Upcoming Events › Lunar Lecture Series
Lectures held on the night of the full moon
June 2026
Lunar Lecture – ‘Anna Seward and the invention of pollution in the eighteenth-century West Midlands’
The poet, Anna Seward (1742-1809), lived in Lichfield, had a close friendship with Erasmus Darwin, and knew other members of the Lunar Society. She travelled widely across the West Midlands, and one result was the poem, ‘Colebrookdale’, written in fact in two versions, which provides an insight into environmental and atmospheric pollution at a time when industrial activity was generally perceived by Seward’s acquaintances as something which brought benefits to all. Seward’s poetry though focused on the industrial town of…
Find out more »October 2026
Lunar Lecture – William Strutt FRS: A tradesman of some eminence by Dr Ian Jackson
As William Strutt left no journals or diary, we need to look at contemporary, third party, accounts of his work and legacies, to understand why he was so respected by his peers, including his appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This talk traces his life, both personal and work, with the progression of his more famous improvements, such as fire-proof mills and the stove heating system, and other less well-known activities. Whilst William Strutt was recognised widely during…
Find out more »November 2026
Thomas Beddoes: Poetry, Medicine, Disease and Drugs in the Early Nineteenth Century: a Symposium
A series of lectures including refreshments and buffet lunch "O! Excellent Air Bag”: Thomas Beddoes and the Pneumatic Institution by Mike Jay This paper tells the story of Erasmus Darwin’s protégé Thomas Beddoes and his experiments with medical gases at the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, in which he collaborated with a remarkable circle of scientists and poets that included Humphry Davy, James Watt, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey. Mike Jay is an author and historian who has written widely…
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