Fullerton Arboretum

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Museum

“Artifacts from Heritage House complicate our understanding of Victorian
gender roles in such rural places as Orange County, California.”

Now open at the Orange County Agricultural
and Nikkei Heritage Museum!

This exhibit is closed for the summer and reopen on September 11, 2010.

The exhibit will officially close on Sunday, November 21, 2010.

Normal hours when open:

Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 11:00–3:00,
and by Appointment

Admission is free

Understanding History and Everyday Objects Resource Material Links Below

DHWG Education Questions Here.

DHWG Children Here.


	Examining Victorian Gender and Class The current exhibition at the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum examines the effect of a rural location on middle class gender roles for Victorian men and women. This exhibition features artifacts from Heritage House in the Fullerton Arboretum.

“Traditional histories of Victorian gender roles maintain that men and women lived in separate spheres, with men extending their influence outside the home and women confined within.”

When we think about the Victorian period, we conjure up images of corseted ladies hosting tea parties and gentlemen puffing on pipes. Our fantasies about leisurely life in the Victorian era take for granted that such men and women were following social norms set in place for an urban
middle class. By remembering only these images, we forget the complexities of Victorian lifeacross the United States. What happens when we study gender and class in an overwhelmingly agricultural area like Orange County? Did middle-class families in rural places have servants? What did a remote location mean in terms of work and leisure for men and women? What did this nonurban setting do to the public and private lives of middle-class citizens? Most importantly, does examining a rural locale change the gender roles and expectations of residents of this time, as well as everything we think we know about the Victorian period?

“Why everyday objects?”

The artifacts on display in Dirty Hands, Whites Gloves are everyday objects appropriate to even nonurban homes in the Victorian period, albeit a home with a medical practice. By examining common items rather than those reserved for special occasions, we are better able to understand the overlapping interests of public and private personas, as well as leisure and labor in nonurban settings.

To learn more about gender and class in locations like Victorian Orange
County, visit Dirty Hands, White Gloves!