Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
October 30, 2020
A conversation with Edward Town, Head of Collections Information and Access at the Center; Angela McShane, Honorary Reader in History, Department of History, University of Warwick; Justin M. Brown, PhD candidate in the History of Art Department, Yale University; and Glenn Adamson (moderator), former Senior Research Scholar at the Center
About "Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800"
The period from 1500 to 1800 brought extraordinary transformations to the society of Britain and the lives of those within its colonial reach. Many of these changes—on both a societal and individual level—centered on how time was sensed, measured, and understood. This engaging volume explores these various relationships with time through a remarkably diverse collection of objects, each of which is inscribed with a specific date. The dates mark significant events in the lives of these objects and the people who made and owned them. From posy rings to pastry jiggers, teapots to tape measures, these more than 450 objects—and the stories they tell—offer a vivid sense of the lived experiences of time while providing a rich survey of the material world of early modern Britain. Small, humble, but often surprisingly moving and poignant, the objects in this book show that the things we live with say a great deal about who we are and how we make our marks in time.
This program is presented through the generosity of the Terry F. Green 1969 Fund for British Art and Culture.
Image: Cover, "Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800"
October 30, 2020
A conversation with Edward Town, Head of Collections Information and Access at the Center; Angela McShane, Honorary Reader in History, Department of History, University of Warwick; Justin M. Brown, PhD candidate in the History of Art Department, Yale University; and Glenn Adamson (moderator), former Senior Research Scholar at the Center
About "Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800"
The period from 1500 to 1800 brought extraordinary transformations to the society of Britain and the lives of those within its colonial reach. Many of these changes—on both a societal and individual level—centered on how time was sensed, measured, and understood. This engaging volume explores these various relationships with time through a remarkably diverse collection of objects, each of which is inscribed with a specific date. The dates mark significant events in the lives of these objects and the people who made and owned them. From posy rings to pastry jiggers, teapots to tape measures, these more than 450 objects—and the stories they tell—offer a vivid sense of the lived experiences of time while providing a rich survey of the material world of early modern Britain. Small, humble, but often surprisingly moving and poignant, the objects in this book show that the things we live with say a great deal about who we are and how we make our marks in time.
This program is presented through the generosity of the Terry F. Green 1969 Fund for British Art and Culture.
Image: Cover, "Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800"
