The History of World Peace in 100 Objects: Visualizing Peace in a Peace Museum (2014)

The British Museum director Neil MacGregor’s 2010 exhibition (and 2011 book) showing the history of the world in 100 objects inspired this chapter which, for practical reasons, is limited to ten objects. They are of the most diverse kind and associated with a wide range of individuals and organizations including Albert Einstein, Victor Hugo, Alfred Nobel, William Penn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bertha von Suttner, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Quakers, and the United Nations. It is argued that worldwide there is an abundance of such objects and that bringing a selection of them together would make for a beautiful, revealing, and inspiring display illustrating the reality of the notion of cultures of peace.