American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Hires First Full-Time Curator and Historian

Furniture World News Desk on 9/21/2018

Kyle Hughes has been named the the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame's First Curator.

The American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame has announced that it has named its first Curator, an important step in fulfilling the part of its mission to preserve the history of the home furnishings industry and to tell our story.

Kyle Thomas Hughes, Ph.D., with experience in the conservation and study of texts and objects, as well as research, teaching and public outreach, joins the Hall of Fame after serving as a visiting research associate at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. A native of High Point, Hughes also presented public talks and evening lectures for the university’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

“As the industry’s historian, Dr. Hughes’ duties include preservation and expansion of our memorabilia and historic collections, digitizing our documents, guiding the development of the industry’s timeline history, and supervision of our proprietary oral history initiative.  In addition, he is taking a leading role in the development of exhibits for the industry and the public,” says Jeff Child, president of the Hall of Fame Foundation board of directors.  “He has begun to collaborate with industry-related museums, research bodies and foundations. Among his first priorities has been to update our current storage with an emphasis on both traditional preservation and digitization in order to produce an online catalogue of our holdings.  It’s all part of laying the groundwork for pursuing a permanent home in the near future.”

Dr. Hughes was awarded his Ph.D. from Trinity College Dublin in 2017.  His doctoral thesis, (Not) Everything Ends in Tears: Individuals, Communities, and Peacemaking in the Íslendingasögur, examined themes of conflict resolution and of individual and national identity in Iceland during the Commonwealth period.  In addition, he worked with Trinity College Dublin’s School of Anatomy and with the National Museum of Ireland as part of both a Masters-level research project and a broader public outreach programme focused on the relationship between the Medieval Irish and Norse.

More about the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation: Founded in 1988, the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc., is an international, industry-wide organization founded to preserve the home furnishings history and to celebrate exceptional individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the U.S. home furnishings industry.  Membership includes eligibility to nominate candidates for consideration by the Selection Committee, and the opportunity to help preserve the history and heritage of the industry.  As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, 83 percent of all funds support our history and leadership programming. The organization is based in High Point, North Carolina, at 202 Neal Place, Suite 101, and can be reached at 336.882.5900.