MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
(born 1929) is a British
footwear
Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves th ...
historian, formerly the Keeper of the Boot and Shoe Collection at the
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
Northampton Museum and Art Gallery is a public museum in Northampton, England. The museum is owned and run by West Northamptonshire Council and houses one of the largest collection of shoes in the world, with over 15,000 pairs, () She is engaged by museums around the world to identify shoes in their collections. ()
Swann graduated with a degree in geography in 1949, and began to work at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery the following year. The town was a historical centre for the production of shoes, and she took charge of curating the museum's collection of shoes and related artefacts, the world's largest collection of historical footwear. She became a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in 1976, for her work at Northampton Museum.
She was a founder member of
The Costume Society The Costume Society is a British organisation formed in 1965 to promote the study and preservation of historic and contemporary dress. It publishes a scholarly journal, ''Costume'', as well as one-off publications; and organises events and study day ...
, and its chairman from 1980 to 1987.
She retired in 1988 and became a freelance consultant. After retirement she travelled to Sydney to catalogue the Joseph Box Collection at the
Powerhouse Museum
The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Park, Sydney, Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle ...
*''Shoes concealed in buildings'', Northampton County Council, 1970
*''A history of shoe fashions'', Northampton County Council, 1975
*''Shoes'',
Batsford Books
Batsford Books is an independent British book publisher.
Batsford was founded in 1843 by Bradley Thomas Batsford. For some time it was an imprint of Pavilion Books. Upon the purchase of Pavilion Books by HarperCollins, on 1 December 2021 B. T. Ba ...
, 1982.
*''Shoemaking'',
Shire Books
Shire Books are published by Bloomsbury Publishing, a book publishing company based in London, England, and formerly by Shire Publications Ltd. and Osprey Publishing. Shire offers low priced, concise non-fiction paperbacks on a wide range of su ...
, 1987. Reprinted 1993, 1997, 2003, 2008.
*"Shoes Concealed in Buildings", ''Costume Society Journal'' 30 (1996), pp. 56–69.
*''History of Footwear in Norway, Sweden and Finland: Pre-history to 1950'',
Coronet Books
Coronet Books was established in 1966 as the paperback imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. The imprint was closed in 2004 but then relaunched in 2010, publishing fiction and non-fiction in hardback and paperback, including works by Chris Ryan, Lorna ...
, 2001.
See also
*
Concealed shoes
Concealed shoes hidden in the fabric of a building have been discovered in many European countries, as well as in other parts of the world, since at least the early modern period. Independent researcher Brian Hoggard has observed that the locati ...