Profile

Biography

Arlene's broad range of research interests centres predominately on the practice of collecting during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. She is particularly interested in how, where and why collections were accumulated, systematized and displayed. She also has an interest in graphic print culture, especially ephemera; her PhD thesis focuses on the rich and varied paper collections amassed by Sarah Sophia Banks. Considering Banks's collection in relation to chronological, national and international contexts, Arlene uses this important but insufficiently studied archive to celebrate the art-historical value of the collection while exploring its associations with taste, empire, class, antiquarianism, connoisseurship, historiography and to challenge the concepts of gender traditionally associated with collecting.