The Merryl Huxtable Bursary
The Wallpaper History Society offers a bursary of up to £1,500 each year to support historical and cultural research and/or developments in the conservation of wallcoverings. The bursary prize is offered in memory of Merryl Huxtable, a founder member of the WHS and pioneer in the field of wallpaper conservation.
​
​Applications are welcomed from full- or part-time graduate students studying the history, conservation or development of wallcoverings at a college or university in the United Kingdom at postgraduate level. Researchers based in the UK who have a proven record of publication in this or a related field are also eligible. Funds may also be allocated to support new researchers who may not have evidence of previous published work, but who are able to demonstrate commitment to undertake a relevant project or research.
The WHS is committed to supporting research projects which contribute to knowledge in the field. For this reason, the bursary is awarded only for original research based largely on primary sources and/or practical conservation work.
​
​Information for Applicants
​​Successful applicants will be expected to provide an interim report at the halfway point (usually after the first six months), and at the end of the year they will be required to produce evidence of their work, typically in the form of an illustrated essay of 3000-4,000 words to be published in the Society’s journal, The Wallpaper History Review. Alternatively, the WHS may consider a record of the work in alternative form(s) provided in an openly accessible format, such as (but not exclusively) recorded interviews; a database of findings; films of conservation or research processes etc. The WHS will hold and share such outcomes as a resource, including through the Society’s website, and the award recipient will be expected to produce an accompanying short report (rather than a 3,000 - 4,000 word essay) outlining the outcomes of the project, to be published in the WHS Review.
​
What happens once an application is received?
We will acknowledge receipt of all applications.
All applications are examined by the Society’s Bursary Committee and by specialist external assessor(s). The panel reserves the right to request more detailed information should this be required.
Once the successful applicant has been confirmed, the first tranche of the bursary is awarded.
The final payment of the bursary will be made on receipt of the essay or agreed alternative submission in a timeframe to suit the deadline for publication of the WHS journal The Review, or as agreed with the awarding panel.
​
How to apply
For more information and an application form contact treasurer@wallpaperhistorysociety.org.uk
​
​Previous Prize winners have included:
2023 Justyna Medon (joint winner) – research and conservation of wallpapers at Penllyn Castle, South Wales
2023 Amy Junker Heslip (joint winner) – embellishments made to late 18th- and early 19th-century Chinese export papers at Brighton Pavilion
2019 Lucy Ellis - The Wallpaper Magazine in the 1920s and '30s (MA History of Design and Material Culture, University of Brighton)
2018 Dr Clare Taylor - assistance with photographic costs for her 2018 publication The Design, Production and Reception of Eighteenth-Century Wallpaper in Britain
2015 Dr Phillippa Mapes -PhD ‘The English Wallpaper Trade in the Long Eighteenth Century’ (Leicester University)
Matthew Meadows - research project 'Artists Making Wallpaper' looking at the crossover between contemporary artists' wallpapers and the work of artisan printer-designers.
Merryl Huxtable Bursary Winner 2024 Louise Atkinson Outlines Her Research Project ‘If Walls Could Talk’
I’m excited to have been awarded the 2024 WHS Merryl Huxtable Bursary to support my practice-based research into the Chinese wallpaper at Harewood House, near Leeds in West Yorkshire. The Chinese wallpaper at Harewood House was originally commissioned for Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron of Harewood, and hung in the Chintz Bedroom in 1769. During the 19th century, the wallpaper was removed from the walls and stored in an outbuilding. Thankfully, it was later discovered and restored and now hangs in the East Bedroom.
As a researcher with a PhD in Fine Art, I often work with community participants to explore forms of cultural representation through objects and images. I will be working with Chinese-speaking community groups in Leeds to understand what the Chinese wallpaper means to Harewood House and its audiences today, as well as how the participants express their own identities and culture through images.
Example workshops will include collecting photographs and stories of personal artefacts, creating repeat patterns of decorative motifs, and producing images for an augmented reality experience which will be showcased in the East Bedroom at Harewood House next year. In addition to this creative intervention, the project will include a website, AR postcards, and a publication featuring images and text from the workshops.
The project aims to prominently feature the voices and contributions of Chinese-speaking community participants and increase their engagement with Harewood House. The use of augmented reality explores creative applications of digital technologies to bring wallpaper histories to life.
