Lindsay Macnaughton is a cultural historian of France who has lectured and published on decorative arts and historic interiors, the history of collecting, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France. She is the course tutor for the French strand of the MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors.
Born, raised, and schooled in Paris until university, Lindsay studied Modern Languages and Cultures (BA Hons French and Spanish) at the University of Durham before completing her MSt (Distinction) in French at the University of Oxford (European Enlightenment Programme).
Dr Macnaughton completed her PhD at the University of Durham in 2021, fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), in collaboration with The Bowes Museum. Her Collaborative Doctoral Partnership focused on ‘Collecting and Staging French History in the Homes of John and Joséphine Bowes’.
As part of her PhD, Lindsay completed a curatorial placement at the Département des Objets d’Art, Musée du Louvre, in 2020. Previously, she was a curatorial intern at Waddesdon Manor (The Rothschild Collection), Buckinghamshire, and at The Wallace Collection, London, where she assisted Suzanne Higgott with research on Sir Richard and Lady Wallace.
In January 2023, Lindsay organised an international conference on the cultural and commercial migrations of carved panelling (boiseries) with Laura C. Jenkins (The Courtauld Institute). The two-day conference took place at Camden Place as part of a programme of events marking the 150th anniversary of the death of Napoleon III and brought together international experts and emerging scholars in the fields of art, architecture, history, and museums and heritage management. Lindsay co-organised a conference on ‘Making a Case for Cases: The Furniture of Display’ at The Bowes Museum in 2020. In 2017, Lindsay Macnaughton co-curated an exhibition with Simon Spier on ‘John and Joséphine Bowes: Collecting the Far East in Nineteenth-Century Paris’ at the Garden Rooms at Tennants Auction House, Leyburn.
Lindsay is a Trustee of the Society for the History of Collecting and a committee member for the Digital Research Projects of the British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO). She is part of the French Porcelain Society’s Emerging Scholars’ Group and the Furniture History Society’s Early Career Development group. Other memberships include the English Ceramics Circle, Society for the Study of French History (SSFH), British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS), and the Association for Art History (AAH).
Research interests
- France, c.1750-1900
- History of Collecting and Patronage
- Heritage and Historical Consciousness
- Revivalism in Decorative Arts and Interiors
- Visual culture
Selected Publications
Macnaughton L., (2021) “Beyond the Bowes Museum: The Social and Material Worlds of Alphonsine Bowes de Saint-Amand”, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century 2020(31). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ntn.3348
Lindsay Macnaughton, ‘A question of language: the royal furniture administration’s accounts’, book chapter in Jean-Henri Riesener: Cabinetmaker to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd, 2020), pp. 34-9.
Lindsay MacNaughton, ‘Reviving former splendours: luxury and craftsmanship under Napoleon’, in Stammers, Tom (ed.), The Allure of Napoleon: Essays Inspired by the Collections of the Bowes Museum (Barnard Castle: The Bowes Museum, 2017), pp. 15-8.
Conferences and workshops
‘Boiseries: Decoration and Migration from the Eighteenth Century to the Present’, international conference at Camden Place, Chislehurst Golf Club, 12-13 January 2023. Organised with support from Chislehurst Golf Club, The University of Buckingham, The Furniture History Society, Oliver Charles Associates, and The Society for the Study of French History.
‘Making a Case for Cases: The Furniture of Display’, international conference at The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, 10-11 January 2020. With support from The Bowes Museum, the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, and the Furniture History Society
‘Using Visual and Material Sources in Writing: Approaches for PG Researchers in the Arts and Humanities’, workshop organised for the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Palace Green Library, Durham, 8 March 2019
Selected conference papers
‘Some Fragments from the Boweses’ Collection and the Difficulties of Singling out Joséphine’s Taste’ at The National Trust and Waddesdon Manor Annual Conference, Waddesdon Manor, 28 March 2023
‘Collecting the ancien régime in the homes of John and Joséphine Bowes,’ 45th Annual Nineteenth-Century Studies French Studies Colloquium, Florida State University and The Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 31 October – 2 November 2019
‘Collecting prints after portraits: The popular culture of French history in the nineteenth century’, Portraiture Conference, CVAC Durham University, 13 – 15 July 2018
‘Displaying patriotism and philanthropy: the Wallaces’ exhibition loans in focus,’ international conference on ‘Sir Richard Wallace and his Age: Collectors, Connoisseurs and Philanthropists,’ The Wallace Collection, London, UK, 15-16 November 2018 (invited speaker)
‘“Magnificent” Ruins of the Paris Commune’, War Through Other Stuff workshop, Leeds City Museum, 30 September 2017
‘Collecting, improving and adapting “le XVIIIe siècle”: the Boweses at Louveciennes, 1852-1862,’ Postgraduate Workshop on ‘The Lives and Afterlives of Eighteenth-Century Material Culture’, Eighteenth-Century Worlds Seminar, University of Liverpool, 9 June 2017 (invited speaker)
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