As Collections Fellow, Mariam Hale is engaged in investigating the history and significance of the Founders Collection at Cranbrook House. She recently completed her PhD in Art History at the University of York, where her research explored the role of fantasy in Victorian painting, with a focus on the interplay between literature and the visual arts. Her MLitt thesis at the University of St Andrews delved into the often comical and surprisingly affecting world of late nineteenth-century domestic interior design manuals. A graduate of Williams College, Mariam has previously served as an intern at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, as Assistant Curator at the Ralph T. Coe Foundation for the Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and as a staff writer and editor for Cultural Property News. She is a contributing author in The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2024.