Thursday 25 January, 17.30-18.30
THE WONDERS OF THE PEAK: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY GEO-TOURISM IN DERBYSHIRE
Anna Rhodes, Collections Officer at Buxton Museum & Art Gallery
In 1636 Thomas Hobbes published his topographical and satirical poem The Wonders of the Peak. This popular verse described visiting some of Derbyshire's geological wonders, including limestone caverns and natural wells. Hobbes' poem publicised this landscape and by the eighteenth century, these sites were teeming with visitors. Descriptions and engravings of the sites were published in magazines and they attracted artists including Joseph Farrington, Philip James De Loutherbourg and William Gilpin. This talk explores how these geological 'wonders' were represented on both paper and canvas in the eighteenth-century. It draws on many unpublished travel journals, examining how the visitors engaged with the geological landscape. These often sensationalised descriptions, written by both men and women contain tales of perilous adventure, eerie visions into other worlds and the stirrings of modern geology.
Further information, and a link to book tickets, here.
Future events:
- 'The Role of Women in the History of Geology' - Tuesday 20 February
- 'George Cumberland, fossil collecting and landscape painting in early 19th century Bristol' - Thursday 22 March
All details and booking information can be found here.
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