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Dr Huw Lewis-Jones MA MPhil PhD

Curator of Art

Historian and Curator with interests in Exploration; Inuit Art; Naval and Maritime History; History and Philosophy of Science in the Polar Regions; Nineteenth-Century Fine Art, Theatre, Literature, Photography and Print Culture; Imperial Hagiography.

Biography

Since September 2008, Dr Huw Lewis-Jones has been researching and acquiring the national collection of Inuit art for the Scott Polar Research Institute, supported by a unique grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Among many responsibilities, Huw was research curator for the Freeze Frame historic photography digitisation programme, the AHRC funded United Kingdom Polar Art Heritage project, and the permanent galleries development project, The Polar Museum. He continues to curate an extensive exhibition programme, developing a number of high-profile international touring exhibitions, whilst also concentrating on new book projects.

Having taken a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Cambridge and the Master of Philosophy at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Huw completed a Doctor of Philosophy in 2007. Huw was a Visiting Fellow, Department of the History of Science, at Harvard University in 2003, and Curator of Imperial and Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London during 2006-2007.

Dr Lewis-Jones is Editor of the annual maritime history journal The Trafalgar Chronicle and Guest Editor of The Arctic Book Review. He lives in London and is also working as a writer, curator, art critic, and historical consultant within media and broadcasting.

Qualifications

Research

Dr Lewis-Jones' ongoing research interests include the intellectual history of exploration in an age of empire; the art of travel and exploration; the history and philosophy of the geographical sciences; imperial exhibitions and maritime hagiography; the social and cultural history of nineteenth-century Britain; and portraiture, photography, popular theatre, and print culture in the nineteenth century.

Dr Lewis-Jones' latest book is Face to Face: Polar Portraits, an account of historic and modern photographic portraiture, published in 2008 by the Scott Polar Research Institute and Polarworld. It has recently been released in a second edition in the United Kingdom by Conway, in addition to other foreign languages. For more information, see www.polarfacebook.com. His recent television work includes Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery for ABC and the History Channel and the critically-acclaimed documentary series Wilderness Explored for the BBC.

His future book projects now include an account of Inuit art in Britain, an exploration of pioneering maritime photography, a new examination of polar spectacles, mass-media and nineteenth-century epic entertainments, and the first comprehensive catalogue of polar artist Dr Edward Wilson (1872-1912) who accompanied Scott on the Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions. Dr Lewis-Jones is developing for publication the portfolios of a number of innovative photographers, whilst also working on a range of research articles, including the aesthetic context of nineteenth-century hero-worship, the life and work of the novelist and colonial American artist William Williams (1727-1791), the stage career of the actor Thomas Potter Cooke (1786-1864), the forgotten Russian artist-explorer Alexander Alexeyevich Borisov (1866-1934), and the life of the enigmatic marine artist Herbert John Everett (1876-1949).

Current and recent projects

Selected publications

Selected publications in progress

Selected reviews

Teaching

External activities