Marjorie (Courtney) Quennell (1884–1972) was a British historian, illustrator and museum curator. Her husband was architect Charles Henry Bourne Quennell (1872–1935). They met at the Junior Art Workers Guild. They had three children, including a son Peter Courtney Quennell (1905–1993) who became a well-known writer and was editor of ''

History Today ''History Today'' is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and pub ...

''. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the Quennells wrote a series of illustrated children’s books, ''

A History of Everyday Things in England ''A History of Everyday Things in England'' is a series of four history books for children written by Marjorie Quennell and her husband Charles Henry Bourne Quennell (aka C. H. B.) between 1918 and 1934. The books concern English history between ...

'', 4 volumes (1918–1934). The series ended with ''The Good New Days'' (1935), where modern industrial and agricultural processes, together with the problems of the future, were considered. A second series was written, ''Everyday Life in…'' (1921–26) describing living from Prehistoric to Norman times. A third series of ''Everyday Things'' (1929–32) covered Greece in antiquity. After World War II she illustrated two more books in the ''Everyday Life'' series on Biblical times, the texts being written by others. She was a painter in oils and watercolour, mostly of architectural subjects. After her husband died in 1935 she was appointed

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the

Geffrye Museum The Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum, is a free museum in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Shoreditch, London. The museum explores home and home life from 1600 to the present day with gallerie ...

. While there she installed the series of "period rooms" on which the museum is still based to this day. She remained there until she retired in 1940, then moved to the United States

Works

Author *Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, ''

'', London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1918-1934 **Volume I: 1066-1449 **Volume II: 1500-1799 **Volume III: 1733-1851 **Volume IV: 1852-1914 *Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, ''A History of Everyday Life in..'', London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1921-1926. **Everyday life in Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and Norman times **Everyday Life in Roman Britain **Everyday Life in Prehistoric Times (vol. 1 ''The Old Stone Age'', vol. 2 ''The New Stone Age'') *Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, ''Everyday Things in Greece'', London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1929-1932. **Volume 1: Homeric Greece **Volume 2: Archaic Greece **Volume 3: Classical Greece *Marjorie & C. H. B. Quennell, ''The Good New Days'', London, B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1935. *Marjorie Quennell, ''London Craftsman: A Guide to Museums Having Relics of Old Trades'', London, London Transport, 1939. Illustrator *E. Lucia Turnbull and H. Dalway Turnbull, ''Through the Gates of Remembrance: First Series: A Trilogy of Plays Centred Round Glastonbury'', London, T. Nelson & Sons, 1933. *Elisabeth Kyle, ''Disappearing Island'', Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1944. *Gertrude Hartman and Lucy S. Saunders, ''Builders of the Old World'', Boston, D. C. Heath & Co., 1949. ol. 4 of the History on the March series*A. C. Bouquet, ''Everyday Life in New Testament Times'', London, B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1953. *Wallace Walter Atwood and Helen Goss Thomas, ''Visits in Other Lands'', Toronto, Ginn,

943 Year 943 ( CMXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Spring – Allied with the Rus', a Hungarian army raids Moesia and Thrace. ...

*E. W. Heaton, ''Everyday Life in Old Testament Times'', London, Batsford Ltd, 1957.

References

External links

Photo of Marjorie Quennell showing schoolchildren her painted figures in one of the Geffrye Museum's period rooms, late 1930s
* Laura Carter
‘Shall we judge him by his WORK?’: The Quennells and the primitive craftsman
at Histories of Archaeology Research Network (HARN) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quennell, Marjorie 1884 births 1972 deaths 20th-century English historians 20th-century English women artists 20th-century English women writers British women curators British women historians British women illustrators People from Bromley

Works

References

Further reading

External links