Curator/Collections Researcher

People-Centred Cataloguing

Kathleen Lawther

Date Published

1st January 2023

Tags

Cataloguing
Documentation

Title page from a document that says 'People-centred Cataloguing, Kathleen Lawther'. In the background in lighter text are the names of different roles people play in the museum, including makers, donors, curators, fixers, researchers, hunters, typists, subjects and users.

Created as part of my Art Fund Headley Fellowship with the Powell-Cotton Museum, this resource explains the approach to cataloguing which I took during the project. The publication includes suggestions and case studies for how museums might take a more people-centred approach to their collections documentation work.

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Projects

Ipswich Museum World Collections

Ipswich Museum is a local authority museum which first opened in 1881. In 2020 they were awarded a Development Grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a project focusing on ‘the museum’s outstanding Victorian heritage – the philanthropists, industrialists and scientists who started it; the collections; the fascinating cast of characters who collected them and the museum building they built to house them.’

Fashioning Africa

Fashioning Africa was a project to collect postcolonial fashion and accessories from across the African continent, responding to and complementing Brighton Museum’s designated collection of historic African textiles. The team collected over 450 items, working with a collecting panel which included expertise from lived experience and academia. I joined the project to document these new acquisitions.

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