Professor David Gaimster
Director
The Hunterian
Gilbert Scott Building
University of Glasgow
University Avenue
GLASGOW
G12 8QQ
Short Biography
David Gaimster has been Director of The Hunterian since September 2010. Before coming to Glasgow David served as General Secretary and Chief Executive to the Society of Antiquaries of London (2004-2010), Senior Policy Advisor for Cultural Property, Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), London (2002-04); and as Assistant Keeper in the Department for Medieval & Later Antiquities, British Museum (1986-2001). While at DCMS in 2002-04 David led the teams managing UK acceptance of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the passing of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003.
Since taking up The Hunterian post, David has been appointed to the Board of Museums Galleries Scotland.
David is a graduate of the University of Durham (1984) and University College London (PhD 1991). He is currently Visiting Professor in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester; and is Docent in Historical Archaeology at the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Turku, Finland. He has published extensively on medieval to early modern European archaeology, museum collections and on international cultural property policy. Key publications include German Stoneware. Archaeology and Cultural History (1997), The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1580 (with Roberta Gilchrist, 2003) and most recently The Hunterian: Director’s Choice (2012). He was awarded the Order of Merit by the Society for Historical Archaeology in 2005.
David has organised several major international exhibitions that have also toured overseas, including Pottery in the Making (Museum of Mankind, London, 1997) and Making History: Antiquaries in Britain1707-2007 (Royal Academy, London, 2007).
Recent publications
D Gaimster, The Hunterian: Director’s Choice, London: SCALA Publishing (2012)
D. Gaimster & T. Majewski eds., International Handbook of Historical Archaeology, New York: Springer Press (2009)
D. Gaimster, S. McCarthy & B. Nurse eds., Making History: Antiquaries in Britain 1707-2007, London: Royal Academy of Arts (2007)
The Historical Archaeology of Pottery Supply and Demand in the Lower Rhineland AD 1400-1800, Studies in Contemporary and Historical Archaeology, BAR International Series 1518, Oxford: Archaeopress (2006)
D. Gaimster & R. Gilchrist eds., The Archaeology of Reformation 1480-1580, Societies for Medieval & Post-Medieval Archaeology, Leeds: Maney Publishing (2003)
M. Brisbane & D. Gaimster eds., Novgorod. The Archaeology of a Russian Medieval City and its Hinterland, British Museum Occasional Paper 141, London: British Museum (2001)