Quintin Colville

Curator of Naval History

Quintin Colville My role is to demonstrate the significance and diversity of the Museum’s extraordinary naval collections. This involves developing new displays both for permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions. Beyond this, the job allows me to communicate the importance of these resources to a range of public and academic audiences through publications, lectures, conferences, research collaborations and educational events.

The most rewarding part of my job is

The Museum’s naval collections are so extensive and diverse that there are always new things to discover, whether they relate to great events or humble personal histories. Even the most familiar stories about Britain’s naval past can be interpreted afresh, and the most rewarding thing for me is the opportunity to offer some additional perspectives on these wonderful resources.

My recommended books and links

The NMM’s Caird Library contains a wealth of information relating to the Royal Navy. Alongside reference works, the library holds personal correspondence from key naval figures, lieutenants’ log books, and documents relating to the Royal Dockyards during the 17th and 18th centuries.

For full information please consult the library’s various online guides, in particular:

The NMM does not, however, hold the official records of the Royal Navy. The bulk of these – including most Admiralty records, official warship logs, muster rolls, pay books and service records – can be consulted at The National Archives.

The full range of the Museum’s navy-related collections (from charts and muskets to medals and telescopes) can also be investigated through the Collections Online section of this website.

In terms of reading material, a general overview of the subject can be found in J.R. Hill’s Oxford History of the Royal Navy. N.A.M. Rodger’s The Command of the Ocean. A Naval History of Britain 1649–1815 is an essential account of that period, and the biographies of Nelson by Andrew Lambert and Roger Knight are also recommended.

Academic profile

Curator of Naval History

Biography

After completing an undergraduate degree in history at Magdalen College, Oxford, my postgraduate studies took me to the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art for an MA and a PhD. Before joining the NMM, I taught modern British history at several universities, most recently the University of Warwick. I have held research fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research, the NMM and the University of Oxford, and my work has been awarded the Julian Corbett Memorial Prize in Modern Naval History and the Royal Historical Society’s Alexander Prize.

Collections responsible for

As well as general involvement with the Museum’s naval history holdings, I am responsible for the NMM’s collections of firearms and ordnance.

Areas of research and interest

The social and cultural dimensions of the Royal Navy during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries
The relationship of the Royal Navy with wider British society and national identity
Naval service and naval operations during the First and Second World Wars
The Royal Navy during the interwar and postwar periods
Naval material culture, from warship design and uniform to architecture, decorative arts and interiors
Constructions of gender and class within naval life
The Royal Navy’s training establishments

Current NMM projects

My principal responsibility is for the NMM’s new permanent gallery of naval history. Provisionally titled ‘Navy, Nation and Nelson, 1688-1815’, it is planned to open in a few years’ time, and offers an exciting opportunity to showcase the Museum’s unrivalled naval collections. Focusing on the fascinating relationship between the navy and the British nation, it will bring context and depth to our spectacular Nelsonian artefacts. The NMM also possesses a wealth of material relating to 19th- and 20th-century naval history – from the Crimean War to ‘Jacky’ Fisher and the Dreadnought, and from Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet to the Second World War. It is intended that these riches will be made the subject of future display.

As one amongst a broad collaboration of curators, I am also engaged in developing the NMM’s new ‘Maritime London’ gallery. Illuminating a wide sweep of time from the early 17th century through to the present day, this display will explore the stories of commerce, trade, culture, science, warfare and exploration that intertwined the destinies of the Thames and Britain’s capital city.

Selected Publications

'Jack Tar and the gentleman officer; the role of uniform in shaping the class and gender-related identities of British naval personnel, 1930–1939', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, vol. 13, 2003 [awarded the Alexander Prize and re-published in Andrew Lambert (ed.), Naval History 1850-Present, The International Library of Essays on Military History, Ashgate, 2007]
'The role of the interior in constructing notions of class and status; a case study of Dartmouth Naval College, 1930-1960', in Penny Sparke and Susie McKellar (eds.), Interior Design and Identity, Manchester University Press, 2005
Masculinities and Material Cultures in the Royal Navy, 1918-1960 (forthcoming monograph)
‘Corporate domesticity and idealised masculinity; Royal Naval officers and their shipboard home, 1918-1939’, Gender & History, vol. 21, issue 3, 2009, pp. 499-519 [re-published in Karen Adler and Carrie Hamilton (eds.), Homes and Homecomings: Gendered Histories of Domesticity and Return, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010]
‘Enacted and re-enacted in life and letters: the identity of the Jack Tar, 1920-1990’, in Nigel Rigby (ed.), The Sea as a Stage (forthcoming with Palgrave, 2011)

Quintin Colville