Dr Helen Wickstead MCIfA FSA
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education
- Department of Creative Industries
- Department of Applied and Human Sciences
- School of Creative and Cultural Industries
- School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry
Senior Lecturer and Course Director
- Email:
- h.wickstead@kingston.ac.uk
About
Helen is a museum historian and archaeologist who unearths the histories of neglected, discarded, and stigmatized collections. She was educated at University College London where she completed a PhD on Bronze Age ruins. She has excavated sunken boats, prehistoric megaliths, Sudanese pyramids, Bohemian ritual enclosures, and modern rubbish tips. She is the founder and Director of Recycle Archaeology, a company discovering new social uses for deselected archaeological artefacts that works with schools, charities, urban farms and museums.
Helen's latest work is a study of the British Museum's Secretum. Previous publications investigated men-only clubs and museums, concrete megaliths, the Cult of Kata, goat-boy mythology in London suburbia, archaeology’s lost Eolithic era and the cultures of collecting eoliths and figure stones. She wrote the world's first dedicated study of Soho Bibles, uncovering how obscene books were smuggled into the British Museum's Library by renegade curators. Her current research revealing the Secretum’s secret history is soon to be published by Reaktion Books.
Qualifications
- M.A. Archaeology, University College London
- PhD. Archaeology, University College London
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Archaeologists
Domains
Publications
Theorizing Tenure: Land Division and Identity in Later Prehistoric Dartmoor, South-West Britain
Wickstead, Helen (2008). Oxford, U.K.: (Archaeopress)
Ancient Temple discovered in Kingston conceals even older temple buildings
Wickstead, Helen, 2024, Tomorrow’s News Today, pp 13
Head to head : what use is prehistory to the historian?
Secord, Jim, Wickstead, Helen and Geroulanos, Stefanos, 2024, History Today (74), 6, pp 8-9
Tom Armstrong Bowes, Herne Bay Museum and the Lower Paleolithic of the Kentish Stour
Knowles, Peter Geoffrey, Wickstead, Helen and White, Mark John, 2024, The Antiquaries Journal
Palaeoliths and pareidolia : photography and archaeological stone collecting from the discovery of deep time to the eolith controversies
Wickstead, Helen, 2024, Photography and Culture
Men-only clubs and museums : associational culture and the gendering of Herne Bay's museum between the wars
Wickstead, Helen and Knowles, Pete, 2022, Museum History Journal
Recycle archaeology’s labels for landfill
Wickstead, Helen, 2022, Extinction Rebellion 'Writers Rebel'
Recycle archaeology : social and sustainable alternatives for de-selected materials
Wickstead, Helen, 2022, The Archaeologist (115), pp 23-25
Learning and discovery : Kingston University students contributing to the Save Burlington House Campaign
Wickstead, Helen, 2021, Society of Antiquaries London
Letters from Charles Darwin and Arthur Keith discovered through the SMART project
Wickstead, Helen, 2020, Museum Archaeologists News (64), pp 6-9
Book Review of 'Breaking the surface : an art/archaeology of prehistoric architecture' by Douglass Bailey
Wickstead, Helen, 2020, European Journal of Archaeology (23), 2, pp 321-325
Soho typescripts : handmade obscene books in post-war London bookshops
Wickstead, Helen, 2020, Porn Studies (7), 2, pp 187-211
The archive : sex in the secret museum : photographs from the British Museum's Witt Scrapbooks
Wickstead, Helen, 2018, Photography and Culture (11), 3, pp 351-366
"Wild worship of a lost and buried past" : enchanted archaeologies and the cult of Kata, 1908–1924
Wickstead, Helen, 2017, Bulletin of the History of Archaeology (27(1)), 4, pp 1-18
Concrete prehistories : the making of megalithic modernism
Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn, 2015, Journal of Contemporary Archaeology (2), 1, pp 195-216
Aerial archaeology and the 'lost gardens' of Seething Wells
Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn, 2015, London Archaeologist (14), 3, pp 73-78
Geochemical survey and metalworking : analysis of chemical residues derived from experimental non-ferrous metallurgical processes in a reconstructed roundhouse
Carey, Chris J., Wickstead, Helen, Juleff, Gill, Anderson, Jens and Barber, Martyn, 2014, Journal of Archaeological Science (49), pp 383-397
A Spectacular History of Survey by Flying Machine!
Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn, 2012, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (22), 1, pp 71-88
'One Immense Black Spot': Aerial views of London 1784-1918
Barber, Martyn and Wickstead, Helen, 2010, London Journal (35), 3, pp 236-254
A newly recorded hilltop enclosure at Myncen Farm, Minchington
Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn, 2010, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (131), pp 103-112
A 'new' enclosure at Minchington, Dorset
Barber, Martyn and Wickstead, Helen, 2009, Research News : newsletter of the English Heritage Research Department, 13, pp 29-30
The Uber-Archaeologist: Art, GIS and the male gaze revisited
Wickstead, Helen, 2009, Journal of Social Archaeology (9), 2, pp 249-271
Discoveries to the east of Cranbourne Chase: the Damerham Archaeology Project
Wickstead, Helen, Carey, Chris, Bayer, Olaf and Barber, Martyn, 2009, PAST, 61, pp 9-12
Remote sensing and geophysical survey near Damerham, Hampshire
Wickstead, Helen, Carey, Chris, Bayer, Olaf and Barber, Martyn, 2009, CBA Wessex News, Spring, pp 17-19
Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor, UK
Fyfe, Ralph, Bruck, Joanna, Johnston, Robert, Lewis, Helen, Roland, T. P. and Wickstead, Helen, 2008, Journal of Archaeological Science (35), 8, pp 2250-2261
Drawing time
Wickstead, Helen, 2008, British Archaeology, 101, pp 44-49
Excavations of Bronze Age field systems on Shovel Down, Dartmoor 2003
Bruck, Joanna, Johnston, Robert and Wickstead, Helen, 2003, PAST, 45
In reply to MacDonald, Hung and Crawford, 1995, 'Prehistory as propaganda'
Wickstead, Helen, 1996, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (7), pp 9-12
The museum of yesterday?
Wickstead, Helen (2021). In: Zaba, Jarek, (ed.), The museum of today : personal wonders, 2020-2021. Kingston upon Thames, U.K.: Kingston University Press, pp 8-14
The Bornais Phallus
Wickstead, Helen (2020). In: Sharples, Niall, (ed.), The economy of a Norse settlement in the Outer Hebrides : excavations at mounds 2 and 2A Bornais, South Uist. Oxford, U.K.: Oxbow Books
The phallus in the closet : collecting and classifying ancient sculpture
Wickstead, H (2020). In: Joseph-Lester, Jaspar, (ed.), Everything is sculpture. Royal College of Art
Cults of the distribution map : geography, utopia and the making of modern archaeology
Wickstead, Helen (2019). In: Gillings, Mark, (eds.), Haciguzeller, Piraye, (eds.) and Lock, Gary, (eds.), Re-mapping archaeology : critical perspectives, alternative mappings. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 37-72
Another proof of the preceding theory : film, materialities and Stonehenge
Wickstead, Helen (2014). In: Russell, Ian Alden, (eds.) and Cochrane, Andrew, (eds.), Art and archaeology : collaborations, conversations, criticisms. London, U.K.: Springer, pp 99-114
Between the lines: drawing archaeology
Wickstead, Helen (2013). In: Graves-Brown, Paul, (eds.), Harrison, Rodney, (eds.) and Piccini, Angela, (eds.), The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the contemporary world. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, pp 549-564
Drawing archaeology
Wickstead, Helen (2008). In: Duff, Leo, (eds.) and Sawdon, Phil, (eds.), Drawing: the purpose. Bristol, U.K.: Intellect Books, pp 13-27
Land, landscape and Englishness in the discovery of prehistoric land division
Wickstead, Helen (2008). In: Chadwick, Adrian M., (ed.), Recent Approaches to the Archaeology of Land Allotment. Oxford, U.K.: Archaeopress
Archaeologist
Wickstead, Helen (2006). In: Adams, Eileen, (eds.) and Baynes, Ken, (eds.), Professional Practices. London, U.K.: Campaign for Drawing, pp 12-13
Archaeology on your farm: gaining from history
Wickstead, Helen and Barber, Martyn (2010). Kingston upon Thames: (Damerham Archaeology Project)
Secret museums, occult archaeology, and the counter-public sphere : the British Museum’s Secretum 1865-1938
Wickstead, Helen(2025). In: University of Reading Department of Archaeology Spring 2025 Seminar Series, 13 Feb - 15 May 2025 :Reading, U.K.
Gender-based violence and legacy : the case of Tony Cyriax, 1882-1927
Wickstead, Helen(2025). In: Female foundations : the lives and legacies of women in earth sciences, 08 Mar 2025 :Dorchester, U.K.
Concealing and revealing the secret museum : the British Museum's Secretum, 1865-1896
Wickstead, Helen(2024). In: TAG 2024, 13-15 Dec 2024 :Bournemouth, U.K.
Photography and archaeological stone collecting from the discovery of deep time to the Eolith controversies
Wickstead, Helen(2024). In: Makers and Fakers : How copies, replicas, casts and fakes make museum collections, 30 Sep - 01 Oct 2024 :Oxford, U.K.
The secret museum : masculinities, magic, and the British Museum’s Secretum, 1866-1896
Wickstead, Helen(2024). In: Museum Microhistories Symposium, 26 Jan 2024 :Leeds, U.K.
Recycle Archaeology : reuse and recycling of de-selected archaeological artefacts for public benefit
Wickstead, Helen(2022). In: Post-Medieval Archaeology Congress 2022, 20-21 May 2022 :Held online
Prehistoric sex objects : the phalli of Windmill Hill
Wickstead, Helen(2016). In: TAG 2016, 19-21 Dec 2016 :Southampton, U.K.
The prehistoric phallus : a history of archaeology and sex
Wickstead, Helen(2016). In: Centre for Medical History Seminar Series, 12 May 2016 :Exeter, U.K.
Copsey, Laura, Taylor, Rachel Emily and Wickstead, Helen (2022).
Manual Setting
Wickstead, Helen (2011).