Drawing on Invisible Palace’s new research into the lost Upper Terrace statues from Crystal Palace Park, this talk will highlight the ways in which Empire, Race and Nation were represented at the Crystal Palace. The Upper Terrace Statues will form a point of departure for a wider exploration of the plaster casts of people of colour located in the ‘Natural History’ Department of the Palace, exhibited peoples, and the 1911 Festival of Empire.

Our speaker, Kate Nichols, is an art historian of Britain and the British Empire between c.1815-1920 and a Fellow at Birmingham University. Her first book, Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace: Classical Sculpture and Modern Britain, 1854-1936, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. It was the first in-depth assessment of how classical art figured in debates over design reform, taste, beauty and morality, class and gender, and race and imperialism.

The talk starts at 19:30 on Tuesday 24th May 2022, doors open 19:00. The talk to last approximately 45 minutes followed by a Q&A. Visitors will be welcomed to browse the Museum after the talk and refreshments will be provided. When attending this event, please use the Anerley Road entrance to the Museum as the park will be closed.