The Unredeemed Object: Displaying Abolitionist Artefacts in 2007
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: This article reviews the ways in which two key abolitionist artefacts were displayed in British museums in 2007. The Wedgwood ‘kneeling slave’ cameo (1787) and the broadsheet Description of a Slave Ship (1789) are two of the most familiar icons of abolition, but presented museums with particular challenges in 2007. It is argued that the widely taken decision to limit engagement with the materiality, and above all the textuality, of these artefacts meant that their unique importance as the earliest propaganda tools of the nascent abolition movement was only partially revealed.
Source: Slavery and Abolition
Author: Jane Webster
Institution: Newcastle University
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1993340514