Addressing the Histories and Legacies of Colonialism in Romantic-period Literary House Museums: Dove Cottage and Beyond

该网络将汇集学者，博物馆工作人员，顾问，利益相关者和社区团体，调查浪漫时期文学博物馆的殖民联系，并考虑如何最好地为更广泛的公众解释这些联系。目前，关于遗产地和博物馆如何才能最好地理解和代表他们所保护的地点和物体的复杂历史，有着激烈的公众辩论。这场辩论为研究和策划浪漫主义时期的文学博物馆带来了特殊的挑战。1780-1830年），在这个时代，“殖民主义以探索性举措、商业企业和公民移民定居的形式，促进了英国领土的大规模扩张”（Carol博尔顿，“浪漫主义文学与殖民主义”，Literature Compass，5/3（2008）：第541页）。这一时期的文学馆博物馆在许多方面都与殖民主义有关，但这些历史往往未被探索或未被讲述。此外，由于文学人物受到尊敬和广泛的公众尊重，认真和严格地接触相关的殖民遗产通常会面临公众和媒体的敌意。该网络将应对这一挑战，并考虑如何最好地从战略上应对所涉敏感问题。该网络将开始考虑一个具体的案例研究，华兹华斯格拉斯米尔，一个网站，其中包括鸽子小屋，住宅从1799年至1808年的多萝西和威廉华兹华斯和从1809年至1820年的托马斯德昆西。华兹华斯·格拉斯米尔博物馆由华兹华斯信托基金（网络合作伙伴）维护了世纪多，一直是一个主要的遗产地和领先的文学博物馆，在新冠肺炎疫情爆发前每年接待40，000名游客。它的收藏品被指定为英国“国家文化和艺术遗产”的“重要组成部分”。然而，自从华兹华斯和德昆西的住所，直到现在，还没有一致或持续的尝试，以探索多奴隶制和东印度公司的历史鸽子小屋。该网络将开始解决这一沉默和无所作为的遗产。该网络将超越华兹华斯格拉斯米尔考虑殖民主义的复杂问题和遗产与其他浪漫时期的文学馆博物馆参与网络，包括：阿布斯福德（沃尔特·斯科特）;简·奥斯汀在查顿的故居;罗伯特·伯恩斯故居博物馆;柯勒律治小屋;济慈故居;纽斯特德修道院（拜伦）; Wordsworth House（科克茅斯）该网络将是学术跨学科的，包括英国文学，历史，博物馆研究和旅游研究的学者。它将涉及几个相关组织和社区团体的参与，包括：美国作家博物馆;安妮弗兰克信托;反种族主义坎布里亚郡;勃朗特牧师博物馆;博物馆和国家信托。它将学习相关领域其他专家和项目的专业知识，并听取包括Rachael Minott（博物馆协会非殖民化指导工作组主席）和Laila Sumpton（领导“诗歌与殖民主义”）在内的顾问的意见。该网络将吸收其他利益相关者的声音，包括游客、工作人员、志愿者、受托人、社区和学校团体，并将创建一套资源，支持文学博物馆研究它们与殖民主义的联系，并向更广泛的公众解释这些联系。它将通过组织三个研讨会来实现这一目标，最初侧重于华兹华斯·格拉斯米尔的殖民联系，然后扩展到与更广泛的文学博物馆分享研究问题和研究结果。通过合作，比较和对比这些不同的案例研究，该网络将使这些文学博物馆能够进一步研究和代表他们维护的网站和这些网站纪念的作家的复杂历史。

This network will bring together academics, museum personnel, consultants, stakeholders and community groups to investigate the colonial links of Romantic-period literary house museums and consider how best to interpret these links for a wider public. There is currently fierce public debate about how heritage sites and museums can best understand and represent the complex histories of the locations and objects they preserve. This debate creates a particular challenge for researching and curating literary house museums of the Romantic period (c. 1780-1830), an era when 'colonialism, in the form of exploratory initiatives, commercial enterprises and migratory settlement on the part of its citizens, contributed to a massive expansion in Britain's territorial possessions' (Carol Bolton, 'Romantic Literature and Colonialism', Literature Compass, 5/3 (2008): p. 541). The period's literary house museums bear to colonialism in numerous ways, but these histories frequently remain unexplored or untold. Moreover, because literary figures inspire reverence and widespread public respect, serious and rigorous engagements with relevant colonial legacies commonly face public and media hostility. The network will address this challenge and consider how best to respond strategically to the sensitivities involved. The network will begin by considering a specific case study, Wordsworth Grasmere, a site that includes Dove Cottage, the residence from 1799-1808 of Dorothy and William Wordsworth and from 1809-1820 of Thomas De Quincey. Maintained by the Wordsworth Trust (the network partner) for over a century, Wordsworth Grasmere has been a major heritage site and a leading literary house museum, receiving 40,000 visitors annually prior to the Covid pandemic. Its collection has Designated status as a 'vital part' of the England's 'national cultural and artistic heritage'. However, since the Wordsworths' and De Quincey's residence, and until now, there has been no concerted or sustained attempt to explore the multiple slavery and East India Company histories of Dove Cottage. The network will begin by addressing this legacy of silence and inaction.The network will then look beyond Wordsworth Grasmere to consider colonialism's complex issues and legacies in relation to the other Romantic-period literary house museums participating in the network, including: Abbotsford (Walter Scott); Jane Austen's House at Chawton; Robert Burns Birthplace Museum; Coleridge Cottage; Keats House; Newstead Abbey (Byron); and Wordsworth House (Cockermouth). The network will be academically interdisciplinary, including scholars of English Literature, History, Museum Studies and Tourism Studies. It will involve the participation of several related organisations and community groups with related concerns, including: American Writers Museum; Anne Frank Trust; Anti Racist Cumbria; Brontë Parsonage Museum; Museums&; National Trust. It will learn from the expertise of other specialists and projects in related areas, with input from consultants including Rachael Minott (chair of the Museums Association's Decolonising Guidance Working Group) and Laila Sumpton (who led 'Poetry versus Colonialism'). It will incorporate the voices of other stakeholders, including visitors, staff, volunteers, trustees, community and school groups.The network will create a set of resources to support literary house museums in researching their links with colonialism and interpreting them for a wider public. It will do so by organising three workshops, focusing initially on Wordsworth Grasmere's colonial links before expanding to share research questions and findings with a wider range of literary house museums. By collaborating on, comparing and contrasting these different cases studies, the network will enable these literary house museums to further research and represent the complex histories both of the sites they maintain and the writers those sites memorialise.