Her Story: Charlotte Brontë’s Letters
The Her Story project’s latest venture takes us to the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Founder’s Library. This beautiful high-ceilinged room is full of treasures – including a set of personal letters from author Charlotte Brontë to her friend and former headmistress Margaret Wooler. Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, is one of the giants of nineteenth-century literature. The Fitzwilliam’s letters unlock a…
Her Story: Eliza Brightwen’s Bible Album
The Her Story series, exploring the stories of fascinating women in the University of Cambridge collections, begins at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. Rosanna Evans reveals the secrets of a very special Victorian scrapbook… Eliza Brightwen is not the most obvious female scientist to showcase as a part of Her Story – she is not the most renowned…
Sharing power and making museums better: The Past is Now
Entirely too easily, I sit in a culture bubble wherein the atrocities of Empire (and their continuing reverberations) are widely acknowledged. So I was immensely upset to read that 59% of people in Britain are still proud of the British Empire. By extension, I am sad that these proud people, if or when they visit a museum, might wander throughout…