Women's History Museums - Essay Example

History - Women's History Museums Of all the various mediums available, museums present history where the public-at-large can view the past and be changed by it. This accessibility as well as critical inputs coming from the academe questioning the representation of historical truth in museums have opened avenues to change in recent times. Authority, according to Richard West serves as an analytical construct to determine whose side is being presented in historical museums.1 The challenge to 'museulogical' authority on whose power and influence must hold sway has emerged from the outside and given way to debate. Consequently, museums have become forums for different voices and viewpoints to be heard.2 With this, a new space for determining what constitutes museum artifacts and displays has emerged in the late 20th century on to the 21st century where historical research, the communities which they are located and museum standards interact to give way to dynamic representations of objects, people and ideas. Nowhere has the impact of these developments originated and in turn continue to enrich and widen in scope than in the field of women's history. In taking advantage of the opportunities presented by museums to carry women's history (the Museum of Victoria for example is visited by one million people), Lisa Dale wrote that we should all be involved in how history is presented.3 Interpreting and presenting women's history History - Women's History Museums however according to Dale should go beyond being an intellectual sport. Museum historians need to work hand in hand with academic historians and scholars to devise methods so as to present to the public complex historical realities. A case of such cooperation is seen in the current oral history project of the Museum and La Trobe Library where students of Women Studies will conduct interviews in South Melbourne covering the period from the 1920s to 1970.4 The application of feminist theory has largely driven the changes the way historical realities are portrayed in museums, not just by adding the woman role in shaping history but changing the analytical foundations of social history. The practice of getting the stories straight from women and conducting research around them as subjects has also worked in tandem with feminist theory to gather rich material for not only for women's museums per se but also for social history museums. Seeing history through the lens of feminism and feminist theory Treating museums as text, curator as author and visitors as readers has enabled historian Gaby Porter to critique the set-up of museums where the representation of objects in display take precedence over unraveling of historical truth. She takes off from poststructuralist theory and on to a feminist approach where the relations of women and women are analyzed in the context of museums. 5 In traditional museums, relative to men's representation which are active, highly developed, articulated - women's historical History-Women's History Museums contributions are passive, shallow, muted and undeveloped.6 When viewed from a feminist perspective, museums ought to go beyond the seeming objectivity of displays to subjective spaces of interaction between visitors and the museum space and all its underlying processes of selection and representation. The historical truth becomes less solid as meanings are never permanent and are negotiable. The scientific and the artistic disciplines tend to blend, and themes depart from strictly chronological orientation7. For example in the exhibition called Putting on the Style at the Geffrye Museum in London, the display of homes in the 1950s resonated more of the personal lives of those who lived there rather than of the people's respective social status.8 On the other hand, the Story of Hull and Its People, the permanent exhibition at Hull Museum traces history over the last two hundred years yet shows more notably the cyclical passage from birth to death of people who were relatively unknown. 9 An even more forward application of post-structuralist and feminist theories are seen in museums in Scandinavian countries. Porter saw a "new language" being used which though more abstract and impressionistic, are also provocative and expressive, using personal histories and narratives as take-off points rather than merely to represent official histories. The Women's Museum in Aarhus, Denmark which has mounted several exhibitions since 1982 explores the personal and working lives of women expressing the subjective viewpoints, feelings and experiences achieved through the sensory History - Women's History Museums effect of objects and displays. 10 At the Museum of Work in Norrkoping, Sweden, spatial representations where form and content merge are favored over chronological and scenic displays.11 A paradox is that the newer breed of museums whose cycle of exhibitions are faster than the longer displays may not have a chance to reach the maximum number of audience over time and may get overlooked by professionals who do not see value in short-term displays.12 In her attempt to question the apparent solidity that greet visitors in museums, Porter wrote that during her research she often found herself overwhelmed by the danger of giving in to the appeal of 'experiences and essences' , to 'biology and the body'.13 This may point to a weak point in feminist theory by straying too much from the empirical approach of treating objects as they are. If post-structuralism and deconstruction of every historical reference are applied to excess, they would tend to make meanings impermanent, and destroy conceptual foundation before they even took root, lending even analysis paralyzed to some extent. Thus for Porter, in her attempt to cast away the objective, the subjective became overwhelming. In contrast, Leigh Summers argued that the biological side of feminine displays in museums should be brought forth.14 She observed that museums tend to leave out traces of blood, sweat and other marks of wear and tear that are precisely the hallmarks of History - Women's History Museums women's history in social museums exhibiting women's costumes. The masculine stamp on the other hand is evident in museums which in honor the empire builders and conquering heroes by celebrating masculine blood, sweat and tears. Unafraid that 'corporeal feminism' will limit women to their biology, this approach she wrote can incorporate the social, cultural as well as the personal underpinnings of women's history. In practical rather than theoretical terms', Porter called on museum administrators and social historians to let go of female stereotypes and break the taboos surrounding the research and display of feminine artifacts.15 Porter commented on how for example in the portrayal of women in the Victorian era, costumes and corsets rarely show the dietary concerns and bodily insecurities of women of the 19th century. Instead, most museums display 'tiny' costumes, 'in mint condition' which do not reflect the truth bore out by research that corsets were not only uncomfortable but even so, hazardous underclothing.16 To take advantage of the fact that women's costumes are often the only way women are represented as historical subjects in museums, Porter called on the reassessment of costume exhibitions through the analytical framework of corporeal feminism. Another area which is undergoing critical assessment as seen through a feminist viewpoint is the representation of work in history museums. Here Gaby Porter zeroed on in the marginalization of women's contributions to labour in the overt focus on male domination of the public sphere. Women then were involved in the support side of the production process but which was nevertheless crucial to the work machinery. Women also worked not only in factories or in public, but carried on with paying and non-paying jobs at home. She observed for instance that the practice of industrial museums is to show the 'central process of productive and extractive industry', usually neglecting the social aspect of history.17 And if they do show the human side - they are usually male18. However, there is a bit of change with Kelham Island Industrial Museum at Sheffield having a 'Working Life' section. At Leeds Industrial Museum the slopwork and outwork trades are included to the textile production processes. Yet, in both museums according to Porter, social history is considered an after-thought.19 With no major development in museum practice which fairly portrays women's role in the work arena, women's history contribution is to show that there are porous boundaries in the work arena. That is, to show that the private and public domains, homes and labour and commercial centres are interdependent. The woman' s authority and women as subject of historical research A two-way process of getting at women's history has emerged recently with the authoritative voice of women on the choice of museum displays rounding out the practice of making women as subjects of historical research. In an art exhibition called Women's Pictures at Paisley Museum that ran in 1991, four local women's groups served as curators by selecting 46 paintings representing women and girls. 20 A key finding in the activity was that women chose the pictures because they reflected aspects of their own lives and made comparisons between them and the women in the pictures.21 Thematically, women chose pictures that evoke concerns about poverty, wealth and leisure.22 Organizers found out that when groups composed of ordinary people and the community are directly involved in deciding the contents of museum displays, the elitist barrier that can sprung around art can be brought down. Wendy Hucker, one of the founders of Pioneer's Women's Hut, a museum in Tumbarumba New South Wales related how truth can unsettle people who are comfortable with myths and legends instead of historical facts. In displaying less-than- pretty quilts, the museum was met with negative reaction or a response showing the idealization of women who made them.23 Through a process of objectively looking at the facts, the museum seeks to peel the layers of distortions and omissions that surround the myth of the 'pioneer woman' of Australia. The myth is that the bush woman was uncomplaining, virtuous and 'stitching away by candle and later kerosene light'.24 Hucker wrote that in fact many of these women were lonely, were unfaithful and some even went mad. 25 In deconstructing the pioneer woman, the crucial issue according to Hucker is that romantic myths must not allowed to continue because historical facts can present a different view and show that 'women's history often isn't pretty'. In effect, she asks, should museums like Pioneer Hut have active relationship with the past and be an agent for historical change26 If women's history uncovers distortions in the way women are represented in the case of Pioneer's Hut, omission by far characterizes the odd absence of women's representations in museum houses. Historical houses that were once thriving homes ran by housewives and mothers lack precisely the traces or representation of the spirits that once made them alive. In Australia, where there are more than two hundred historical houses, references to women do not go beyond kitchens, drawing rooms, bedrooms and nurseries.27 A focus on heritage sites as places to honor great men and recall great events overlooks the primary role of women in museum houses.28 Linda Young takes of from the social history revolution of the 1960s where the traditional view of history has given way to the voices and representation of ordinary people. In this, she writes women's history is a subset of social history and carries forth many opportunities for new directions. 29 In the United States in 1993, academic and professional historian took to forming guidelines for the 'integration of women's history into US National Park Service Sites and the re-conceptualization of the old framework.30 The reinstatement of women in historic houses could further proceed by properly giving reference through research not only to female themes such as childbirth, fashion and beauty, sexuality, health and aging but also to work done by women, whether paid or unpaid according to Young. Herein, individuality and the social aspect are both carried forth to reflect history. Bibliography: Carnegie, Elizabeth. 'Working with women's groups' in Developing Museums Exhibitions for Lifelong Learning, ed. G. Durbin, Museum and Galleries Commission, London, 1996, pp. 173-175. Dale, Lisa. 'Museums and feminist history: a symbiosis.' Lilith: A Women's History Journal, 6, Spring 1989, pp. 100-108. Hucker, Wendy. 'Deconstructing the pioneer woman at the Pioneer Women's Hut', Community History, 4/3, October 1994, pp. 2-5. Porter, Gaby. 'Gender bias: representations of work in history museums', Continuum: Australian Journal of the Media, 3/1, 1990, pp. 70-83. Porter, Gaby. 'Seeing through solidity: a feminist perspective in museums' in Theorizing Museums, eds. S. Macdonald and G. Fyfe, Blackwell, Cambridge, 1996. pp. 105-126. Summers, Leigh. 'Sanitising the female: custome, corsetry and the case for corporeal Feminism in social history museums', Open Museum Journal, 1. West, Richard. 'American museums in the 21st century, Humanities Research, IX/1, 2002, pp. 57-62. Young, Linda. 'A woman's place is in the housemuseum: interpreting women's histories in house museums', Open Museum Journal, 5. Read More