Elizabeth Gow

Email: elizabeth.gow@manchester.ac.uk
Twitter: @ecgow
Website: http://manchester.academia.edu/ElizabethGow

Previous Education

Master of Archives & Records Management, The University of Liverpool, 2002.
BA (Hons) English Language and Literature, The University of Manchester, 1999.

Thesis title

Enriqueta Rylands: A Study of Private Collecting and Public Philanthropy, 1889-1908

Supervisors

Professor Helen Rees Leahy & Professor Julie-Marie Strange

Research Summary

My research will explore and analyse Enriqueta Rylands’ book collecting between 1889 and 1908 (when she died), including her collecting for the John Rylands Library. Through close scrutiny of both textual records and the material evidence of Rylands’ collecting practice, my PhD will reveal what she acquired, how and for what purpose. Central to the project is an investigation of the relationship between the tastes, interests and practical resources of the individual collector and the ambition to found a major educational and cultural institution.

Research interests

History of collecting; history of philanthropy; history of education; fin de siècle women.

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