Dr. Peter Hewitt

Dr Peter Hewitt is founder of the Folklore Museums Network and Museums Officer for Collections across Dumfries & Galloway in south west Scotland. He works with two Nationally Recognised Collections of archaeology and art, spread across five museums: the Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright Galleries, Kirkcudbright Tolbooth, Stranraer Museum, and the Whithorn Trust. His Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD with the University of Birmingham and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (2010-2015) considered the role of material culture within early modern historical research and the potential of museum collections to enhance knowledge around specific topics, particularly folklore. He was Collections Researcher at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (2010-2014), the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic (2014-2018), and a Curator at Museums Northumberland (2018-2019) before moving to Dumfries & Galloway. He has worked with leading academics and researchers to collaborate on museum projects including MOOCs, podcasts, '100 objects style' histories, as well as temporary and permanent exhibitions. He has worked with a variety of audience groups from addiction charities to YMCA groups. Recently (2021) he has collaborated with The Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership (NGO) and Rathmell Archaeology to help 'citizen archaeologists' map the 'Lost Wells of Galloway'.

He has contributed papers at conferences on local history, the history of witchcraft, folklore and museology. His research interests include the material culture of folklore, folklore collections in British institutions, folklore and the landscape (especially that of British healing and holy wells and springs), intangible cultural heritage, early modern material culture, the history of collecting and 'homeland' ethnography. He has also contributed to the literature on apotropaic material culture, early modern material culture and museum history, most notably in Billingsley, Harte, Hoggard (eds.), Hidden Charms 2: The Magical Protection of Buildings (2019) and Richardson, Hamling, Gaimster (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Early Modern Material Culture (2016). His work on folklore and material culture has also been published by the Inner Lives: Emotions, Identity and the Supernatural Project (2015-2018). He has contributed to the folk-horror zine Hellebore (May 2021), the travel magazine We LOVE England, and Paranormal Review, published by the Society of Psychical Research. As Folklore Museums Network founder he has collaborated on numerous projects including:

Conferences: ('Folklore and ICH in Scotland', online 2021; 'Creative Responses to Intangible Cultural Heritage & Folklore' March 2023, St. Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh). Co-organiser of Sacred Waters: an International and Transdisciplinary Conference
Buxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, 30 June to 3 July, 2024.

Museum access projects: ‘Amulets, charms, and witch bottles: Thinking about ‘magical’ objects in museum collections through collaborative interaction between academics and curators with Pagans, witchcraft practitioners and other communities with spiritual investment’ - a MOLA Impact Acceleration Account project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/X003523/1) and led by Nigel Jeffries at MOLA and museum and heritage consultant Tom Crowley. (2024)

Development of folklore as a discipline: Folklore Without Borders: equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within UK folklore - an Arts and Humanities Research Council Network that aims to embed greater equality, diversity,
and inclusion (EDI) within UK folklore.

From January 2022 he has been Scotland's first Intangible Cultural Heritage Officer at Museums Galleries Scotland, supporting ICH projects across Scotland. You can find out more about this work at https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/. He is also a Trustee of the Folklore Library & Archive https://www.folklorelibrary.com/
Phone: Www.folkloremuseumsnetwork.org.uk