Quiet Feminists

Women Collectors, Exhibitors, and Patrons of Embroidery, Lace, and Needlework in Late Imperial Russia (1860–1917)

Bibliographic Data

ID22004907
AuthorsHanna Chuchvaha (University of Calgary, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume27
Issue1
Pages45-72
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWest 86th (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2153-5531 • E-ISSN: 2153-5558
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/711189
OpenAlexW3051869428
LanguageEN
Citations received2

In the patriarchal culture of imperial Russia, the collecting, preserving, and exhibiting of art works was an activity reserved predominantly for men; in the second half of the nineteenth century, however, a new type of female collector emerged. In both the capitals and provinces, women began collecting, exhibiting, and promoting folk arts and crafts and needlework. This article examines the focus on the part of specific female collectors and patrons on objects associated with women, their pastimes, domesticity, and femininity, all understood as an expression of both self and group identity. It examines this unfolding feminist project through five stages: (1) collecting artifacts associated with women; (2) displaying them at home or at private museums; (3) organizing and supporting the handicraft workshops and practical schools for peasant women; (4) popularizing those artifacts via printed editions; and (5) publishing ethnographic commentaries which reflected female pastimes, material culture, and crafts in the context of traditional culture and the arts and crafts revival

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Ethnography · Femininity · Handicraft · Peasant · Sociology · The arts · Visual arts · Anthropology · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History

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