Student profiles
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.