2018 will be a busy year for the Curatorial & Research Department at Royal Museums Greenwich. Below a list of our February-April conferences and events with details of how to book.
Meet the Experts – Free Gallery Talks
Every Wednesday, 7–28 February 2018 from 13.00-13.30 in the Great Hall, Queen’s House
14 February: Manifesto for a Maritime Nation
Christine Riding, Head of Arts and Curator of the Queen’s House
21 February: Elizabeth I, Armada and the British Empire
Dr Robert Blyth, Senior Curator of World History
28 February: Conserving the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth Hamilton-Eddy, Senior Paintings Conservator
Maritime History and Culture Seminars
Tuesday, 20 February from 17.15 in Wolfson Room 1 at the Institute of Historical Research
The forgotten boys of the sea: Marine Society merchant sea apprentices, 1772–1854
Dr Caroline Withall, National Maritime Museum
Dr Caroline Withall will explore the lives of poor boys who went to sea during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Meet apprentices like Edward Kelly, who was beaten so badly he lost the use of his arm, William Cakebread, who was jailed for smuggling, and William Brook, a ‘boy of colour’ recommended by the Lord Mayor of London. Where did these boys come from? Who employed them and how were they treated? Where were they sent? Did they find better lives at sea? Did they run away? How many of them survived? The Marine Society is well known for sending boys to the Royal Navy but, as this seminar will show, supplying apprentices for merchant ships became the society’s main focus. Dr Withall will also address broader social and economic issues within British and maritime history, drawing upon data on over 22,000 of these ‘forgotten’ boys.
- For a full list of the 2018 seminars please e-mail research@rmg.co.uk
Queen’s House Lecture Series
Thursdays, 1-29 March from 11.00-12.30 in the Queen’s House Orangery and South Parlours
Remarkable Women
This series is specifically curated for National Women’s History Month: Spanning the Elizabethan and Victorian Ages, follow the lives of five extraordinary women – matriarch and entrepreneur Bess of Hardwick, poet and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, local Deptford businesswoman Mary Slade, antiquarian collector Sarah Sophia Banks and the world traveller Annie Russell-Cotes.
1 March The harem and the veil: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the Ottoman Empire
Christine Riding, Royal Museums Greenwich
8 March Sarah Sophia Banks (1744-1818): A ‘truly interesting collection of visitor cards and Co.’
Arlene Leis
15 March ‘Exalting the Divine: Bess of Hardwick’s picture collection at Hardwick Hall’
David Taylor, National Trust
22 March Working Women in Eighteenth-Century Deptford
Margarette Lincoln
29 March Annie Russell-Cotes (1835-1920): ‘Local politician, art connoisseur, collector, traveller and explorer’
Amy Miller
- To book tickets please visit our website: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/queen’s-house-lecture-series-remarkable-women
Caird Library Research Seminars
Monday, 5 March from 15.30-16.30 in the Caird Library
Collecting Maritime History? Callender, Caird and the National Maritime Museum – Quintin Colville, Senior Curator: Research
This paper explores the vision of British History and heritage that guided the work of both the National Maritime Museum’s first and director and its most generous benefactor. Though from differing professional backgrounds, these men share a particular vision of Britain’s past, present and future – one inseparable from notions of sea power and national destiny. The historic themes, objects, people and events around which they fashioned the Museum tell a complex and important story.
- For a full list of the 2018 seminars please e-mail research@rmg.co.uk
Queen’s House and Trinity Laban lunch time concerts
Wednesdays, 7 and 28 March at 13.00 in the Great Hall
- Musicians and programme to be confirmed. Concerts are free and there is no need to book.
Naval Dockyard Society 22nd Annual Conference
Saturday, 24 March 2018 at the National Maritime Museum
The role of naval bases in maritime operations in the Mediterranean during the 18th century
This conference will examine the role of littoral and offshore naval facilities (dockyards, anchorages, naval hospitals, hospital ships, guardships, etc) of the Royal Navy and other naval powers whose ships operated in the Mediterranean during the long 18th century (1688–1815). It will explore the nature of these facilities in the heavily contested Mediterranean. How significant were Royal Navy facilities to British defeat or victory? How did they compare with facilities constructed by other naval powers operating within the Mediterranean?
- Conference programme and booking form Available Here.
Queen’s House Conference
Thursday to Saturday, 19–21 April 2018 in the Lecture Theatre and Queen’s House
Elizabeth I: The Armada and Beyond, 1588 to 2018
In September 2016, Royal Museums Greenwich acquired the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. This remarkable work of art has captured widespread attention from its creation until the present day, providing a defining image of what has come to be seen as a critical moment in history: the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in the summer of 1588. This conference will address this moment in time and its consequences both for Elizabeth and her subjects in the immediate aftermath of the Armada and for subsequent generations, as the idea of the Virgin Queen and her great triumph has been shaped and remade throughout history until the present day. It seeks to advance our understanding of the Armada Portrait specifically and Elizabeth I more generally, interrogating popular notions associated with her life and reputation, offering fresh and alternative perspectives.
- To register and see the draft programme please visit our website: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/queens-house-conference-elizabeth-i-armada-and-beyond
If you would like to see a full list of our 2018 conferences and events please contact research@rmg.co.uk
