The involvement of women in the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid (Spain): 1912–1942

ABSTRACT This article discusses, from the perspective of women’s history, the activity of the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid (MNAD) during its first thirty years (1912–1942). This work is mainly focused on the role of the Museum in promoting the artistic education of Spanish women, an undertaking which is only possible in a political and intellectual context dominated by a reforming liberalism and which results in a deep understanding that, for the general good of society, women must be better educated. It also examines the development of the Museum’s textile collection, on the grounds that it is closely related to the appreciation of work done by women, by the Museum’s curators and by the Spanish intellectual élite of the time. The essay concludes with the idea that the MNAD was following the model established several decades before in Britain by the Victoria and Albert Museum, even though it is possible to detect some differences which are unique to this particular case.