Lucinda Hawksley. ©John Quintero Photography
This event is now sold out. We will not be selling tickets at the door as we are at capacity, apologies!
Kicking off 2019 with a bang, author and broadcaster Lucinda Hawksley joins us from the UK to talk about how death by arsenic became a constant topic in Victorian newspapers.
Had you lived in the 19th-century, your home would have been fraught with arsenical dangers: from the wallpaper that hung in your bedroom, the lampshades used to cover your reading lights, and the clothes worn by you and your children, to the food served at your dinner parties. Even though arsenic was used widely as a rat poison, the discovery of its unique and beautiful colour properties, led to designers and artists starting a new craze for ‘arsenic green’ fashion, ignoring the fears from medics and campaigners. The prevalence of arsenic in the Victorian home led to its use as a murderer’s weapon of choice – and to it be being dubbed “a woman’s weapon”. Lucinda will talk about wallpaper, fashion, medical mystification and serial poisoners.
Lucinda Hawksley is an author, art historian, public speaker and broadcaster, specialising in literature, art, history and social history from the 19th and early 20th centuries. She’s also an award-winning travel writer with a love of the environment. As a great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, she’s grown up with an interest in family history. For the last decade she’s been a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London.
The talk will run until roughly 3pm. Please join us afterwards for Q&A and a glass of wine or beverage of your choice!
Beyond Te Papa events are designed to share knowledge from our external relationships that either are recommended through museum staff or are related to museum content.