) organization, the so-called "Monuments Men." In December 1945, 202 paintings, found in German salt mines 2,100 feet underground, where they had been hidden to escape the allied bombing of Berlin, were brought to the United States "for safe keeping" by the Department of the Army. They were exhibited in 1948 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, before some of them were sent on a whistle-stop tour of 13 US cities, despite furious opposition from museum directors, Gallery staff, the public, government officials, and a resolution from 98 leading art authorities demanding the immediate return of the works to Germany. All the paintings, examples of Flemish, Dutch, German, French, English, and Italian Schools, were from museums in Berlin, and had been found in April 1945, along with 100 tons of Reichsbank gold, by the special team of art historians and experts, seconded in the US army, and charged with locating and restituting works of art looted by the Nazis. This book is the first to consider the paintings themselves; it features 22 artworks that were in the original NGA exhibition, including four paintings on loan from Berlin, augmented by others from Cincinnati Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The Getty Museum, Miami University (Oxford, OH), and the Taft Museum.

New edition of Greenfield's pioneering study about the legal, political and historical aspects of cultural restitution.