Margot Eates

Margot Eates (23 June 1913 – 24 September 1994) was a British art historian and curator who led the London Museum (predecessor institution to the Museum of London) through the second world war.

Margot Eates

M.B.E.
Born23 June 1913
London
Died24 September 1994
Partner(s)Hartley (E.H.) Ramsden
Parent(s)
  • Mary Louise Eates (mother)

Early life and education

Eates was born in London to parents Augustus Reginald Eates (a general practitioner) and Mary Louise Eates (a lecturer and campaigner for women's suffrage).[1]

Career

After working for for several seasons at Maiden Castle hill fort excavation, Eates inherited professional responsibilities from Tessa Verney Wheeler following her death, including dealing with the press and inducting new workers.[2] Eates was one of many women trained by Tessa Verney Wheeler who played a significant role in early twentieth century archaeology,[3] and was one of the early organisers who established the Institute of Archaeology, in London.[4]

Eates then joined the staff of the London Museum (one of two organisations which become the Museum of London), giving lectures to students.[4] She went on to manage the movement of the collection into storage during the war, and worked on keeping the London Museum open, campaigning for the use of Lancaster House premises and co-curating the 'New Movements in Art' exhibition.[5] She became the first example of a TV archaeologist when she presented a programme about the Maiden Castle excavations as a live broadcast on the BBC on 14 July 1937.[6]

After the war Eates turned her attention to art, and in 1948 producing the first book about her friend Paul Nash, following his death in 1946.[7] Eates worked closely with her partner Hartley Ramsden throughout their lives together, and contributed to Ramsden's volumes on Michaelangelo.[8] Eates later turned her efforts to church preservation, campaigns against airport extensions, and urban gardening.

Personal life

Eates met Hartley Ramsden in 1930 and the two were described as 'life colleagues' in their obituaries. The Tate Archive contains their papers, including an account of the early part of their loving relationship written by Eates.[9] Their 1987 joint portrait by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies is held by the National Portrait Gallery.[10]

References
  1. "Mills, Ernestine (1909). "Pendant". collections.museumoflondon.org.uk. 95.167/1". collections.museumoflondon.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  2. Carr, Lydia C. (2012-04-26). Tessa Verney Wheeler: Women and Archaeology Before World War Two. OUP Oxford. pp. 207, 249. ISBN 978-0-19-162635-7.
  3. Pope, Rachel (June 2011). "Processual archaeology and gender politics. The loss of innocence". Archaeological Dialogues. 18 (1): 59–86. doi:10.1017/S1380203811000134. ISSN 1478-2294.
  4. Hawkes, Jacquetta (1982). Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer in Archaeology. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-78056-4.
  5. Sheppard, Francis Henry Wollaston; London, Museum of (1991). The Treasury of London's Past: An Historical Account of the Museum of London and Its Predecessors, the Guildhall Museum and the London Museum. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-0-11-290492-2.
  6. Perry, Sara (2017-01-02). "Archaeology on Television, 1937". Public Archaeology. 16 (1): 3–18. doi:10.1080/14655187.2017.1283932. ISSN 1465-5187. S2CID 148806316.
  7. Eates, Margot (ed ) (1948). Paul Nash: Paintings Drawings and Illustrations by Margot Eates.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  8. Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. (1963). Letters of Michelangelo. Ramsden, E. H. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0183-0. OCLC 894343.
  9. "Papers of Margot Eates and E.H. Ramsden, from the Tate Archive and Public Records Catalogue". Tate Archive and Public Records Catalogue archive.tate.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
  10. "('E.H.') Hartley Ramsden - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
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