Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

Using a practical case study co-curated by the author and Garazi Ansa as a departing point for reflection, this article addresses a number of questions that arise when organizing exhibitions of female artists in collections. First, it examines the danger of falling into categories such as “women artists.” Second, it discusses the possibilities for the exhibition to have an impact on other activities of the museum, such as collecting. Finally, it proposes alternatives to extend the curatorial purpose on time by other by-practices, such as editing children’s book about the exhibited artists.

Hallie Q. Brown Community Center (the Center) began as a settlement house in 1929. It has and continues to serve the predominately Black neighborhood, commonly known as Rondo, in Saint Paul, MN. I am the first professional archivist hired by the Center and, as such, I was the first to establish workflows, implement standards, and provide easy access to the Center’s archival collections. Yet, I was trained to be an archivist by white people at predominately white institutions and have learned over time that not all the frameworks, ideas, and expectations impressed upon me apply in community archives which serve Black people. In this paper I will discuss the underappreciated social and emotional labors involved in being a Black woman in charge of a community archive, which serves a historically Black community, and was initially led by Black women. I will explore aspects of internal colonialism, catalog description, and efforts in community collaboration and outreach as it relates to collections entrusted to the Hallie Q. Brown Community Archives (HQBCA). This paper will offer a vignette into the journey of a professional serving the majority as a minority in collections care, to serving an underrepresented community as a fellow member of a marginalized group.

In 1900, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) transformed the Evanston, Illinois home of their late president, Frances Willard, into one of the first house museums dedicated to a woman in the United States. For over ninety years, WCTU members used the collections to situate Willard’s social reform career in the framework of domestic and religious duty. Recent efforts by historians and community members to reinterpret the collections to demonstrate Willard’s significance to a progressive, nondenominational, and diverse audience has sparked contentious debate over the ownership of the museum. Drawing on archival materials, published texts, and oral history interviews, this case study examines the use of space and artifacts, as well as the verbal sparring such choices have provoked. The controversy over the Willard House collections suggests that when women’s political and professional activity is central to a house museum’s significance, it becomes an especially contested commemorative site.

This essay explores the work of women who shaped the collection of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum: Historian and Director of Research Louise Daniel Hutchinson (1928–2014), Curator Portia James (1953–2015), and Historian Gail S. Lowe (1950–2015) whose exhibitions and projects built a rich community-based collection. Hutchinson’s work during the formative years of 1974 to 1986 elevated local voices in the research process and brought educator, Anna J. Cooper (1858–1964) out of obscurity. Portia James’ including community voices and perspectives in the exhibition process, resulting in her most celebrated exhibitions: Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity Among Black Immigrants in Washington, D.C. (1994). Her project amassed a large amount of oral history interviews, photographic documentation, and research files. Gail S. Lowe’s projects expanded the museum collection to include national and international voices on issues that resonated with the local community. Her exhibition exploring contemporary African American religious traditions, generated primary research materials on diverse faiths and spiritual traditions espoused by African Americans in Washington, D.C., and selected cities across the country. The collective work of all these women generated a wealth of resources and invaluable information that continues to be consulted by scholars and the public.

Dorothy Shepherd (1916–1992), a scholar of Ancient Near Eastern and Islamic art, helped lay the groundwork for scholarship in her field during a period when curatorial work and scholarship was dominated by men. She attended the University of Michigan and after graduation was appointed assistant curator of decoration at the Cooper Union Museum, New York. During World War II Shepherd served in the newly formed Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section of the United States military and in 1947 was appointed associate curator of textiles at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA); she retired from the CMA in 1981. During Shepherd’s tenure, the CMA acquired textiles and Islamic objects, and organized textile exhibitions showcasing Cleveland’s collection; Shepherd also authored numerous publications. In addition, Shepherd produced a significant but as yet unpublished catalog of 280 Islamic textiles in Cleveland’s collection. All of this is evidence of a noteworthy career that deserves further study and recognition.

Details the career of Marvette Perez (1961–2013), the first Latina curator at the National Museum of American History. Essay emphasizes her curatorial accomplishments, focusing on her collecting practices including some of the larger and smaller acquisitions that she added to the national collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Large collections discussed include the Teodoro Collection of Puerto Rican History, the Goya Foods Inc. Collection, and the Celia Cruz Collection. Smaller collections mentioned include the Diosa Costello Collection, the Tito Puente Collection, the Mongo Santamaria Collection, and a collection of panos from New Mexico. Archival collections are also referenced such as the Clotilde Arias Collection, Latin Jazz Oral History Program, and the Puerto Rican Division of Community Education. Also mentioned is the prior history of Hispanic collecting in the museum conducted by curator Richard Ahlborn which focused on Spanish settlements in the southwestern United States.

Electra Havemeyer Webb, in 1947, founded the Shelburne Museum in Vermont. A “collection of collections,” the museum brought together examples of art, architecture, and even local trees, all showcasing Webb’s interest in objects that can educate and illuminate American life and culture. On the other side of Lake Champlain, Alice T. Miner, with her husband, created the Alice T. Miner Museum in 1924. Her collection focused on the Colonial Revival, though, in a sense, this, too, is a “collection of collections.” The character of their museums reflects on their individual personalities and circumstances, but the fact of the collections speaks to the time period and to the ways in which women have seen and understood American culture. This article explores what these collections tell us about the women who created them and about the ways in which race, gender, and class intersect in the inclusion and exclusion of objects and images. Whether the steamship Ticonderoga or the top of a crazy quilt made be Lena Olena Blow of Sciota, NY, in 1908, the objects chosen by Webb and Miner (respectively) tell a story, one that is reinforced by their presentation within the museums. Through examining the provenance and presentation of specific objects, this essay will consider the wider themes, including the relative invisibility of women, craftspeople, and people of color, considered through the two museums. Of particular interest will be the women themselves and their intentions in creating museums that have long outlived them. Were they aware of the significance of their work? Did they strive to include objects and images that illustrated race, gender, and class, as understood or misunderstood by the America of their times? Have the curators and directors that followed them changed the tenor of the museums in order to address those questions more fully?

The youngest daughter of one of the northwest of England’s largest cotton magnates, Annie Barlow, was a well-educated and passionate woman. At the time of studying English Literature and History in London in 1880 to 1882 she became involved with the newly formed Egypt Exploration Fund, and at just nineteen years old became one of the first, and youngest, Honorary Local Secretaries for Bolton and the surrounding area—a roll she held for almost sixty years up to her death in 1941. The social circles opened to her by her father and brothers included world business leaders, academics and royalty. Through lectures, exhibitions and many cups of tea, Annie proclaimed the work of the fund across the United Kingdom, while modestly keeping her own efforts unannounced. Her fundraising surpassed that of many other local secretaries and led to the amassing of the largest collection of Egyptology in a local authority museum in the UK at Bolton Museum. Her travels took her far and wide, and she too built a sizeable collection of antiquities. Her passion for history, driven by a desire for educational development and religious devotion, was transmitted to those whom she met. It was through her influence and intimate knowledge of textile production that Bolton and its first curators became a renowned center for textile analysis, with excavators sending material to Bolton to aid their interpretations. During the First World War, Annie and her family homed European refugees. Her support for one girl in particular, Raymonde Frin, became a life-long friendship. Growing up under the wing of Annie, and surrounded by private collections of ancient material, Raymonde developed a passion for archaeology. Annie’s financial legacy directly supported the development of Raymonde’s life. Eventually achieving formal archaeological qualifications, she went on to be an integral part of the newly formed UNESCO museums and monuments division, becoming its first editor for Museums International Magazine, and involved in projects to save Egyptian heritage. This paper will look at the two women, Annie and Raymonde, within the context of women collecting and museum work, and their legacy for collections, in particular Egyptology, to the current day.

This article explores the significance of gender in understanding the formation of Indian collections in European museums, and how the activities of a single collector sheds light on the role of the individual and wider society. It focuses on Annie Marion Rivett-Carnac’s (1843–1935) contribution to multiple European museums over a period of over forty years. She amassed a personal collection of 6,000 to 8,000 items, brought together during her life in India alongside her husband. Her assemblage consisted of Indian body ornaments, jewellery, and items used in religious and daily practices, which she used to form networks with eminent figures in anthropology and ethnography in Europe, some outside of Britain’s traditional networks of British imperial collectors. While her husband has a prominent presence through his donations to museums, membership of learned societies and publications, little is known about her. Her contributions to museum collections in Britain, Germany and Sweden have largely gone unstudied, which this article seeks to address. It argues that Rivett-Carnac used her collections and the emergence of ethnography in Europe and British India as a way to position herself as a serious and respected scholar.

Today, the gentlewoman Eleanor Glanville (1655–1709) is often remembered as the first lady of British butterflies. In Glanville’s own lifetime, she gained a reputation amongst London naturalists as an astute collector of butterflies from the South West region of England. Yet, a turn towards Glanville’s material archive, namely, her extant specimens held at the Natural History Museum, London, reveals Glanville’s success as a collector of rare butterflies from the Americas and thus, her complicity in colonial collecting. This article provides an object biography of a single pipevine swallowtail or Battus philenor, c. 1700, labeled “Glandvill.” It follows the butterfly specimen from its obscure origins in the Americas, to Glanville’s residence in the Atlantic port city of Bristol, and to London naturalists’ cabinets of curiosities, where it would became part of a collection that helped found the British Museum, the first public museum of its kind. The life cycle of this object attests to the role that empire played in building one woman’s collection of insects and her contributions to the making of present-day museums. It also suggests that while empire opened up opportunities for some women naturalists, it did not necessarily advance their reputations as collectors.

Curated by the artist Barbara Jones (1912–1978) for the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1951, Blackeyes and Lemonade was an exhibition of popular art or, what Jones defined as, “the things people make for themselves, or that are manufactured in their taste.” The exhibits, which included a tiled fireplace in the shape of an Airedale dog, a giant anthropomorphic lemon, pub beer pulls, advertising posters, and industrially manufactured confectionary, posed a challenge to a codified and class-based conception of taste, fine art, and high culture that was prevalent in the post-war British museum. Through an analysis of the production and reception of Blackeyes and Lemonade, this paper charts the intellectual and practical battles Jones had to engage in to defend her selection and interpretation of objects, while simultaneously defining an unfamiliar branch of esthetic impulse and attempting to redirect what she called the “museum eye.” Finally, the paper explores the role of the temporary exhibition in re-opening discussions about taste, class, and gender in the museum.