Women and museums, 1850-1914 - Kate Hill

This book recovers the
significant contribution made by women to museums, not just in obvious roles such as workers, but also as donors, visitors, volunteers and patrons. It suggests that
women persistently acted to domesticate the museum, by importing
domestic objects and domestic regimes of value, as well as by making
museums more welcoming to children, and even by stressing the
importance of housekeeping at the museum. At the same time, women sought
'masculine' careers in science and curatorship, but found such
aspirations hard to achieve; their contribution tended to be kept within
clear, feminised areas. The book will be of interest to those
working on gender, culture, or museums in the period. It sheds new light on women's material culture and material strategies, education and
professional careers, and leisure practices. It will form an important
historical context for those working in contemporary museum studiesThis book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5, Gender equality.