Caird Library and Research Seminars
9 April
Filling the Curators’ Egg Box: Some Legacies of the 1930s
During its most prolific collecting period, the 1930s, the National Maritime Museum assembled large and important holdings of navigational, astronomical and cartographic material. Using this material as a case study, this talk will examine some of the questions thrown up by the scientific material collected. At the same time it will examine some of the ethical and practical legacies of these activities for the twenty-first century.
Megan Barford, Curator of Cartography & Richard Dunn, Senior Curator for the History of Science
14 May
Standard Ships of World War One: Too Little and Too Late?
After a hands-off approach to Merchant Shipping for most of the First World War, by 1917 the need for new tonnage was becoming acute. The Standard ships were seen as the answer. Based on contemporary designs, they were to fill the void left by losses to U-boats, but did enough come into service to make a difference? Or did they create a bubble in the market for ships that caused a collapse in the period of post-war austerity?
Chris Ware, Greenwich Maritime Centre
4 June
Satire and the Anglo-Dutch Wars
The Second and Third Anglo- Dutch Wars (1665–67, 1672–74) saw the restored monarchy in conflict with the developing European news industry. Consequently, these were wars in which news itself constituted a key battlefield at home and abroad. This seminar will discuss the Restoration regime’s attempts to control news, an agenda pursued in part through popular poetry, before demonstrating the manner in which wartime satirists engaged with these efforts.
Jack Avery, NMM Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD student
All seminars begin at 15.30 in the Caird Library, National Maritime Museum
Maritime History and Culture Seminars at the IHR
All seminars begin at 17.15 in the Wolfson Room, The Institute of Historical Research, University of London, Senate House, London WC1E 7HU
24 April 2018
From sailors’ chests to sailors’ homes: Finnish seamen and domesticity in the early 20th century
Laika Nevalainen, European University Institute
22 May 2018
‘Cannibals’, ‘Savages’ and pronouns: the strange world of British naval encounter in Australia and the Torres Strait, 1842–50
Daniel Simpson, Royal Holloway University of London and The British Museum
19 June 2018
Constructing the seapower state: culture, identity and exceptionalism
Professor Andrew Lambert, King’s College London
Queen’s House Conference
Elizabeth I: The Armada and Beyond, 1588–2018
Thursday to Saturday, 19–21 April 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.
Keynote speaker on 19 April: Susan Doran, University of Oxford
Draft programme available here. To register visit our website: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/queens-house-conference-elizabeth-i-armada-and-beyond
Theatre at the Queen’s House
Burbage’s Farewell to Shakespeare
Monday, 23 April 2018 from 18.45
Join us for a unique performance in the Great Hall on the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death. 1616 is the year of Shakespeare’s death and the year that work began on the Queen’s House. These historic events come together for this unique performance of the play Burbage’s Farewell in the glorious surroundings of the Great Hall of the Queen’s House and on the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death.
In this unique performance, Henry Goodman plays the virtuosic Richard Burbage – William Shakespeare’s leading actor, friend, business partner and inspiration. Set on April 23rd 1616 Burbage recalls how he and Shakespeare, subjects in a troubled kingdom, overcame politics, paranoia and plague to become the most favoured players in the land under two monarchs, revealing the joys and struggles of working with one of the greatest literary geniuses of all time.
Tickets are £60 and includes a drinks reception.For more information and to book please visit: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/theatre-queens-house-burbages-farewell-shakespeare
Meet the Experts – Free Gallery Talks
Every Wednesday, 2–30 May 2018 from 13.00-13.30 in the Great Hall, Queen’s House
Join our curators and conservators as they discuss the highlights of the collection and talk about their work in the Queen’s House.
2 May
Tudor Paintings in the Collection – Lucy Odlin, Conservation Intern
9 May
Emma Hamilton in the 18th Century Mind – Ellen Weineck, Curatorial Intern
16 May
Battles in Ink: the Pen Paintings of the van de Veldes – Zoe Mercer-Golden, Assistant Curator
23 May
Disappearance: Shipwrecks, Tacita Dean and Paul Duke – Melanie Vandenbrouck, Curator of Art
30 May
A seventeenth-century officers’ club: Peter Lely’s Flagmen of Lowestoft – Katharine Gazzard, CDA PhD Student
Lunchtime Concerts in the Queen’s House
Wednesday, 9 May at 14.00 PM in the Great Hall
Take a break from the hustle and bustle and stop by to hear beautiful classical music performed by students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Programme to include music by Jean Cras, Lowell Liebermann and Astor Piazzolla.
Emma Harding, flute
Anna Astesano, harp
Queen’s House Lecture Series
Cultivating Taste: The Art of the English Garden, Greenwich and Beyond
Thursdays, 24 May – 14 June, 2018 from 10.30-12.30 (refreshments on arrival and lecture starts at 11.00)
Orangery and South Parlours
£8 | £6 concessions
Join us this summer season to celebrate the beauty of English gardens. Our speakers will discuss a variety of topics related to the ways in which the development of different kinds of English gardens – flower, royal, and public – shaped contemporary taste, including fashion. The lecture series will conclude with an optional tour of Greenwich Park. After some lectures, books will be available for sale and signing.
24 May
Flowered Fabrics: Gardens on Cloth – Edwina Ehrman, Victoria and Albert Museum
31 May
The unaffected Englishness of Queen Caroline’s gardens at Kensington Palace – Dr Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Gardens Adviser, Historic Royal Palaces
7 June
‘The chiefest for choyce, and fairest for shew’: English flower gardens in the early seventeenth century – Dr Jill Francis, Independent Scholar
14 June
The Gardens and Green Spaces of Early Modern London – Dr David Marsh, The Gardens Trust
Our final lecture will conclude with an optional one-hour tour of Greenwich Park with the Park Manager Graham Dear from 13:00 to 14:00.
For more information and to book tickets: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/cultivating-taste-art-english-garden-greenwich-and-beyond
History of Navigation Conference: Navigation, heroism, history
Thursday and Friday, 24–25 May 2018
Continuing our well-respected series of conferences, Royal Museums Greenwich and the Royal Institute of Navigation are holding another event to bring together current research into the history of navigation.
In the 250th anniversary year of James Cook’s departure in command of the Endeavour on the first of three famous voyages of exploration, this conference seeks to interrogate the way stories are told about heroism in the history of navigation, including land, sea, air and space. The draft programme is available here.
For more information and to book: https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/history-navigation-conference
or call Bookings on 020-8312 6608
