Biography
Sally is an art and design historian, cultural historian and curator whose research primarily focuses on spirituality and belief in art, design, and material culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the histories and legacies of British colonialism, slavery, and empire. She also writes creative non-fiction about the folklore and landscape of Britain, particularly her native Norfolk.
Sally is the Chair of the Design History Society, an editor of the Journal of Design History and a Joint Editor for the MUP series Studies in Design and Material Culture.
Sally was Head Curator of the National Trust (2019-2023) and led the work on the Report on histories of slavery and colonialism at NT properties and for Inclusive Histories and the Curatorial and Collections training programme.
She was Principal Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design and Acting Keeper of Art & Design at National Museums Scotland (2013-1019) and curated the permanent gallery Design for Living 1851-1951. From 2010-2013 she was lecturer in Art & Design at Northumbria University. From 2008-2010 Sally was Curatorial Research Associate in Decorative Arts at Dallas Museum of Art, and from 2006-2008 taught History of Art at the University of Bristol.
Publications
Editor, Special Issue: Design and the Occult, Journal of Design History, Volume 37, Issue 4, December 2024 https://academic.oup.com/jdh/issue/37/4
‘Introduction: Towards A Design History of the Occult’, pp. 293–307.
'Magic and Materialism: Fortune Telling and the Culture of Enchantment', 1919–1939, pp. 381-397.
'The Last and First of England: Pre-Raphaelitism, Migration and Empire' in Kate Nichols, Victoria Osbourne, and Sabrina Rahman (eds), Approaching Race and Empire in collections of nineteenth-century art and design (A resource pack for museums and galleries), Race, Empire, and the Pre-Raphaelites Research Group, British Art Network, 2023.https://britishartnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Digital-Acessible-Museum-Resource.pdf
‘Tangible and Intangible Heritage: Charles Paget Wade and the Creation of Snowshill as Magical Space’ in Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural, University Park: Penn State University Press, Spring 2022.
Forward and Contributions, 100 Paintings from the Collections of the National Trust, Swindon: National Trust, Swindon, September 2021.
Sally-Anne Huxtable et al. (eds) Interim Report on the Connections between Colonialism and Properties now in the Care of the National Trust, Including Links with Historic Slavery, National Trust, Swindon 2020.
‘The Drama of the Soul: Time, Eternity and Evolution in the Designs of Phoebe Anna Traquair’ in Zoe Hendon and Anne Massey (eds), Design, History, and Time, London: Bloomsbury, 2019.
‘Her False Crafts: Morgan Le Fay and the Wild Women of Frederick Sandys’ Imagination’, The Review of the Pre-Raphaelite Society, Autumn 2016.
‘White Walls, White Nights, White Girls: Whiteness and the British Artistic Interior, 1850–1900’ Journal of Design History, Vol. 27, Issue 3, September 2014. pp. 237-255.
‘In Praise of Venus: Tannhäuser as Aesthetic Anti-Hero’ in Amelia Yeates and Serena Trowbridge (eds), Pre-Raphaelite Masculinities, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014.
‘Whistler, The Peacock Room and the Artist as Magus’ in Linda Merrill & Lee Glazer (eds) Palaces of Art: Whistler and the Art Worlds of Aestheticism, Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press 2013.
Sally-Anne Huxtable, Alison Smith, Cheryl Hartup (eds) Catalogue of the British 18th and 19th Century Art in the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, Seattle WA: Marquand Books, February 2013.
‘Love the Machine, Hate the Factory- Steampunk Design and the Vision of a Victorian Future’ in Cynthia Miller, Julie Taddeo, Ken Dvorak (eds) Steaming into the Future: A Steampunk Anthology, Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, September 2012.
‘Order and Disarray: Two Watercolours by Frederick Walker’ in Life, Legend Landscape: Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, London: Courtauld Institute, February 2011.
Object entries, editing and other contributions, Gustav Stickley and the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Dallas Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2010.
'‘Re-Reading the Green Dining Room’ in Jason Edwards and Imogen Hart eds. Rethinking the Aesthetic Interior. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010.
'Of Shuck and Other Things: Tales from the Eastern Edgelands', Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychick Albion, Vol. 3, Issue 2, Temporal Boundary Press, 2025.
'Many Wonderous Revelations': In the Footsteps of Three Daughters of Psychick Albion, Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychick Albion, Vol. 2, Issue 1, Temporal Boundary Press 2023.'
Addressing Our Histories of Colonialism and Historic Slavery', National Trust, 2020. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/research/addressing-our-histories-of-colonialism-and-historic-slavery
'Wassailing, Ritual and Revelry', National Trust 2020. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/art-collections/wassailing-ritual-and-revelry
'Curator’s Eye: Wendy Ramshaw’s Requiem Necklace', Modern Magazine, November 2017 http://modernmag.com/curators-eye-wendy-ramshaws-requiem-necklace/
Research interests
Spirituality and belief in art, design and material culture, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the design and material culture of the Occult Revival.
British, European and American art and design and artistic movements circa 1848-1950.
The histories and legacies of British colonialism, slavery and empire, with a particular focus on heritage.
Folklore and landscape in Britain, particularly East Anglia.
