Helen Cowie is Professor of History at the University of York, where she researches and teaches the history of animals. She is author of Conquering Nature in Spain and its Empire (2011), Exhibiting Animals in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Empathy, Education, Entertainment (2014), Llama (2017), Victims of Fashion: Animal Commodities in Victorian Britain (2022) and Animals in World History (2025).
Helen’s monograph, Victims of Fashion, studies animal-based commodities in Britain in the period c.1800-1914. Focusing on six luxury animal products – birds’ feathers, sealskin, ivory, alpaca wool, perfumes (civet, musk, ambergris and bear’s grease) and exotic pets – she highlights the pervasive nature of animal-based consumables in the Victorian and Edwardian eras and trace their rise and fall in popularity in response to changing tastes, availability and ethical concerns.
Helen has also published an introduction to the history of animals entitled Animals in World History. This volume provides a concise synthesis of human-animal relations over time, charting shifting attitudes towards animals from domestication to the present day. It features case studies on animal astronauts, celebrity kakapos, globetrotting pandas and cocaine hippos.
Helen is currently editing a volume on The Cultural History of Birds in the Nineteenth Century, which examines the study, representation and commodification of birds during this period.
Further details of Helen’s work can be found here.
