Roseanna is an early-career researcher undertaking a collaborative PhD project, funded by Midlands4Cities, which investigates the Coalbrookdale Collection of illustrated Victorian trade catalogues at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in Shropshire. 

The project aims to illuminate a previously under-researched period of the Coalbrookdale Company, who played a pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution in Britain before focusing their business on decorative ironware during the late nineteenth century. The trade catalogues feature hundreds of ornate illustrations of decorative ironware products sold by the Coalbrookdale Company, from small items for the home to large-scale civic items like fountains, railings, and bandstands. 

Research focuses on the relationship between art and industry, highlighting the role of designers, engravers, ironworkers, and printers who contributed to the production of the trade catalogues, and demonstrating how printed materials were used to promote ironware across the globe at a time when ‘marketing’ was a developing field.

The project is a Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA), meaning that public engagement work with the Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust is a key outcome of the project. This will involve events, demonstration activity, and a display within the Museum of Iron.

Roseanna has professional experience in the heritage and higher education sectors spanning object conservation, curating, marketing, and events. She has long-standing interest in commercial art and printed ephemera, completing her MA in Art History and Curating at the University of Birmingham, where her thesis focused on interwar period railway posters.