"Why did the Victorians collect with such a vengeance and exhibit in museums? Focusing on this key nineteenth-century enterprise, Barbara J. Black illuminates British culture of the period by examining the cultural power that this collecting and exhibiting possessed. Through its museums, she argues, Victorian London constructed itself as a world city.". "While On Exhibit provides analysis of Victorian society, it also reminds us how modern the Victorians were - how, in crucial ways, our culture derives from the Victorian era. Forging connections between museums, urbanism, and modernity, Black provokes us to examine cultural imperialism and the costs and advantages of cultural consensus."--BOOK JACKET.