This eighth in a series of illustrated lectures sponsored by The Gardens Trust will explore the impact and legacy of empire, colonialism and enslavement on western garden and landscape history. Our aim is to bring back some of the voices usually absent from this history, to identify and fill gaps in our collective knowledge, and to explore new ways of engaging with the whole history of gardens, landscapes and horticulture.
King Leopold II of Belgium ran the Congo as his own private colony from 1885 to 1908, treating the local people brutally. With the fortune he made from Congolese ivory and rubber, Leopold embarked on extensive building and landscape projects. The source of his funds was openly celebrated at the 1897 Brussels Worlds Fair, where exhibits included 267 people forcibly shipped from the Congo to be displayed in what were effectively human zoos.
One of Leopold’s favorite designers was the French landscape architect Elie Lainé, whom Jill Sinclair has been researching for a number of years. Best known in the UK for his work at Waddesdon Manor, Lainé worked for the Belgian king from 1889. This lecture will explore some of the issues around interpreting landscapes funded by (and indeed designed to celebrate) colonialism and enslavement.
This ticket costs £5, and you may purchase via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and a link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
Jill Sinclair is a garden and landscape historian based in Sheffield. She is a director of the Historic Gardens Foundation, edited its journal Historic Gardens Review, and teaches the University of Oxford’s online course in the history of the English Landscape Garden. Jill is the convenor of the ‘Other Voices in Garden History’ lecture series.
Image credit: Part of the ‘Congolese Villages’ at the Brussels Worlds Fair, 1897. HP.1946.1058.1-21, collection RMCA Tervuren; photo A. Gautier, 1897. Shared under the CCA license: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 BE
