Matthew Storey
Position: Curator of Collections
About
Matthew is the curator of the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection and works on LGBTQ+ research and interpretation. His areas of expertise include royal and court dress from the 18th century to the present day, and LGBTQ+ inclusive museum practice. He has also worked on a range of areas of art and design history from the 16th century to the present day.
He curated Royal Style in the Making (2021) at Kensington Palace, featuring the wedding dress of Diana, Princess of Wales. Other projects include Permissible Beauty (2023) at Hampton Court Palace, which created portraits of creative talents from the Black British Queer community inspired by Sir Peter Lely’s ‘Windsor Beauties’ portraits.
He has published on Georgian portraiture and gardens, the wardrobe of Queen Victoria, and LGBTQ+ inclusive practice in museums and heritage sites. He serves on the steering group of the Queer Heritage and Collections Network.
Select publications
Storey, M., ‘Seeing an Eden from a Desert: Topographical Views of Kew and Richmond Gardens in the 1760s’, in Capability Brown, Royal Gardner: The Business of Place-Making in Northern Europe, ed. by J. Finch and J. Woudstra (York: White Rose Press, 2020), pp. 49-59.
Storey, M., and Worsley, L., ‘Queen Victoria: An Anatomy in Dress’, Costume, 53 (2019), 256–279.
Legon, E., Storey, M., and Wright, K. (eds.), ‘Ruling Sexualities: Gender, Sexuality and the Crown’, Royal Studies Journal, 6.2 (2019), 26-32. [Special issue of the RSJ of the proceedings of the Kings & Queens 7 conference held at Hampton Court Palace and the University of Winchester in July 2018.]
All articles by Matthew Storey (5)
The Real Norman Hartnell: Beyond 'Silver and Gold'
25 February 2022
February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK, which aims to increase the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) people through the exploration of their history and stories. Collections Curator Matthew Storey looks at one such story.
Frederick Wright Or Kathleen Woodhouse: A First World War Soldier Who Wished To Live As A Woman
15 February 2022
February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK, which aims to increase the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) people through the exploration of their history and stories. Collections Curator Matthew Story explores one such story.
A Queer Walk through Hampton Court Palace
11 February 2021
When you next visit Hampton Court, bring a queer eye to the palace. Shift your perception. Actively look around you. I promise there is a rich history to find.
Queer Lives at the Tower: The LGBT+ Stories that were almost on the tours
07 February 2020
Queer Lives at the Tower, our new LGBT+ tours at the Tower of London are just a couple of weeks away, and the team are rehearsing to deliver a bold and new experience. However, there are some stories that didn’t quite make the cut. I’m going to tell you them here, to see what they tell us about how we work with LGBT+ history.
Why we need to stop looking for sex: letters and LGBT+ royal history
25 February 2019
'How do you know?' I've been asked this a lot recently when I've been talking about LGBT+ royal history. I'm glad to be asked it, because it gets to the heart of studying LGBT+ identities in the past. In this post, I'd like to talk about the evidence and assumptions, which tell us a lot about sexuality in the past, and today.