The Colonial Museum of Rome: Imperial propaganda, oblivion and new exhibition

With the rise of Fascism, the consolidation of the Libyan colonies, the conquest of Ethiopia and the proclamation of the Italian Empire, colonial exhibitions, already a feature of late 19th century Italy, developed in conjunction with other political imperatives. Colonial exhibitions displaying raw materials and natural history specimens, as well as ethnographic collections, including masks and photographs of 'natives', provided comforting ideas of supremacy and control, and through them the Empire came to be understood by people less as something distant, and instead, as a palpable, material presence. The Colonial Museum of Rome influenced and shaped the colonial consciousness of the Italian people long after the fall of the Fascist regime itself.