9 集
In the Nineteenth Century with Lara Nicholls Lara Nicholls
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- 歷史
'In the nineteenth century’ is a podcast series about the wild, wonderful, brave, eccentric, and at times dastardly, people who characterised this remarkable period. It looks at their inspiring discoveries and reforms, and the sometimes, shameful events and spectacles they created. Some historians have referred to it as ‘the long nineteenth century’ spanning 125 years between the French Revolution in 1789 through to the outbreak of the first world war in 1914. The dramatic changes and discoveries that took place created a legacy which has lived well into the twentieth century touching our lives today. The laundry list of nineteenth-century moments is very long, indeed. Among the highlights is the women’s reform movement, which improved educational opportunities for women and girls, and agitated changes to discriminatory property laws which did not allow women to own their own income or property. Following such reforms was the eventual passing of laws allowing women the fundamental right to vote. The rise of worker’s rights movements and the passing of laws to protect child workers were also notable highlights. In the nineteenth century, we witnessed the potent rise of the Abolition movement and sweeping changes to the unethical and inhuman practice of slavery. This sparked the Civil War in America. While such outcomes did not cure western society of institutionally entrenched racism, the success of the anti-slavery movement in the nineteenth-century reversed one of the most deplorable humanitarian failures of the proceeding centuries. The darker side of the century contains the colonisation of First Nations Peoples and in many instances, the tragic histories of genocide and erasure. Yet, there are also remarkable stories of survival and the continuance of the oldest Indigenous cultures on earth. In the nineteenth century radical transformations took place in every aspect of our lives: science, politics, philosophy, literature, art, fashion, engineering, medicine and sociology, to name a few. The first atomic theory was postulated, Dimitri Mendeleev formulated the Periodic Table, Charles Darwin published the ‘Origin of Species’ and rewrote how we understand the evolution of life on earth. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium, the electron was isolated, Neptune was discovered, anaesthetics were invented, the telephone was invented, gaslight and electric light bulbs lit up the world. Steamships accelerated sea voyages, cement was made and rubber tyres were invented. The machine gun was developed, as was the telegraph wire transforming warfare. Photography emerged and went through numerous technological transformations and changed the entire way we viewed and remembered the world. Then there were the railways, which carved up vast tracts of the countryside and connected towns and people in ways never before conceived. The coal that powered them indelibly transformed our environment for the worst, the cost of which we still pay for today. So much happened in the nineteenth century, and to unravel its secrets I will be joined by a group of brilliant experts, scholars and enthusiasts who will share their insights and knowledge with us on a regular basis. From radical theories to the flicking of a light switch, so much went on during this ambiguous and contradictory time that it warrants looking at again from a new perspective.
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Objects of Power and Beauty in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar with Dr Mounia Chekhab Abudaya
On Thursday 15 September 2022, on the eve of the grand re-opening of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, I joined Senior Curator, Dr. Mounia Chekhab Abudaya to talk about the collection of nineteenth-century art and objects at the MIA. In this interview, Dr. Mounia shares her reflections and expertise on a remarkable group of diverse objects and paintings in the MIA which deeply resonate for her. When I received her list of works, I was enthralled by their delicacy and boldness, but also their material qualities. We will look at toolboxes, enamel cup holders, embellished jewelry, and paintings and drawings. I am thrilled to introduce you to Dr. Mounia Chekhab Abudaya today. Dr. Mounia is the senior curator of North Africa and Iberia at the Museum. She was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Sorbonne in Paris and is an expert on Western Mediterranean manuscripts and pilgrimage-related devotional materials in the Islamic world. Dr. Mounia is also a linguist and holds a degree in Literal Arabic and has studied Persian and Turkish languages. She has curated a long list of extraordinary exhibitions at both the Museum of Islamic Art and for other institutions around the world. I am particularly interested in an exhibition she did at MIA in 2015 called Qajar Women: Images of Women in 19th -century Iran and in this interview, we discuss some of the objects which featured in that show.
The music used in this episode is from a 2019 recording in Paris of Hossein Alizadeh playing the Setar and Madjid Khaladj playing the Dayereh at the Masters of the Improvisation: Iran. -
Sarah Stone and the Holophusicon as a creative space
Based on my research to date, this recording explores the practice of British eighteenth-century natural history artist Sarah Stone. It suggests that her patron's eccentric museum located in Leicester Fields, London was a highly creative space for her. I reveal new biographical information about Stone and establish that she was an artist of the Metropole and one of the first women painters to take part in the burgeoning fashionable practice of sketching and painting in museums. Contrary to views that women artists in the eighteenth century practised as amateurs, Stone had at least three patrons and was clearly working as a professional artist. In fact, she may have been one of the first women artists to be given what we would call today a solo exhibition. Today, her work is located in galleries and museums in England, Australia and the USA.
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Women and the Law (Australia) - Part II
In this episode, I am joined by feminist legal scholar, Professor Kim Rubenstein who discusses women citizen activists and their influence on the drafting of the Australian Constitution.
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Women and the Law (England) - Part I
This episode examines the laws relating to women in England during the nineteenth century, and the reforms women sought as they advocated for greater equality and justice. We also look at how British law applied in the Australian colonies and how their discriminatory nature fuelled the Suffrage campaigns that characterised the era.
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Portrait of the Piano
In this episode, we are taken on an odyssey through the evolution of the piano and the revolution in new keyboard technology that changed the sound of this instrument and the way that it was played in both the home and on the concert circuit. Recorded at the School of Music at the Australian National University, the Director of the Keyboard Institute, Dr Scott Davie introduces the University's remarkable collection of historic pianos, which is thought to be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. He plays experts from the nineteenth-century repertoire on these rare and very beautiful instruments as we talk all things piano. Not only is Scott an esteemed soloist, but he is also a specialist in the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff so expect to hear a rare recording of the composer playing as well as Scott playing Rachmaninoff alongside other exquisite excerpts by other composers such as Liszt, Chopin and Debussy. You will also hear new compositions by ANU First Nations composers of the Ngarra Burria Piyanna project playing their work on the 1770 Henri Henrion keyboard, a highlight of the collection - thought to be the oldest piano in Australia. Enjoy the enduring sound of the piano in the nineteenth century.
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The Chinese diaspora in the nineteenth century: Coming to Australia
Recorded in the Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, this podcast features an interview with the Chinese Australian artist John Zerunge Young. For 12 years he has been working on an episodic series of works collectively called 'The History Projects'. We sat down to explore four of the narratives featured in this monumental series including the lives of Lowe Kong Meng and Jong Ah Suig, entrepreneurial women such as Alice Lim Kee and Daisy Kwok. We also discussed events such as the Lambing Flat Riots on Wurundjeri Country and the lost relatives born of the marriages and unions between Chinese migrants and First Nations women in Queensland and the Northern Territory. John selected for his intro music, Erik Satie's Gymnopedie no. 2 here performed by Daniel Varsano who chose a surrealist painting by Leonora Carrington for his cover. For those who listened to the first edit of this podcast, our guest speaker acknowledged the work of the historian Gordon Grimwade and referred to him as having passed away recently. We are delighted to confirm that this is not the case and that Gordon Grimwade is indeed well and truly alive! He is continuing his important research into Chinese migration in Australia. We apologise to any listeners who may have experienced any distress upon hearing this most incorrect information. We also confirm that the Lambing Flat Riots referred to occurred in the district of Young in NSW on Wiradjuri Country and apologise that my pronunciation was not clear.