Jacqui Grainger

Jacqui is experienced with managing and promoting research collections of historical significance nationally and internationally. This experience of working with rare, unique and distinctive collections includes the development of collections that include rare books, archives, museum objects and fine paintings in heritage buildings. This has involved developing increased researcher and public awareness of the collections.

Previously, Jacqui was the Librarian at Chawton House, where the collections are of rare books from the long eighteenth century in the country house library that once belonged to Jane Austen’s brother; Manager of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Sydney Library where she created a road-map for the regeneration of research collections with a programme of exhibitions, events and collections-based research; and at SOAS she has worked with senior management as a collections development consultant.

In 2020 Jacqui was awarded a studentship by the AHRC as a collaborative doctoral researcher. Working with the University of Westminster, her project will digitally recreate the RUSI Museum, which closed in 1962, from archival records. This project aims to develop understanding and interpretation of a significant part of RUSI’s history and the lasting record of its dispersed collections. Much of the collections can now be found in other museums, especially the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the National Army Museum, the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, and the Pitt Rivers Museum.