Christine Jones explores the different ways the cacao tree has been depicted through history — from 16th-century codices to 18th-century botanicals — and what t…more
colonialism
Rescuing England: The Rhetoric of Imperialism and the Salvation Army
Ellen J. Stockstill on how William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, placed the ideas and language of colonialism at the very heart of his vision for improving …more
The Long, Forgotten Walk of David Ingram
If three shipwrecked English sailors really did travel by foot from Florida to Nova Scotia in 1569 then it would certainly count as one of the most remarkable walks…more
W. B. O’Shaughnessy and the Introduction of Cannabis to Modern Western Medicine
Cataleptic trances, enormous appetites, and giggling fits aside, W. B. O’Shaughnessy’s investigations at a Calcutta hospital into the potential of medical marijuana…more
Richard Hakluyt and Early English Travel
The Principle Navigations, Richard Hakluyt’s great championing of Elizabethan colonial exploration, remains one of the most important collections of English travel …more
The Calcutta Pococurante Society: Public and Private in India’s Age of Reform
Joshua Ehrlich on an obscure text found on the shelves of a Bengali library and the light it sheds on the idea of the public in 19th-century Calcutta….more
The Map That Changed the Middle East (1916)
The map that changed the Middle East, outlining a secret agreement between the the UK and France on how they would carve up the Middle East should the Ottoman Empir…more
Forgotten Failures of African Exploration
Dane Kennedy reflects on two disastrous expeditions into Africa organised by the British in the early-19th century, and how their lofty ambitions crumbled before th…more
America, a Personification (ca. 1590)
A late 16th-century Dutch print depicting a female personification of the continent America, engraved by Flemish designer and engraver Adriaen Collaert after a desi…more
When Chocolate was Medicine: Colmenero, Wadsworth, and Dufour
Chocolate has not always been the common confectionary we experience today. When it arrived from the Americas into Europe in the 17th century it was a rare and myst…more
1592: Coining Columbus
For many the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas is inextricably linked to a particular image: a small group of confident men on a tropical beach formal…more
Canada Through a Lens: the British Library Colonial Copyright Collection
THE BRITISH LIBRARY – Phil Hatfield and Andrew Gray kick off our brand new Curator’s Choice series by taking a look at the fascinating array of photographs in the B…more
