Lily Crowther

Research Topic

Teaching craft skills in the building trades: the Museum of Construction and Building Materials and its legacies

Supervisors: Professor William Whyte and Dr Simona Valeriani (V&A Research Institute)

The Museum of Construction and Building Materials was a teaching collection which existed as part of the South Kensington complex of museums in the 1850s-80s; much of its collection is now in the V&A. My thesis explores what it collected and why, as well as how the collection was used. In particular, I am looking at how skills and technical knowledge can be transmitted through museums and their collections. My broader research interests are in 19th- and 20th-century architecture and craft.

I work part-time at Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, where I am Curator (History). My professional interests include curating ceramics and decorative arts, and the use of collections and object-focused methods in HE teaching. I previously worked as a curator and researcher at the V&A and I am an Associate Member of the Museums Association. In 2021 I was a Junior Teaching Fellow on the Krasis programme at the Ashmolean Museum. I am currently an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, where I teach on Museums and Society.

I am funded by the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme. For information about my publications see https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7912-9795