Friday Focus - What happened to Georgian Glasgow?
In this Friday Focus talk, Dr Craig Lamont will talk about Glasgow’s cityscape and consider the material remains of the long 18th century, both in terms of the built environment and with examples from the collections here at The Hunterian.
Date: Friday 27 June 2025
Time: 13:00 - 13:30
Venue: Online
Category: Hunterian
Speaker: Dr Craig Lamont
The long 18th century was an incredibly important time in Scotland. The Union of Scotland and England was formalised, Scottish Enlightenment values challenged the age-old status quo, and newfound imperial wealth transformed cities and towns. In Glasgow more than anywhere else, these forces were evident and obvious. What was once a burgeoning mercantile city became the Second City of the Empire. But why do we not see the evidence of this era so clearly in Glasgow?
In this Friday Focus talk, Dr Craig Lamont will talk about Glasgow’s cityscape and consider the material remains of the long 18th century, both in terms of the built environment and with examples from the collections here at The Hunterian.
The talk will feature a discussion of the old University campus on High Street, the Foulis brothers, James Watt, and William Hunter himself. The talk will also touch on the transatlantic slave trade, and some theories from memory studies which help us understand Glasgow in a more rounded way.
About the speaker
Dr Craig Lamont is Lecturer in Scottish Studies at the University of Glasgow. Craig is an expert in memory studies, textual editing, and Scottish literature. His monograph, The Cultural Memory of Georgian Glasgow (2021), is an adaptation of his award-winning PhD thesis. In recent years, Craig has worked on the new scholarly editions of Allan Ramsay, Robert Burns, and John Galt, and continues to publish on cultural memory, print culture, and Scottish literature more widely.
Friday Focus is an online talks series hosted by The Hunterian, University of Glasgow. Each session features a different speaker, sharing a deeper insight into our exhibitions and collections, research and work going on behind the scenes at The Hunterian.
The talks take place at 1pm over Zoom, and are 25 minutes long with time for questions afterwards. Recordings of the sessions will be made available on our YouTube channel.
Find out more about upcoming Friday Focus talks.