Janet Moira Backhouse (8 February 1938 – 3 November 2004) was an English manuscripts curator at the
British Museum, and a leading authority in the field of
illuminated manuscripts.
Early life and education
Janet Backhouse was born in
Corsham,
Wiltshire, the daughter of Joseph Holme Backhouse and Jessie Chivers Backhouse. Her father was a
cattle-feed salesman. Her brother David John Backhouse became a sculptor and author.[1]
In 1962 Backhouse joined the British Museum's Manuscripts department as an Assistant Keeper of Western Manuscripts.[3][4] In that role, she catalogued the papers of horsewoman
Lady Anne Blunt,[5] accompanied a manuscript of Tsar
Ivan Alexander to Bulgaria in 1977, and escorted the
Lindisfarne Gospels to be exhibited at
Durham Cathedral in 1987, to mark the 1300th anniversary of the death of
Cuthbert.[6] She also co-organised with
Leslie Webster a 1991 exhibition of Anglo-Saxon artifacts and manuscripts, at the British Museum.[7]
Backhouse was a member of the
Henry Bradshaw Society, a fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries, and served as an advisor to the
National Art Collections Fund.[1] She was elected a member of the Comité International de Paléographie Latine in 1993.[2] She edited the proceedings of the Harlaxton Medieval Symposium in 1998.[1] She retired from the
British Library (as it had since become) as Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in 1998.[8] By the end of her career "she had established an international reputation as one of the foremost scholars in her field".[9]
Backhouse died in 2004 from cancer, aged 66 years, in
Bath, Somerset.[1][2] She contributed to A Masterpiece Reconstructed: The Hours of Louis XII (2005), which was published after her death.[10] A
festschrift, Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters: Essays in Honour of Janet Backhouse, was published on the occasion of her retirement, edited by
Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (1998).[3][5]
^
abPamela Porter and Shelley Jones, "Janet Backhouse: Colleague and Friend", in
Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (eds), Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters: Essays in Honour of Janet Backhouse (London: The British Library, 1998), p. 11.
^Smith, Mildred Ann (12 February 1982).
"On the Bookshelf". Santa Cruz Sentinel. p. 53. Retrieved 1 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^
abDe Hamel, Christopher (2005). "Janet Backhouse (1938-2004)". The Burlington Magazine. 147 (1229): 554.
ISSN0007-6287.
JSTOR20074079.
^West, E. Hamilton (11 June 1987).
"Janet Backhouse". The Guardian. p. 3. Retrieved 1 March 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^Backhouse, Janet; Master of James IV of Scotland, fl.; Master of the Dresden Hours, fl.; David, approximately Gérard; British Library, issuing body. (1993).
The Isabella breviary. London : The British Library.
ISBN978-0-7123-0269-2.