Elite British Women's Albums: Functions and Significance in Women’s Daily Lives

This thesis examines a collection of elite British women's albums dating between 1750 and 1830, with the aim of gaining new insight into the albums' function and into elite women's daily lives in this period. Through close contextual analysis, combined with a multi-disciplinary and thematic interpretive approach, this thesis demonstrates how albums can be used as legitimate historical sources to further our understanding of elite women’s role as mothers, their perspective of lineage and heritage, their participation in land ownership and their view of family landscape, and their close networks and relationships.