The Remembrance of Slavery in Material Culture

Lecture
January 24, 2017

Reminders of slavery are everywhere, though we often overlook them. Look closely, and you will find them in the material culture we value so highly: from porcelain sugar bowls to mahogany tables, from necklaces of cowrie shells to the world of print and graphic art. Slaves not only enhanced the material well-being of the Western world but they also made possible the material culture we value—though often without seeing its slave origins. Organized in collaboration with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, this lecture by James Walvin (Professor of History Emeritus, University of York, UK) serves as a prelude to the exhibition Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, which opens on February 2, 2017.