Posted by: Alistair Grant
AHRC Cultural Engagement Research Fellow, Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass
Alistair Grant teaches the new Foundation Year module 'Making History' at the University of Sussex and is an AHRC-funded Cultural Engagement Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is currently leading a collaborative research project that will photograph, transcribe, research and digitise a unique 19th century manuscript held in the National Art Library Special Collections. The Elkington & Co. visitors' book was used by the pioneering British electroplate manufacturer to record the signatures of visitors to their display stands at the International Exhibitions of 1855 (Paris), 1873 (Vienna), 1876 (Philadelphia) and 1878 (Paris). The register of around 600 signatures is a global Who’s Who. It provides a biographical portrait gallery of the age, which reflects the social and cultural characteristics of each successive International Exhibition, and maps the changing economic and political context of the mid-19th century.