Field Trips About Transatlantic Empires, Indigenous Peoples and London's Environmental History?

January 31, 2005 1:30 PM

London Historical Site Filter (come in, come in)

My university has a Semester in London program that uses our own faculty to teach the courses. If I can come up with three courses that fall within (or near!) my area of expertise, and that use the resources of London to enrich the learning experience, I get to go. And I so want to go…

I have the three courses in mind, but don’t know where to take them for the London field trips. I am looking specifically for historic sites, museums, neighborhoods, etc. that would enrich the following courses:

1. Exploring the Atlantic World, 1492-1765. This course will look at the creation of European transatlantic empires. Topics will included exploration and discovery, slavery, the transatlantic trades, the biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds, and relations with native peoples.

2. The British Empire and Indigenous Peoples. This course will explore the ways the British Empire has interacted with native peoples in three times and places: Colonial North America, India, and East Africa. Some of the topics we examine will include justifying conquest, annexing local elites, indigenous peoples and imperial rivalries, and reacting to revolts and independence movements.

3. The Environmental History of London: This course will examine the ways that man and nature have interacted, cooperated, and collided on the banks of the Thames. Topics will include prehistoric peoples and the environment, early agriculture, plagues and urban health, industrialization, the creation of urban parks, the Thames river, the Great Smog, environmental racism, and modern conservation efforts.

So where do I take students in conjunction with these courses? I need 4-5 suggestions for each course. I don’t know London at all—but some of you do. I’ll buy you a pint!

posted by LarryC to travel & transportation (7 comments total)

Have you read London: The Biography. It's perfect for number 3.
posted by cillit bang at 2:28 PM on January 31, 2005

First stops are going to be The British Museum, The Museum of London and The National Maritime Museum. They'll all have depts. that will help you with research for other trips/visits.

The Imperial War Museum could also be handy and 19 Princelet Street (if it survives) could make for a good visit.
posted by i_cola at 2:56 PM on January 31, 2005

Definitely the British Museum for #2 -- they've folded the former anthropology museum (the Museum of Mankind) into their Ethnography department and Anthropology Centre.

Second the National Maritime Museum for #1.

I believe the Victoria and Albert has some information in there about landscape design. (You might also check out the very useful National Art Library -- located in the V&A -- for old depictions of indigenous people.) For a formally designed English garden (by William Kent), you can always check out Chiswick House, halfway between Central London and Heathrow. This list of London gardens may also be useful -- many are public parks. Hampstead Heath has been public parkland for a really long time. It might be interesting to see how the royal parks developed differently (if they did -- I don't really know) from London's other parks.

I also bet English Heritage might be of some use if you get in touch with them and describe what you're after.
posted by Vidiot at 7:16 PM on January 31, 2005

It seems you are a historian --as a student of colonial history, I spent a summer a few years ago doing research in the British Library. It is an absolutely fantastic place to work and perhaps you could arrange to at least show your students the wonders of archival research? A lot of documents from the colonial era are archived there and even if your students don't do much research, it would be great to spend a day there learning how an archive (and not just any archive, one of the great libraries of the world) functions. Have I mentioned its a great place to work? Its designed for comfort for those who spend day in and day out reading documents, and it has a great display of old Bibles, original Beatles records, other famous docs on the main level. Close to the British Museum (which I second or third or whatever).

Along with the V+A and Brit Museum suggestions--they have fantastic collections of Indian (and I assume other non-western societies') art--so you can discuss how that art came to be housed in London, should it still be there, etc. Also, influences of the colonial societies on the metropole in terms of architecture--I know there's probably some academic work on this, just not sure where. For what its worth, the history building in Oxford has India written all over it (literally and figuratively) and it was where British officers being sent out to India were trained and eventually lots of colonial subjects came to study. And for another day trip, I recall hearing that Birmingham (I think) has a fantastic center/museum on the history of Britain's relationships with Africa, the slave trade, Africans in Britain.

Also, not sure on specifics, but you could look at places in London that leaders from colonial societies (since many of them spent time in the UK) feature prominently in their writings--ie, something to do with Gandhi's perceptions of London. (There's def. academic work on colonial subjects' experiences in their metropolitan societies.) Ooh, and what about Brick Lane? Its a largely Bangladeshi neighborhood in London, easy to get to, made famous by Monica Ali's novel of the same name. Discussions of the commodification of Asian culture, immigrant communities, globalization, etc, could ensue. Sorry if this a bit vague--just my brainstorm of how I would try to justify such a trip given my academic background! Email me if you'd like some cites or have other questions--rrgrapevine at comcast dot net.
posted by hellacious at 8:42 PM on January 31, 2005

You certainly won't want to miss the Victoria & Albert Museum, and you can combine it with a walk up the road to see the Albert Memorial and use it to illustrate Victorian attitudes to empire and commerce.

You might try contacting the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to see if you can arrange a tour of their Whitehall building, a splendid example of Victorian architecture designed in the 1860s to be "a kind of national palace or drawing room for the nation" and to impress foreign visitors.

You'll want your students to get an idea of how the history of London has been shaped by the River Thames. You could take them on a boat trip along the river -- a good way to get to know the geography of London -- and you'll certainly want to take them on a walking tour downriver to Greenwich and Woolwich, to give them a sense of London as a great international port. Greenwich would be a good day-trip, as you have the National Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and various other interesting sites within a fairly small area. This useful website on Maritime London might also give you a few ideas.

On the environmental history of London: you will certainly want to visit Docklands, which has been transformed in recent years. If you are interested in environmental history outside the Thames area, you might visit Hampstead Garden Suburb as an example of early twentieth-century town planning.

Background reading: Pevsner's architectural guides to London; Ian Nairn's more personal guide, Nairn's London (out of print but easily obtainable through ABE); Iain Sinclair, Lights Out For The Territory: Nine Excursions in the Secret History of London.
posted by verstegan at 3:15 AM on February 1, 2005

Charterhouse Square (where I currently work in fact) is the site of one of largest plague pits in London. It's one of very few green spaces in the city, and it's likely that a major reason for not building on it is fear of what bones and microbes might be dug up. The adjoining Charterhouse would be an interesting visit in its own right.
posted by bifter at 5:28 AM on February 1, 2005

Late Update: With all your help I put together some great syllabi and submitted them with my proposal. Alas, the committee decided that they had offered too much history in the past in the London program, and gave the nod to a biologist instead. Ah well, we do this every year, so next year I'll try again. Thanks for the generous answers.
posted by LarryC at 3:05 PM on December 1, 2005