Hidden Histories of Gender in the Queen’s House

About this tour

Discover hidden histories of gender behind the artworks on display at Greenwich’s spectacular Queen’s House with a tour from the ‘Gendering the Museum’ team. Looking beyond the images themselves, historian Kit Heyam (they/he) reveals histories of working-class weaving women, indigenous American gender-nonconforming people, effeminate courtiers and birthing fathers – and equips you with the tools to uncover hidden histories of gender wherever you look.

What you'll hear

1. 1

   Stop 1 — Introduction

   Discover the gendered ideologies built into Queen's House itself. Start the audio as you walk up towards the House.

2. 2

   Stop 2 — Queen's Presence Chamber

   Find out how Elizabeth I chose her outfit for the Armada Portrait, discover the gendered colonial encounters hiding in Francis Drake's portrait, and meet the working-class women whose labour is literally woven into the displays.

3. 3

   Stop 3 — Queen's Anteroom

   Why does James I's portrait have a new label, and what counts as evidence of seventeenth-century sex?

4. 4

   Stop 4 — Queen's Privy Chamber

   Discover Henry VIII's feminine side, and why we shouldn't take our contemporary understandings of gender for granted.

5. 5

   Stop 5 — King's Bedchamber

   Meet some queer icons from Roman mythology, and find out why eighteenth-century men couldn't stop getting their legs out.

6. 6

   Stop 6 — King's Presence Chamber

   Discover how early modern women used carefully chosen Bible stories to speak out in some of the only ways they could.