Bet McLeod

Curator

Medieval Collection

Department: Prehistory and Europe

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8454
Email: bmcleod @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Bet McLeod is currently working on the new Medieval Gallery Project. She manages the curatorial sections of the project, and is the lead contact for the design, conservation, learning and interpretation aspects of the project. She is also the curator responsible for the post-1300 secular objects and the Reformation. Prior to this she acted as Curator of the Renaissance Collections as a sabbatical post, and developed the redisplay of the Tudor collection.

Bet’s own areas of expertise and special interest are the History of Collecting, specifically antiquarians and the collecting of objects of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. She has undertaken extensive research and published widely on the collections of Horace Walpole and William Beckford.

Bet has previously worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Metalwork Department for the British Galleries Project and the Hereford Screen Project. She co-curated the exhibition ‘William Beckford: An Eye for the Magnificent’ (Bard Graduate Center, New York and Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2000-2001).  

Current British Museum projects

2005 – 2008 Medieval Gallery Project

Previous British Museum projects

2005: Tudor collections redisplay , Room 46

External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

Publications

Most recent publications

B. McLeod, ‘Post Mortem – Some Notes’, Beckford Society Journal, Spring (2006), pp. 57-62

B. McLeod, with P. Hewat-Jaboor, ‘A Pair of Pietre Dure Cabinets’, Furniture History Society Journal, vol. 38 (2002), pp. 135-43

B. McLeod, ‘Treasures of England’s Wealthiest Son’, Country Life, February, 7 (2002), pp. 41-5

B. McLeod, ‘Beckford’s Cup of Rapture’, Country Life, August, 16 (2001), p. 60

B. McLeod, ‘Some further objects from William Beckford’s collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. CXLIII, No. 1179, June (2001), pp. 367-70

B. McLeod, Essay: ‘A Celebrated Collector’ and six catalogue entries in D. Ostergard (ed.) William Beckford: An Eye for the Magnificent (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2001)