Backhouse, Janet 1938-2004
BACKHOUSE, Janet 1938-2004
OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born February 8, 1938, in Corsham, Wiltshire, England; died November 3, 2004. Historian and author. Backhouse was an authority on medieval illuminated manuscripts and a longtime curator at the British Museum Library. Educated at Bedford College, London, and at the University of London Institute of Historical Research, she joined the British Museum Library in 1962, and remained there until her 1998 retirement. While there, she was part of the Department of Manuscripts, organizing exhibitions and creating outreach programs to help bring examples of medieval manuscripts to the public. As her particular field became increasingly popular among scholars and the general public alike, she also penned numerous books on the subject, including The Lindisfarne Gospels (1981), The Isabella Breviary (1993), and Medieval Birds in the Sherborne Missal (2001). Her last works, including Illumination from Books of Hours and a study on Jean Bourdichon, had not yet been published at the time of her death.
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Times (London, England), December 29, 2004, p. 43.