Addressing the Histories and Legacies of Colonialism in Romantic-period Literary House Museums: Dove Cottage and Beyond
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: English and Creative Writing
Abstract
This network will bring together academics, museum personnel, consultants, stakeholders and community groups to investigate the colonial links of Romantic-period literary house museums and consider how best to interpret these links for a wider public. There is currently fierce public debate about how heritage sites and museums can best understand and represent the complex histories of the locations and objects they preserve. This debate creates a particular challenge for researching and curating literary house museums of the Romantic period (c. 1780-1830), an era when 'colonialism, in the form of exploratory initiatives, commercial enterprises and migratory settlement on the part of its citizens, contributed to a massive expansion in Britain's territorial possessions' (Carol Bolton, 'Romantic Literature and Colonialism', Literature Compass, 5/3 (2008): p. 541). The period's literary house museums bear to colonialism in numerous ways, but these histories frequently remain unexplored or untold. Moreover, because literary figures inspire reverence and widespread public respect, serious and rigorous engagements with relevant colonial legacies commonly face public and media hostility. The network will address this challenge and consider how best to respond strategically to the sensitivities involved.
The network will begin by considering a specific case study, Wordsworth Grasmere, a site that includes Dove Cottage, the residence from 1799-1808 of Dorothy and William Wordsworth and from 1809-1820 of Thomas De Quincey. Maintained by the Wordsworth Trust (the network partner) for over a century, Wordsworth Grasmere has been a major heritage site and a leading literary house museum, receiving 40,000 visitors annually prior to the Covid pandemic. Its collection has Designated status as a 'vital part' of the England's 'national cultural and artistic heritage'. However, since the Wordsworths' and De Quincey's residence, and until now, there has been no concerted or sustained attempt to explore the multiple slavery and East India Company histories of Dove Cottage. The network will begin by addressing this legacy of silence and inaction.
The network will then look beyond Wordsworth Grasmere to consider colonialism's complex issues and legacies in relation to the other Romantic-period literary house museums participating in the network, including: Abbotsford (Walter Scott); Jane Austen's House at Chawton; Robert Burns Birthplace Museum; Coleridge Cottage; Keats House; Newstead Abbey (Byron); and Wordsworth House (Cockermouth).
The network will be academically interdisciplinary, including scholars of English Literature, History, Museum Studies and Tourism Studies. It will involve the participation of several related organisations and community groups with related concerns, including: American Writers Museum; Anne Frank Trust; Anti Racist Cumbria; Brontë Parsonage Museum; Museums&; National Trust. It will learn from the expertise of other specialists and projects in related areas, with input from consultants including Rachael Minott (chair of the Museums Association's Decolonising Guidance Working Group) and Laila Sumpton (who led 'Poetry versus Colonialism'). It will incorporate the voices of other stakeholders, including visitors, staff, volunteers, trustees, community and school groups.
The network will create a set of resources to support literary house museums in researching their links with colonialism and interpreting them for a wider public. It will do so by organising three workshops, focusing initially on Wordsworth Grasmere's colonial links before expanding to share research questions and findings with a wider range of literary house museums. By collaborating on, comparing and contrasting these different cases studies, the network will enable these literary house museums to further research and represent the complex histories both of the sites they maintain and the writers those sites memorialise.
The network will begin by considering a specific case study, Wordsworth Grasmere, a site that includes Dove Cottage, the residence from 1799-1808 of Dorothy and William Wordsworth and from 1809-1820 of Thomas De Quincey. Maintained by the Wordsworth Trust (the network partner) for over a century, Wordsworth Grasmere has been a major heritage site and a leading literary house museum, receiving 40,000 visitors annually prior to the Covid pandemic. Its collection has Designated status as a 'vital part' of the England's 'national cultural and artistic heritage'. However, since the Wordsworths' and De Quincey's residence, and until now, there has been no concerted or sustained attempt to explore the multiple slavery and East India Company histories of Dove Cottage. The network will begin by addressing this legacy of silence and inaction.
The network will then look beyond Wordsworth Grasmere to consider colonialism's complex issues and legacies in relation to the other Romantic-period literary house museums participating in the network, including: Abbotsford (Walter Scott); Jane Austen's House at Chawton; Robert Burns Birthplace Museum; Coleridge Cottage; Keats House; Newstead Abbey (Byron); and Wordsworth House (Cockermouth).
The network will be academically interdisciplinary, including scholars of English Literature, History, Museum Studies and Tourism Studies. It will involve the participation of several related organisations and community groups with related concerns, including: American Writers Museum; Anne Frank Trust; Anti Racist Cumbria; Brontë Parsonage Museum; Museums&; National Trust. It will learn from the expertise of other specialists and projects in related areas, with input from consultants including Rachael Minott (chair of the Museums Association's Decolonising Guidance Working Group) and Laila Sumpton (who led 'Poetry versus Colonialism'). It will incorporate the voices of other stakeholders, including visitors, staff, volunteers, trustees, community and school groups.
The network will create a set of resources to support literary house museums in researching their links with colonialism and interpreting them for a wider public. It will do so by organising three workshops, focusing initially on Wordsworth Grasmere's colonial links before expanding to share research questions and findings with a wider range of literary house museums. By collaborating on, comparing and contrasting these different cases studies, the network will enable these literary house museums to further research and represent the complex histories both of the sites they maintain and the writers those sites memorialise.
| Title | Poetic response to workshops two and three |
| Description | The poet Joanna Brown attend two of the network workshops and produced a series of poems in response to them. These poems have been read to the workshop participants and also to the curatorial staff at Wordsworth Grasmere and Jane Austen House. They have gained a permanent place at Jane Austen House and will also go on display in Gallery 4 of the Wordsworth Museum. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | As notes above, the poems have been read to the workshop participants and also to the curatorial staff at Wordsworth Grasmere and Jane Austen House. They have gained a permanent place at Jane Austen House and will also go on display in Gallery 4 of the Wordsworth Museum. |
| Description | This network brought together academics, museum personnel, consultants, stakeholders and community groups to investigate the colonial links of Romantic-period literary house museums and consider how best to interpret these links for a wider public. It connected scholars researching this topic with those responsible for running several major literary house museums, and with consultants, stakeholders and community groups. The literary house museums and associations involved in the network were Charles Dickens Museum, Historic Houses, Jane Austen House, John Bunyan Museum and Library, Keats House, Newstead Abbey, Wordsworth Grasmere, Dr Johnson House, and Wordsworth Grasmere. Consultants and community groups included Anti Racist Cumbria, Culture&, Museumand and Poetry Vs Colonialism. The network operated on an international scale with involvement from academics from Montclair State University, USA and Loreto College, Kolkata, India. Three main network workshops were held with an initial focus on the colonial links of Wordsworth Grasmere (Dove Cottage; Wordsworth Museum; Jerwood Centre; gardens) before expanding this initial focus to gain a research-led understanding of the colonial links of other Romantic-period literary house museums. These workshops created a forum of ideas and contexts enabling museums to examine and develop their own specific practices. The three network meetings were also supported by specific engagements between academics and Jane Austen House, Keats House and Wordsworth Grasmere to consider their collections and discuss their work with the public and other groups. The network's key outcomes are articulated by the testimonies of the organisations involved, particularly the Romantic-period literary house museums who were key participants. Their Directors and Curators have commented as follows: 'This network and these sessions have been transformational and practice-changing It has been transformational on both a personal and a professional level thought-provoking, eye-opening and transformative [It] will certainly transform everything we do here at Jane Austen House' (Jane Austen House); 'A deeply thought-provoking series of workshops' (Keats House); 'The Network has brought about a shift in knowing and feeling for me. It, and the people in this session have brought the subject into the lives of those who work at the Trust - one colleague has said these visits have breathed understanding and energy into their work' (Wordsworth Grasmere). Academic network members have also commented on the network's transformational effects for their understanding of the issues, for example: 'I was challenged, moved, informed in all sorts of ways I didn't anticipate. One of the main things I learned was how limited my perspective (academic = knowledge and analysis) has been. Change involves dealing with other perspectives, negotiating, working long term, accepting (limited) failure'; 'The network has made me rethink my relationship with Romanticism and Colonialism in general. Issues that had existed, possibly in the blind spot, have been foregrounded and I can engage with Romanticism with more critical awareness now'. |
| Exploitation Route | The desire to take forward the project's work has been articulated by all network members and there are ongoing projects and collaborations that have emerged from it, especially at Wordsworth Grasmere (the main network partner). The way in which the research outcomes will be taken forward is indicated by the following comments from the Director of Jane Austen House: 'How has this project changed our work at Jane Austen's House? It has given those tentative beginnings a new urgency and a broader reach but it is not finished, and never will be finished. We will continue in our mission to communicate a Regency life, but not Regency values, and to work to create a museum that feels like home to all - whilst understanding that without considerable work (and by this I mean "interior" work, at an individual as well as an organizational level) these will only ever remain words on a strategic plan.' The findings of the network have been taken beyond the network members through presentations at the British Association for Romantic Studies International Biennial Conference and the Annual Conference of LitHouses (Literary Homes and Museums of Great Britain). |
| Sectors | Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| Description | The wider impact of the network has been particularly achieved through the ongoing transformations at the Romantic-period literary house museums involved, for whom the project has provided specific research-based knowledge as well as a fuller context in which to examine their own relationships with colonialism. As mentioned in the Key Findings section, the Directors and Curators involved in the project have testified to how the project has changed both their thinking and their practice, commenting as follows: 'This network and these sessions have been transformational and practice-changing It has been transformational on both a personal and a professional level thought-provoking, eye-opening and transformative [It] will certainly transform everything we do here at Jane Austen House' (Jane Austen House); 'A deeply thought-provoking series of workshops' (Keats House); 'The Network has brought about a shift in knowing and feeling for me. It, and the people in this session have brought the subject into the lives of those who work at the Trust - one colleague has said these visits have breathed understanding and energy into their work' (Wordsworth Grasmere). One outcome of the workshops has been a series of pledges from all involved that promise future further impacts, such as the following: 'Finish contested histories guidance with meaningful case studies and resources flagged as part of it, ensuring peer-to-peer feedback and criticism'; 'To continue to learn and contribute to the transformation of museum spaces and practices'; 'Develop a plan- a few ideas-an exhibition proposal- for the display case in my museum'; 'Open conversations, discuss a working group, reflect on displays, put in place policies of support'; 'Reconsider some items in the collection with community for relabelling'. It is hoped that as these pledges are fulfilled, they will contribute to a transformation of literary house museums and particularly of the way they engage with their relationship to colonialism and how they present that relationship to the public. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | AHRC IAA Grant: Walking for Wellbeing: Accelerating Cultural, Creative and Environmental Enrichment in Morecambe Bay |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wordsworth Trust |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2024 |
| End | 11/2025 |
| Description | Keats House |
| Organisation | Keats House |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We worked with Keats House in organizing the second event there and bringing together participants to consider their collection in the context of the network concerns. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Keats House provided their venue and the expertise of their staff free of charge, they liaised with Poetry vs Colonialism, who led a session during the day. Rob Shakespeare, Director of Keats House and Head of Heritage & Museums (Natural Environment division) at City of London Corporation, contributed to the project design of the network and shared expertise and experience relating to Keats House own collection and events. |
| Impact | Network Workshop 2 was the key outcome of this collaboration, as well as Rob Shakespeare's input into all three main network events. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Wordsworth Trust |
| Organisation | Wordsworth Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | This is a longstanding collaboration and the funded network was a partnership jointly led by Lancaster University and the Wordsworth Trust. I was involved in all elements of network design and facilitation. |
| Collaborator Contribution | This is a longstanding collaboration and the funded network network was a partnership jointly led by Lancaster University and the Wordsworth Trust. I was involved in all elements of network design and facilitation. |
| Impact | The partnership has carried its learning from the network into a new AHRC IAA funded project entitled 'Walking for Wellbeing'. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Consultation with Wordsworth Grasmere |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Professor Nikki Hessell visited Wordsworth Grasmere between 18th and 20th September 2023 to assess the site, including an incognito tour of Dove Cottage, the Wordsworth Museum and Special Exhibition gallery. She held a consultation event with 'Friends' on indigenous perspectives on Wordsworth and Romantic period literary house museums, and held a consultation / training event with the Curatorial and Learning Team. She discussed her findings and her advice with the network lead and with Jeff Cowton, Principal Curator and Head of Learning to the Wordsworth Trust. Topics covered included the following: the translation of WW's work into colonial languages; methodological questions around linking Romantic literature with Indigenous Studies and communities; the Dove Cottage poems and how they interact with settler colonialism and settler life; Pasifika poets' responses to "I wandered lonely as a cloud"; links between WW's ideas of place and identity and Indigenous philosophies (primarily focused on Maori ideas); comprehending Dove Cottage from the colonies and thinking about the site from Indigenous and settler perspectives; and how the Trust might incorporate these issues into include these issues in their work in exhibitions, schools and outreach. As Jeff Cowton noted of Professor Hessell's visit in a presentation to the British Association for Romantic Studies, 'Nikki Hessell visited - specialist in the intersection between Romantic literature and indigeneity - pointed out the narrowness of our chronology in the museum - how could we relate it to the histories learned by people from her own country, New Zealand? Does what we offer speak to all visitors? Nikki spent time with our C&L team - talked to us about the process or translation, inserting local place names into WW's poems, turning AM into prose - for WW returning to a place seeing trees is a homecoming; for indigenous people, returning home may be to a landscape of trees removed. We discussed questions of ancestry, sovereignty, connection - it helped us enormously to better appreciate WW's poems such as 'Michael'. As this illustrates, the Wordsworth Grasmere team reported a significantly increased understanding of the potential relevance of issues of indigenous thinking and frameworks for their thinking about the site and the collection while the broader audience of 'Friends' (a category of donor to the Wordsworth Trust) reported an increased interest in thinking about the Wordsworths and the Dove Cottage site in relation to colonial and imperial history. The backing of the 'Friends', as well as of the Trustees, is particularly valuable in facilitating future developments for how the Trust engages the public with its collection. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michael-mcgregor-0665aa35_delighted-to-welcome-prof-nikki-hessell-of-... |
| Description | Keats House Network Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This event expanded the focus of the first Wordsworth Grasmere network meeting to other literary house museums, including the host organisation, Keats House. Drawing on the research findings and questions established by Workshop 1, participants were asked to make comparisons and contrasts with other literary house museums and to identify specific issues for research that can be undertaken in advance of the third workshop. All participants identified a specific object with imperial or colonial dimensions which provided the focus for discussion. Participation was extend from the initial group to cover representatives from museums and organisations outside the Romantic period. Participants were as follows: Simon Bainbridge (Lancaster University), Joanna Brown (Royal Holloway, University of London), Lynda-Louise Burrell (Museumand), Donna Chambers (Northumbria University), Jeff Cowton (Wordsworth Grasmere), Vick de Rijke (Poetry Vs Colonialism / Middlesex University), Lizzie Dunford (Jane Austen House), Corinne Fowler (Leicester University), Errol Francis (Culture&), Eleanor Harding (Carlyle House), Frankie Kubicki (Charles Dickens Museum), Celine Luppo-McDaid (Dr Johnson House), Mathelinda Nabugodi (UCL), Kaya Peters (Leicester University), Sarah Roller (Historic Houses), Catherine Ross (Museumand), Rob Shakespeare (Keats House), Philip Shaw (Leicester University), Laila Sumpton (Poetry Vs Colonialism), Nicola Watson (Open University), Pen Woods (Poetry Vs Colonialism), Janett Walker (Anti Racist Cumbria), Janet Wootton (John Bunyan Museum and Library) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Lancaster Castle Network Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This workshops enabled participants to share their research findings and future plans with a wider academic, organisational and community audience, addressing how future partnerships and collaborations might support future research into, and engagement with, the issues raised in relation to colonialism. The event developed the network's international dimension, incorporating overseas-based researchers and linking with international heritage and museum organisations. Participants were as follows: Simon Bainbridge (Lancaster University), Joanna Brown (Royal Holloway, University of London), Lynda-Louise Burrell (Museumand), Donna Chambers (Northumbria University), Jeff Cowton (Wordsworth Grasmere), Mohammed Dalech (Leicester University and Mosaic Outdoors), Vick de Rijke (Poetry Vs Colonialism / Middlesex University), Lizzie Dunford (Jane Austen House), Corinne Fowler (Leicester University), Subhasree Ghosh (Loreto College, Kolkata), Eleanor Harding (Carlyle House), Celine Luppo-McDaid (Dr Johnson House), Patricia Matthew (Montclair State University), Mathelinda Nabugodi (UCL), Raj Pal (Freelance Curator), Kaya Peters (Leicester University), Daniel Roberts (Queens University, Belfast), Sarah Roller (Historic Houses), Catherine Ross (Museumand), Rob Shakespeare (Keats House), Philip Shaw (Leicester University), Cindy Sughrue (Charles Dickens Museum), Laila Sumpton (Poetry Vs Colonialism), Nicola Watson (Open University), Pen Woods (Poetry Vs Colonialism), Janett Walker (Anti Racist Cumbria), Janet Wootton (John Bunyan Museum and Library) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2024 |
| Description | Second expert academic consulatation with Wordsworth Grasmere |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Two members of the network (Dr Mathelinda Nabugobi and Professor Patricia Matthew) provided two days of expert consultation on issues of the links between Romanticism and imperialism to the staff of Wordsworth Grasmere, including a meeting with all staff members and a meeting with the Curatorial and Learning team. Members of staff reported on how educational the visit had been and how it had helped them thing about future uses of the collection and other engagement activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Wordsworth Grasmere Network Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This two day network event enabled an initial sharing of research and discussion of key issues by researchers, stakeholders and community groups, alongside a site-specific examination of the different elements of Wordsworth Grasmere, which includes Dove Cottage, the Designated collection of the Jerwood Centre (which contains 90% of William Wordsworth's manuscript as well as significant book and fine art collections), the recently redesigned Wordsworth Museum, and the garden and wider estate. This event offered a detailed case study that helped identify topics for discussion at following two workshops and also assisted with the establishment of key protocols, appropriate language, and issues of methodology. The event brought together academics, curators of Romantic-period literary houses, and third sector organisations, as follows: Jason Allen-Paisant (University of Manchester), Simon Bainbridge (Lancaster University), Simon Brown (Newstead Abbey), Donna Chambers (Northumbria University), Jeff Cowton (Wordsworth Grasmere), Victoria de Rijke (Poetry Vs Colonialism / Middlesex University), Lizzie Dunford (Jane Austen House), Subhasree Ghosh ( Loreto College, Kolkata), Corinne Fowler (Leicester University), Michael McGregor (Wordsworth Grasmere), Patricia Matthew (Montclair State University), Kevin Ncube (Journalist), Kaya Peters (Leicester University), Daniel Roberts (Queens University, Belfast), Rob Shakespeare (Keats House), Philip Shaw (Leicester University), Laila Sumpton (Poetry Vs Colonialism), Jannett Walker (Anti Racist Cumbria), Nicola Watson (Open University), Pen Woods (Poetry Vs Colonialism). As this illustrates, there was a strong international dimension to the workshop, with representation from the US and India. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |