Curating a province: Alice Lusk Webster and the New Brunswick Museum

Abstract

With origins dating back to 1842, the New Brunswick Museum holds the distinction of being Canada’s oldest continuing museum. It has a vast collection of objects spanning various disciplinary fields, including archival sciences, botany, geology, zoology, Canadian history, military history, fine art, and decorative arts. When the museum was remodeled into a provincial institution in 1929, there was no plan to include fine and decorative arts in its ongoing collections and curatorial mandates. This dissertation examines the ways in which Alice Lusk Webster worked to incorporate the museum’s extensive decorative and fine art collections into its institutional mandate, despite gendered and Eurocentric ideologies around the importance of arts and crafts objects. Lusk Webster (1880-1953) is a pivotal and yet under-researched figure in the history of the New Brunswick Museum and by association the history of New Brunswick. An American immigrant to New Brunswick through her marriage to her husband, Shediac physician John Clarence Webster, Lusk Webster’s position as a wealthy and educated New Yorker provided her with extensive knowledge of art history and museums. As passionate art collectors, the Webster helped drive the creation of a provincial museum for New Brunswick together. Lusk Webster created and curated the Department of Arts and Crafts, later known as the Department of Decorative Arts, the Department of Education, and the Children’s Museum, and was appointed an Honorary Curator against the salaried curatorial positions afforded to male scientists in this museum. This dissertation explores the contributions of Alice Lusk Webster to the New Brunswick Museum between 1929 and 1953, emphasizing her vital role to the museum’s success.