Sad news

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Penelope Walton Rogers, founder, with the late George Taylor, of the Dyes in History and Archaeology group of researchers and the associated meetings. Penelope passed away on 10th November 2023 after a short illness. Working initially as a field archaeologist, she set up Textile Research, specialising in textiles and costume, in York in 1980. In 1982 Penelope and George (by this time working with her on dye analysis) organised a small meeting of researchers interested in the dyes used on archaeological and other textiles. This was the first meeting of the Dyes on Historical and Archaeological Textiles (DHAT) group, which changed its name to Dyes in History and Archaeology (DHA) seven meetings later in 1988. Since that time, the group has flourished and held its annual meetings all over Europe, but has retained what Penelope has described as a ‘welcoming atmosphere of shared scholarship’. The members of that original group of researchers came from different academic backgrounds and so it has remained, giving the meetings their characteristic breadth of content. Penelope introduced the 40th meeting of DHA, held online and hosted by the British Museum, in 2021 and the pleasure with which she spoke and the happiness with which she viewed the development of her little group of researchers into the event it has become was very apparent. She will be very sadly missed.