Men-only clubs and museums: associational culture and the gendering of Herne Bay’s museum between the wars

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen greater interest than ever in the small volunteer-run organisations that constitute the majority of British museums today. Rather than comparing the histories of small museums to those of larger institutions, we approach small museums as part of a local network of voluntary associations. Using the small town of Herne Bay as a case study, we show how associational culture historically empowered middle-class men who were members of men-only clubs. Clubmen connected to London-based museums took over civic museum campaigns, eventually directing governmental funding towards the museum and gaining control of the formerly female-led public library. Associations shaped museum education, so that different subjects were offered to male, mixed and female audiences. Women’s societies were directed towards local history. Analysis of how mechanisms of exclusion operate in homosocial associations can supply novel perspectives on the histories of gender and class-based exclusion in small museums.