153 Museum & Society, 12 (2) Book Reviews Kate Hill (ed.), Museums and Biographies. Stories, Objects, Identities, The International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2012, hardback £ 60, pp. x+338. Considering how closely related museums and biography are, it is surprising that a volume such as this one has not been published earlier. It seems as if the ‘biographical turn’ that has been so prominent in the social sciences during the last few decades (Wengraf, Chamberlayne and Bornat 2002; Roberts 2002; Caine 2010) has eventually reached the ield of museum studies. But is this the case? I would argue that museums have had a biographical focus since their very origins. ‘Collecting individuals’ have been at the centre of attention, whether the phrase refers to collectors who founded museums or to museum historians who collected the biographies of noteworthy individuals – usually collectors – in order to argue for their qualities (connoisseurship being prominent among them) and their impact on shaping museum institutions as we know them today (e.g. Kemp 1990; Alexander 1983 [1995]; Caygill and Cherry 1997; Cabanne 2003). On the other hand, important individuals often became the ‘content of museums’, especially history ones: objects that could be traced back to some important man (usually) held – and still do – prominent positions in most museums. Indeed, I think that the fact that it took so long for such a volume to appear is mainly due to the effort museums and museum studies as a ield of research have made in the last decades towards a non-biographical perspective, one where museum practices, ‘ordinary people’ and groups took precedence over ‘famous individuals’. And it is now, when biography as a genre and a methodological tool has expanded its spectrum to include micro-history, the anonymous individual and groups of people that have been hitherto ignored by the traditional biography, that it is time for the biographical perspective to be an essential part of museum interpretation again. What I found of particular interest in this collection of essays is the multi-vocal and multi-layered understanding of museums and biography. Each of the sections places the emphasis on a different perspective. As the editor argues: ‘It became obvious as abstracts for papers came that this was … a topic which was being interpreted by contributors in varied and complex ways.’ (p. 3). As a result, the irst section deals with ‘[I]ndividual biography and museum history’ (Bodenstein, Burch, Gray) and examines how particular individuals have been identiied with speciic museums. The second bears the title ‘Problematising individual’s biographies’ (Sheldon, Whitelaw, Sandino); its focus is on the life stories of individuals and how they can be used – if at all – to explain museums and their histories. The third focuses on ‘Institutional biographies’ (MacLeod, Miller, Abt, Rees Leahy, Whitehead) and examines the extent to which a museum can actually have a biography and how self-relection is performed by museums as well as individuals. The fourth examines ‘Object Biographies’ (Tythacott, Françozo, Carreau, Elliott) and argues that the understanding of objects develops and changes, relecting at the same time social and institutional changes; the ifth explores ‘Museums as biographies’ (Booth, Forgan, Starra) and therefore whether museums can produce biographical narratives and what kind of narratives these are. The sixth section, entitled ‘Museums as autobiography’ (Nemec, de Jong, Crooke), examines the role of museums in enabling people to tell personal and community stories in different ways. The book ends with a brief text by Donald Preziosi, who using the metaphor of the pantograph, attempts an in-depth, metaphysical reading of the book theme. He argues that museums are ‘epistemological technologies of virtual space-time’ (p. 324) that allow for multiple relationships to be built between the viewing subject and the object being viewed. Museum & Society, July 2014. 12(1) 153-156 © 2014, Alexandra Bounia, Bob Snape. ISSN 1479-8360