Celina Fox facts for kids

Celina Fox was born on May 4, 1947. She is a historian who studies the history of London. Her main focus is on the 1700s and 1800s. She also worked at the Museum of London, where she was in charge of paintings, prints, and drawings.

Learning and Research

Celina Fox studied history at Cambridge University. She finished her studies in 1969. In the same year, she received a special Kennedy Scholarship. This allowed her to study at Harvard University in the United States.

Later, she earned her doctorate degree from Oxford University in 1974. Her research was about how newspapers and magazines used pictures in England during the 1830s and 1840s. She also received other scholarships and grants for her research. For example, she studied art related to industry in the US and Sweden. In 2012, she was a scholar at the Yale Center for British Art.

Her Work and Career

Celina Fox helped to create the Museum of London in the 1970s. She was one of its first curators. A curator is someone who helps organize and care for museum collections.

In 1982, she helped create an exhibition about masquerade parties from the 1700s. In 1987, she wrote a big book called Londoners. This book went along with an exhibition at the museum. It was the first exhibition to show how people in London were pictured in art over many years. Around 1990, she became an assistant director at the museum.

In 1992, she helped organize a huge exhibition in Germany called London: World City, 1800-1842. This was the largest exhibition of British art ever shown in Germany.

Celina Fox has also worked on museum projects in Russia and Germany. She was part of a group that helped decide which projects would get money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. In 1993, she was considered for the top job at the Courtauld Gallery.

Blue Plaques Panel

Celina Fox was the vice-chair of the Blue Plaques Panel for English Heritage. Blue plaques are special signs placed on buildings to honor famous people who lived or worked there.

In 2013, she expressed concerns when the panel's budget was cut. She felt that this might lower the quality of the blue plaque scheme. The next year, she resigned from the panel. She believed the program was being changed in a way that did not respect its past achievements.

Awards and Recognition

Celina Fox has received several awards for her work:

• 2011 – She won the Peter Neaverson Award for her book The Arts of Industry in the Age of Enlightenment.
• 2012 – She received the Historians of British Art (HBA) Book Award. This award recognized her excellent research on art from before 1800.

Other Activities

In 1979, Celina Fox helped start The Thirties Society. This group later became The Twentieth Century Society, which works to protect important buildings from the 1900s.

In 1999, she suggested that a statue of Nelson Mandela should be placed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. She thought he was a very important person of the 20th century. She also suggested moving the statue of George IV, saying he was "a less heroic figure."

Celina Fox also joined Simon Jenkins on some of his research trips. He was writing books about England's best houses and churches. She is also on the board of a magazine called Print Quarterly.