About

Ruth Washbrook wearing glasses with should length hair in a head shot

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Hi, I’m Ruth Washbrook, Curator of Spinstorian

I am a social historian, researcher and curator focusing on the 19th and early 20th century.

I have curated exhibitions and presented local history talks and film shows.

Spinstorian is all about digging hidden and forgotten women out of the archives.

I wanted to give them a voice, acknowledging their lives and stories and showing them as real people, not just statistics or lines in the census or poor law records.

In 2021, I completed an MA in History with the Open University and my dissertation focussed on the female inmates of the Logierait Poorhouse in Highland Perthshire.

You can read my dissertation online:

Poverty and the Poorhouse: The Impact of Gender, Family and Migration on the Provision of Welfare in Highland Perthshire 1864 – 1884.

My research interests include gender, poverty and Scottish Poorhouses. I also have a particular interest in Victorian spinsters and philanthropy.

I am currently working on a local history book about life in the Logierait Poorhouse and the people that spent time there. The former Poorhouse building is now the lovely Cuil an Daraich Guest House where you can stay and soak up the history and enjoy the beautiful countryside of Highland Perthshire.