Catherine Eagleton

Catherine Eagleton joined the British Museum in 2004, having previously worked at the Science Museum, London, and volunteered at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge.

The modern money collection numbers more than 150,000 objects and several thousand new objects are added to the collection every year.

During 2011-13, Catherine is working on a redisplay of the Money Gallery, directing the Money in Africa project, and finishing a book on Sarah Sophia Banks and her collection of coins, medals and tokens.

She is also interested in medieval history, and sometimes works on objects from earlier time periods, particularly scientific instruments, manuscripts, and books.

Contact

ceagleton@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7323 8228

Current projects

• Money in Africa
  A major project, combining research, exhibitions and programmes, international partnerships, and collections digitisation.

• Money Gallery
  A redisplay of the permanent gallery, opening in summer 2012.

Previous projects

• Wealth of Africa: 4000 years of money and trade (2005-9)
  Temporary exhibition in 2005, followed by an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship award to create records for the Collections Online database, as well as educational resources for KS3.

• Inhuman Traffic: The Business of the Slave Trade (2007)
  Exhibition and associated educational programmes and events
  

• Impressions of Africa: money, medals and stamps (2010)
  This small display looks at the images of Africa presented on the coins, banknotes, medals and stamps made for the continent during the past 100 years. These miniature art works reflect changing national identities, and celebrate the cultures and heritage of Africa and its people.

External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies

• Website manager, member of e-journal editorial board, and board member for ICOMON (International Committee for Money and Banking Museums)

• Affiliated Research Scholar, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge University

Recent publications

C. Eagleton, Monks, Manuscripts, and Sundials: The Navicula in Medieval England (Leiden, Brill, 2010).

C. Eagleton and A. Manolopoulou (eds), Paper money of England and Wales (London, British Museum Online Research Catalogue, 2010).

S. Davis and C. Eagleton, “Touching numbers”, Anthropological Theory 10:1 (2010), pp. 192-7.

C. Eagleton, H. Fuller and J. Perkins (eds) Money in Africa (London, British Museum Research Publications, 2009).

C. Eagleton, “John Whethamstede, Abbot of St Albans, on the discovery of the liberal arts and their tools. Or, why were astronomical instruments in late-medieval libraries?” Mediaevalia 29:1(2009), pp. 109-136.

C. Eagleton ‘Designs on decimal coins: Christopher Ironside’, in Designing Change: the art of coin design, ed. K. Clancy, (Llantrisant, Royal Mint, 2008), pp. 22 to 37.

C. Eagleton, “More than just exhibitions of coins: the 21st-century money museum and its audiences,” Proceedings of the meeting of ICOMON in San José, Costa Rica, October 2005 (San José: Central Bank of Costa Rica, 2008).

C. Eagleton and J. Williams, Money: A History (London, British Museum Press, 2007)

C. Eagleton, “Chaucer’s Own Astrolabe and the Relationship Between Text, Image and Object,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 38:2(2007), pp. 303 to 326.

C. Eagleton, ‘1343 and all that: previously unnoticed documents relating to England’s new gold and silver coins’, with R. Kelleher, British Numismatic Journal, 77 (2007), pp. 340-344.