The Soane Museum Study Group is an open forum for scholars – both established and emerging – to present new research into an aspect of architectural history and/or Soane’s collection.
The Soane Museum Inspectresses 1837 – 1945
A talk led by our Archivist and Head of Library Services Sue Palmer
In the 1833 private Act of Parliament which bequeathed his Museum to the nation after his death, Sir John Soane stipulated that besides the Curator there should be an Inspectress ‘who shall have the entire arrangement of the domestic concerns of the house … and the sole power and duty of hiring and discharging one man-servant and two female servants …’. This paper will look at the women who were appointed to this role, their background and the nature of their duties. It will also show how the role gradually morphed into a curatorial one in the mid-20th century.
Book your place for the talk here, via our Shop website.
About the speaker
Sue Palmer has been the Archivist of Sir John Soane’s Museum since 1989 and Head of Library Services since 2010. She is the author of At Home with the Soanes: Upstairs, Downstairs in 19th Century London (Pimpernel Press 2015) and a number of articles on aspects of Soane’s life and work.