Measuring Learning Outcomes in Museums,Archives and Libraries: The Learning Impact Research Project (LIRP)

There has been legislation in place since the 1970s in Canada's largest province, Ontario, that encourages the identification of significant heritage buildings and is supposed to provide them with at least a degree of protection. Both heritage recognition and most other land use decisions, however, are exercised at the local government level. W'hile conservation of heritage structures has been successful in some places, an alarming number of significant historic buildings in the province continue to be lost. Relying on dozens of volunteers, this study examined thousands of buildings in over twenty Ontario communities and sought to establish how many heritage buildings had been demolished and to determine why these losses were occurring. It was discovered that in the municipalities surveyed over 400 historically recognised buildings had been lost in the last sixteen years. Recommendations for how to deal with this problem are included in the study.     

Reviews

Douglas Crimp, On the Museum's Ruins (with photographs by Louise Lawler), Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 1993. xx + 348 pp., 110 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–262–03209–0. £24.95.

Clarissa Campbell Orr (ed.), Women in the Victorian Art World, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995. xiv + 208 pp., 1 fig., 29 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7190–4123–6. £14.99.

Diana Ketcham, Le Désert de Retz, Cambridge, Mass. & London: The MIT Press, 1994. vii + 135 pp., 99 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–262–11186–1. £35.95.

Anthony & Patricia Wylson, Theme Parks, Leisure Centres, Zoos and Aquaria, London: Longman, 1994. 183 pp., 107 figs., 109 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–582–099285. £60.00.

David Lambert, Peter Goodchild, & Judith Roberts, Researching a Garden's History: A Guide to Documentary and Published Sources, Reigate: Landscape Design Trust, in association with Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, 1995. 28 pp. 12 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–9518377–0–2. £6.00.

Mike Sixsmith (ed.), Touring Exhibitions: The Touring Exhibitions Group's Manual of Good Practice, Oxford: Butterworth‐Heinemann, 1995. xviii + 237 pp., ISBN 0–7506–2518‐x. £35.00.

Richard Harrison (ed.), Manual of Heritage Management, Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann and the Association of Independent Museums, 1994. xiii + 425 pp. ISBN 0–7506–0822–6. £65.00.

J. M. Fladmark (ed.), Sharing the Earth : Local Identity in Global Culture, London: Donhead, 1995. xviii + 381 pp., 70 b. & w. illus. ISBN 1–873394–19–5. £37.00.

Gary Edson and David Dean, The Handbook for Museums, London and New York: Routledge, 1994. xvi + 302 pp. ISBN 0–415–09952–8. £27.50.

Michael Wheeler (ed.), Ruskin and Environment: The Storm‐Cloud of the Nineteenth Century, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1995. x + 202 pp., 7 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7190–4377–8. £40.00.

M. D. Anderson, History and Imagery in British Churches, London: John Murray, [1971], 1995. xxiv + 291 pp., 1 map, 18 figs., 93 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7195–5414–4. £15.99.

Chris Brooks & Andrew Saint (eds.), The Victorian Church. Architecture and Society, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995. xii + 228 pp., 82 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–7190–4020–5. £16.99.

M. Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments, Cambridge, Mass., and London: The MIT Press, 1994. xii + 560 pp., 65 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–262–02371–7. £34.95.

John Glasson, Kerry Godfrey, Brian Goodey, Helen Absalom, & Jan Van der Borg, Towards Visitor Impact Management, Aldershot: Avebury, 1995. xii + 189 pp. ISBN 1–85972–054–4. £35.00.

Ann Bermingham & John Brewer (eds.), The Consumption of Culture 1600–1800. Image, Object, Text, London & New York: Routledge, 1995. xvi + 548 pp., 111 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–415–12135–5. £120.00.

B. W. Clapp An Environmental History of Britain since the Industrial Revolution, London and New York: Longman, 1994. 268 pp., 2 maps, 12 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–582–22626–0. £12.99.

Eilean Hooper‐Greenhill, Museum, Media, Message, London and New York: Routledge, 1995. xvi + 299 pp., 23 b. & w. illus. ISBN 0–415–11672–4. £40.00.

A. Davey, B. Heath, D. Hodges, M. Ketchin & R. Milne, The Care and Conservation of Georgian Houses: A Maintenance Manual for Edinburgh New Town, Oxford: Butterworth, 4th ed., 1995. xxviii + 291 pp., 100 b. & w. illus. and 100 figs. ISBN 0–7506–1860–4. £40.00.

Philip Rahtz, English Heritage Book of Glastonbury, London: Batsford & English Heritage, 1993. 144 pp., 97 figs., ISBN 0–7134–6865–3. £14.99.     

Determining the Accuracy of Historical Landscape Paintings

Historical landscape paintings are widely used to reconstruct past environments. However, artists did not necessarily fully depict reality, many exercising license to relocate and remould features. This paper applies photogrammetric techniques to the problem of determining the accuracy of artistic depictions of landscapes. Four 19th century paintings of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia by different artists were used to test the methods. The artists varied in their accuracy, with Frankland, the surveyor, being the most accurate, and Glover, the romantic professional artist, being the least accurate. This variation suggests that the use of paintings for historical reconstructions and measurements of historic features should be preceded by an accuracy assessment.     

Phylogeography of einkorn landraces in the Mediterranean basin and Central Europe: population structure and cultivation history

Einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) was one of the first cereals to be domesticated in the Old World ca. 10,000 years ago and to spread towards Europe and North Africa. Its cultivation declined before the Iron Age and it remains today only as a relic crop in remote areas. To investigate if the geographic distribution of genetic diversity in modern einkorn landrace accessions could be informative about the movement of this crop during prehistory, we genotyped 50 accessions of einkorn from Europe, North Africa and the Near East. Using nuclear and chloroplast microsatellites and clustering methods, we detected two main gene pools in einkorn. The distribution of these lineages revealed differences between accessions from Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe and the Near East and suggests different regional dynamics in the spread of this crop.     

Economy and Settlement Pattern 1350–1600 AD,Based on Evidence from Farm Mounds

The examination of Norse farm sites in Greenland has been taking place for nearly a century, and a reasonable picture has been built up from several disciplines of the nature of the settlements. There has, however, been little integration of the research between the various scientists. Using the example of a recent interdisciplinary palaeoecological study at Nipáitsoq in the Western Settlement, this paper summarizes the interrelated results of the work of an archaeologist (C.A.), historian (G.S.), animal bone specialist (T. McG.), entomologists (P.C.B. &; P.S.), and plant macrofossil researcher (D.S.). A detailed picture of the demise of the farm and of living conditions is attempted, and the paper ends with a plea for further integrated multi‐disciplinary studies.     

The development of the agrarian landscape on gotland during the early iron age

The author discusses the investigations on prehistoric agrarian landscape recently started on the island of Gotland. Main attention is focused on traces of deserted (fossilised) fields. Systematic reconnaissance in 1972–73 all over the island has brought forth a quite new material with ‘Celtic fields’ of a very great size and regional extent. The reconnaissance and regional mapping are mainly carried out by aerial photography.

Through the field work, which started in 1973 at Uggårde‐Vinarve in Rone parish, it has been possible to demonstrate a continuous field system to a total extent of about 130 hectares (325 acres). This field pattern is superimposed by a new agrarian landscape structure with building remains and stone wall fencing systems as the dominating features. The two stratigraphically separated structures of agrarian landscape put into an agrarian economic context indicate a development from extensive farming with long fallow periods to intensive farming with established land‐use (arable, meadow, and grazing) on smaller areas than formerly. A rough dating of the two structures gives 500 — 100 B. C. and 100 B. C. ‐ A. D. 500 respectively.

The investigations carried on by geographers and archaeologists in collaboration with Quaternary geologists are included in a research project by the Swedish Council for Social Science Research.     

Carion's chronicle in sixteenth‐century Danish historiography

The brief world history called Carion's Chronicle, telling the history of the world from the Creation up to the sixteenth century, was widely read in the Protestant world. The first edition (1532 in German) was written, it seems, by Johann Carion in collaboration with Philipp Melanchthon. In 1558–60 Me‐lanchthon published a revised Latin version of the first part (up to AD 800). After a presentation of the contents, the article traces the influence of Carion's Chronicle in two works of Danish history from around 1570, one by Hans Svaning, the other by A.S. Vedel. It is argued that both authors project the universal perspective of the Chronicle onto national dimensions.     

Tacitus and Tacitism in Johannes Meursius’ historia danica (1630–38).∗

The article examines the role of Tacitus in the Latin history of Denmark (1630–38) by Johannes Meursius. It is argued that “Ta‐citism”; ‐ a contemporary movement influenced by Tacitus both as a stylist and as a political writer ‐ is reflected in Meursius’ work in various ways. The first part deals with Meursius’ introduction and his use of Tacitus’ famous avowal of writing sine ira et studio. Next, Meursius’ Latin prose style, with its brevity, antitheses, and paradoxes, is seen in the context of the contemporary “Attic”; movement, which advocated primarily Seneca and Tacitus as prose models. Thirdly, Meursius’ portrait of the Danish king Nicolaus is shown to be inspired by the Tacitean archtyrant Tiberius. Fourthly, it is argued that Meursius also drew extensively on one of the seminal works of Tacitism in Northern Europe, Justus Lipsius’ Política (1589). Finally, the apparently incongruous union of Tacitean cynicism and Meursius’ generally Christian and moralistic outlook is taken up.     

On the Cromlechs Extant in the Isle of Anglesey

This paper is a part of a wider study into landscape change around St Albans, Hertfordshire. The original area of enquiry covered six medieval parishes, that is an area of126.z square km. While it has not been possible to subject the area to detailed field-walking, new information has arisen that requires a fresh assessment to be made of the area in the Late Iron Age. The new data come from a variety of sources such as aerial photographs, non-systematic field-walking, topographical observation, new archaeological discoveries and previous excavation reports. This combined information permits an insight into the earliest discernible landscape around St Albans and something of the society which created it.