This is the second of two volumes devoted to ephemeral exhibition spaces between 1750 and 1918. It deals with a wide range of exhibition spaces that were ephemeral owing to the precariousness of their structure and their ability to adapt to the changing environment in which they developed. Cabinets of curiosities, portable museums, spectacle gardens, cosmoramas, department stores, human zoos, dépôt museums and a number of alternative, unconventional exhibition spaces are discussed here in detail. Particular attention is paid to the fragility and versatility of the spaces that these entities have at their disposal. Indeed, in most cases, the space itself works as a microcosm, a small universe that evolves both independently and in relation to the environment in which it develops. This characteristic represents a common value for all these systems and makes it possible to understand, in each case, how the space is defined and how it oscillates between one reality and another, between a literary context for instance, and a fictional dimension. Although these spaces are diverse, they nevertheless provide a coherent scope because they all are intended places of display. The variety of forms is revealing as regards their flexibility, their capacity to respond to a wide range of cultural contexts.

The chronological frame of this volume goes from the early nineteenth century up to World War I, and shows to what extent the concepts of ephemerality, elusiveness, and temporality evolved through this period. This is the second of two volumes that, taken together, are set between 1750 and 1918. Particular attention is paid here to the versatile and changing character of ephemerality, both with regard to time and spatiality: indeed, these displays constantly adjusted according to the political, cultural, and social environment that they were confronted with.