Museum History

Capitol City's Natural History Museum is haunted—or at least that's what someone wants people to think. But Wilson Kipper, son of the museum's head paleontologist, knows better. When the mysterious occurrences go from spooky to dangerous, the museum is forced to close its doors. Can Wilson and his friends get to the bottom of things, or will the Natural History Museum be closed for good?

When he retired as the chief security officer of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, John Barelli had spent the better part of 40 years responsible not only for one of the richest treasure troves on the planet, but the museum's staff, the millions of visitors, as well as American presidents, royalty, and heads of state from around the world. For the first time, John Barelli shares his experiences of the crimes that occurred on his watch, the investigations that captured thieves and recovered artwork....

London, 1895. Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton have been hired by the Natural History Museum to find out who deliberately smashed the fossilised skeleton of a small dinosaur. At first Daniel is reluctant to take the case, pointing out that they deal in murders, not vandalism. But then one of the attendants in the dinosaur room is murdered, his body found tied to a dinosaur skeleton and a note pinned to him saying 'The price of betrayal'. As Daniel and Abigail investigate, they must negotiate a web of legal and professional tensions.

This collection contains: Twelve Years a Slave, Up from Slavery, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, The Life of an American Slave (Fifty Years in Chains), The Experience of Rev. Thomas H. Jones, Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave, From Log Cabin to the Pulpit, and many more.

Bloomsbury presents The History of Art in One Sentence written and read by Verity Babbs, with Dom O'Keefe. With an exclusive bonus chapter only in audio and some extra content with the author herself! What’s so special about Dutch paintings of cheese? When does Art Nouveau become Art Deco? Why...

On an afternoon in January 1865, a roaring fire swept through the Smithsonian Institution. Dazed soldiers and worried citizens could only watch as the flames engulfed the museum's castle. Rare objects and valuable paintings were destroyed. The flames at the Smithsonian were not the first—and certainly would not be the last—disaster to upend a museum in the United States. The Museum explores the concepts of "crisis" as it relates to museums, and how these historic institutions have dealt with challenges ranging from depression and war to pandemic and philosophical uncertainty. 

Read by the incredible John Lee Winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Kraken is a darkly comic, wildly absurd adventure by the author of Perdido Street Station, China Miéville. Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes...

The Classic Oral Tradition Mega Collection gathers ancient epics, mythological works, fairy tales, folk traditions, and Native American stories from across cultures.

Ruby Lennox was conceived grudgingly by Bunty and born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D-cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but here she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient...

The captivating story of football told through 100 amazing objects collected from its rich history – a must-read for any football fan What do a Paul Gascoigne puppet, the 1895 British Ladies’ kit, John Motson’s coat, an inflatable unicorn or the 1966 World Cup Final ball tell us about the...

When a summer intern at the Preservation Society discovers an aged document hidden in the binding of an antique book, Society President Nell Pratt is intrigued by the possibilities: Is it a valuable historic document or just a useless scrap of paper? When analysis reveals that it's a hand-drawn map of one of Philadelphia's oldest neighborhoods, Nell learns that the area is being excavated for a new real-estate development and may hold long-buried secrets from the city's historic heyday.

Discover what life was really like for kids in the past in this brilliantly funny introduction to medieval times. Have you ever wondered what it was like living in a medieval castle? Why people would put leeches on their bodies when they were ill? Or how to train to become a knight? Learn the...

From the internationally bestselling author of The Nanny and What She Knew comes a thrilling dark academic tale of murder, obsession and ruthless ambition, set in remote St Andrews, Scotland. A deadly rivalry. A chilling secret. One woman who can decipher the truth. On a frigid, windswept day in...

The sea is the largest museum on earth, with more than a million lost ships resting in its depths. Those shipwrecks date back thousands of years, some from civilizations long vanished, others from more recent history. Some are famous, others obscure and unremembered but each has a story to tell. In The Great Museum of the Sea, archaeologist, museum director, television host, journalist, and award-winning author James Delgado takes the listener on a personal tour of the world's wrecks, including many of the more than a hundred lost ships he has personally discovered and investigated.

The must-read exploration of the earliest human ghost stories from leading expert Irvine Finkel, author of The Ark Before Noah 'It's enthralling stuff, mixing the scholarly with the accessible and placing storytelling right at the heart of the human experience.' - History Revealed There are few...

The Westward Expansion Masterworks Collection gathers eleven firsthand accounts, histories, memoirs, and narratives from the American frontier.

The New England Masterworks Collection gathers ten works connected with New England life, literature, history, reform, and imagination.

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his—or any—age. To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became...

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task.

London, 1873. Madeleine Brewster's marriage to Dr Lucius Everley was meant to be the solution to her family's sullied reputation. After all, Lucius is a well-respected collector of natural curiosities. His 'Small Museum' of bones and specimens in jars is his pride and joy, although firmly kept...