Strategic Donations: Women and Museums in New Brunswick, 1862-1930

Abstract

This essay emphasizes the contributions made by white, middle-class women to the Museum of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick, founded in 1862. Archival sources reveal that women funded the museum by organizing entertainments, bazaars, and high teas. Although excluded from full membership in the Natural History Society, they found ways to represent themselves in the museum’s collections and acquisition records by employing the gendered strategy of gift giving. Studying these women does more than add detail to existing museum narratives. It sheds light on the shifting historical definition of museums, indicating that their economic function has changed since the nineteenth century.