Violet Rodgers

Violet Rodgers
Violet Rodgers, in the York Castle Museum
Born(1914-02-07)7 February 1914
Bradford, England
Died8 May 1978(1978-05-08) (aged 64)
York, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationMuseum curator
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineSocial history
InstitutionsYork Castle Museum
Historical Museum of Kraków

Violet A Rodgers (7 February 1914 – 8 May 1978) was a British museum curator.[1][2][3]

Biography

Rodgers came to York in 1938 to work for John Lamplugh Kirk at the newly-opened York Castle Museum. Kirk died in 1940 and Rodgers ran the museum as Deputy Curator during the Second World War. During this time she expanded the education offer and developed an interactive approach to the collections by allowing visitors to handle objects.[4] In addition to her curatorial duties, Rodgers also served in the Royal Observer Corps throughout the war.[5]

Rodgers was one of the first women to achieve the Museums Association Diploma.[4]

In June 1947 she married Wladyslaw Włoch and left the museum for Poland.[6] Immediately before her departure she made a plea in the Museums Journal for British museums to help replenish the lost collections of the Historical Museum of Kraków, damaged during the war, by donating duplicates.[7] She became a Curator at the Historical Museum of Kraków and was awarded the Polish Cross of Merit for her work.[4] During her time in Poland, Violet and her husband Wladyslaw also worked to improve the Pharmacy Museum in Krakow - Wladyslaw received the Ignacy Łukasiewicz medal from the Pharmaceutical Society of Poland for their dedication to the museum, which included a 'York apothecary shop'.[8]

Rodgers tried to gain a visa from the Polish government to visit her family in England from 1949, but this was only granted in 1955 after intervention from Clement Attlee and Roy Mason. She returned for three months from August of that year.[9][10]

Rodgers returned to York permanently in 1960 where she remained for the rest of her life.[4] Wladyslaw worked for the biology department of the University of York.[11]

Violet died at her home on Fulford Road, York on 8 May 1978. A funeral service was held at St Wilfrid's, York before she was buried on 12 May in the family grave at Undercliffe Cemetery.[1] On 28 August the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Poland delivered a paper about her work in the central hall of the Academy of Medicine in Krakow.[11]

Rodgers and Kirk were both recreated by re-enactors on Kirkgate, the reconstructed Victorian street, as part of the Castle Museum's 80th anniversary in 2018.[12]

Select publications

  • 1949. The collection of costumes: a chat on the costume collection in the Castle Museum. York, York Corporation.
  • 1949. Valentines: a chat on the Valentine collection in the Castle Museum. York, York Corporation.
  • 1979. The development of domestic lighting. York, York Castle Museum.

References

  1. ^ a b "Notice: Włoch (Nee Rodgers)". Yorkshire Evening Press. 11 May 1978.
  2. ^ "Castle Museum's First Curator Dies". York Evening Press. 10 May 1978.
  3. ^ "S P Violet Rodgers-Włoch BA, ur. 7.2.14 roku". Przegląd Polski (in Polish). No. 23. 1978.
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, S. (14 December 2018). "100 years after votes for women, these are the women who have helped change York..." York Press. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  5. ^ Pearson, Catherine (2017). Museums in the Second World War: Curators, Culture and Change. Taylor & Francis. p. 18.
  6. ^ "Inside the Yorkshire museum founded on one man's obsessive collecting". Yorkshire Post. 21 April 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  7. ^ Włoch, V. (1947). "Appeal to Help Polish Museums". Museums Journal. 48.
  8. ^ "Biology news". News Sheet: Departmental News, University of York. Vol. 140. 17 November 1978.
  9. ^ "Yorkshire Woman Home - Eight Years Behind Iron Curtain". York Evening Press. 13 August 1955. p. 3.
  10. ^ "Visit from Poland - Three months' holiday after five years of effort". Yorkshire Post. 15 July 1955.
  11. ^ a b "Still fondly remembered". York Evening Press. 15 September 1978.
  12. ^ "The Castle Museum is 80 years old – and they're planning a brolly good birthday party". York Mix. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2019.