Staff profile

I started at Palace Green Library in October 2017 on a temporary, externally funded contract to work on the Bamburgh Library collection. In October 2018, I was made a permanent member of staff to help look after and provide access to all rare book collections held at PGL.

From 2009 until 2019, I worked freelance as a historic libraries consultant and rare books cataloguer, and advised private clients on historic library management and cataloguing projects. Over the years, I have also been involved in historic building and garden restoration and interpretation projects as a historical consultant. 

I received MAs in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Groningen before embarking on a PhD at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York. After a period of working as a part-time tutor in the Department of History at Leicester University, I retrained as a librarian, gaining a MSc(Econ) from Aberystwyth University.

I am particularly interested in the use of books and book collections as material expressions of identity and cultural values; early modern herbals and gardening, especially in relation to health; and early forms of library management. 

Follow me on Twitter @behindthespines

• Medieval and early modern herbals and health
• History of libraries in the early modern period
• Materiality of the book and the use of books in the early modern period

Book review

• Westerhof, Danielle (2013). Death at court (ed. K-H. Spiess and I. Warntjes). The Mediaeval Journal (3.2).

Chapter in book

• Westerhof, Danielle (Forthcoming). Dead and dying bodies. In A cultural history of death in the medieval age. Kinch, Ashby M. & Davies, Douglas J. Bloomsbury. 2.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2013). Amputating the traitor: Healing the social body in public executions for treason in late medieval England. In The ends of the body: Identity and community in medieval culture. Akbari, S.C. & Ross, J. University of Toronto Press.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2013). A most profitable book: Publishing, owning and reading Petrus de Crescentiis’ Ruralia commoda between c.1450 and c.1550′. In Le cabinet du curieux: Culture, savoirs, religion de l’Antiquité à l’Ancien Régime. Pietrzak, W. K. & Kozluk, M. Classiques Garnier.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2010). Petrus de Crescentiis’ Ruralia commoda: An agricultural regimen sanitatis? In The Alchemy of Medicine and Print: The Edward Worth Library, Dublin. Four Courts Press.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2010). Introduction. In The Alchemy of Medicine and Print: The Edward Worth Library, Dublin. Four Courts Press.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2005). Celebrating Fragmentation: The Presence of Aristocratic Body Parts in Monastic Houses in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century England. In Sepulturae Cistercienses: Burial, memorial and patronage in medieval Cistercian monasteries. Hall, J. & Kratzke, C. Citeaux. 14 / 56.

Edited book

• Westerhof, Danielle (2010). The Alchemy of Medicine and Print: The Edward Worth Library, Dublin. Four Courts Press.

Journal Article

• Westerhof, Danielle (2021). A British Book Collector: Rare Books and Manuscripts in the R.E. Hart Collection, Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery, edited by Cynthia Johnston. Library & Information History 37(3): 247-248.
• Westerhof, Danielle (2007). Deconstructing identities on the scaffold: The execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, 1326. Journal of Medieval History (33.1).

Monograph

• Westerhof, Danielle (2008). Death and the Noble Body in Medieval England. Boydell and Brewer.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Westerhof, Danielle (2017). Getting away from grandeur. Historic Gardens Review (February).
• Westerhof, Danielle (2017). A Hidden World of Childhood Tales – books in the Museum of Childhood, Sudbury Hall. National Trust Arts Buildings Collections Bulletin (Spring).
• Westerhof, Danielle (2017). Circe's Enchanted Ark at Mount Stewart. National Trust Arts Buildings Collections Bulletin (Summer).
• Westerhof, Danielle (2016). Curzona’s pastimes: the writings of Mary Assheton, Lady Curzon. National Trust Arts Buildings Collections Bulletin (Spring).
• Westerhof, Danielle (2015). A view from the margin: Cataloguing antiquarian books freelance. Cataloguing & Indexing (June).