Stewards of the Nation's Art examines the internal tensions between Britain's four main public art galleries' administrative directors, the aristocrats dominating the boards of trustees, and those in the Treasury who controlled the funds as well as board appointments.

Andrea Geddes Poole is a historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain and of philanthropy to the arts. She is also the author of Stewards of the Nation’s Art: Contested Cultural Authority, 1890–1939.

Gordon J. Fyfe:
'This book provides a compelling example of the interdisciplinary value of museum studies and of the museum's importance as a place at which culture, history, and society intersect... Poole's book contributes to debates about the making of the British upper class and to the way in which its gendered identity was negotiated at London's museums.'