Exhibition Curation

Making a House a Home: 300 Years of Women's History at Stourhead

8th March 2024 - 3rd November 2024

I led the curation of an exhibition at Stourhead House, celebrating 300 years since the house first became habitable. The exhibition focused exclusively on women's histories, from the first Lady of the House to present-day staff, and showcased objects and paintings created by women specifically for Stourhead. Using historical objects and specially commissioned replica costumes, the explored stories challenged prevailing narratives around women's place and impact in creating the Country House idyl over the last 300 years.

My role

Lead curator from concept and research right through to delivery and retrospective. Set the tone, vision and direction; undertook all research; wrote all exhibition text; organised loans; managed the budget; and selected objects, amongst other responsibilities. Led a team of staff and volunteers to deliver the final displays.

Aims and Objectives

1. Question traditional narratives around the role of women in creating the Country House.

2. Create a greater understanding of the lived experience of women at Stourhead.

3. Increase the number of visitors to the house to pre-COVID levels.

Main themes and concepts

The overarching theme is the role of women in making Stourhead. This is split into the following sub-themes:

1. Women's lived experience at Stourhead from 1724 to 1947

2. The role of female artists and makers in creating Stourhead's collection

3. The continued work of women in preserving Stourhead for the future

Layout

The arrangement was confined by the design of the house showrooms, which are all located on the ground floor. This meant working with the spaces to create an appropriate journey. Visitors first navigated the stories of the women who had lived in the house before proceeding to artworks and objects created by female artists and makers. The final room combined the proceeding themes by exploring the recent return of a painting by Angelica Kauffman, thereby telling the story of an object created by a female artist commissioned for Stourhead, finally returning home.

Key Objects

Most objects were from the Stourhead collection, supplemented by a small selection of items loaned from other museums and private collections. Four costumes were specially commissioned based on historical portraits and photographs of the four key women.

Interpretation Techniques

Previous research showed that visitors most enjoyed reading and touching to interpret the house and its objects. Therefore, the central technique was utilising carefully written text panels and creating a clear text hierarchy. 

Four replica costumes were commissioned to bring the women's presence into the spaces more centrally. These ranged from a Georgian wrapping gown to an Edwardian two-piece set, complete with an S-bend silhouette. Fabric swatches were also provided, and visitors were invited to touch them.

A further important aspect was bringing the women's voices into the space. Due to budget and practical constraints, audio was not able to be utilised. Therefore, quotes from diaries and letters were presented in innovative ways, such as on napkins, in open books laid out on desks, and on aged paper made to look like letters.

Finally, the rooms were carefully set dressed so as to feel as though the women were still living there. This included setting up one room as though it were nighttime with a false fire in the grate. Another had its table laid out for afternoon tea, complete with replica food.

Interpretation Text

The text hierarchy of each room included one introductory panel, two to three sub-panels and up to five object labels highlighting key collection items. The text was written with accessibility in mind, ensuring high contrast between text and background, no more than three lines of centralised text, and eliminating any orphan words. Intro and sub-panels were highlighted with clip lights to aid reading within the low-lit environment of the showrooms. 

The tone of voice was pitched as 'friendly expert', which aligned with National Trust guidelines. All text was written to appeal to a general audience with limited knowledge of the subject matter.

Reception

Senior stakeholders were very impressed with the project's process, delivery and end result. Volunteers were also very pleased with the final layout, design, and interpretation of the rooms. One volunteer contacted me directly to say: 

"New display is amazing. Visitors are really interested in the archive material. Good research. Presentation is excellent: clear and concise and eye catching. New material is stimulating for Room Guides as well as visitors!"

Feedback from visitors about the exhibition has so far been overwhelmingly positive, with the costumes, focus on women, and personal touches highlighted as the most popular interventions:

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