Violet Rodgers
{{Short description|British museum curator}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Violet Rodgers
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Violet Wloch.jpg
| caption = Violet Rodgers, in the York Castle Museum
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|2|7|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Bradford, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1978|5|8|1914|2|7}}
| death_place = York, England
| occupation = Museum curator
| known_for =
| discipline = History
| sub_discipline = Social history
| nationality = British
| workplaces = York Castle Museum
Historical Museum of Kraków
}}
Violet A Rodgers (7 February 1914 – 8 May 1978) was a British museum curator.{{cite news |title=Notice: Włoch (Nee Rodgers) |work=Yorkshire Evening Press |date=11 May 1978}}{{cite news |title=Castle Museum's First Curator Dies |work=York Evening Press |date=10 May 1978}}{{cite news |title= S P Violet Rodgers-Włoch BA, ur. 7.2.14 roku |work=Przegląd Polski |year=1978 |issue=23 |language =pl}}
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.{{cite news |url=https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/17296593.100-years-after-votes-for-women-these-are-the-women-who-have-helped-change-york/ |date=14 December 2018 |title=100 years after votes for women, these are the women who have helped change York... |author1=Lewis, S. |work=York Press|access-date=8 October 2019}} In addition to her curatorial duties, Rodgers also served in the Royal Observer Corps throughout the war.{{cite book |title=Museums in the Second World War: Curators, Culture and Change |author1=Pearson, Catherine |date=2017 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |page=18}}
Rodgers was one of the first women to achieve the Museums Association Diploma.
In June 1947 she married Wladyslaw Włoch and left the museum for Poland.{{cite news |url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/analysis/inside-the-yorkshire-museum-founded-on-one-man-s-obsessive-collecting-1-9127924 |title=Inside the Yorkshire museum founded on one man’s obsessive collecting |work=Yorkshire Post |date=21 April 2018|access-date=8 October 2019}} 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.{{cite journal |title=Appeal to Help Polish Museums |journal=Museums Journal |volume=48 |author1=Włoch, V. |date=1947}} She became a Curator at the Historical Museum of Kraków and was awarded the Polish Cross of Merit for her work. 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'.{{cite magazine |title=Biology news |journal=News Sheet: Departmental News, University of York |volume=140 |date=17 November 1978}}
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.{{cite news |title=Yorkshire Woman Home - Eight Years Behind Iron Curtain |work=York Evening Press |date=13 August 1955 |page=3}}{{cite news |title=Visit from Poland - Three months' holiday after five years of effort |work=Yorkshire Post |date=15 July 1955}}
Rodgers returned to York permanently in 1960 where she remained for the rest of her life. Wladyslaw worked for the biology department of the University of York.{{cite news |title=Still fondly remembered |work=York Evening Press |date=15 September 1978}}
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. 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.
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.{{cite news |url=https://www.yorkmix.com/the-castle-museum-is-80-years-old-and-theyre-planning-a-brolly-good-birthday-party/ |title=The Castle Museum is 80 years old – and they’re planning a brolly good birthday party |date=20 April 2018 |work=York Mix|access-date=8 October 2019}}
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
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite web |url=https://www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk/blog/celebrating-80-years-of-york-castle-museum-violet-rodgers-our-first-female-curator/ |title=CELEBRATING 80 YEARS OF YORK CASTLE MUSEUM – VIOLET RODGERS, OUR FIRST FEMALE CURATOR |publisher=York Castle Museum |access-date=8 October 2019}}
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Category:British women curators
Category:British expatriates in Poland
Category:Employees of York Castle Museum