What Queer Heritage Looks Like at Home: Rethinking House Museums with Dr. Hillary Walker

Queer History in Every Room: Rethinking Domestic Space as a Historical Archive

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I’m delighted to continue my Queer Possibility in Action Series with Dr. Hillary Walker. Dr. Walker studies house museums as sites of queer history, and, in this interview, imagines us to imagine homes as spaces for queer possibility.

Be sure to check out the other articles in this series:

• Lincoln, Fan Fiction, and Queer Museums: A Deep Dive into Possibility

• Looking for Queer Possibility in Museums: An Interview with Margaret Middleton

• Unearthing Queer DC: What Household Trash Reveals About the Past

Name: Dr. Hillary Walker

Organization: Historian at the City of Toronto, finished my doctoral work at University of Toronto last year.

Can you tell us about your research on the interpretation of queer heritage within house museums?

My dissertation research seeks to understand how identity is expressed through the domestic spaces found in house museums with in situ collections. I argue that the spaces a person lived in and the ways that personal objects were used gives incredible insight into that person’s identity. I have found that house museums are uniquely positioned to offer a more comprehensive understanding of a queer person’s life at a particular time and place than just relying on archival records alone. The domestic space captured within the house museum represents the full range of someone’s life, so you can begin to understand the complexity of the individual instead of striping away the intersectionality of their lived experience.

What drew you to this work?

I have always loved house museums. I love the immersive environments that are so rich with sensory cues. I started working in a house museum in the mid-2000s and became fascinated with how these old rooms full of stuff could be used to tell compelling stories. My work on house museums really looks at how historical narratives are structured, with particular attention to how the house and collection can be used to enhance understanding or pose questions to visitors.

What is one of your favorite aspects of house museums? This could be a specific house whose history you’ve interpreted, an object in a particular collection where you’ve worked, a juicy anecdote you’ve stumbled on in research, or a treasured visitor interaction you’ve witnessed, etc.

There are so many aspects of house museums that I love! During my fieldwork for my dissertation I studied Beauport, the Sleeper-McCann House (built between 1907-1934) owned by Historic New England. The house is located in the fishing village of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Beauport belonged to Henry Davis Sleeper, one of the first professional interior designers in the United States. Sleeper used the home as a design laboratory of sorts; each of the 40+ rooms have unique designs. Beauport functioned as an escape from Boston’s high society. The home was located in what could be termed a bohemian enclave along Gloucester’s Eastern Point. Sleeper’s neighbours, who became close, lifelong friends, relished breaking restrictive social protocols and together created a space where queerness flourished. Understanding the social setting that Beauport evolved in became highly important in decoding how Sleeper created different rooms. In the Golden Step, one of the last dining rooms added to the house, Sleeper made a bold statement proclaiming himself a master of his “castle.” One wall has a false window in the centre, which he used to anchor numerous elements to express his identity. There is a glass railroad lamp with the word “Engineer” etched across it. The window is flanked by stern figures of mermen, instead of the commonly found mermaids. Upon the windowsill is a set of ceramic castles. Read as an overall assemblage, the objects take on new meaning within a dining room that marked Sleeper’s emergence as a professional designer. The mermen are a playful double entendre about same-sex attractions while also supporting the nautical theme of the rest of the room. The ceramic castles affirm Sleeper’s artistic expression finds its form in domestic spaces. While the “Engineer” lamp, somewhat cheekily, asserts Sleeper as the master of interior design.

Frederic Magazine

What are the kinds of narratives traditionally used in interpretation by house museums about the people who lived there and/or about the significance of the site or its collections? How has the interpretation changed over time?

In my experience, house museums have traditionally been hesitant to fully embrace the queer heritage of their sites. I think this is changing as house museum interpretation evolves. There has been a tendency to avoid directly engaging with sexuality, whether or not queerness is present. However, this is changing as house museum praxis evolves with the continued publications of people like Susan Ferentinos, Kenneth Turino, Joshua Adair, Amy Levin, Alison Oram, and Margaret Middleton.

Beauport was one of the first house museums in the United States to acknowledge itself as a site of queer heritage. In 2008, the museum started their tours by stating Sleeper was a gay man who never married and had no heirs. By the time I did my fieldwork in 2018, the museum was still starting their tours with that line, but the rest of the narrative have developed to include several points where Sleeper’s sexuality could be explored. They also created a special Pride Tour that offered a nuanced journey into the questions queer heritage raises. I think it is hugely important to be self reflective and transparent while presenting queer heritage.

How has the response to questions about queerness changed over time? What has informed those changes?

If Sleeper’s queerness was questioned by visitors before 2008 the tour guides would say they didn’t know about his sexuality. The tour guides at that time felt they were protecting Sleeper by denying his sexuality. Obviously a lot had to change to get to the point where tour guides delivered special programs dedicated to the complexities of Sleeper’s same-sex relationships.

Part of my research on Beauport looked at how the institution changed over time to make it possible to interpret Sleeper’s sexuality. Historic New England had undergone a rebranding in the early 2000s that marked a shift in commitment to tell social histories; the institution had previously been known primarily for architectural preservation and decorative arts. This change came from the top down, however, the push to start acknowledging Sleeper’s sexuality came from the middle of the institution. The Site Manager worked very closely with the Team Leader for Visitor Experience to first acknowledge and later build interpretation of Beauport as a site of queer heritage. Once the middle and the top of the institution aligned, a lot of work was needed to ensure the ground level was able to successfully deliver the updated narrative. Historic New England wanted to ensure the tour guides felt comfortable discussing sexuality on the tour.

What are the challenges to doing queer history in this space?

I think a big challenge house museums face in interpreting queer history is ensuring that the institution itself is ready to embrace that history. In order to successfully deliver queer narratives, all levels of the organization need to be aligned. I think there is internal infrastructure that needs to be built as well. Archival files need to be accessible, the collection and the narrative need to support each other, and staff need professional development to confidently engage visitors in discussions about sexuality.

Call Me! (or not!)

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Thanks for reading!

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