Claudia Acott Williams

Position: Curator of Collections

About

Claudia is an historian and curator responsible for the collections, research and display of Kensington Palace, and working on aspects of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection. She specialises in the material culture of royal image-making from the 18th century to the present day, with particular interest in art, architecture, dress, jewellery, and photography.

Claudia has led exhibition and research projects on Queen Victoria’s childhood, the crown jeweller in the 19th and 20th centuries, royal engagement with early photographic technologies, Cecil Beaton’s royal archive at The Victoria & Albert Museum, and the role of dress and jewellery as spectacle, power and belonging at the 18th-century court and on the 21st-century red carpet.

Current research interests include Mary II’s female courtiers and companions; Queen Caroline’s picture hangs at Kensington Palace; Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll and the Kensington Palace community in the 19th century; and the influence of queer culture and creativity on the royal image in the mid-20th century. Recent exhibitions include Royal Style in the Making, Hillsborough Castle (2025), Crown to Couture (2023), Life Through a Royal Lens (2022), Inside Garrard’s Royal Archive (2021), and Victoria: A Royal Childhood (2019).

Select publications

Acott Williams, C., Cecil Beaton: The Royal Portraits (London: Thames & Hudson, 2023)

Acott Williams, C., The Crown in Focus: Two Centuries of Royal Photography (London: Merrell Publishers Ltd, 2020)