Collaborative Doctoral Awards

Domesticating ‘Invalid Furniture’, c. 1850-1914

We are inviting applications for a CHASE collaborative doctoral award, to be jointly supervised by Dr Claire L. Jones, School of Classics, English and History at the University of Kent, and Dr Megan Wheeler, Assistant National Curator (Furniture) at the National Trust, for 3 years starting on 1 October 2025.

The PhD will explore the Trust’s collections of what might be termed ‘invalid furniture’ c. 1850 to 1914, including carrying chairs, reclinable bedsteads and adjustable reading stands, as well as consulting materials from other relevant repositories.

Drawing on themes of concealment and conspicuous consumption, it will uncover the popularity of ‘invalid furniture’ among disabled consumers and those without disabilities, and highlight how such consumers used these items.

Beyond contributing to historical knowledge, the PhD will support the Trust’s commitment to expanding access and diversifying its collections.

The studentship

Between 1850 and 1914, ‘invalid furniture’ became an integral part of many British upper- and middle-class homes. Consisting of technologies ranging from carrying chairs to reclinable bedsteads, ‘invalid furniture’ became both a new category of fashionable furniture purchased by discerning upper- and middle-class consumers and essential tools enabling individuals with physical impairments to more easily navigate their domestic and external environments. Approximately twenty companies began to design, patent, produce, promote and sell over fifty different designs of this furniture during this period of increased disability medicalization and commercialization before World War One; yet despite its ubiquity, we know very little about the significance of this new hybrid category of furniture/disability-aid or its impact on users. By drawing on the extant examples of ‘invalid furniture’ located within the properties of the National Trust, this project will examine the emergence and overlooked significance of this object category and explore how, why and when it came to form a key part of the British upper- and middle-class home. By demonstrating the furniture’s widespread desirability among individuals both with and without physical impairments, the project will challenge existing assumptions that assistive devices were only used by those with physical impairments, and thus provides important new perspectives on fashionable consumption, interior design and everyday health experiences within modern Britain.

The project will be guided by the following research questions:

1. How popular was ‘invalid furniture’ among different upper- and middle-class users in this period?
2. How did producers shape the market for ‘invalid furniture’?
3. To what extent did types of ‘invalid furniture’ represent a fashionable object category and/or seek to conceal disability?
4. How did users with and without physical impairments experience ‘invalid furniture’ both within domestic and public spaces? And to what extent did it shape disabled/non-disabled identities?

The holder will be supervised by Dr Claire L. Jones, a specialist in nineteenth and twentieth century British medicine and material culture, and Dr Megan Wheeler, Assistant National Curator at the National Trust and furniture specialist. They will be expected to draw on the collections of ‘invalid furniture’ held in National Trust properties across England (at least sixteen properties), alongside inventories, promotional literature, company records, patents, diaries, newspapers and letters held at the National Trust and other repositories.

In addition to the written thesis, the holder will undertake a comprehensive review of the National Trust’s collection of ‘invalid furniture’, their provenance and users (approximately fifty pieces), which will feed into the Trust’s online and freely accessible object catalogues and its growing research agenda into disability history. There will also be the opportunity to develop and deliver further public engagement activities, including public talks and co-curated displays.

The holder will also receive relevant training through the University of Kent’s Researcher Development Programme, focused on building skills in research, engagement and personal effectiveness, and other courses offered by the University’s Graduate and Researcher College. Research visits to National Trust properties will be guided by Wheeler and supported by the Trust’s team of co-supervisors and researchers; such visits will not only allow the student to undertake the necessary research but will also embed the student in the curatorial and collections management culture of the Trust, allowing them to gain valuable career experience within the heritage sector.

The holder will form an active part of the PhD and wider research community at both institutions, including Kent’s School of Classics, English and History and its Centre for Health and Medical Humanities. They will be invited to contribute to each institutions’ research seminars and online content, including, for example, public blog posts. 

The candidate:

Essential skills/attributes:

You will normally have, or be studying for, a Master’s degree or similar postgraduate qualification in relevant subject (e.g. history, disability studies, curatorship). If you are studying for a Master’s degree or similar postgraduate qualification, you should have met all the course requirements prior to the start date of the studentship.

You should also have an interest in design history, disability history, historic furniture and/or country houses.

Travel to different National Trust properties located across England is essential for this role, so the role holder should be willing and able to travel.

Desirable skills/attributes:

Demonstrable expertise in design history, disability history, historic furniture and/or country houses, and experience in the heritage sector are desirable. 

How to Apply: 

Applications for this collaborative studentship must be made via the University of Kent. Please follow each step carefully when applying:

Step 1: Download and complete the Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application form.

Step 2: Apply for a PhD at Kent – PhD History

• Research Proposal – in this section of the online application, indicate the project title and details of the CHASE Collaborative Doctoral Award.
• Reasons for Study – in this section please copy and paste your statement from the Collaborative Doctoral Award application (see Step 1).
• Supervisor – please indicate Claire Jones as your primary supervisor. 

Step 3: Submit your Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application Form to the Graduate and Researcher College by emailing kentgrc@kent.ac.uk by the deadline. You MUST complete this step to be considered for a CHASE Collaborative studentship at Kent. Please enclose the following information in your email submission: 

• Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application
• Full Name
• KentVision applicant/student ID number 
• Preferred email address 

The deadline to apply is 12 noon on Monday 17 February 2025

Informal Enquiries

Informal enquiries about this collaborative project can be sent to Dr Claire L. Jones (c.l.jones-26@kent.ac.uk) 

Recovering the Submerged Graphosphere of Westminster Abbey, c. 1500 – c. 1650

Westminster Abbey is internationally known as a national mausoleum for monarchs and for poets. It is also a palimpsest —a place of over-writing — with elements of its material heritage lost or effaced. The Abbey’s Archives pay witness to this: its medieval library was closed, its books lost, and its early modern replacement library was stocked with printed books whose bindings hid fragments of other, older books.

This project invites a student to consider the processes of loss by thinking of the Abbey as a site of a submerged graphosphere — that is, its whole ecosystem of lettering, whether it be on parchment or paper or stone or fabric. The student will be encouraged to work out from the understudied fragments in the Archives and consider the wider histories of fragmentation. The student is not expected to arrive already expert in the necessary technical skills: they will gain excellent training from the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent.

The studentship  

This project will allow one student to gain from an exciting partnership between Westminster Abbey’s Archives and the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) at the University of Kent. We are keen to hear from applicants who can shape their own area of research within the theme of the Abbey’s ‘submerged graphosphere’.

Rationale

At the start of the sixteenth century, the Abbey was a functioning community of monks; it was the religious epicentre of the royal city of Westminster; it itself held a significant library and around its walls congregated booksellers; it was also a building site, as its royal associations were being further enhanced by the foundation of the imposing chapel in memory of Henry VII and his family. By the later sixteenth century, it was an abbey only in name — its monastic culture, including its library, had been swept aside, and the city itself had been subsumed into the rising conurbation which took the name of its neighbour, London. It was also becoming not just a royal mausoleum but a national one, with the development of what was to become Poets’ Corner. In the early seventeenth century, as it strove to demonstrate its role within the new urban culture, its replacement library was fashioned, enriched by donations of printed books and manuscripts. 

This project considers these bookish aspects of the Abbey’s early modern identity, placing them in a wider context of its ‘graphosphere’ — that is, the whole range of lettering that occupied its curtilage: inscriptions incised on monuments, graffiti etched on walls, invocations stitched onto vestments. Some of these, like the books on the shelves in the Abbey library, remain visible and have long been available for study. What is at the centre of this proposal is a focus on the lost or submerged elements of that graphosphere — those elements which have been effaced but are retrievable. A prime example of this is provided by the books in the library because many of those retain evidence of their early modern bindings: in the creation of those, fragments of other books, manuscript or printed, were often used. Only a few of these have received close study; for the majority, much remains to be discovered. The expectation is that the student pursuing this project will move out from a focus on making this hidden heritage accessible to scholars and a wider public. The student is invited to consider the processes of effacement and how they are constitutive of both a library and the material space of the abbey’s church and cloister — as methods of destruction that also create space for a replenishing.

Support

The lead supervisor in MEMS is Dr David Rundle, an historian and palaeographer with particular expertise in working with fragments. Alongside him, the second supervisor, Dr Sarah Dustagheer, is well-known for her work on the cultural life of early modern London. At the Abbey, the student’s supervisor will be Dr Matthew Payne, who himself researches early print in England. In both places, the student will be able to draw on a wider network of assistance and advice.

The Abbey’s Archives will host the student during their research there, and provide on-site training in all relevant procedures and policies. Moreover, the Abbey will provide space for a workshop on ‘Fragmentary London’, in the organisation of which the student will be integral. The vision for this workshop is to place fragmentary items in collections at the Abbey and elsewhere in the city into a wider history of both fragmentation and recuperation in London. This will take into account histories of destruction (for instance, the loss of Old St Paul’s in the 1666 fire) but also of rediscovery (as in the recent tradition of mud-larking).

In turn, MEMS, as the home to the student, will:

• provide the student with the necessary academic training in palaeography and language skills to undertake the detailed research
• host the student’s description of relevant fragments as a dedicated section on the Lost Manuscripts website
• give the student the opportunity to present their work in supportive environments

Outputs

We are keen for the successful applicant to shape their own project within the wider remit described. In any dissertation, we anticipate the following key questions will be addressed:

• what role did Westminster Abbey play in fashioning a new cultural identity of a metropolitan capital?
• how did the development of its renewed library feed into the changes in the wider fabric and material culture of the Abbey?
• how did that fashioning involve processes of effacement or submersion?

In addition to a dissertation, it is expected that the student will produce detailed research into specific items which can be presented online. In addition, the student will be encouraged to share the material through talks to both academic and public audiences, and by being central to the organisation of the ‘Fragmentary London’ study day.

The lead supervisor is happy to speak to candidates at application stage about how they might shape the project to their existing and emerging interests.

The candidate 

We are keen to encourage as diverse a range of candidates as possible. We therefore are not imposing narrow requirements and urge anyone interested who believes they may have relevant experience and interests to contact the lead supervisor.

Essential skills/attributes

 MA in a relevant discipline, or equivalent experience.

Desirable skills/attributes

Relevant language skills; experience with working with manuscripts and other primary materials.

How to apply

Applications for this collaborative studentship must be made via the University of Kent. Please follow each step carefully when applying:

Step 1:  Download and complete the Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application form.

Step 2:   Apply for a PhD at Kent – PhD Medieval and Early Modern Studies

• Research Proposal – in this section of the online application, indicate the project title and details of the CHASE Collaborative Doctoral Award.

• Reasons for Study – in this section please copy and paste your statement from the Collaborative Doctoral Award application (see Step 1).   
• Supervisor – please indicate David Rundle as your primary supervisor.

Step 3:  Submit your Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application Form to the Graduate and Researcher College by emailing kentgrc@kent.ac.uk by the deadline. You MUST complete this step to be considered for a CHASE Collaborative studentship at Kent. Please enclose the following information in your email submission: 

• Kent Collaborative Doctoral Award Application
• Full Name
• KentVision applicant/student ID number 
• Preferred email address

The deadline to apply is 12 noon on Monday 17 February 2025

Informal Enquiries

Informal enquiries about this collaborative project can be sent to the lead supervisor, Dr David Rundle, d.g.rundle@kent.ac.uk