Past Events
December 2020
Lunar Lecture – The Travels of Francis Sacheverel Darwin.
The last in our series of lunar lectures for 2020 will look at doctor and traveller, Francis Sacheverel Darwin, son of Erasmus Darwin and his second wife Elizabeth. Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin was a physician and traveller who was knighted by King George IV. As a young man he took an intrepid and eventful 2 year journey to Turkey and Greece via Spain, with 4 companions, all of whom died en route. Learn more about his travels in this fascinating…
Find out more »January 2021
Lunar Lecture – Food and the Georgian Pauper: Evidence from Sandford Street Workhouse Garden, c. 1770-1834
Oliver Twist asking for more gruel has cast a long shadow over the diets of workhouse inmates. New research on poverty and the poor law in Staffordshire and on St Mary's workhouse which stood in Sandford Street, Lichfield, shows that under the old poor law food and drink provision was more varied and generous than published workhouse dietaries suggest. This lecture will be held on zoom Dr Peter Collinge AHRC Researcher, Small Bills and Petty Finance: Co-creating the history of…
Find out more »February 2021
“Winter” online art exhibition
Erasmus Darwin House is pleased to host this online art exhibition from the Lichfield Society of Artists. Lichfield Society of Artists has been encouraging and promoting the work of its members for over 75 years. If you are interested in purchasing a piece of work or would like more information about the society please make contact with the society at lichfieldsocartists@gmail.com PLEASE NOTE: All the images shown are the original work of the artist and cannot be reproduced without permission. …
Find out more »Lunar Lecture – Suffragette Surgeons: The Women who ran Britain’s Trailblazing Military Hospital
When war broke out in 1914 dozens of women doctors offered their services – but they were told by the British Army to “Go home and sit still”. Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson refused to sit still. Both qualified doctors and suffragettes – and also life partners – they took a unit of women doctors, nurses and orderlies to France. They ran a hospital there so successfully that the army invited them to open a second hospital and then…
Find out more »March 2021
Matthew Boulton and the Soho Mint: Copper to Customer by Dr Sue Tungate
Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) was a globally important industrialist who introduced innovative minting practices at his Soho Mint. This lecture describes the processes involved, from mining the copper to the delivery of products to the customer. There was a shortage of small change towards the end of the 18thcentury, and Boulton strove to solve this problem, eventually obtaining customers all over Britain, including the British Government. He also made coins for the East India Company, and for Europe, Africa, the West…
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