(Helen) (b Aug 5, 1882; d Aldbourne, Wilts, Jan 26, 1958). English museum curator and art historian. She started voluntary work in the Department of Architecture and Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum after World War I. Although she had no formal education, by the time she joined the staff officially in 1926 she was already known as an authority on medieval sculpture, in particular ivory carvings, and a stream of important publications followed her appointment. She pioneered the study of English medieval ivory carvings and published numerous new discoveries, such as the walrus ivory Virgin and Child from Dorchester (c. 1150; London, V&A), producing her classic survey of English ivories in 1926. Her other major interest was in Italian medieval and Renaissance sculpture; together with Eric Maclagan she published a catalogue of the Italian sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum; her corpus on Italian monuments of the 12th to 16th centuries was left unfinished. She was also the first woman keeper of a department in any British national museum (...