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Montagu House, once home to the Montagu and Buccleuch families, has long since disappeared, and no visual record of its interiors is known to survive. What remains are inventories, archival descriptions, correspondence, and a number of related objects—fragmentary yet evocative traces of a significant historic interior.
Drawing on this material, and working closely with the Archive team at Bowhill, the students created historically informed visual interpretations of the dining room at two distinct moments in its history. These projects are not exact scale reconstructions. Rather, they are carefully researched contextual reimaginings, shaped by documentary evidence and surviving material culture. In doing so, they illuminate not only the room itself, but also the interpretive and creative role of the historian in bringing archival material to life.
As Dr Craig Thomas, Assistant Archivist at Bowhill, observes:
“The students were tasked with recreating a space that no longer exists and for which no images survive. They were given the raw archival material and allowed to interpret it as they saw fitting. We were excited to see what they came up with, and they have done a wonderful job bringing to life a room that witnessed many momentous occasions.”
Two Periods, Two Perspectives
The first project, created by Estrella Salgado and Elizabeth Riddick, focuses on the dining room during the tenure of the 2nd Duke of Montagu in the eighteenth century, offering a visual interpretation of the space at a moment of early prominence.
The second project, by Lisa L. Weishaupt, reimagines the dining room in the early nineteenth century, concentrating on the Regency-era redecoration undertaken between 1805 and 1808 for the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch and Duchess Elizabeth. Her work reflects the evolving aesthetic and cultural ambitions of the household during this period of stylistic change.
A Collaborative Digital Research Initiative
These projects were developed through a partnership between the Furniture History Society and the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust as part of the BIFMO–FHS Digital Research Programme. Each summer, the programme offers students from participating universities in the United Kingdom and the United States the opportunity to engage directly with significant archival collections. The initiative is supported by grant funding from the Iris Foundation.
Archival access and guidance were provided by Crispin Powell, Archivist to the Buccleuch collections, ensuring that the students’ interpretations were firmly grounded in documentary research.
Adriana Turpin of the Furniture History Society comments:
“These are both excellent collaborative projects that embody the kind of innovative archival engagement that the BIFMO–FHS Digital Research Programme aims to support; the students worked in close partnership with the curators to research and digitally reimagine the interiors of a building that no longer exists.”
Find out more
The completed projects can be explored online via Bowhill House’s website.
The Furniture History Society will also host an online workshop on 24 February to showcase all projects undertaken as part of the BIFMO–FHS Digital Research Programme 2025, including these reconstructions of Montagu House. For further information, please see flyer here.
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