WRoCAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award - “Coaxing Nature to the Screen”: Frank Percy Smith and the Transformations of British Natural History in the Pre-WWII Era of Technological Innovation and Mass Entertainment

Session 2025 - Closing Date 12 noon (UK time) 5 March 2025

Before applying for this studentship, ensure you visit the WRoCAH website for full project details and application information.

Award provides fees and maintenance at UKRI Rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26) plus £600 enhancement per annum.

This is an AHRC WRoCAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between the School of Philosophy, Religion & History of Science, University of Leeds and the National Science and Media Museum

The project is a historical inquiry into the remaking of British natural history in the wake of new sound and vision technologies associated with cinema. It will be anchored in a study of the career of the London-born amateur naturalist turned "kinematographic wizard" Frank Percy Smith (1880-1945), a pioneer of nature documentaries who invented several techniques that brought never-before-seen perspectives on the natural world to mass audiences. Without university training or credentials, Smith fought to be taken seriously for his contributions to knowledge while at the same time producing work with sufficient appeal to be commercially viable. 

The key research questions are:

(1) What does an archivally informed reconstruction of Smith's career reveal about how his new technologies transformed the content, contexts and constituencies for British natural history?
(2) What were the conditions that permitted the emergence of a scientifically significant yet commercially successful career such as Smith's?
(3) In what ways does J.-B. Gouyon's (2019) analysis of post-WWII British natural history filmmaking need modification for the previous era? 

This project will produce the first systematic study of Smith's career from within scholarly history of science while remedying gaps in two literatures, on British natural history and on natural-history filmmaking. Its timeliness derives from the recent scholarly ferment on twentieth-century British scientific filmmaking as well as from the inclusion of Smith in the NSMM's new Sound and Vision galleries. 

The materials collected by the NSMM are so diverse that you will be able to put your stamp on the project by concentrating on themes in line with your interests and background. 

About the National Science and Media Museum

Located in Bradford – the UK’s City of Culture for 2025 – the NSMM is one of five museums constituting the national Science Museum Group.  The Museum has seven floors of galleries focusing on photography, television, animation, videogaming, the Internet and the scientific principles behind light, colour and sound. After extensive refurbishment the Museum reopened in January 2025 and is currently preparing for the July opening of the new Sound and Vision Galleries, which includes information about Frank Percy Smith and his innovations. 

Engagement, outreach, dissemination and impact initiatives

You will engage in several research and public engagement activities:

1. Developing the catalogue of the Smith archive.
2. Assisting with public events and film screenings at the Museum's Pictureville Cinema.
3. Contributing an online resource on early nature documentaries.
4. Producing at least two blog posts for the "National Science and Media Museum Blog."
5. Writing at least one paper to be published in "Science Museum Group Journal." 

For further project information contact Professor Gregory Radick 

Application information contact Postgraduate Admissions team via the 'Apply' button above.

Advert information