Kate McCaffrey
About
Kate McCaffrey is a CHASE funded PhD candidate, researching late medieval and early modern female book users and networks. Kate completed her first-class BA (Hons) in History from the University of Warwick in 2018, before completing her MA (with Distinction) in Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent in 2020.
Kate’s MA thesis uncovered new evidence in one of Anne Boleyn’s Books of Hours, held at her childhood home of Hever Castle in Kent. Her research gained international press attention and scholarly interest and led to her appointment in 2021 as Assistant Curator at Hever Castle. In this position, Kate co-curated two exhibitions, ‘Becoming Anne: Connections, Culture, Court’ (2022), and ‘Catherine and Anne: Queens, Rivals, Mothers’ (2023), the latter based on her own research with Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon’s Books of Hours. As part of this, Kate organised Hever’s first international loan, Catherine’s book, held in the Morgan Library in New York.
In June 2023, Kate released an update to her original research, this time co-researched with her colleagues at Hever, Dr Owen Emmerson and Alison Palmer. This was the re-discovery of Thomas Cromwell’s lost Book of Hours, held in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. This discovery similarly received international attention.
Kate is the co-author of three books: ‘Becoming Anne’ (2022), ‘Catherine and Anne’ (2023), and ‘Holbein’s Hidden Gem’ (2023). She has appeared as a guest expert in multiple documentaries (‘History Hit’), podcasts (‘Talking Tudors’, ‘Not Just the Tudors’), and television shows (‘BBC Songs of Praise’, ‘The One Show’, ‘Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip’). Kate has written for the TLS and BBC History Magazine. She was named by BBC History Extra as one of their ‘30 under 30’ historians to watch for 2024.
Kate has presented papers at academic conferences (Royal Studies Network, Paris 2024), to academic societies (Bibliographical Society 2023, Silver Society 2024), and popular history festivals (Hever History Festival 2024).
Research interests
Kate’s research intersects a variety of fields. She is interested in late medieval and early modern book use and ownership, recovering women’s lost voices and agency, networks of human exchange, the overlap of manuscript and print cultures, and written interventions and marginalia. Kate is passionate about knowledge transfer and making academic scholarship accessible to a wider audience.