Historical Portraits of Women Home Scientists: The University Of ...

Portraits are not produced in a vacuum. They are situated in a range of historical, social, economic, political, cultural, ideological, physical, spiritual, and institutional settings and contexts. The use of various symbols, artefacts, and metaphors by the portraitist captures the viewer’s attention, stimulates the emergence of powerful images and/or associations, and tempers how a viewer might act or react. For example, the portrait of a collection of university professors that we presented in the opening section of this chapter emphasizes the significance of formal roles within the university as well as the importance of capturing historical moments. Thus, portraits contribute to institutional memories and help to frame how an institution might wish to view itself as well as present itself to the outside world. What is important is not just what is captured by the portrait and the portraitist, but what lingers beyond the gaze of individuals and what might not be within the viewer’s lens.

In a history that utilizes such a photo, the individual prestige, esteem, and contributions of university chancellors and vice chancellors²⁸ are evidenced by the use of formal titles, qualifications, awards, honours, and periods of service. These descriptors draw attention to boundaries between the academy and elsewhere (usually evidenced by props such as academic robes, symbols of office), the serenity and elitism of the environment (because these photographs usually feature a background that is resplendent with books and other academic artefacts), and the re-creation of classic images such as university buildings, cloisters, and texts. In this setting, there can be little doubt that there is a connection between the portraitist, the historian, and the portrait in the way that each is shaped, produced, and presented. Portraitists highlight physical and contextual details as a way of creating a connection between the viewer or reader and an image or picture. Thus, they place themselves in the picture alongside the subjects and act as a lens through which the portrait can be read. In much the same way, an educational biographer narrates a story based on the evidence at hand, the self-definition that subjects or individuals might supply, and any contextual influences. The role of the biographer is to relate these accounts to wider social, political, economic, and intellectual events; to locate new threads in these