debauhaus1-5, Exercise 3: Why credit was uneven

Model answer:

Three reasons the contributions of women were under-credited (check each):
1. Who wrote the history. Early accounts were written by men, often the school's masters, and concentrated on architecture, furniture and the directors, giving less space to weaving, toys, photography and pottery, where many women worked.
2. How credit was recorded. Designs made in a workshop were often credited to a master, the director or "the Bauhaus" as a whole, even when a student made the prototype. Photographs, such as those by Lucia Moholy, were used widely without a clear credit, and there was a well-known dispute over her negatives.
3. Loss of records and people. The school closed in 1933, many members emigrated and some did not survive the war (Otti Berger was murdered in 1944), so documents and objects were lost or scattered.

How to check the attribution of a design: look for a dated object in a museum collection and its catalogue record; find a document of the period (a workshop record, a publication or an exhibition list) that names the maker; check specialist histories, which often discuss disputed attributions; and compare at least two independent sources. Treat a shop or a magazine as the weakest evidence.