A True Repository of thee Gwerin or aa Romanticised Hiraeth ~V St Fagans and the Construction of Welshness-as-Folk, 1946-1971

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The proposed project would consider the tensions between rural and industrial imaginings of Wales in the post-war period. It will focus on Iowerth C. Peate's vision of Wales as seen at St Fagans Museum. The project would span the period between the museum's inception in 1946 and Peate's retirement in 1971. It would examine whether Peate's imagining of Wales as a folk nation sullied by industrialisation was a fair representation of the people of Wales, or if it was a willing romanticisation of the nation in response to English influences. If the latter, the project would examine exactly what Peate was constructing for the nation and why, as well as how this construction of Wales fit within, or challenged, other national visions at the time, such as those of nationalist Saunders Lewis or of the National Museum of Wales (Cathays Park) director, Cyril Fox. The project would also consider how the restrictive tenets of the gwerin definition necessitated that certain populations of Wales be removed from Peate's vision of the nation, and how his use of the medium of a museum shaped the representation of Welsh women when the typically domestic space of the home/house was repurposed as a public tool of nation-building. To do this, this project will use letters, journals, and catalogue entries of Peate's currently housed in the Paper Archive at St Fagans.