Leslie Webster (art historian)

Last updated

Leslie Webster

FSA
Born (1943-11-08) 8 November 1943 (age 79)
NationalityEnglish
Academic background
Alma mater Westfield College, University of London
Institutions British Museum

Leslie Elizabeth Webster, FSA (born 8 November 1943) is an English retired museum curator and art historian of Anglo-Saxon and Viking art. She worked from 1964 until 2007 at the British Museum, rising to Keeper, where she curated several major exhibitions, and published many works, on the Anglo-Saxons and Early Middle Ages.

Contents

Early life and education

Leslie Elizabeth Webster was born on 8 November 1943 to James Lancelot Dobson and Elizabeth Marjorie Dobson (née Dickenson). After attending Central Newcastle High School she matriculated at Westfield College at the University of London, where in 1964 she received a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours. [1]

Career

Following her graduation from Westfield, Webster began work at the British Museum, serving from 1964 to 1969 as assistant keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities. [1] [2] In 1969 the department was split in two and Webster moved to the newly-structured Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities (in 2000 renamed the Department of Medieval and Modern Europe), [2] serving as assistant keeper until 1985, from then until 2002 as deputy keeper, and during 2002–2003 as the acting keeper. [1] The departments were merged back into one body in 2002, the Department of Prehistory and Europe, [3] of which Webster served as Keeper from 2003 until her 2007 retirement. [1] [4]

During her time at the British Museum, Webster was the co-curator for four major exhibitions about the Early Middle Ages. [5] [4] As part of the Transformation of the Roman World AD 400–900 project of the European Science Foundation, she also coordinated exhibitions in five major European museums. [4] [5]

Webster's work, both before and after retirement, has also included the publication of works on Anglo-Saxon art and archaeology. [4] These include The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066 (1984), The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600–900 (1991, The Transformation of the Roman World AD 400–900 (1997), Anglo-Saxon Art: A New History (2012), and The Franks Casket (2012). [6] She is the co-author of a forthcoming work on the finds from the Staffordshire Hoard. [5]

Other activities

Webster has served since 2002 as an honorary visiting professor at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, and on the advisory panel of the National Heritage Memorial Fund since 2012. [1] [5] [6] From 2011 to 2014 she chaired the research advisory panel of the Staffordshire Hoard Research Project, [1] and from 2013 to 2017 she was a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest. [4] She was the President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology from 2007 to 2010, and the Vice President of the Royal Archaeological Institute from 2007 until 2012. [1] [5] She has also served as a trustee for the Society of Antiquaries of London, [5] [4] [7] an organisation of which she was elected a fellow in 1973, [1] in addition to memberships on the English Heritage Museums and Archives Advisory Panel, and the British Academy Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture Committee. [5] From 1986 to 1999 she served as the UK representative for the Koordinierend Ausschuss der Internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sachsenforschung. [1]

Personal life

Webster married William Ian Webster in 1966. She has one son, and two daughters. [1] Who's Who describes her interests as "books, music, walking, cooking, France, whistling". [1]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Jewel</span> Quartz and gold Anglo-Saxon artefact

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustus Wollaston Franks</span> British antiquarian and museum administrator

Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks was a British antiquarian and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of the British Museum, and one of the greatest collectors of his age."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benty Grange helmet</span> 7th-century boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the 7th century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The helmet is displayed at Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate in 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franks Casket</span> Anglo-Saxon carved chest

The Franks Casket is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone chest from the early 8th century, now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes. Generally thought to be of Northumbrian origin, it is of unique importance for the insight it gives into early Anglo-Saxon art and culture. Both identifying the images and interpreting the runic inscriptions has generated a considerable amount of scholarship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chape</span>

Chape has had various meanings in English, but the predominant one is a protective fitting at the bottom of a scabbard or sheath for a sword or dagger. Historic blade weapons often had leather scabbards with metal fittings at either end, sometimes decorated. These are generally either in some sort of U shape, protecting the edges only, or a pocket shape covering the sides of the scabbard as well. The reinforced end of a single-piece metal scabbard can also be called the chape.

Sir David Mackenzie Wilson, FBA is a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator, specialising in Anglo-Saxon art and the Viking Age. From 1977 until 1992 he served as the Director of the British Museum, where he had previously worked, from 1955 to 1964, as an assistant keeper. In his role as director of the museum, he became embroiled in the controversy over the ownership of the Elgin Marbles with the Greek government, engaging with a "disastrous" televised debate with Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. D. Kendrick</span> British archaeologist and art historian (1895–1979)

Sir Thomas Downing Kendrick was a British archaeologist and art historian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Bruce-Mitford</span> British archaeologist and scholar (1914–1994)

Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford, FBA, FSA was a British archaeologist and scholar. He spent the majority of his career at the British Museum, primarily as the Keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, and was particularly known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Considered the "spiritus rector" of such research, he oversaw the production of the monumental three-volume work The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, termed by the president of the Society of Antiquaries as "one of the great books of the century".

Æthelswith was the only known daughter of King Æthelwulf of Wessex. She married King Burgred of Mercia in 853. The couple had no known issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staffordshire Hoard</span> Anglo-Saxon hoard discovered in 2009

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo purse-lid</span>

The Sutton Hoo purse-lid is one of the major objects excavated from the Anglo-Saxon royal burial-ground at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The site contains a collection of burial mounds, of which much the most significant is the undisturbed ship burial in Mound 1 containing very rich grave goods including the purse-lid. The person buried in Mound 1 is usually thought to have been Rædwald, King of East Anglia, who died around 624. The purse-lid is considered to be "one of the most remarkable creations of the early medieval period." About seven and a half inches long, it is decorated with beautiful ornament in gold and garnet cloisonné enamel, and was undoubtedly a symbol of great wealth and status. In 2017 the purse-lid was on display at the British Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seax of Beagnoth</span> 10th century Anglo-Saxon seax

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer Helmet</span> Anglo-Saxon helmet from the late seventh century found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire

The Pioneer Helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the late seventh century found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. It was discovered during a March 1997 excavation before the land was to be mined for gravel and was part of the grave of a young man. Other objects in the grave, such as a hanging bowl and a pattern welded sword, suggest that it was the burial mound of a high-status warrior.

Dame Rosemary Jean Cramp, was a British archaeologist and academic specialising in the Anglo-Saxons. She was the first female professor appointed at Durham University and was Professor of Archaeology from 1971 to 1990. She served as president of the Society of Antiquaries of London from 2001 to 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilden Morden boar</span> Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar

The Guilden Morden boar is a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in Guilden Morden, a village in the eastern English county of Cambridgeshire. There the boar attended a skeleton with other objects, including a small earthenware bead with an incised pattern, although the boar is all that now remains. Herbert George Fordham, whose father originally discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum in 1904; as of 2018 it was on view in room 41.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gevninge helmet fragment</span> 6th or 7th century artefact

The Gevninge helmet fragment is the dexter eyepiece of a helmet from the Viking Age or end of the Nordic Iron Age. It was found in 2000 during the excavation of a Viking farmstead in Gevninge, near Lejre, Denmark. The fragment is moulded from bronze and gilded, and consists of a stylised eyebrow with eyelashes above an oval opening. There are three holes at the top and bottom of the fragment to affix the eyepiece to a helmet. The fragment is significant as rare evidence of contemporaneous helmets, and also for its discovery in Gevninge, an outpost that is possibly connected to the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. It has been in the collection of the Lejre Museum since its discovery, and has been exhibited internationally as part of a travelling exhibition on Vikings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horncastle boar's head</span> 7th-century Anglo-Saxon ornament depicting a boar

The Horncastle boar's head is an early seventh-century Anglo-Saxon ornament depicting a boar that probably was once part of the crest of a helmet. It was discovered in 2002 by a metal detectorist searching in the town of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. It was reported as found treasure and acquired for £15,000 by the City and County Museum, where it is on permanent display.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. H. Turner</span> English museum curator and art historian

Derek Howard Turner was an English museum curator and art historian who specialised in liturgical studies and illuminated manuscripts. He worked at the British Museum and the British Library from 1956 until his death, focusing on exhibitions, scholarship, and loans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Archibald</span>

Marion MacCallum Archibald was a British numismatist, author and for 33-years a curator at the British Museum. She was the first woman to be appointed Assistant Keeper in the Department of Coins and Medals and is regarded as a pioneer in what had previously been a male-dominated field. Her 70th birthday was celebrated with the publication of a book of essays authored by 30 of her colleagues, collaborators and former students for whom Marion's name was "synonymous ... with the study of Anglo-Saxon coins at the British Museum".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellvi helmet eyebrow</span> Iron Age helmet eyebrow fragment

The Hellvi helmet eyebrow is a decorative eyebrow from a Vendel Period helmet. It comprises two fragments; the arch is made of iron decorated with strips of silver, and terminates in a bronze animal head that was cast on. The eyebrow was donated to the Statens historiska museum in November 1880 along with several other objects, all said to be from a grave find in Gotland, Sweden.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Webster, Leslie Elizabeth". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  2. 1 2 Wilson 2002, p. 379.
  3. Bowring 2012, p. 5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Objects of Cultural Interest 2014, p. 75.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Leslie Webster". National Heritage Memorial Fund. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  6. 1 2 Simpson, Mike (21 October 2011). "Anglo-Saxon Art Expert Talks on Wall-Paintings and Altar Cloths". University of Leicester. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  7. "Elections to Council". Salon. Society of Antiquaries of London (232). 26 April 2010. Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.

Bibliography