A New View

The exhibit on Dorothy Wordsworth at the museum

Cases are organized by subject; this case is focused on her voracious reading.

Art of the area complements the cases.

Some cases include everyday objects that Dorothy used.

This pillar lists some of the people Dorothy met on her walks.

There are probably those who have heard of Dorothy Wordsworth and from the little they have heard, feel as if they know her, but their view of her may be simply as a famous writer’s sister.  The new exhibition at the Wordsworth Trust, “Dorothy Wordsworth, Wonders of the Everyday,” introduces visitors to Dorothy as a person in her own right.  This exhibit, the first ever focused solely on her does not present her as simply a source for another’s poetry, but as a woman who saw the world through observant and sensitive eyes and who captured what she saw with freshness and honesty.  The exhibit was created by Pamela Woof, the editor of Dorothy’s journals, and the expert on her writings and life.

The exhibit is not organized chronologically but instead is grouped thematically, so that we see her through her sewing in one case and through her love of nature in another and through her interest in passersby in another.  It includes artifacts from her life in addition to journal entries and letters, so that we begin to sense Dorothy as a full individual.  

As Pamela said to me in the library one day, “I think Dorothy is coming into her own.”  To achieve this result, the exhibit studiously avoids her literary relationships with either Wordsworth or Coleridge, despite the influence she had on both men and their writing.  While showing this connection might confirm her importance in some eyes, it would also have the effect of lessening the power of her own words.  Her journals are too often seen as simply source books for William Wordsworth’s poems.  Breaking the connection as does this collection helps one to read her writing for its own power and beauty. Reading her journals and letters has brought me some of my most pleasurable moments here at the library, and I’m glad others can have the same experience through this exhibit.  Thank you, Pamela, for this groundbreaking exhibit.