On Friday 13 September, the Society recommenced its 2024 events programme after an August break. The latest in this year’s RHS Lectures was given by Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock (University of Sheffield) who spoke on ‘How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe’.
Caroline’s lecture followed the trails of some of the many Indigenous Americans who travelled to France in the early seventeenth century, from the three surviving Tupinambá – who were acclaimed as diplomats and converts, caricatured in pamphlets, and baptised Louis, Louis and Louis after their royal godfather – to the Caripou translator and go-between, tricked into a traumatically brutal voyage to France, who saw the Tupi feted at court while he was made to suffer the indignities of a common servant.
As Caroline showed, their fates varied considerably: becoming objects of abuse and exploitation, honoured allies or idealised Christian converts. In each case, the lives of Indigenous travellers in this period appear in fragments. At the same time, their experiences reveal a rich history of Indigenous experience which reflects both the traumatic legacies of enslavement, epidemics, and oppression and also the reality of resistance and adaptation.
Audio and video recordings of Caroline’s lecture will be available shortly.
Coming soon and now available to book
Forthcoming events from the RHS include an online panel discussion on ‘Histories of the British Political Left’, to mark the centenary of the election of the UK’s first Labour government in 1924, and the Society’s 2024 Public History Lecture, ‘Why Writing Women Back into History Matters’, given this year by the historian and broadcaster, Janina Ramirez. Attendance of Janina’s lecture is available in person at Gresham College, London, and also online.
Booking for both events is available by following the links below:
‘Histories of the British Political Left: A Panel Discussion’ (2pm Wednesday 24 October 2024)
‘Why Writing Women Back into History Matters’, with Janina Ramirez (6pm Tuesday 5 November 2024)
Recordings of recent Society lectures, panels and training workshops are available via the events archive.