Exotic Woods in the Furniture Collection at Raby Castle

Introducing Ana Maria, Jessamy and Rosaleen

Three students were awarded an internship over the summer of 2025 to collectively research the trading history of wood materials, their import into Britain, and how this linked to individual items in Raby’s collection. The chosen students were drawn to the project because of their interest in understanding how the story of Britain’s colonial past, and the corresponding expansion of trade in global materials, is woven throughout decorative arts and historic interiors in ways that are not always visible.

Ana Maria Orobio Pinzon is a second-year student in Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture at Bard Graduate Centre in New York, with a varied background in Art History and technical woodworking in Colombia.

Jessamy Harvey has recently completed her Masters in Decorative Arts and Historical Interiors at the University of Buckingham, and also has a PhD in Spanish Cultural Studies. Her previous experience in research and records management was useful for her visit to the Raby archives, where she tried to better understand how some of the historical furniture at Raby found its’ way into the collection.

Rosaleen Williams currently works at Temple Newsham House in Leeds, and has completed her Masters in Art, Gallery and Museum Studies. Rosaleen’s particular interest is in ‘hidden histories’ that can be unveiled by documents and furniture.

‘For each of us, this project has allowed us to understand more about the links between economic history and historical furniture. Thanks to this project, we can now draw connections between disparate parts of the world and Raby Castle and we hope visitors to the website enjoy taking this global journey too.’

The project

Through this project, Raby wanted to gain a better understanding of our furniture collection, particularly those made with materials which might have travelled across the globe and represented the methods of trade and transportation within the furniture making industry.

The students identified research questions to focus on, including:

• Why are materials classified as exotic woods?
• Where do these woods come from?
• How and when was its trade important, and what was the wider political context at the time?

They combined wider research with looking into our historic inventories and archives, before compiling this into an interactive website. The website includes an interactive map of the geographical origins of some of the exotic woods found in the collection, a timeline of the wood trade and how this aligned with the European colonisation of territories in continents such as America, Africa and Asia, and an analysis of some pieces of furniture in Raby’s collection to help understand more about the collecting interests of Raby’s residents.