Join Dr Tim Moore, curator for Bath Assembly Rooms, this coming Monday at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on Queen Square, as he delivers a history of Georgian Bath you’ll have never heard before!
Exploring the untold narratives of the multicultural communities who lived and thrived in the city, Dr Moore’s talk sheds light on the figures whose experiences, challenges, and contributions to the civic life of Bath have largely gone untold.
Inspired to undertake research by learning about the story of an 11-year-old black virtuoso violinist called George Bridgetower, who made his debut to the world from Bath in 1789, what Tim uncovered during his work was that Georgian Bath was not only more racially mixed than you might imagine, but that its demographic range might be surprising to some.
Though true, some of Bath’s inhabitants were formerly enslaved, Tim Moore’s talk also highlights the many others who held typical jobs – teachers, nurses, shopkeepers, artisans, preachers, and foregrounds how some were spectacularly wealthy and operated in the highest circles of society.
Drawing on extensive curatorial research, this talk delves into the history of familiar venues like Bath Assembly Rooms and explores how they served as an important platform for championing black talent; uncovering the narratives of figures like Myrtilla Hampshire, a young servant girl whose black-only funeral was recorded in the local papers; the Hamlet family, who became portraitists to the Royal family and Mumu, a deaf and dumb girl from Sierra Leone.
Make sure you don’t miss out on a talk that makes you see there was far more to the Georgian Bath than Jane Austen.
Booking:
