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Journey back to Victorian Edinburgh and plunge into the midst of a raging controversy over drinking water! Learn of a harpoon head that tells a dark and cautionary tale of violence towards an indigenous people declared extinct in 1829!
"A dark, dismal, threatening cloud”: disinformation and the water supply of Edinburgh
Dr Lawrence Dritsas
(Senior Lecturer and Historian of Science)
In 1870, Edinburgh was desperately short of drinking water. City leaders proposed building a pipe to St Mary’s Loch, 30 miles south of the city. Supporters of the plan hoped the loch’s water would improve hygiene, living conditions and commerce. Opponents argued that the loch’s water was dangerous. City residents bitterly divided over the plan and a controversy raged for years, reaching both houses of Parliament. This talk will explore science, politics, public health and the press in Victorian Edinburgh.
The stories a thing can tell (or not)
Dr John Harries
(Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology)
This talk is about how things tell stories about past people and events. Specifically, it is about a harpoon head that resides in the British Museum. The object is innocuous, but it is associated with a notorious instance of settler violence towards the Beothuk, a people indigenous to Newfoundland. By working with this object, Dr John Harries will tell a story, but will also suggest that we need to think critically about the ways in which we make things articulate in our story-making. There will be an (un)real artefact handling session accompanying this talk.
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