Emma Fox
- Email: shzv0531@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: “Coaxing Nature to the Screen”: Frank Percy Smith and the Transformations of British Natural History in the Pre-WWII Era of Technological Innovation and Mass Entertainment
- Supervisors: Professor Gregory Radick, Professor Jonathan Topham, Dr Annie Jamieson
Profile
My PhD research, commencing October 2025, focuses on the career of Frank Percy Smith as a lens to examine the changing field of natural history in the early twentieth century, including how knowledge was produced and who consumed it. Percy Smith was an amateur naturalist who practiced microphotography as a hobby and caught the attention of Charles Urban, American businessman and film producer which kick-started his career as a ‘kinematographic wizard’, despite no professional training or qualifications.
While history of science methodologies are a new area for me, my interest in this project is grounded in my previous undergraduate research which examined exhibitionary cultures in the nineteenth century. My specific area of research was the 1900 Woman’s Exhibition, an Earl’s Court Exhibition envisaged and produced by Imre Kiralfy. Much like Kiralfy’s previous exhibitions, the Woman’s Exhibition sought to appeal to fantasy surrounding empire but within the feminine context rather than the previously highly masculine context of exhibitions. The themes of nineteenth-century exhibitions (fantasy of empire, a desire to educate the public through informative but amusing means, etc.) persit into early twentieth century film culture.
This project is AHRC funded through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH).
Qualifications
- MA History, University of Lincoln
- BA (Hons) History, University of Lincoln
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for History and Philosophy of Science