Kirsty Garrod

Kirsty Garrod is Documentation Assistant at the Royal Armouries in Leeds

Kirsty studied Ecology at the University of East Anglia from 2007. During a study year at the University of Sydney she embraced being able to use the on-site museum’s reference collections to support her research. On graduating in 2011 she sought to pursue a career addressing her passion for the natural world and newfound interest in the amazing potential of museum collections.

After volunteering behind-the-scenes at Norwich Castle Museum and the Natural History Museum, Kirsty began an Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Skills for the Future’ curatorial traineeship with Leeds Museums & Galleries in 2012, focussing on its natural science collections. She later led a project to improve the storage and documentation of its bird study skin collection, held at the Leeds Museums & Galleries Discovery Centre.

Over the last few years Kirsty has worked on broader museum collection projects. She catalogued the photographic archive at the National Science and Media Museum and published the records on its online collections portal. Most recently, she undertook retrospective documentation for Bradford Museums & Galleries’ various collections, including technology, social history, and fine and decorative art.

Away from collections, Kirsty has also been a part of the front-of-house teams at Leeds Museums & Galleries’ Lotherton Hall and Discovery Centre, and has even run one of Portsmouth City Council’s museums, as well as dabbling in the world of digital when migrating Leeds Museums & Galleries’ blog.

While Kirsty still loves natural science collections and any opportunity to discover nature, she is a keen advocate for accessible museum collections so likes getting stuck in with documentation regardless of the subject matter. She joined the Royal Armouries’ Collections Department as Documentation Assistant in early 2018. She is enjoying applying all she has learnt from her previous collections roles to lead the ongoing project to update the firearms and artillery catalogue records.