Claire Marie Donovan (née Baker; 12 February 1948 – 5 June 2019) was a British historian and academic.

Career

Donovan was educated in Oxford before studying an undergraduate degree in English and History of Art at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. She gained a Postgraduate diploma from

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

and a PhD from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

. Her PhD thesis, "The Early Development of the Illustrated Book of Hours in England, c. 1240–1350," was filed in 1981. She was vice principal of

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

, an Honorary Research Fellow in the College of Humanities at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

, a Council member of the Devon History Society, a Trustee of

Poltimore House Poltimore House is an 18th-century country house in Poltimore, Devon, England. The Manor of Poltimore was from the 13th to the 20th century the seat of the Bampfylde family, which acquired the title Baron Poltimore in 1831. The house retains ...

Trust and Chair of the South West Association of Preservation Trusts.

Doctoral thesis and select publications

*Baker, C. M. 1981. "The Early Development of the Illustrated book of Hours in England, c. 1240–1350" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis). *Donovan, C. 1991. ''The de Brailes Hours: shaping the book of hours in 13th-century Oxford''. London, British Library. *Donovan, C. and Bushnell, J. 1996. ''John Everett Millais, 1829–1896: a centenary exhibition''. Southampton, Media Arts Faculty Institute. *Donovan, C. 2000. ''The Winchester Bible''. Winchester, Winchester Cathedral. *Donovan, C. 2005. Review of Kathryn A. Smith, ''Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours'' (London: The British Library/Toronto: U. of Toronto Press, 2003), in ''English Historical Review'' CXX, no. 486, pp. 203-05. *Donovan, C. and Hemmings, J. 2014. "Evidence for Eighteenth-Century Rebuilding at Poltimore House: Interpreting Edmund Prideaux’s Drawings, 1716 and 1727", ''The Devon Historian'' 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donovan, Claire 1948 births 2019 deaths Alumni of the University of East Anglia Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Royal Historical Society