'Entitled to the gratitude of their Country by eminent Scientific services': portraits of scientists for the new Palace of Westminster
When:
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Venue:
TBC
Following the destruction by fire of the old Palace of Westminster in 1834, a new building rose from the ashes, designed by architect Sir Charles Barry. He recommended that interiors of the palace be used for paintings and sculpture to commemorate significant events and figures in British history. In 1841, the Fine Arts Commission was founded, chaired by Prince Albert and made up of eminent politicians and historians, with responsibility for commissioning the Palace’s major artistic schemes. Artworks throughout spaces for the monarch, lords and commons were intended to educate and inspire those working within.
In 1843, Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel wrote to the Commission’s secretary Sir Charles Eastlake regarding a discussion in the House of Commons that the Commissioners should be empowered ‘to inquire into the best means of doing Honour, by public Monuments, in Sculpture and Painting … to the Memory of Men entitled to the gratitude of their Country by eminent Civil, Literary or Scientific services.’
The Commissioners duly proposed a list of eminent names and appropriate spaces in the Palace, including a scheme for the Lower Waiting Hall to feature eight statues of celebrated scientific men. Yet no such scheme was completed. This talk will consider the story of this failed idea and ask why there is so little representation of science and technology in a Palace built at the heart of industrial Britain.
Speaker: Dr Katy Barrett is Deputy Chief Curator and Head of Engagement at the Houses of Parliament. Previously she was Curator of Art Collections at the Science Museum, London (2017-21) and Curator of Art, pre-1800, at Royal Museums Greenwich (2013-17). She has held various posts at national and university museums, including the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and Waddesdon Manor. She has higher degrees in History of Art and History of Science and is active on social media as @SpoonsonTrays. Her book Looking for Longitude: A Cultural History was published in 2022.
Contact name: Sarah Thomas
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