‘A rather undefined social position and public recognition’: professionalization, status, and masculinity in provincial museums, c.1870-1930

This article examines the background, careers and self-presentation of the first generation ofBritish museum curators in local-government funded provincial museums, around 1900, toexplore the issue of masculinity among the lower-middle classes. It argues that while suchmen were sometimes mocked for the lack of masculinity they showed in their domestic lives,a focus on their professional lives reveals a different set of problems facing them as theyattempted to be manly men; curatorial roles, like others available to the lower-middle classes,involved dependence on local elites, and required many of the skills and attributes whichwere being colonised by new women professionals. It goes on to examine the tactics used,with some success, by such men to assert a professional masculinity, focusing on theiridentification with their museum, their development of a professional body, and theirinvestment in manly physical activities.