The British avoid a revolution, engage in the slave trade, build a global empire, and begin the industrial revolution.
1700–1800 C.E.
videos + essays
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Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Syacust Ukah
This portrait of a Cherokee man was painted during a peace delegation from the Indigenous nation to meet the King of England.
Josiah Wedgwood: Tycoon of Taste
Wedgwood created wares in his Stoke factories for both the masses and the aristocracy, whilst using his designs to support the most morally charged cause of his day – the abolition of slavery.
A Portrait of Humanity: The Compelling Story of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
The life of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, from modern-day Senegal, reveals some of the startling and uncomfortable truths behind the historic slave trade.
Wedgwood factory, The Pegasus Vase
This vase is made of jasper, a type of unglazed stoneware that can be stained with color before firing, which was perfected by Josiah Wedgwood by 1775 after a number of experiments.
Mary Delany and cut flowers
Mary Delany would cut small pieces of colored paper and stick them on a black background to represent each part of a botanical specimen
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse
In picturing Sarah Siddons as the Muse of Tragedy, Sir Joshua Reynolds helped make an argument for women’s equal standing with that of men within the acting profession.
A map of Kolkata in 1785
Surveying India with maps was a key tool for colonial and territorial acquisitions for the East India Company in the second half of the 18th century
Christopher Wren, Saint Paul’s Cathedral
Like a phoenix, this church rose from the ashes. Wren’s enormous dome was the first of its kind in England.
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery
This scene resembles a religious conversion, yet the central planetary model is only miraculous in its mechanics.
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
With its relaxed poses and outdoor setting, this portrait exemplifies the “conversation piece.” But is it finished?
William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress
This satirical series charts the fall of a womanizer whose decadent lifestyle lands him in debt, then bedlam.
William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode
Smooth talkers, vain aristocrats, disreputable doctors, unfaithful lovers—Hogarth’s moralizing takes no prisoners.
