someone named zimmermann wrote a phd thesis for U-Virginia on archaeology's influence on dickens and geology's influence on 19th century british poetry
one of the things that i keep running around is the idea that victorian brits were not so much interested in treasures (schliemann came later) but the fact that at pompeii you could see private, everyday items in - as seemingly obsessively noted - a "lady's boudoir" -
somehow museums have gotten into the idea that they have to display the spectacular, raise every little object on display to the level of a masterwork of art, and... the public is obviously disappointed that not everything is a blockbuster a la king tut...
there was also a good paper on archaeology's influence on freud & virchow (i could find the reference if anybody wants it; it's hiding on my desk somewhere), how they were both fascinated by the small, human-touch (think springsteen, if you will, but the song, not necessarily the album) rather than the vast & monumental...
sticking everyday articles in the kind of glass display cases usually reserved for diamonds & treasures is not going to evoke the same kind of response as a proper bit of contextualising, but is probably a lot easier